This was my first year attending TxETA TheatreFest. What a whirlwind! There were so many wonderful things to see and experience. I’m so grateful I decided to attend and share my workshops over the weekend. As I have been working hard to develop and promote my programming and brand, I have been very open to how I might better serve the people within the Texas Theatre community. Here are some things I’ve observed and learned.
Community. The theatre community in Texas is strong and closely knit. Directors work together, collaborate, and serve each other. They really are a family and root each other on. It’s so refreshing to see such positive relationships between educators in theatre. This is a world I am just jumping into after a long time in the fitness industry. It’s so heart warming to see long time educators foster and mentor the newer educators and young talent. This state is HUGE, but everyone knows each other. I’m full of pride to be welcomed into this family in so many ways. I’m humbled by the lifelong dedication to the building up of others that goes on through Theatre Education.
My classes are fun and people want to take them! I’ve been in a little hole in the ground working and creating. Sometimes I start to wonder how things are going to be received. It was so nice to know that what I had to offer at TheatreFest was worthy of coming back for more! You can see several familiar faces in my other classes, as students came back for another T-Fit class! How reassuring that was. Thank you to all who came to learn and move with me. It was such a gift to be around others who love musical theatre just like me! I wish we could live closer to take class together all the time! Having something like that in my life on the regular would be life changing.
Directors are looking for Theatrical outlets of their own. Over the past year I have been directing my marketing efforts towards serving young performers. My clinics are primarily at the High School level. It wasn’t until I sat down with several directors who came to experience my classes, that I realized they wanted to take class for themselves. I want to knock myself on the head, and say “duh! Of course they do!” They constantly are pouring into their students, and at the end of the day, the kids are the ones who get to release their creativity and passion on the stage. These directors were once in the spotlight too. It makes perfect sense to have a longing for that as well, but it is so hard to find or have time for that as an adult. It’s an outlet that quite often gets set on the back burner while other things take priority. I was so happy to hear from directors how T-Fit effected them and how much it meant to participate.
I have plans to shift my marketing for my weekly fitness class in Cedar Hill. I see the importance to create a space for the adult performer. I am afterall an adult myself. I get it. I very much so get it, and long to have a place where I can be with friends my age who can geek out with me on this stuff. It’s hard to have friends as an adult. In my experience, I have found that my friends are the ones I see on the regular at school, work, or the gym. How cool would it be to get your workout and social time in at the same time? How life changing would that be? I sincerely hope that my feelings and observations from the weekend can translate and lead me in the way that it’s supposed to.
Here are some of the pictures of the classes we had over the weekend. We did Greatest Showman/Moulin Rouge, Aladdin, Fosse, Beetlejuice/Addams Family, and Footloose/Back to the Future. I came home completely exhausted, but happy! So nice to meet so many new friends!
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