Summer recharging....enjoy it!
I just finished teaching our one-week summer course, “Conquering the Art of Musical Theater", at Vandercook College in Chicago with my colleague Marty Johnson. Our class ranged from the “bring on the world” new teacher to the “I’ve seen it all” veteran of 35 and counting years career. What did they in common as they walked onto campus besides children and musical theater? The thirst for new ideas, practices, music and colleagues. They absorbed new information, different perspectives, and made time to play with new faces for a week.
I have spent a career being part of a profession that involved observing teachers design their lives around the cyclical school year calendar. It continues to amaze me how arts teachers and directors take a deep breath and immediately start the recharging process for the upcoming September. Some immediately work with kids in a different way in summer programs. Some pack up the fam and escape to new places to de-stress from the intensity of the last nine months. Some find a good read, prune plants, pain the house or watch what they have piled up on the DVR queue from last season. And yes, there are some, who like my friends from last week, throw themselves into courses to cultivate their innate creativity to another level.
Inspiration is crucial to those of us who are part of the creative process with kids. We just need a little time to absorb it, smell it, feel it and hear it. All it takes is one new sensory tidbit to inspire a new perusal kit fort the next show, the out-of-the box way you might attack a fundraiser, a crazy new theater game for a cast of 120, the cameo role for an 8th grade teacher or brainstorming how you can enjoy your coffee and an early morning rehearsal too!
So however you “power-down”, know that it is imperative to your creative health. Soak up the change of routine like an IV of nutrients; it is just what the Dr. ordered!
As you are trying to find a new show for your kids, remember that I am happy to help brainstorm a custom fit. Whether you have 64 girls, 3 boys and a roll of duct tape, or forty 5th graders that all sing on pitch (?), I love the challenge of finding a show that “juices up” all parties involved.
Enjoy re-charging, and many thanks for your inspiration, Vandercook Friends! Lucky kids that await you in September! CR
