Obviously, I've already built a website, so the name of the podcast is I digress, which
I figure is probably going to be a thing anyway.
But what is the general idea of the podcast and how is the format laid out?
The general idea of the podcast is to give people information about how to start and
run their own educational theater program and also, I guess, to tell ridiculous stories
about things that have happened during production.
And we're going to talk to people who have been involved in the program or people
that I know who have been involved in who are involved in other theaters, because
this is my 21st season here.
I've done theater in other places as well.
And basically, my training is basically is mostly on the job training.
I did. I do have a degree in theater from Transylvania University, but most
everything that I've learned to do here, I learned to do through trial and
error. And it might make somebody else's life easier to learn from our
experiences and not have to reinvent the wheel.
So how many shows have you done for Evanston County Schools?
I don't remember.
It's like 200 and it's like 225 or something.
It's a lot.
We put on last year's shirt, but I don't remember the number now.
So, I mean, obviously that means that there's a like a cache of knowledge
about how to do these things.
Do you feel like that you are better now than you were when you started?
Oh, Lord, I hope so.
Yes, I definitely think that the program is much better now and it's
much bigger now.
It's much better funded now.
We have a lot more help.
And now we're at a point where the students from the original shows,
their children are now involved with the program.
So our our fan base is pretty big.
We're going to have alternating episodes where we talk about a
specific aspect of how to produce, how to start a theater program,
produce shows, different kinds of shows.
And we will alternate that with interviews with people who have been
involved in the program or know interesting things about theater that we
can learn from.
So the idea is that every other week we put on an episode and every other
episode is either about theater or interviews between people that have been
here or that, you know, that are in the culture or that have been
connected to us in some way, shape or form.
Right.
Because most of the people that come out of this program don't go on to
do professional theater, a small number have.
But even the ones who have not have come out with a lot of benefits for
their everyday lives.
There are a lot of kids that have said to us in the past that the
reason they came to school was because they could come do theater and
the reason they're successful in whatever they've chosen to do in life is
because they learned all sorts of skills while working in our program.
What would you say your goal is by having this program?
Why did you set out to do these things?
To start a theater program?
To do any of it.
Do any of it.
Because from the time I was very small, through my mother and also
through the school system I went through, they really pushed the idea that
your job is to make the world a better place.
And I thought the best way to do that was through education.
I could help more people out through education.
And that's still the plan, right?
Like everything that I do in the library and in the theater program
and academic team and English classrooms and whatever is what can I
help these students be more, I don't know what the word is, be just make
their lives easier, help them be better adults, I don't know.
And then why am I here?
Because you know how to run this equipment.
And also this was your idea.