The Gardener, The Actor, and The Educator: Six Lessons Towards Creating and Cultivating ...

188 Pages·2017·1.09 MB·English

by  Amy Thomasson

The Gardener, The Actor, and The Educator:
Six Lessons Towards Creating and Cultivating
Spaces of Vulnerability Between Theatre for Young
Audiences and Education
by
Amy Thomasson
B.A. (Hons), Stage and Screen Studies, Queen’s University, 2006
Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Arts
in the
Arts Education Program
Faculty of Education
© Amy Thomasson
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Fall 2017
Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction
or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation.
Approval
Name: Amy Thomasson
Degree: Master of Arts
Title: The Gardener, The Actor, The Educator: Six
Lessons Towards Creating and Cultivating Spaces
of Vulnerability Between Theatre for Young
Audiences and Education
Examining Committee: Chair: Allan MacKinnon
Associate Professor
Lynn Fels
Senior Supervisor
Associate Professor
Kathryn Ricketts
Supervisor
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Education
University of Regina
Celeste Snowber
Internal Examiner
Associate Professor

Date Defended/Approved: September 22, 2017

ii
Ethics Statement

iii
Abstract
This thesis explores the intersection of, or space between. theatre and education, as
observed through the co-creation, rehearsal, and performance of an original play:
The Edge Project. The project brings together artists from a professional theatre
company and students/teachers from four secondary school drama classes.
Conversations with TEACHER, ARTIST, and CREATURE lead me to consider topics
including: individual and collective roles in meaning-making, process and product-
based theatre creation/education, and to unpack concepts such as: trust, empathy,
and vulnerability. I invite the reader to follow me, and the participants, down a
garden path where we search for ways to cultivate and nurture authentic and
mutualistic relationships on the stage and in the classroom. In tribute to
Boleslavsky’s work on actor training, I imagine what “The First Six Lessons” of The
Edge Project might be, and hope to inform further research into the gifts of Theatre
for Young Audiences and theatre education.
Keywords: Theatre Education; TYA; vulnerability; empathy; co-creation
iv
Dedication

To Matteiflex.
To the students, the teachers, and the artists, who helped me to see in myself all three.
To the artist-gardener in all of us, who dreams of, and works towards, creating a better world.

v
Acknowledgements
I want to first acknowledge the participants of the Edge Project (students, teachers, and
artists alike) who shared their time, energy, thoughts, feelings, experiences, and words
with me. Who raised their voices, stood up, accepted risk, acted with courage, and
brought this process to life. Thank you to Ivan and Patrick for making a home for me at
Green Thumb, for your wisdom and mentorship, and for giving me something to write
about in the Edge Project. Thank you to Shawn for all the conversations, your un-
wavering dedication to both process and product, and for the life-time worth of hilarious
rides to Vancouver suburbs. Nadine, Rachael, and Michele, thank you for being the best
team of passionate arts workers I have ever encountered and for filling our office hours
with friendship, laughter, and baked goods—but also with serious theatre for young
audiences.
My thesis could not have come to fruition without the constant tending of Lynn Fels,
whose patience, enthusiasm, and persistence were often the only things holding it
together. Across continents and oceans, and through each trial of the dreadful curse,
your steady hand (and gentle email reminders) carried this project forward. I truly could
not have done it without you and offer my deepest gratitude (and all the champagne) to
you for sticking with me, through it all.

Thank you to Kathryn Ricketts for your thoughtful insights and questions, and to Celeste
Snowber for your willingness to engage. Thanks to Allan MacKinnon, and everyone at
the SFU Faculty of Education for your warmth, guidance, and administrative support --
and to Stuart Richmond for convincing me to start and Carolyn Mamchur for convincing
me to stay.
To my family for all the ways in which you enrich my life and keep me rooted. Especially
my parents who have managed to keep me alive and provide me with the opportunity to
travel the meandering path from whence all this writing came. Thank you for your belief
in me, your steadfast support, and the endless roles that you have played (administrator,
accountant, nurse, chauffeur, psychologist, audience, cheerleader, advisor, to name a
few), to get me to here. To MB and S, thanks for the extra pushes, the big kitchen table,
and for always celebrating my victories, no matter how small.
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And finally, to my friends, near and far: for the generous lending of hope, optimism,
couches, and jokes when they were needed most; for being artists who inspire me and
humans who challenge me; for picking me up when I fall (both literally and figuratively);
and for all the times you listened to me complain, made me a cup of tea, reminded me to
eat, held me, made me laugh, let me cry, gave me reasons to go on, and kept me, and
this thesis, alive (against all odds)…
THANK YOU!
A.

