Voting in a special meeting at the Thespian Festival on June 27, EdTA members approved a set of adjustments to the Association’s recently adopted election procedures.
The amendments to the organization’s code of regulations will: - Allow absentee ballots for EdTA elections.
- Change the number of votes needed for election to a plurality.
- Adjust the timelines for announcing the candidates selected by the nominating committee and for submitting paperwork for nominations by petition.
“We believe that these changes will improve the election process,” said Board President Jerry Smith, Jr.. “And we were pleased with the discussion and suggestions from the members in attendance. The board will give the suggestions careful consideration.” The changes were approved by a vote of 57 for the changes and 4 against. To read the complete code as amended, click here. (Posted 7/2/08)
The EdTA nominating committee has selected nominees for the elected positions of EdTA vice president and board director:
- Joe Norton for vice president/president, 2009–2013
- Gai Jones for board director, 2009–2012
Norton is the director of education and outreach for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA). He’s the current EdTA board treasurer and a board director, and a frequent workshop presenter at EdTA events. Jones is a recently retired theatre educator, former California chapter director, and former EdTA territory and regional director. The candidates’ responses to qualification questions and their résumés may be downloaded from the links below for review. “The decisions of the nominating committee were very difficult to make,” stated Committee Chair Gail Burns. “There were outstanding candidates who submitted vitae for both positions.” In addition to the nominated candidates, members may petition to be placed on the ballot. The instructions for the petition process and forms for board candidacy can be downloaded here:
Petition for inclusion on the ballot and instructions
Vita form and campaigning policy for EdTA Vice President/President-Elect
Vita form and campaigning policy for EdTA Board Director The election will take place during the 2008 EdTA Annual Conference, September 25–28, in Chicago, at the membership meeting on Saturday, September 27. EdTA members must be in attendance at the Conference to vote. The terms for both of these positions will begin on August 1, 2009. See the changes in the election process story, below, for details on the proposed changes to the code of regulations, which include absentee balloting. These changes will be voted on at a special membership meeting during the 2008 Thespian Festival. The results of this vote will be published by Wednesday, July 2. (Updated 6/9/08) Joe Norton vita
Gai Jones vita 
Roy Hudson. |
Roy Hudson, the troupe director of Troupe 398 at Shades Valley High School in Birmingham, Alabama, was named Alabama Teacher of the Year by the Alabama Department of Education.
Hudson, who is the first arts teacher to receive this award, has taught at Shades Valley since 1995. He has written over twenty plays and musicals that were performed at the Dallas Theatre Center, Musical Theatre Works in New York City, the Birmingham Children’s Theatre, and the International Thespian Festival. Hudson also runs his own production company that specializes in commercials, films, television, theatre, and video. In recognition for his work in educational theatre, Hudson has received the 2006 Alabama EdTA Hall of Fame Award and was named the 2002–2003 Alabama State Thespian Outstanding Troupe Sponsor. His Thespian troupe has performed on the main stage at Festival, and one of his students is in the international Thespian cast of Hairspray that will be presented at the 2008 Festival. (Posted 5/13/08)
The EdTA Board of Directors has adopted a Code of Professional Standards for its members working in the field of theatre education.
The code is intended to provide members with a framework for ethical decision-making in matters both inside and outside of the classroom involving students, parents, colleagues, and members of the community at large. The Code of Professional Standards was created by a committee of four EdTA members, including EdTA Board Vice President Debby Gibbs of Tupelo, Mississippi; Craig Ihnen of Des Moines, Iowa; Gavin Mayer of Denver, Colorado; and Ruben Van Kempen of Seattle, Washington. “As the largest professional organization for theatre education, EdTA requires that its members conduct themselves in a way that represents the highest level of integrity,” EdTA Board President Jerry Smith said. “The Code of Professional Standards is a statement to those inside and outside of the community of professional educators that EdTA members are always serving their schools and communities in a way that maintains a focus on the welfare of students by collaborating with fellow educators, parents, and the community.” Click here for a downloadable copy of the new code. (Posted 5/1/08)
The staff of Dramatics magazine received seventy-seven submissions for the 2008 Playworks program. A group of readers narrowed that field to thirteen semifinalists whose work will in turn go through one more round of readings before the finalists are named in mid-April. Finalists will then be invited to the International Thespian Festival June 23–28 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for a week’s worth of play development workshops and a staged reading of their work on the final day of the Festival.
