Interview with Charlene Sanders, second grade teacher at Blue Lake Elementary, and Doug White, superintendent principal at Blue Lake Elementary

By Mark McKenna

Mark McKenna: It would be great to hear from both of you about just how you came into contact with the ETA program [Dell’Arte’s Education Through Art program].

Doug White: The ETA program was actually in existence when I came on board here about eight years ago. It had already been here for a couple of years. I think the program had a little bit different structure at that time. There was more time, the school was putting more money into the program. There were more artists here on campus and there were actually more activities going on per classroom than there are currently. It was a pretty well established program when I came on board.

MM: Charlene, you have been involved with the program for about how long?

Charlene Saunders: I would say about ten years. It started a great connection between the school and Dell’Arte. Then I think the whole community began to feel an association with Dell’Arte and the people who work there and live in this area, and who also come from all parts of the world. It’s been great.

MM: Did ETA start through Dell’Arte?

DW: I believe so.

MM: Do you have other artists working in other art forms?

DW: We do not, partly because of the commitment we have given to Dell’Arte and the commitment that is asked by the state for other academic areas. About three or four years ago, when California came out with a class-size-reduction program, we did not participate in it the first year. We worked out a partnership with Dell’Arte. We had a reading specialist teacher, and we used Dell’Arte to do theater-art activities that would support the readings in the classroom. The following year we did get involved with the class-size-reduction program and almost simultaneously there was a real edict to put more time and energy into the reading and math programs. We adopted a reading program that really demands a lot of time – pretty much all morning long just reading alone in primary grades.

CS: So, as a result, we have done a lot of shifting. It cut down on the amount of students that I had to work with , so I was giving more attention to fewer kids at once and that was a big help. But it hasn’t really changed the effectiveness of what is happening in the classroom with the drama, because we’ve moved it into periods where we can squeeze it in. I have my drama in the afternoon. It is very positive. Even though we are not doing the huge productions that we did in the beginning, the kids still benefit so greatly from what we are doing. I’m really glad that it is still a part of our program.

MM: How does the program benefit the children?

CS: I see what happens in the primary-age levels, and then I also see what happens as the kids grow up. By the time they are in seventh grade, they are doing things like Shakespeare., so they are showing a lot of growth and changes. Blue Lake kids don’t seem to be afraid to get up in front of groups. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that they start out in kindergarten moving their bodies around and learning to not be afraid, or be concerned about how they are acting in front of others. They learn how to express themselves physically. When they start out in kindergarten, it is an amazing progress that we see. I have students for whom, for instance, focus might be an issue when lessons are being given. When the drama teacher comes in and they need to focus on what he is trying to get them to do, sometimes those are the top focusers during drama. It just shows that they can do it. That they are learning all these skills that can be helpful. Hopefully they will bring the focus back during math and reading. And they do that eventually.

MM: Academically, is there a connection into the program?

DW: We have never come up with an exact measurement tool. I don’t know how you would compare. I would say all of our students at some level are exposed to Dell’Arte. I’ve had either instructors or administrators at the high-school level that say we can always tell students that come from Blue Lake, because they’re the ones that are raising their hands, not afraid to speak out, not afraid to offer information. In my mind, that has to be in large part a result of their interactions with Dell’Arte. Three years ago, we were working on a safe-schools plan and there was a countywide workshop. There were probably eight or ten schools that were represented, and we were the only school that had adults and students there. By the end of the day, it was almost a joke. Our students were in this workshop with all of these adults who were educators or were involved in the police network, and our students were fighting over who would get a chance to present Again, I think that was a direct result of the participation in Dell’Arte.

CS: Your question about curriculum: One thing that Dell’Arte has been great about has been sitting down with the instructors at the different levels and talking about the literature, the science, the history. For instance with literature, I’ve seen some great skits where the drama instructor works with the kindergarten acting out a Shel Silverstein poem. The kindergartners are using their little bodies to act out the fantastic situations that Silverstein comes up with. "Frog and Toad" has been a real emphasis in second grade. In third grade we’ve had a lot of science skits with the magic school bus. In fourth-grade history, the kids got out on our school map and the drama instructor had the kids act out where their ancestors had started when they came into the United States and where they moved to. It has been such an enriching situation. I really think – of course I am a real fan of the arts and I just can’t imagine our school without this part.

MM: What other ways do you feel they have had an impact, if not on the school then on Blue Lake, or on particular individuals?

CS: We usually have a direct connection at least twice a year. We get to see two of the productions, the Dell’Arte production and usually one production by experienced students over at the theater . I always talk to my second graders about these students, even though they are big, they are students just like you. They are learning just like you are learning. The kids see an amazing, interesting assortment of ways for young people to express themselves. It’s just delightful. Sometimes we don’t understand what they are doing. A lot of them being from Europe, our kids just don’t understand. So it is great: We always come back and discuss it. It is just such a mind-opening experience.