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Table of Contents
Approval ............................................................................................................................ ii
Ethics Statement .............................................................................................................. iii
Abstract ............................................................................................................................ iv
Dedication .......................................................................................................................... v
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... vi
Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... viii
Prologue: From Gardening to Green Thumb ............................................................... 1
CHAPTER ONE: The Stage, The Players, and The Project ....................................... 14
Setting the Stage ......................................................................................................... 16
Green Thumb Theatre and TYA .................................................................................. 17
Funding ........................................................................................................................ 21
Green Thumb Theatre Today ...................................................................................... 22
Education Model .......................................................................................................... 23
The Edge Project ......................................................................................................... 25
Methodology ................................................................................................................ 27
Ethnography, Inquiries, and Chaos .............................................................................. 28
The Data ...................................................................................................................... 30
The Analysis ................................................................................................................. 32
The Teenager Dilemma ............................................................................................... 32
The Narrative Voice Dilemma ...................................................................................... 33
The Name Dilemma ..................................................................................................... 34
Meet the Players: ......................................................................................................... 36
The Creature: ............................................................................................................... 36
The Schools ................................................................................................................. 37
The Teachers ............................................................................................................... 40
The Artist ...................................................................................................................... 41
The Researcher ........................................................................................................... 42
Roles and Relationships .............................................................................................. 42
Telling the Story ........................................................................................................... 43
Notes on Conversation ................................................................................................ 43
CHAPTER TWO: Creation ............................................................................................ 44
The Creation Process .................................................................................................. 44
Process vs. Product ..................................................................................................... 45
The Plan ....................................................................................................................... 46
The Invitation ............................................................................................................... 47
The Gift ........................................................................................................................ 51
Writing: First Steps ....................................................................................................... 53
Expectations ................................................................................................................ 60
Trust and Risk .............................................................................................................. 63
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Invisibility, Blindness, and Other Problems with Trust ................................................. 67
The Construction Site .................................................................................................. 68
Resistance ................................................................................................................... 69
Finding the Unfamiliar: Searching for Moments of Resistance. ................................... 70
Buying-In: From Resistance to Willingness ................................................................ 73
The Danger of Safety ................................................................................................... 76
Limiting Constraints: Finding One’s Voice in the Crowd. ............................................. 78
Contributing Factors: Willingness to Act ...................................................................... 83
The Final Script ............................................................................................................ 86
CHAPTER THREE: Rehearsal ..................................................................................... 89
All Schools Jams .......................................................................................................... 89
Belonging ..................................................................................................................... 91
Roles at Play ................................................................................................................ 97
Within the Walls ......................................................................................................... 102
The Chorus ................................................................................................................ 106
Shared Purpose ......................................................................................................... 113
INTERMISSION: Imagining and re-imagining community ............................................. 115
Why should we care? ................................................................................................. 116
Acting Out Empathy ................................................................................................... 119
Towards Vulnerability ................................................................................................. 124
A Moment of Doubt .................................................................................................... 127
Moving Ahead: The Theatre Space ........................................................................... 128
CHAPTER FOUR: Performance ................................................................................ 130
Acting and Audience .................................................................................................. 133
Theatre Conventions .................................................................................................. 134
Live-ness and Immediacy .......................................................................................... 135
Voices Off ................................................................................................................... 137
ACTive Learning ........................................................................................................ 139
Performing Community .............................................................................................. 141
Curtain Call ................................................................................................................ 144
CHAPTER FIVE: Reflection ......................................................................................... 145
A Conversation with the Gardener ............................................................................. 146
Old Lessons/New Perspectives ................................................................................. 149
The Edge Project: The First Six Lessons ................................................................... 150
The First Lesson: Vulnerability .................................................................................. 150
The Second Lesson: Action ...................................................................................... 151
Lesson Three: Access and Authenticity ..................................................................... 152
Lesson Four: Inter/Action and Connection ................................................................ 154
Lesson Five: Creating Community. ........................................................................... 155
Lesson Six: Moment to Moment ................................................................................ 157
The Edge Project: Moving Forward .......................................................................... 159
Changing the World. .................................................................................................. 166
References ................................................................................................................... 170
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