The semifinalists are: Elijah Allred of Northwest School of the Arts in Charlotte, North Carolina, for American Ashtray
Stephany Calles of El Toro High School in Mission Viejo, California, for Robert O’Delliet: A Life
Kyrie Eberhart of Robert D. Edgren High School in Misawa, Japan, for Heart of a Child
Aliza Goldstein of Stanton College Preparatory School in Jacksonville, Florida, for Izzy Icarus Fell Off of the World
Molly Horan of Bristol (Connecticut) Eastern High School, for Ramon Noodles
Katie Hunter of Olathe East High School in Overland Park, Kansas, for www.SELFSTORY.com
Zach Laws of Northwest School of the Arts in Charlotte, North Carolina, for Four Grieving Mothers
Lindsay Miller of Nolan Catholic High School in Fort Worth, Texas, for Chartreuse
Alison Morrow of Lee’s Summit (Missouri) West High School, for Keep
Madison Owens of Newton (Kansas) Senior High School, for Heart
Will Seefried of Denver School of the Arts, for A Freckled Heart
Luke Slattery of Colorado Academy in Denver, for Icarus
Seanna Tucker of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, for Don’t Look Back The finalists will be announced after April 17. (Posted 4/8/08)
EdTA judging committees have chosen the recipients for 2007–08 Festival grants.
International Thespian Society Leadership Grant: Natasha Jones, Toledo (Ohio) School for the Arts, Troupe 6783
Ronald L. Longstreth International Thespian Festival Grant: Emmanuelle Mouniapin, Toulouse, France Doug Finney Festival Grants: - Joey Frenette, Maurice McDonough High School, Troupe 303, Waldorf, Maryland
- Forrest Harlan, Florence (Alabama) High School, Troupe 2273
- Andrew Smith, Ingleside (Texas) High School, Troupe 7233
- Joseph Michael Villanueva, Boulder Creek High School, Troupe 7070, Anthem, Arizona
The Festival grant is named for former EdTA executive director Ronald L. Longstreth. It is awarded to a high school theatre student who is not a U.S. citizen to enable him or her to attend the annual International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska. The grant includes transportation costs to and from Lincoln and fees for Festival registration. Mouniapin is an exchange student from Toulouse, France, and will attend Festival with Troupe 5464 of North Penn High School, Lansdale, Pennsylvania. The ITS leadership grant was created by Joe Burnsworth, a former EdTA president, and is awarded to a troupe or state officer who participated in the leadership training program at the Festival. The grant covers the Festival registration fees. The Finney grants, named for the late Doug Finney, longtime Festival chair, are awarded to four high school theatre students to enable them to attend the annual event. These grants include partial coverage of transportation costs to and from Lincoln, and fees for Festival registration. EdTA extends special thanks to the judging committees for helping to continue serving theatre arts students. (Updated 5/16/08)
The EdTA board of directors is proposing changes to its recently implemented election procedures, including a provision for absentee voting and a revised timetable for the nomination process, in response to member comments during the 2007 election. Meeting in February in Cincinnati, the board also established candidate criteria for the September 2008 elections for vice president/president-elect and an EdTA board director.
