2013-2014 APRIL (DOUBLE ISSUE)
PROLOGUE
Welcome to the third issue of Behind the Scenes – the last one of our 2013-2014
year. Thanks go to Elcin, Bill, Kate and Mike for their enthusiasm in the face of deadlines and
last minute editing: we couldn’t have created this issue without them.
Welcome to Tom Scott, who is joining the ISTA office on a permanent basis as an Arts
Administrator, alongside Beth and Kathy. Tom will be taking over admin work on high school
festivals, our AiR programme, festival CPD as well as PD days; PA work for Jo and me which
tragically includes helping Jo with her vast stack of filing. This is, perhaps, the most daunting
task of all and probably means I won’t get a look in! All of us in the office warmly welcome
Tom – his presence is much needed as workloads continue to grow. We all look forward to
still working incredibly hard but perhaps without all the pressure and last minute nature of
the work that has defined much of 2013-2014.
Behind the Scenes will be back in 2014-2015 and if you’d like to be part of this journal,
please email Beth.
Sally
CAST CHANGES
A warm welcome to schools who have joined and rejoined us since
December 2013
• American British Academy Oman and Myna Anderson
• American College of Greece and Ioannis Tsatalis
• Antwerp International School and Kirsten Chaplin
• Ashbury College, Canada and Marilynne Sinclair
• International School of Prague and Vicki Close
• SEK International Institution, Spain and Luke Cooper
• St Joseph’s Institute International, Singapore and Wendy Ng
• UWCSEA Dover Campus and Mike Millichamp
Welcome to our newest individual members
• Anna Zipporah Dioran, Hanoi
• Jenny Moses, USA
• Claire Gordon, UK
• Tatiana Ohotin Breger, Indonesia
And welcome to four artists who will be joining the artist pool for
2014-2015
• James Copp, Germany
• James Lehman, UK
• Malina Patel, Uzbekistan
• Sam Pierce, Hong Kong
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
Introducing the next generation…
Congratulations to ISTA artist
extraordinaire, and board member, Jess
Thorpe and her partner Chris Hall on
the birth of their son, Freddie Samuel
Hallthorpe, who was born on 3rd
January 2014.
BOX OFFICE
Introducing the
newest member
(yes, another
one) of the
ISTA office in
Helston.
Who are you and
where do you
come from?
My name is
Tom Scott and
I’m originally
from Fleet in
Hampshire. However for the past 12 years I’ve
been living on the Isles of Scilly off the coast of
Cornwall. I’ve recently moved in with my partner
Logan in Helston.
If you were an animal which animal would you be?
This is a tough one as there are many I’d love
to be. Part of me would love to be an underwater
animal as I love diving (and to do it without all the
kit would be great). However I think I’d have to pick
a species of bird that would travel long distances as
I love flying.
Where in the world do you most want to visit?
It’s my ambition in life to travel as much as I can,
but top of the list would be the Galapagos Islands
and Machu Pichu in Peru.
What is your favourite thing about living in
Cornwall?
I love the laid back, carefree way of life
Cornwall has to offer. While I love the bright lights
of the big cities, coming home to the peace and
quiet is always very welcome.
Where would you most like to be right now
(other than the ISTA office?)
On a plane flying somewhere amazing with my
partner.
What is your favourite ice cream flavor?
It would have to be a chocolate one of some
kind, but I’d happily consume any flavour placed in
front of me!
Favourite alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage.
(ISTA does not condone drinking to excess, unless
there’s a valid excuse…)
Gin & tonic or a pint of chocolate Nesquik.
Favourite season?
If it could be summer all year round I’d be a
very happy man, I really love the heat and the light
evenings.
Film or book?
I’ve never been one for reading fiction books
only magazines and non-fiction. But I love a good
film so would choose that over a book any day.
Vanilla or chocolate?
Chocolate for sure, especially mini eggs at this
time of year.
www.ista.co.uk | 1
PROGRAMME NOTES
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF
LUXEMBOURG by Mike West
I guess the best way of promoting the arts in a school is numbers.
In 1999, ISL had under five hundred students K-12 and was shrinking.
Just music and art were offered throughout the school and only art at
IB level. In 2014 the school has nearly 1200 students with waiting lists
in most grades and offers music, art, theatre and film at IB level. There
are classes, productions, festivals and lots of participation throughout
the whole school. Next year design and technology will be added to
the curriculum - not an art perhaps (not IB group 6 for sure) but a
creative subject nonetheless.
Our school is a big supporter of the arts. But then, what school
isn’t. I have often commented in administrative ears that the very
sentence, ‘We support the arts’, said with such broad-curriculumthinking vigour, is not actually a positive statement at all. The arts should
not need supporting, thank you very much. What school ever proudly
boasted, ‘We support numeracy!’ or, ‘This school thinks literacy is
important!’? They are, of course, givens. Parents, leadership and board alike
do wholeheartedly support the creative arts here yet there is still that
‘but’ that is difficult to get past when it comes to exams, IB qualifications,
degrees and the other ‘serious’ subjects that will help one day to bring in
the bucks in a wage packet. Perhaps many of you understand exactly what
I am talking about and it is a tough one to deal with.
