My work at Prime Stage Theatre

As most of you know, I'm a theatre arts educator.  I'm a freelancer and work at many different organizations, but the main gig I have going right now is as Education Director for Prime Stage Theatre here in Pittsburgh.

Check out our website here!

I often try to explain to my family what it is that I do, and sometimes I think they kind of maybe sort of might a little understand, but even I will admit--it's amorphous, it's "artsy", and it's constantly filled with challenges. Which is part of the reason I'm so drawn to it.  But here's a recent article that was written about my work at McKeesport High School--let me know what you think!

Because I am posting about this on my blog, which is all about simple living, I'm compelled to ask myself--what about my work with Prime Stage and the other 4+ organizations I work for supports my move towards simpler living?  In many obvious ways, it doesn't.  I travel all over the place (sometimes an hour and a half drive--one way!--to a school), I use technology as much as possible, and it's a very fast paced life.  Just ask my husband after he looks at my Google calendar, his eyes glazed over from all of the different colored squares.

But I like to think that, in the grand scheme of things, I am fundamentally doing work that supports human beings living up to their greatest potential through the artistic process.  By allowing people to express themselves, to make art, to see art, to talk about art and its meanings, and perhaps most importantly with theatre--to put themselves in someone else's shoes--I like to think that I'm helping these students return to a basic knowledge of how we humans interact and show emotion.  Because I firmly believe that no matter how "virtual" our world gets, how firmly entrenched these next few generations will be in all things digitized, that we still have to interact--face to face, expression to expression, word to word--with all sorts of different people every day of our lives, and those skills of communication and empathy are just as important to hone and master as the next greatest video game.