“The EdTA board heard clear messages from our members about their concerns regarding the election process,” says EdTA President Jerry Smith. “The changes being proposed address these concerns in a way that honors the importance of the election process, with the ultimate goal of ensuring a strong board to continue to guide the Association into an exciting future.” The election changes are proposed in the form of an amendment to EdTA’s code of regulations that will be considered at a membership meeting during the 2008 International Thespian Festival. The amendment provides for absentee voting for members not in attendance at the EdTA Annual Conference and establishes a new timeline for candidates to petition to be added to the ballot. The key dates on the election timeline:
Thursday, March 13: Call for vitae
Tuesday, April 15: Deadline for vitae to be received at the home office
Friday, May 30: The nominating committee candidate is announced; candidate vita and petition forms posted online
Monday, July 14: Deadline for petition packages to be received at the home office
Tuesday, July 29: Announcement of petitioners (if any); absentee ballot request registration opens
Friday, August 15: Deadline for absentee ballot requests
Wednesday, August 27: Absentee ballots mailed
Monday, September 15: Absentee ballots due
Saturday, September 27: Election day (Posted 3/13/08)
The EdTA home office has streamlined and coordinated the policies, procedures, and guidelines that Thespian and Junior Thespian troupe directors need to effectively operate and organize their troupes. The changes in these documents affect all Thespian and Junior Thespian troupes, so troupe directors are encouraged to download and familiarize themselves with the following materials:
- The Thespian Troupe Handbook and Junior Thespian Troupe Handbook are the comprehensive guides to running a troupe. Each handbook features a table of contents and new and updated material, and explains and cross-references important information from all troupe governance documents.
- The Troupe Constitution Template has been revised with important new content. Every troupe must have a troupe constitution; otherwise, this document is the default troupe constitution.
- The FAQs address the most commonly asked questions from troupe directors about EdTA and ITS.
- The revised Official Thespian Point System and Official Junior Thespian Point System include a refreshed design, answers to frequently-asked questions, new point recommendations for attending theatre performances, and tables that summarize the ranking and rating systems for exceptional student members.
- The induction Ceremonies include suggestions for troupe directors on preparations for a ceremony. (Posted 3/5/08)
Thespians are smart, talented, energetic, good-looking… and generous. Just ask Joe Norton.
Norton, the associate director of education and outreach for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS who is also a member of the Educational Theatre Association board, released figures this week showing individual Thespians, Thespian troupes, and chapter organizations have contributed almost half a million dollars to BC/EFA since 2000. Norton said the Thespian Society raises more money for BC/EFA than any other academic or educational organization. The funds are used to support community-based AIDS services organizations around the country, and, through the Actors Fund of America, to provide direct services to entertainment industry professionals and performing artists who are dealing with AIDS and HIV-related health problems. The flow of dollars from young theatre students to BC/EFA began in 1999 when Cindy Louden and the Thespians at North Penn High School in Lansdale, Pennsylvania organized a fundraiser. By the end of 2000, troupes and chapter organizations in nine states had contributed more than $10,000. During 2007, more than $113,000 was raised in twenty-one states and at the International Thespian Festival. Total Thespian contributions to date stand at $470,045, and are expected to top the half-million-dollar mark sometime this spring. Among the state Thespian organizations, Florida has made the largest contribution by a wide margin, giving $168,404 since 2000. Florida Thespians organize regional and statewide campaigns and have topped their own fundraising records for each of the last three years. Other chapters in the top five: 2. Nevada, $67,208
3. Pennsylvania, $56,182
4. Georgia, $28,643
5. Ohio, $26,676 Las Vegas Academy, under the leadership of Thespian troupe director Glenn Edwards, consistently makes the largest contributions for a single school. “These efforts surpass my wildest dreams,” Norton said. In addition to the funds, which go directly into health care and support services, “the amount of AIDS awareness and community involvement surrounding BC/EFA campaigns in schools because of Thespian efforts is priceless, and cannot be named in numbers.” (Posted 2/28/08)
Three EdTA troupe directors were recognized for their contributions to the field of theatre education.
