{"id":29877,"date":"2022-12-06T21:02:52","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T21:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/06\/american-theatre-can-do-spirit-and-life-skills-carnegie-mellon-visits-a-houston-magnet-school\/"},"modified":"2022-12-06T21:02:52","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T21:02:52","slug":"american-theatre-can-do-spirit-and-life-skills-carnegie-mellon-visits-a-houston-magnet-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/06\/american-theatre-can-do-spirit-and-life-skills-carnegie-mellon-visits-a-houston-magnet-school\/","title":{"rendered":"AMERICAN THEATRE | Can-Do Spirit and Life Skills: Carnegie Mellon Visits a Houston Magnet School"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Tom\u00e9 Cousin leads Carver college students in a motion workshop.<\/p>\n

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Roshunda Jones-Koumba holds court docket within the classroom.<\/strong> She is a trainer, mentor, good friend, and generally therapist to almost 200 college students at G.W. Carver High School<\/a> in Houston, the place she\u2019s served because the drama trainer for 18 years. The magnet college is a historic landmark within the Acres Home neighborhood, a predominantly Black neighborhood within the metropolis\u2019s northwest. Carver is thought for its expertise and engineering tracks, and, due to Jones-Koumba, a flourishing arts program with previous productions together with <\/span>Hairspray<\/em>, <\/span>Memphis<\/em>, <\/span>Dreamgirls<\/em>, and <\/span>The Color Purple<\/em>, which had a sprawling solid of 130. In January, G.W. Carver Magnet High School would be the first highschool within the nation to stage the jukebox tuner <\/span>Summer: The Donna Summer Musical<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jones-Koumba\u2019s extraordinary efforts have been acknowledged in June on the Tony Awards with the Excellence in Theatre Education Award<\/a>, offered by Carnegie Mellon University, which since 2015 has honored a highschool drama trainer who has made an outsized affect on their college students. The award got here not solely with the well-known spinning medallion but additionally a $10,000 money prize to help the drama program, and a grasp class with Carnegie Mellon University college on the successful trainer\u2019s highschool.<\/p>\n

The grasp class for G.W. Carver Magnet High School\u2019s drama program on Nov. 28, which I used to be lucky to be available for, turned out to be an extra check of Jones-Koumba\u2019s creativity and her college students\u2019 can-do spirit; the night earlier than the occasion, town of Houston declared a \u201cboil water\u201d discover<\/a> after an influence outage on the East Water Purification Plant. The citywide public well being directive included college closures, which left visiting CMU college with out a location for the grasp class, and the scholars with out bus transportation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jabari Collins, the drama program\u2019s technical director, assured the visiting CMU staffers that the present would go on. \u201cIf anyone can figure this out, it\u2019s Roshunda,\u201d Collins mentioned calmly. Indeed, after numerous telephone calls and late-night textual content messages, Jones-Koumba labored her intensive community and located a close-by dance studio to carry the grasp class. She even organized for carpooling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI always call my students the Ever Ready Players,\u201d mentioned Jones-Koumba. \u201cIf there\u2019s something in the way, they\u2019re not giving up\u2014there\u2019s a way to make it happen. And I love that spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not onerous to see the place they get that spirit.<\/p>\n

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Kyle Haden and Lisa Velten Smith, at proper, speak with Carver college students. (Photo by Rick Armstrong)<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

A gaggle of 15 college students spilled into HeartBeat Houston Dance and Fitness<\/a> studio the subsequent morning singing \u201cSeasons of Love\u201d in concord, as highschool theatre children are apt to do. The schedule for the day included vocal workout routines, textual content evaluation, choreography, and discussions concerning the enterprise of performing to provide the scholars a preview of learning theatre on the collegiate stage.<\/p>\n

CMU\u2019s newly appointed head of the School of Drama, Robert Ramirez<\/a>, set the tone for the grasp class. \u201cNo one is here to give you a grade,\u201d he mentioned. \u201cThere\u2019s not going to be an award handed out at the end of the day. Give yourself the room to be free as an artist without the fear of judgment and without the pressure to have to do it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

After settling into the area, CMU assistant professor of voice Lisa Velten Smith<\/a> helped the energetic group discover area of their our bodies. The college students roamed across the room reciting the tongue tornado \u201cPeter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,\u201d a warm-up that doubled as an train in character growth and world-building. \u201cI feel so free!\u201d one teen chirped.<\/p>\n

Next, assistant performing professor Kyle Haden<\/a> paired the scholars off to establish beats in a scene from Eugene O\u2019Neill\u2019s Ah, Wilderness!<\/em> The college students learn strains as Dick and Muriel, shifting across the studio to mark every emotional shift.<\/p>\n

Velten Smith and Haden then spoke about their profession paths and doled out recommendation for locating casting notices, making ready for auditions, and managing funds between gigs. An overarching theme of the day was how the scholars may apply the abilities discovered in Jones-Koumba\u2019s classroom past the stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will probably discover that you will be right for so many different careers because of the tools that you are learning,\u201d Velten Smith mentioned. \u201cYou\u2019re learning acting skills, but you are learning so much more than that. You\u2019re learning how to negotiate, right? You\u2019re learning how to speak with other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, a couple of of Jones-Koumba\u2019s senior college students shared their plans to check the pure sciences and speech pathology subsequent yr, to thunderous applause. And for college kids with their eyes on the stage, Haden supplied this: \u201cThere is now more room for people who look like us\u2026I have much greater hope for you than I had for me coming out of school, you know? I didn\u2019t have people who looked at me telling me I could do this. I\u2019m a person who looks like you, and I\u2019m telling you that you can do this. And I hope you do! I hope to be across the table from you at some point in time, holding the door open.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tom\u00e9 Cousin, Kyle Haden, Roshunda Jones-Koumba, Lisa Velten Smith, and Antwayn Hopper. (Photo by Rick Armstrong)<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

