Getting Started: Meeting, Enrolling, and Booking!

How to begin?  Well, I found out a little over a week ago that I was selected as a recipient of a 2010 Chase Theatre Educators Fellowship grant through Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles!  Essentially, I have up to $5000 to spend on professional development.


My proposal is to develop new lesson plans centered around theatre design that I can integrate into my technical theatre classes at Milken Community High School.  The classes I teach currently focus more on technical implementation (building scenery, very basic information on hanging and focusing lights or plugging in microphones, etc.).  I'd like to incorporate more design training; certain students who might not be completely interested in technical implementation might become very interested in theatre design if given the exposure and the chance to explore that field.


I'm planning on attending two professional development opportunities to facilitate this curriculum development.  First, at the end of May, I'll be attending the Live Design Broadway Master Classes in lighting, sound, and projection design.  Then in July, I'm going to attend the Broadway Teachers Workshop sponsored by Music Theatre International.


On Friday, I met with Traci Cho and Leslie Johnson at CTG who gave me the tools I need to start the implementation of my proposal.  Obviously, one first step has been the creation of the blog you're reading right now!  I also need to update my proposed timeline and budget by next Friday.  This shouldn't be difficult, but I'm trying to get many different elements to line up properly to complete my first planning steps.


For example, yesterday I registered for the LiveDesign Master Classes and bought my airline tickets for that trip in late May.  I really want to get my hotel reservations squared away, but I'm waiting to find out if there are any more spaces available in an affordable housing option that LiveDesign has arranged with NYU.  Hopefully I'll get a call back tomorrow and we'll see if that will work; if not, I'll look at which of the more affordable hotel options in NYC might be best and get that reservation booked by tomorrow night.


I'm also eager to apply for a spot at the MTI workshop and make my hotel reservations for that event.  However, the Broadway Teachers Workshop has three different sessions.  As luck would have it, one of the other recipients of the Chase Theatre Educators Fellowship is also planning to attend this workshop!  I'm hoping we might be able to attend the same session.  I know that Session C (July 15th - 17th) will be best for me personally, but I'll wait until CTG puts me in touch with this other fellow until I make my final plans.  Hopefully that will be soon and I can finalize those arrangements as well.


I'll update this blog more in the coming days, weeks, and months.  For now, I'm thrilled about the opportunity, and encouraged that I now have started buying my tickets and making my reservations (some of which have cost slightly less than my original budget proposal)!


Please feel free to comment at any time on this blog and provide any feedback...I'm always eager, ready, and willing to collaborate with my friends, peers, and other professionals.