Patricia “Lee” Hitchler, a former Leadership Coach and former Kansas chapter director, was inducted into the Kansas Thespians Hall of Fame in a ceremony during the Kansas Thespian Conference. Hitchler is the troupe director of Troupe 5078 at Olathe East High School. Carlen Gilseth, who is the troupe director of Troupe 1053 at The Woodlands (Texas) High School and the Texas chapter director, was named the Texas Educational Theatre Association’s (TETA) 2008 Educator of the Year. In 2007 Gilseth’s school received an EdTA Outstanding School Award. Kerry Onxley, who is the artistic director of the Children’s Theatre Company (Troupe 5701) in Lake Charles, Louisiana, as well as an EdTA Leadership Coach, was inducted into the Arkansas Hall of Fame in recognition of his work in that state since 1995. “EdTA is always proud to learn of its members being recognized for their dedication to the field of theatre education,” says EdTA Executive Director Michael Peitz. “Lee, Carlen, and Kerry have devoted many years of service to their students, their schools, and their states. They are both most deserving of these honors.” (Updated 2/22/08)
With the 2008 presidential campaign in full-swing, candidates might want to add another issue to their already large repertoire of talking points—the importance of imagination in education.
According to a new national study conducted by Lake Research Partners, 30 percent of American voters are displeased with the current emphasis on “the basics” in the nations’ school systems and want to see more attention paid to subjects that stimulate students’ creativity. Nine in ten of the 1,000 people polled said that healthy imaginations in young people contribute significantly to a nation’s ability to compete in the global economy, with 88 percent of respondents expressing the view that arts education is an essential component toward developing that imagination. These feelings are likely to come out at the voting booths, the study suggests, with 56 percent of respondents saying they were more likely to vote for a candidate who supports more government funding for imagination-centered education, and 57 percent saying they would be much less likely to vote for a candidate who intends to slash such funding. Over half of those surveyed identified themselves as “swing” voters, or voters who do not have a strong party affiliation, a demographic some say could determine the outcome of the upcoming presidential election. “The data show a large population we call the ‘imagine nation’ are hungry for imagination in education and are going to take action accordingly—both in their local schools and at the voting booth, so that children are prepared for the world in which they will live,” said Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners. These findings follow on the heels of a survey conducted by the Conference Board in 2006 in which three-fourths of the nation’s top business leaders said that creativity and innovation were among the top five skills likely to increase in importance for America’s high school graduates. In response to these studies, a coalition of national, state, and local organizations has formed to bring imagination-centered education to the forefront of learning. Members of this coalition, which includes representatives from the National Education Association, the National Association of Music Manufacturers, the International Music Products Association, the Ford Foundation, the George Gund Foundation and the Arts Education Partnership, are meeting with Congress and alerting state education leaders and boards to the study’s results. Richard J. Deasy, director of the Arts Education Partnership, has briefed Congressional staff on the study and called it the clearest statement of the American public’s support for arts education that he has ever witnessed. The sheer number of voters dissatisfied with public education’s test-focused curriculum is proving persuasive to legislators, he said, many of whom are preparing to vote on a reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind act. “I would hope that policy makers at every level, not just elected officials but education leaders, realize that the American public wants them to have an approach to learning in schools that makes stimulating the imaginative capacities of students a primary outcome. This study shows that voters believe that arts are essential to students becoming good citizens and innovators in the work place, and therefore we need to see more commitment on the part of policy makers to increasing the time devoted to arts instruction in schools. Our goal is to see a greater place for arts instruction in public schools and this information shows that this is what the public wants as well,” he said. Educational Theatre Association executive director Michael Peitz called the poll results encouraging. “Certainly theatre educators and other arts education advocates ought to pay attention to this poll. Any research that confirms an understanding of the value of imagination and creativity in our students’ learning is good news. Schools that cultivate thinking outside the box, whether in a theatre class or a science lab, are going to be critical to the success of this country’s twenty-first century workforce,” said Peitz. The study, conducted by phone in December, has a 3.1 percent margin of error. For more on the report, visit www.theimaginenation.net and www.theimaginenation.net/resources/
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