Using Drama In Other Classes

Episode 150:  Using Drama In Other Classes Today we have two playwrights who also happen to be two teachers: Amanda Murray Cutalo is an English teacher(Nice Girl, Typecast) and Taryn Temple is a Spanish Teacher (The Redemption of Gertie Green) Both Amanda and Taryn use drama in their classrooms and believe in the power of theatre for their students. There is a place for theatre everywhere. Show Notes Nice Girl  Typecast  The Redemption of Gertie Greene  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 150 – one, five, zero – that’s a nice number. You can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at theatrefolk.com/episode150. So, today, we have a nice little combo. We have two little interviews here, both of these wonderful ladies are playwrights and they are also teachers. We have Amanda Murray Cutalo who is an English teacher and we have a couple of her plays and Typecast which is one of our newer scripts; and then, we have Taryn Temple who is a Spanish teacher and we have her play, The Redemption of Gertie Greene. What is great is that both of these lovely ladies are playwrights and teachers – not Drama teachers but they use Drama in their classroom and they believe in the power of theatre for their students. There is a place for theatre everywhere which, I think you know, I totally agree with. So, let’s get into it. LINDSAY: All right, I am here talking to Taryn Temple. Hello, Taryn! TARYN: Hi! LINDSAY: How are you? TARYN: I’m very good, thank you. LINDSAY: Awesome. Tell everybody in the world where you are. TARYN: I am in Topeka, Kansas. Woohoo! LINDSAY: Ah, that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with Topeka. Long live Topeka, right? TARYN: That’s right, that’s right, we’re the capital city of Kansas so there you go. We’ve got something. LINDSAY: Stand proud, I like that. Okay. So, Taryn is one of our playwrights who wrote The Redemption of Gertie Greene and we’re going to talk about a lot of things. We’re going to talk about issues, we’re going to talk about using theatre to explore issues, but the first thing I want to know is what is your background? What led you to be involved with theatre? TARYN: That’s a great question. I have done theatre through my whole life, but I went to a very, very tiny high school. We did one play or one musical a year, and I was that thirsty kid that always wanted more theatre. So, I found myself very lucky when I moved to Topeka for my job that I could coach forensics. I was assistant forensics coach at my high school where I work – I’m a teacher there – and then I also was able to work in a theatre camp in the summer and also perform in shows at a local theatre, a local community theatre. And so, I was finally able to satiate that thirst for theatre. I did theatre through college as well but, you know, I was so excited to find out that, in my adult life, I could actually do theatre. So, that is kind of my background for it. The theatre camp is what led me into directing. I had always been just a performer and then I took a directing class in college a...