However, there is a fifth column at work at ISL, oh yes. There is a gang
of highly talented and extremely active men and women who know how
vital being creative is to the child. Do they work away quietly behind the
scenes? No! (well yes, sometimes, but all that subversion gets tiring you
know.) They trumpet and bang loudly – on
drums mostly … and trumpets. As I have said,
there are four subjects now offered at IB and
the number of students taking the arts at this
level is growing. We attend and host drama
festivals and music festivals. We organize bands,
choirs, plays and musicals throughout the
school. There are high school plays and middle
school plays, high school musicals and middle
school musicals, lower school productions,
bands, symphony and jazz, and choirs for all
ages, art shows and exhibitions all over the
school. We go to film festivals and produce
student-made television programmes. The
lower school may still only offer art and
music as stand-alone subjects but, shhh …
check you are alone as you read this … there are teachers
talking of introducing drama when the time is right. In the middle
school, each student gets a trimester of art, music and theatre. At
fifteen they have to
2 | Behind the Scenes | 2013-2014 April (Double Issue)
choose
just one for the
high school years
and film is added.
Just last year the
school introduced
a new timetable
which allowed us to
double arts time for
the middle school
and which added
twenty-five percent
to the high school time. This was a very big move forward and brought
the arts, and PE together, into line with time allocations for other subjects.
At IB we offer, as I have stated, all four
subjects. We do suffer in numbers a bit at
IB level with students doing two languages
but then Luxembourg nationals are gifted
linguists being able to speak four if not five
languages fluently.
Facilities help too. In 2000 we moved
to new premises and in 2013 a whole new
building was opened for the lower school.
As a result we now boast in the upper
school alone two specialist music rooms
plus a choir room, a band
room and practice rooms.
There are two theatre
studios with plenty of
storage space, three
specialist art rooms, a
dedicated film studio
and an auditorium
with theatre lighting
and newly installed
retractable tiered
seating. The new
lower school also
has dedicated art
and music
classrooms,
practice
rooms
and a new
auditorium.
We
have come
a very long
way in fifteen
years and the
arts here are
healthy, strong
and vibrant.
BIOGS
ISTA artist – Bill Bowers (New York)
I have had an interest in mime since
a very young age, but only in the last 15
years have I begun to look at the source
of this fascination. I grew up in Montana,
a big, quiet place, in a family of Montana
homesteaders, who tend to keep things
quiet and aren’t especially expressive of
their emotions. I am also the youngest
child of six, so had siblings who talked for me. Like most
American families of the 50’s and 60’s, we rarely “talked” about anything of
importance. I am also a gay man, and was a gay boy in a small Montana
town, long before Oprah, or Glee. There was no conversation to be had
about who I was or what I was feeling. It was the 60’s.
All of these experiences, or circles of silence, gave me a familiarity with
not talking. I also grew interested in what it was that was not being said.
In order to understand what drives me as an artist, I thought it best
to include several plays that I have written over the years, the majority of
which are autobiographical to some extent…
It Goes Without Saying is an autobiographical solo play comprised
of true stories from my life and career as a performer. In particular, this
play answers the question of “Why am I a mime?” and where has that
road taken me? In addition to the journey of becoming an artist, It Goes
Without Saying tells of the experience of surviving the AIDS crisis in NYC
in the late 80’s, and the silence that existed within my experience of caring
for and losing my partner to AIDS.
I am always looking for stories to tell about what we gain and lose
in silence, and the experience of “the Other”, the Outsider. This has led
me to my next project: adapting the novel Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton
Trumbo into an ensemble play. Written in 1938, Mr. Trumbo gives the
account of a young soldier in WWI who loses all his limbs, his sight and
his hearing when a bomb explodes on him. It is the ultimate story about
silence, told from the point of view of the soldier who is trapped within
his truncated body, with no ability to communicate. As we near the 100th
anniversary of World War I, I am investigating how the experiences of war
are passed on from generation to generation. What have we learned, and
what haven’t we learned?
I have appeared on- and off-Broadway, at the Kennedy Center, the
White House, an Amish colony and a family nudist resort. I spent several
years studying with Marcel Marceau and now tour my solo shows all over
the world.
Presently I teach movement and mime at NYU Steinhardt, Stella Adler
Conservatory, and the William Esper Studios in New York City. I travel
extensively as a solo performer and offer workshops and residencies in
physical theatre and devising / creating ensemble theatre.
This year will take me to the Edinburgh Festival, Warsaw, Dusseldorf,
The Hague, Dresden, Kiel, and Parnu, Estonia. I am delighted to be a
new artist in the ISTA pool and look forward to meeting other ISTA folks
around the globe!
ISTA teacher – Elcin Peker,
Eyuboglu Schools, Istanbul, Turkey
“I believe arts education in music,
theatre, dance, and the visual arts is one of
the most creative ways we have to find the
gold that is buried just beneath the surface.