After a lunch break, the rapt college students circled up for a dialogue between Ramirez and CMU alumni Antwayn Hopper, at present starring as Thought 6 in A<\/em> Strange Loop <\/em>on Broadway. The pair spoke concerning the profound affect their former lecturers had on their path within the theatre business and the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cY\u2019all are very blessed to have Ms. Jones,\u201d Hopper mentioned. \u201cNancy Scrinopskie Epoch was my Ms. Jones, and she saw something in me and heard something in me that I had not recognized.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Likewise, Ramirez\u2019s journey to changing into a theatre educator was kickstarted by a highschool theatre trainer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most exciting thing to me in the world,\u201d he mentioned, \u201cis to watch a young person in a room have a spark of an idea and discover the power in themselves, and then to help them to access it. I don\u2019t think teachers give you something you didn\u2019t have before. What they do is they direct you and they guide you in the direction of your power and your talent and your gifts\u2014they give you some tools along the way of accessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most important theme of the day was the significance of utilizing these instruments for the better good. \u201cArt is essential to life,\u201d mentioned Ramirez. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any real living without art\u2026If you don\u2019t have a life where you\u2019re experiencing art, making art, admiring it or supporting it, how do you really access yourself and your humanity?\u201d<\/p>\n

The college students, sensible past their years, requested how one can discover a help community outdoors their households, how one can change into extra comfy with themselves, and how one can keep psychological wellness. \u201cI wanted to take a minute to appreciate you two,\u201d a small voice mentioned from the group. \u201cThis is really inspirational and heartfelt to me being a minority, and also being a part of the LGBTQ+ community. You being here is really helpful for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Students and college on the CMU Carver grasp class. (Photo by Rick Armstrong)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In the afternoon, professor of dance Tom\u00e9 Cousin<\/a> introduced the cohort to their toes. \u201cChoreography is about telling a story\u2014or not,\u201d mentioned Cousin over a booming beat. \u201cIf you don\u2019t tell a story, you\u2019re going to represent something like emotions or colors.\u201d The college students took locations on the ballet barre and adopted Cousin\u2019s lead via numerous warm-ups.<\/p>\n

The session culminated in \u201cMonster,\u201d an train impressed by the work of the Alvin Ailey firm, which inspired the scholars to let unfastened in a full-body explosion. \u201cInside every actor is a monster!\u201d shouted Cousin as the scholars fashioned clawed arms and stomped across the studio.<\/p>\n

The grasp class ended with an vitality circle conspired by the bubbling Hopper, with college students holding arms and leaping within the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very thankful to you all for showing up today, even when we had no water,\u201d mentioned Hopper with amusing. \u201cShowing up today, not knowing what the answer or question may be, showing up and showing out, because that\u2019s what we do, right?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Around the circle, the scholars every shouted out one phrase to summarize the day: \u201cinspiring,\u201d \u201cenlightening,\u201d \u201cempowering,\u201d \u201cthrilling,\u201d \u201cmeaningful,\u201d \u201crebirth.\u201d For tenth grader Cora Frazier, the massive takeaway was that artwork is for everyone. \u201cOne thing I got from this experience is that theatre is everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Trinity Jones, a ninth-grader, the spotlight was Cousin\u2019s motion workshop. \u201cWe all got a chance to get away from our stress and worries,\u201d she mentioned. \u201cWe learned to express ourselves through freestyling and had a chance to live in the moment, and we created something very powerful from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her half, Jones-Koumba selected the phrase \u201cheartfelt\u201d to explain the grasp class. \u201cThe students were all engaged, and you can tell that they were inspired to go out and do anything\u2014the sky\u2019s the limit,\u201d she mentioned. \u201cJust to have that representation there was so important for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the 2022 Tony Awards, Jones-Koumba\u2019s highlight has been shining even brighter. Just final month, she was named on Ebony<\/em>\u2019s Power 100 List and attended a star-studded occasion in Los Angeles with fellow artwork awardees Michael R. Jackson, Myles Frost, and Jeremy O. Harris. Her accolades additionally embody the 2021 Stephen Schwartz Musical Theatre Teacher of the Year Award, the International Thespian Society Inspirational Theatre Educator Award, and induction into the Texas Thespians Hall of Fame. The metropolis of Wharton, Texas, her hometown, declared June twenty eighth as a day to honor her.<\/p>\n

But her greatest reward, she mentioned, is seeing her college students achieve numerous fields.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just beautiful to see my students blossom,\u201d she effused, rattling off a listing of former college students now pursuing careers as nurses, entrepreneurs, and attorneys. Actors too: Fernell Hogan, certainly one of her former college students on the Theatre Under the Stars Humphreys School of Musical Theatre, is at present in Kimberly Akimbo<\/em> on Broadway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis award has really opened my students\u2019 eyes on how important the arts are globally,\u201d mentioned Jones-Koumba. \u201cThey have become advocates for arts education and will tell whoever will listen about how important it is for arts to be at every single school.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Allison Considine (she\/her) is a former senior editor of this journal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

*Carnegie Mellon University supported our reporter\u2019s journey to Houston to cowl the grasp class.<\/em><\/p>\n

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