DW: We’ve also been able to capitalize on some of their technological expertise, totally outside of our relationship with Dell’Arte. We do a Christmas sing-along. Very often Donald will come over and help us set up all the lights, or the sound system, or put up flats for sound. We’ve been able to benefit from that kind of support as well.

MM: Do parents talk about Dell’Arte and their involvement with the school?

DW: I think it is like with any other program. You have those that would support it and those that would question the value of it. For us at the school, I think it is a balancing act. When I first came on board here, some of the concerns I was hearing were about the time it was taking out of the academic day when they were doing these larger productions. In essence, teachers were saying that they would have to shut down their entire academic program for two or three weeks because there was so much involved in putting on these larger productions. The way we’ve worked that out is through communication and give and take, back and forth. It seems to me that in the last few years it has been pretty well balanced. Teachers are comfortable with the amount of time they are putting into it, we are not getting a lot of negative feedback from the community. There are definitely those that support it much more strongly than others. That is the nature of the business that we are in, really.

MM: In terms of the subject areas like your math, your reading, social studies – these activities are a compliment to them as opposed to a way to teach those things?

DW: Our reading program in particular is a very scripted program. You know the teachers are trained in this program to follow the book on a day-by-day basis. The book tells them what to say, when to say, how to say it, which is kind of the way the entire state is leaning. The teachers are expected to be on a certain page at a certain time in the school year. If they are not putting a lot of time and energy into the reading program they are falling behind. We don’t have the freedom that we did in the past to say, "Instead of doing this activity, we’ll pull a Dell’Arte activity in and work with that." So when they do come in and work with the classes it really has to be a time when we can organize with them, free it up for them, and normally during that time they have been very good about including other academic things that are going on during the day. The other thing that I think we need to make real clear is that we don’t have a lot of exposure to the students at Dell’Arte. We have a pretty set three or four instructors that know our teachers, that know our kids, that know our program. For the most part those don’t change even from year to year. Most of the people have been here for five, six, seven, eight years. They are very familiar with the teachers, with their curriculum and so forth.

MM: You talked about being able to notice students who were not succeeding in certain ways, and then here is a new forum for the student to succeed, and that renews your hope in that student. Are there any other stories?

CS: Any time kids can get more involved in something academically other than reading a book or sitting in their seats. When they get up and start being physical and active and start learning how to be a good audience, how to do something in front of other people and not be afraid, it just expands what we are doing. I see some of these kids that bounce around in their seats and once they are up it is such a positive thing for them. Too, they are learning how to keep themselves in control. Once they are physical, they are learning that they can’t go totally crazy. For instance, in their drama class, they learn that there are limits and that they need to follow rules in all sorts of situations, whether they are sitting in a class or up playing a game of Twizzle with Donald.

MM: Are you more expressive and active in your teaching? Or were you already?

CS: Well, possibly. I just have always loved reading to kids and really getting into characters when I do that. I teach my kids a poem a week. We end up doing a book of poems by poets who do wonderful kid’s poetry. The kids get up and read that every week and do it expressively. I just love doing things like that. Back in the old days, before we had to be quite so scripted in our reading program, I did do plays and skits with my kids. It’s just not there in our new reading program, and it is something I really miss. In the afternoon when it is not really academic reading time we can do plays and scripts. That’s where Donald’s drama is still holding on to things I feel are really important.

MM: If Dell’Arte were not to be here, where would you notice the impact? How would things be different here or in the community?

DW: I think that obviously we would be looking over our shoulder and going, "Well, normally we would have Dell’Arte do this, but we are going to have to find somebody else to help fill in these gaps." Dell’Arte has a particular background that allows them to provide experiences for our youngsters that we would not be able to do. Those things would be missed, and missed right away. Our kids are very outgoing, very friendly. New youngsters that come into our school very rarely have a hard time acclimating and that’s not usually the case in other schools. Our kids don’t have a tendency to be clique-ish. Our school is very different in that way. How are you going to know if that is all related to Dell’Arte? You may not know it for another eight or ten years. It is one of those things that we hope we don’t have to know.

CS: One really nice thing, too, is Dell’Arte kind of being the heart of Blue Lake. A lot of Blue Lake children don’t have the opportunity to leave the community because they don’t have transportation to go other places. And so, a lot of them are basically stuck here all summer. As a result, we have some delinquency problems and other sorts of issues, but some of these kids that have problems have made a real connection with the Dell’Arte people. During the summer, when Dell’Arte has mask making or different projects going on, a lot of those things are geared for kids, our local kids really do get involved. Dell’Arte offers a real nice diversity to a community that has probably changed as a result.

DW: Much less conservative probably. Much more open to difference.

CS: Blue Lake used to be, and probably still is considered conservative. I think they look at the association with the school, and they are seeing Dell’Arte as a real positive thing for the community.

Mark McKenna is artistic director and an ensemble member of Touchstone Theatre, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris. He has taught theater classes at Lehigh University and the University of Pennsylvania, and the MFA Theatre Program at Towson State University. McKenna is active in the growth of the Network of Ensemble Theatres. He is a board member of Alliance for Building Communities, a regional community-development corporation.

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