They (children) have an enthusiasm for life
a spark of creativity, and vivid imaginations
that need training – training that prepares
them to become confident young men and
women.”
Richard W. Riley, Former US Secretary
of Education
I started my career as an English teacher in1989
after attending Marmara University in Istanbul. Drama has always been
my personal interest and I was involved in the drama club and performed
many plays. The more I got involved in drama the more I understood
that it is one of the most effective ways to engage students in learning.
I strongly believe that drama enhances learning when integrated into
curriculum.
I first heard about ISTA when I started working in Eyuboglu schools
16 years ago and ISTA has made a positive impact on my teaching since
then. I completed my Master’s degree in education in 2002 at Framingham
State College, Massachusetts. Throughout my studies I searched for an
answer to one question: “How can teachers engage students into learning
and help them to use their potential to the fullest?” In 2004 I completed
an online certificate programme titled ‘Engaging Students with Deeper
Learning’ from Harvard University. These two studies helped me better
understand that today’s children, with developing technology, do not
only learn from books, so teachers should find different ways to enhance
learning. Believing that drama is one of the ways to improve the quality of
learning, we decided to integrate drama into our English curriculum.
At Eyuboglu Schools we appreciate the importance of drama in
teaching. We have attended many ISTA festivals, and have hosted four
so far. Working with professional ISTA artists and peers from different
countries does not only broaden our students’ view but also helps them
develop their communication and language skills as well as empathy as
they view the world from other people’s perspectives including those of
peers, adults, and people in stories. Each year there is a growing number
of students who want to join ISTA festivals as they also see the difference
in themselves after attending the festivals.
“Tell me and I will forget.
Show me and I will remember.
Involve me and I will understand.”
Chinese Proverb
Being an IB school we expect our students to gain 10 attributes such
as being reflective, caring, risk takers, communicators so that they can
become responsible members of local, national and global communities.
ISTA festivals help our students to gain these attributes and become more
aware of the world and respect each other.
Considering all the facts mentioned above I feel pride in being a
member of the ISTA community and hope to benefit from the advantages
it offers to my career as an English teacher in the future.
DUBAI HS FESTIVAL, 6-8 MARCH 2014
www.ista.co.uk | 3
PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
By Kate Olson – Dresden International
School
Organized chaos: A week in the
life of an international school
Performing Arts teacher
Mom: (on the phone) Well, well, well, Katie.
My long-lost child! Why do you
never write or call your mother...
Me:
I know, I know! I’m so sorry, Mom.
I wanted to call you last night, but
I got home really late from the
theatre and then I had to pack for
Croatia.
Mom: Croatia? I thought you were going
to Berlin?
Kate: I was in Berlin, but that was last
weekend. This weekend, I have to
go to this training thing for middle
school curriculum in Croatia.
Mom: Hmmm. Croatia. Anyway, Dad
and I just got back from the
Cabin Show in Duluth. And we
are having all the farm neighbors
over tonight for a little dinner.
Busy, busy busy. We are making
slushburgers! Do you think they
make those in Croatia?
Welcome to the creative, crazy, absolutely
chaotic life of an International School
Performing Arts teacher. When I first moved
to Germany eight years ago, I kept telling my
mom and dad that I would be back home in
a year, but that year turned into another into
another and now I’m married to this pretty nice
German guy who works two doors down from
me and, I never thought I’d say it, but, I sort of
like it here....
So, you think you want to be an
International Performing Arts teacher? You think
you’ve got what it takes?! (I don’t think that was
supposed to be the point of this article, but that
was the catchiest segue I could think of.) Well,
I’m here to give you a little insight into what
your typical week might look like.
Sunday evening 19:00
You might find yourself in a foreign country
battling the forces of nature along with your
15 comrades in battle, or, in other words, at an
ISTA high school festival in Portugal.
you can see in the example below:
Friday evening 20:00
Wanna teach theatre? Get used to the
night shift. However, I must admit, it doesn’t go
unnoticed. Here we are on the stage lapping
up the limelight:
Tuesday mid-morning 10:30
Your work desk will be a shining example of
professionalism. Just like mine:
Wednesday evening 19:00
As you can imagine from the job
description, you might need to do a
performance or two. You may find that every
once in a while you need to outsource your
performances like we do. This is the theatre
where we performed last week:
Monday morning 08:00
Back home safe from your foreign
adventures, you’ll find piles of work waiting for
you. Important work. We’re talking top-levelstate secret-counterintelligence type work, as
4 | Behind the Scenes | 2013-2014 (Double Issue)
Sunday evening 18:00
Show? What show? Oh that one! Please, that
was soooo two nights ago. As a performing arts
teacher you can’t bask in the glory of a successful
performance
for too long,
because you
might find
yourself in a
different country
two days later
learning about
a brand new
middle school
curriculum. The
show on Friday
is but a distant
memory, but
this Cathedral in
Croatia is quite
stunning.