In April 2020 I was officially accepted into the EdD program in Educational Theatre. At the time of writing this candidacy portfolio, I have completed 30 out of 42 coursework credits. My proposal for my culminating study seeks to explore the relationship between identity and third culture kids in Taiwan; presenting the data through a series of verbatim portraits. I will speak more about this, towards the end of this statement.
When I was young my parents were concerned because I preferred to sit reading quietly in my bedroom over socializing with others. They decided to send me to drama school as a hobby. Little did they, or I know that said hobby would pave a trajectory for my entire life and career. Having always been someone who shunned the spotlight, I knew my place was not on stage or in front of a camera but in the theory of theatre. I loved the community of being in a drama classroom, studying the philosophy of theatre, and analyzing how it could represent the real world and its issues.
During my undergraduate degree, I studied English Literature and Drama, and it was here that I began to formally cultivate the learning of creating, responding, connecting, and performing in an academic setting. Upon the advice of my theatre professor in the UK, I spend one semester at Oklahoma University focusing primarily on performing before returning to the UK to complete my undergraduate degree. I had also been fortunate to attend a drama school during my middle and high school years and was represented by an agent who provided me with experience in community theatre, and some TV and film work.
During my PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate in Education) I trained specifically as a secondary school Drama teacher where performance was centered on looking at the core skills, theatre practitioners, and styles of theatre that would ultimately prepare my high school students to successfully complete their UK Drama exams at GCSE and A-Level standard. The program I attended at Middlesex University in the UK was led by Kenneth Taylor who is a prominent figure in the UK Drama world and he was often an advisor for the Drama Edexcel exam board in the UK and as a result, we were involved in performing in the official explorative strategy revision videos for the UK.
After my PGCE degree, I was intent on remaining a life-long learner and was fortunate enough to be able to complete two Master’s, one in Education and the other in Educational Theatre whilst working around my teaching commitments. In both cases, I was able to reflect specifically on my teaching practice, analyze and continuously evolve my curriculum and broaden my subject knowledge.
In the summer of 2019, I completed a master’s degree in Educational Theatre with the University of Houston that involved being physically at the UH campus for in-person classes over three consecutive summers. Outside of the summers, I was expected to create three separate portfolios that highlighted my teaching of acting, voice, dramaturgy, scenic and costume design as well as directing. These portfolios refer to many aspects of my job and make specific references to how I analyze and respond to the artistic work that I am involved with.
I am currently completing my 15th year of teaching since the completion of my PGCE. Fortunately, so much of what I do relates to creating, responding, connecting, and performing every day in my drama classroom.
When I moved internationally to teach in 2009, I initially worked at a British international School teaching Middle and High School including IGCSE Drama and IB Theatre. Teaching high school and especially IB theatre meant a significant amount of time was spent on creating, responding, connecting, and performing in response to devised and scripted works with my students. In 2011, I signed a teaching contract with Taipei American School in Taiwan, and I have been leading the middle school Drama program here ever since. Aside from creating and implementing a curriculum for grades 6,7 and 8 that encompasses all the national theatre standards and is highlighted in the scope and sequence document linked above, I have also been responsible for directing two annual productions.
My current place of employment allows me to work with a specialist team for the creation of two productions each academic year; a one-act play in the first semester and a musical production in the second semester. My production team includes myself as the director, a music director, vocal director, costume designer, costume seamstress, choreographer, wig, and make-up master, set designer, theatre technician, and props master. Depending on the production we are working on, we endeavor to work in collaboration and see our artistic design ideas come to fruition.
My international employment has enabled me to be involved with an organization called ISTA which stands for International Schools Theatre Association. Although their main office is based in the UK, they are a global organization. I am involved as an annual festival attendee, a festival host, teacher advisor and a contributor to their online and printed publications.
Ordinarily (before Covid-19) there would be numerous festivals offered within an academic year that any individual or school who is an ISTA member can register and physically attend. These festivals are hosted by one of their 200+ member schools. Each festival has a specific focus that could relate to a chosen issue or drama skill which is often the decision of the host. Typically, I would take a travel team of approximately 12-15 drama students to attend a festival overseas. On these occasions, the visiting teachers and students have an opportunity to embrace the local theatre traditions in that region and work with local artists. But more importantly, we have an opportunity to connect with one another so as to conclude the three-day festival with a performance to an audience.
Prior to the pandemic (and hopefully when it is over), I have agreed to host an ISTA festival at my school every three years. In 2019 I hosted a festival with the title ‘Courage and Conviction’. Approximately 100 participants flew into Taiwan specifically to attend this festival. Participants included other international school students and teachers, as well as artists and directors; allowing me and my students to really connect with a wider community, respond to a chosen issue, and to create theatre.
As a result of my international setting, I would like to propose a culminating project that specifically highlights the transient lifestyle of many of the students and teachers at my school. ‘Third culture kids’ is a term used to describe individuals who have spent many of their developmental years living overseas. They tend to harbor a unique global perspective; they often speak several languages and most interestingly their perception of ‘home’ is not necessarily where their passport was issued. For instance, a student may say they hold an Australian passport, but they were born in Hong Kong, and have since moved to Taiwan having never actually resided in Australia. Another student was born in America, stayed for two months before their family relocated to Japan for five years, back to Virginia for four years before arriving in Taiwan three years ago. I am fascinated to discover how their lifestyle shapes them as an individual and to hear their perspective. By interviewing teachers, alumni, and potentially current school-aged individuals who fall under this demographic I would like to share my findings through a selection of verbatim portraits, that themselves will be performed by those who are also third culture kids. Ultimately, I hope that my research would serve as a great resource for international teachers and students in addition to building a community for those who identify as Third Culture Kids.
Since accepting my place at NYU I have been able to take classes that will help me in completing my culminating project. Some of these classes have included Arts Based research with Nisha Sajnani where I was formally introduced to the various art forms that could be used to complete my qualitative research. By the time I took Methods and Materials with Amy Cordileone I knew I definitely wanted to work with third culture kids as a part of my research and I was able to conduct a mock research project as part of this class using arts-based research methods. In the Spring of 2021, I took the Dissertation Proposal class with Nancy Smithner, having explored several ideas with regards to my research question, it was here that I reallized that using verbatim theatre would give an authentic voice to third culture kids. My current overarching research question is, ‘how does the use of Verbatim theatre inform an understanding of third culture kids?’.
As I continue my studies at NYU, I need to build on my knowledge and experience with regards to verbatim theatre. During the Fall of 2020, I enrolled in The Ethnoactor and Verbatim Theatre class which was the first time I had formally studied this theatreform. With Verbatim theatre being my chosen artform, I would like to have more experience before starting my research and I endeavor to do this by hopefully completing an independent study with Joe Salvatore in the Spring of 2022, and to hopefully attend a related in-person class when I am able to physically be present at NYU – which will hopefully be in the summer of 2022.