Normally we release every other Tuesday, but this is our first special episode that uses the more traditional podcasting interview format. This off-week episode comes just in-between Jesus Christ Superstar and Hadestown, which will start next week.
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Imagine a scared kid going to their first day of high school. Maybe they’re new at the school and don’t have any friends yet, maybe they’re just a nerd and not all the cool kids are being nice, maybe they have some stuff going on at home and they’re nervous and uptight all the time.
For it all to work out for these kids, something has to go right. They walk into a room to start an activity that they barely know about, and it changes their life. Maybe it’s a debate room, or a science class, or a high school paper newsroom. And maybe…it’s a theater class.
This has happened so often it’s actually a theme at the Tony’s. When Elaine Strich won in 2002 she invited her high school drama teacher, Mr. Bodick. When Neil Patrick Harris won for Hedwig he thanked both Churchill Cooke and Danny Flores. He said “These are teachers in small town New Mexico who when sports was the only option, showed that creativity had a place in the world. Without them I would never be able to do any of this.”
Melody Herzfeld, a high school drama teacher, got special recognition at the Tony Awards in 2018. She was a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS, and she hid 65 students during the horrific shooting there.
If the measure of a life is the impact it has on other lives, there is no doubt that one profession that may lead the pack in changing lives are high school drama teachers. Before almost everyone who has made it to Broadway is someone who made it to Broadway, they were theater kids, and they wouldn’t have been there without theater teachers.
And today we’re going to take a departure from our normal formula and talk to one of the best high school teachers, the FUSD’s Teacher on Special Assignment, Michael Despars.
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