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The Cambridge Central School Drama Club and Hubbard Hall Production of Annie!
Last Sunday we closed our latest CCS Drama Club musical production and it was bittersweet for parents, students and all of us at Hubbard Hall. The show was a huge success, in terms of sold out crowds and rave reviews. But even more importantly, it was a success in seeing a group of kids learn and grow as individuals and artists.
For over 25 years, I’ve been lucky to make my living working in the arts, with almost 20 of those years dedicated to arts and education in some way. When I was director of Young Playwrights’ Theater in Washington, DC we were dedicated to teaching students to express themselves clearly and creatively through the art of playwriting, while helping students find their own voice and their own power. Before that, I taught Shakespeare to thousands of students each year, helping them find the power in Shakespeare’s words and in their own ability to perform them.
As noted in several recent studies, including in the short online article How Performing in Theater Can Help Build Empathy in Students by Holly Korby, and in the book Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art by UCLA professor James Catterall, students’ work in theater affects them in ways way beyond whether they can sing, act or dance better afterwards.
Becoming someone else and seeing the world through someone else’s eyes builds empathy. Working as a team in live performances develops their abilities to listen, to collaborate with others and to take risks. After you’ve sung and danced in front of 150 strangers multiple times, in blinding stage lights, wearing strange clothes and pretending to be someone else, those future job interviews, class presentations or addresses to Congress seems a little less daunting.
Because they must trust each other and move forward, no matter what. In order to tell a story on stage, the person before them and after them has to remember his or her lines. The people on stage need to catch them if they fall, and they need to catch others. Lyrics need to be remembered, dance steps shared and quick changes backstage managed with care. If someone messes up, the group supports them. They figure out how to get to the next line or the next move. They persevere and don’t give up, because they’ve practiced persevering and finding a way to move forward in rehearsals.
Every performance and every audience is a little different. Half the job of performing is listening to your audience and reacting to them, specifically. If they laugh, you need to wait for them to stop laughing. If they seem quiet or tired, you lift your energy to engage them. If they seem confused, you might slow down. In any case, you are telling a story to a specific group of people and you are listening while also speaking. After performing several times, any public speaking, interviewing or engaging with others becomes easier.
They dance, sing, act and juggle props all at the same time. They must remember choreography (aka movement), lines of dialogue, and exits and entrances – all while ensuring they’re wearing the right costume. They need to multi-task but also stay in the moment – so they keep listening. Performance is a rigorous and tough thing to do – and juggling all these concerns, while also remember to HAVE FUN – prepares them for every day in adult life when they must juggle all kinds of concerns – while trying to still HAVE FUN.
At the end, and hopefully throughout, their show, the students are gaining praise and compliments from their parents, their peers and a big group of strangers. People they’ve never met might say “great job!” to them on the street – or at the very least shower them with applause at the end of the show. They get to stand in front of this crowd and take in the sheer joy they’ve created. They get to know they’re good – great – fantastic! And that their work has brought joy to strangers – and to their own family. That their work has created change in the world – and enriched those who saw it.
Not the bug to necessarily perform, or even to work in the theater – but the bug to do work that makes them proud. Work that helps others. Work that brings joy to our world. If they walk away with a greater sense of themselves and of that kind of work – and a knowledge that that work can be theirs in this life – we’ve done our job.
The amazing cast of Annie included Anna Bailey, Coral Boehlke, Sarah Burke, Blakely Couch, Harlan Cuite, Haviah Edwards, Ella Hunt, Leah Jaffe, Zayden Jansen, Tyler Koziol, Deanna Lulla, Elijah Lulla, Abigail Maher, Ellen Mattison, James McEntee, Rebekah McGill, Taryn Olson, Isabeau Patterson, Alice Roosevelt, Kaitlin Simon, Emma Townsend, Alana Wielt, Gabrielle Wilbur. The Creative Team included Director and Choreographer Virginia May Edinger, Musical Director Richard Cherry, Percussionist Rich LaPlante, Assistant Director Katherine Danforth, Stage Manager and Vocal Coach Maureen Cossey and Technical Director Kristoffer Ross.
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David Andrew Snider has more than 25 years of experience as a director, educator, producer, public speaker, writer, and administrator. Currently the Executive & Artistic Director of the Hubbard Hall Center for the Arts and Education in Cambridge, NY, he has launched several new artistic and education programs on the campus of Hubbard Hall while also greatly expanding the company’s outreach to the community. David has led the Board of Directors through a new strategic planning process aimed at growing the company’s staff, fundraising, marketing and administrative systems to better support its mission delivery over the next two years while increasing the company’s annual budget by 25% in his first year. Prior to Hubbard Hall, David served as the Director of Artistic Programming at Arena Stage in Washington, DC from 2012-2014, and as the Producing Artistic Director of Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT) from 2005-2012. Under his leadership, YPT was awarded commissions from the White House, the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institution while establishing a resident company and an advisory panel of nationally recognized playwrights. From 2010-2012, David received the Meyer Foundation’s $100,000 Exponent Award for visionary leadership of a nonprofit, the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and the Hands On Greater DC Cares’ Essence of Leadership Award. David is a Directing Fellow of the Drama League of New York, a past President of the League of Washington Theatres, a member of Leadership Greater Washington and a National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Fellow. David received his MFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts and his BA in English Literature/Russian language from Dickinson College, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. David is currently a Lecturer in the Arts Administration program at Skidmore College, adjunct faculty at American University and resides in the village of Cambridge, NY, with his wife and children.
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