Musical Theatre in the Drama Classroom

Episode 170: Musical Theatre in the Drama Classroom Have you ever considered including musical theatre in the drama classroom? Does the thought of singing in front of others scare your students to death? Does it scare you to death?  If you’re going to offer a full range of theatre subjects in your curriculum, musical theatre is an important piece. Listen to teacher Colin Oliver talk about why he includes musical theatre in his program and why you should too, even if you have students who will never sing a note outside of class. Show Notes The Drama Teacher Academy Episode Transcript Welcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast – the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, and Theatre educators everywhere. I’m Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk. Hello! I hope you're well. Thanks for listening! This is Episode 170 and you can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at Theatrefolk.com/episode170. Today, we’re… cool, see? I’m already in the spirit of things. I already got a little song in my heart, a song in my voice, because we are talking musical theatre. More specific to that, musical theatre in the Drama classroom. That’s right; singing, I know, is something that terrifies many people, almost to death. You may be one of those people. It’s one thing to sing in the car at full volume. How many of you are singing Hamilton on your way to and from work? It’s another thing entirely to do it in front of your peers. But Teacher Colin Oliver, he includes musical theatre in his program and he thinks you should, too – even if you have students who will never sing a note outside of class. Let’s hear what he has to say. LINDSAY: All right! I am here, talking with Colin Oliver. Hello, Colin! COLIN: Hi, Lindsay! Thanks for having me. LINDSAY: Ah, absolutely! How are you doing today? COLIN: Very well. Thank you. How are you? LINDSAY: Fantastic. So, usually, I ask our guests where in the world you are, but we are actually in the same room. We are in the same location. We’re actually in a dining room which is not always usual but it’s the dining room of my sister and my niece. For those of you who might get our newsletter, we’re always talking about my niece and my two-year-old niece could be banging outside the door so we must get going. We must get going! So, Colin, how long have you been a Drama teacher? COLIN: I’ve just finished my seventh year teaching. I’ve been teaching Drama for five of those seven years. LINDSAY: What did you start out? COLIN: I was full English. Now, I’m part English, part Drama, part vocal music. LINDSAY: Did you always have an interest in Drama or did Drama kind of drop in your lap? COLIN: No, always, ever since I was a child, I was very, very interested in Drama. I did community theatre and plays at school. Then, continuing on through university where I studied theatre, I did shows and started teaching Drama. LINDSAY: Where did the switch come for you from being a performer to being an educator? COLIN: Ah, that’s a good question. When I graduated university, a fellow student of mine and I started a small company called Theatre Recap where we started using these productions we were doing as fundraisers for different charities and not-for-profit organizations. LINDSAY: Neat! COLIN: We would produce original comedian work and partner with an organization whose cause kind of matched the thematic concerns of the play. And so,