NOV
12

Growing Young Leaders for Your Theatre Program

By Jennifer Lade 

Jennifer Lade is a drama teacher and community theatre enthusiast.  She teaches and directs plays at a program for homeschooled students in Massachusetts.  She loves acting and singing in community theatre productions.  Some of her favorite past roles are Morticia in The Addams Family and The Cat in the Hat in Seussical the Musical.  She earned a BA in English from Providence College. 

From first deciding “Let’s put on a show!”  until the final curtain falls, the tasks necessary to keep a theatre production running smoothly are endless.  No one can do it alone, and yet often, volunteers are sparse — and the budget to hire help even sparser.  Whether you’re running a youth theatre or directing in a school, your job is huge, and you’d likely appreciate some help!

Enter youth leaders — teen members of your theatre program with whom you can collaborate and delegate.  With the proper training and encouragement, young people can become integral members of a theatre program’s leadership team.  This arrangement creates a culture of collaboration, cooperation, and helpfulness, and it spreads the work around.  For young people involved, taking on a leadership role can help them grow in confidence and skills even beyond what they’re already gaining by being involved in theatre.

If you’re directing at a youth theatre, you likely work with a wide range of ages, so you’ll see that the suggestions below fit quite naturally with your program.  For your older students who have been involved in your program for multiple years, taking on a leadership role can give them a whole new area in which to grow and develop new skills.

At a school level, consider tapping into your Thespian troupe or drama club officers to identify who could be your more dedicated and mature youth leaders.

How to start

First, decide which tasks you would like to delegate and how many youth leaders you feel could be helpful.  Be careful!  Too few on your leadership team doesn’t help you enough, but having too many leaders creates another chore for you to keep them all busy and feeling useful.

Next, identify and talk to those you would like to see as your leaders.  You might have a specific teen in mind for a particular task based on their strengths, or the tasks can be assigned once you have your leadership team in place.  Either way, pick some of the older teens who are eager to listen, learn, have good attendance (they’re little help if they’re always absent!), consistently bring a positive attitude, and seem to generally get along with others.  Ask them privately if they’d be interested in taking on more responsibility.  It’s okay if someone would rather not take on a leadership role; they might use theatre as a break from their responsibilities in other areas of their life.

Once you’ve chosen your leaders and they’ve agreed to help, assign which tasks each should take on.  Better yet, meet with your new leadership team and decide together what tasks each individual will take on.

Give clear objectives and directions

Make sure your young leaders know what they are supposed to do and what latitude they have to get it done.  You’ll also need to ensure they have the materials and information necessary to complete their tasks successfully.  For example, if they are blocking a scene, make sure they have the script, know what props are already on stage, and understand basic stage directions.  If they have never blocked a scene before, it will be helpful to give even more instruction the first time.  (Hint:  Pioneer Drama Service has a video that teaches this skill!)

Other activities you could delegate or do together include selecting the play, gathering props, designing and constructing the set, creating the program, helping with costuming, conducting community outreach and publicity, and doing “front of house” tasks like arranging for concessions, running concessions, or taking tickets.

Provide and encourage mentorship

Give ongoing feedback, either through periodic meetings or simply communicating in the moment if the situation allows.  Make sure your young leaders know they can come to you with questions or concerns.  Be proactive as well, especially if you observe them struggling with a certain task.  You can give them a tutorial on the music software you’re using, or offer a suggestion for who to contact for sponsorships.  Building a rapport is also important — be sure to ask about their lives outside of theatre!

Just as you build relationships with your teen leaders, the leaders should offer similar mentorship to the younger members of your theatre program.  They can greet them when they walk in, listen to their fears and concerns, and encourage them as they improve in their skills.  In this way, your leaders can bridge the gap between the adult leadership (you!)  and younger cast members.  In this role, the teens are seeing how large your job is, and they also remember what it’s like to be a beginner at a new activity.  Your teen leaders can engage the other students by leading theatre games, running lines with actors while they are waiting for their chance onstage, and leading vocal warmups at the beginning of rehearsals.

Include recognition

Give your teens the authority to carry out the tasks you have delegated by recognizing them as leaders in front of the other students.  Refer the younger kids back to the teens when they have a question about something you have delegated rather than answering the question yourself.  Show that you trust the teens’ judgment and expertise by asking them questions in front of the group.  Make sure to thank them both privately and publicly for the work they are doing, and include their names in your curtain speech and in the program to recognize all the extra work they have done.

Just like any sports team identifies their team captain and other leaders among the players, any theatre program that wants to operate for the long haul should recruit, train, and incorporate young leaders.  And you know what?  Everyone wins!  The younger members of your program are more likely to stay involved with a mentor they can relate to and talk with.  The young leaders will receive training and hands-on experience that will help them in their careers — theatre or otherwise.  And you will free up time to focus on tasks that only you can do, such as working with licensing companies and directing the show.  With a plan in place, developing young leaders will be a positive experience for all!