"Good history is good drama"



GUILDERLAND — The battles for women’s suffrage will be played out on the stage of Farnsworth Middle School this year.

Capital Repertory Theatre, based in Albany, will be performing Petticoats of Steel for seventh- and eighth-grade students.
"A lot of history seems old and stuffy. Seeing it on stage sparks interest so students want to learn more," said Jill Rafferty, the educational director for the theater company. She is writing Petticoats with Carolyn Anderson, a playwright and the director of theater for Skidmore College.
They are focusing on significant suffragists, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, as well as using period newspaper editorials and what Rafferty described as "propaganda — both pro and con."
"Some of it is wild and outlandish," she said. Some of the literature maintains that, if women are given the right to vote, "It will be an end to civilization as we know it," said Rafferty, while other tracts claim that the physiology of women’s brains makes them incapable of voting.
"There’s a lot of comedy and there’s blood and guts," Rafferty said, which middle-school students will appreciate. "People think it was very polite with ladies in long skirts carrying signs. But it got awful. Women were jailed and force fed when they went on hunger strikes."
The origins of theater, said Rafferty, are similar to the origins of religion. "Both are an intense and communal experience. Everybody gasps at the same time, everybody laughs at the same time, everyone is touched at the same moment."

She contrasted this with the sort of experience that current technology offers for entertainment, where individuals watching a television set or a computer screen are alone.

On the Go

Lynn Wells, the supervisor of language arts, reading, and social studies at Farnsworth Middle School, says the program fits with the school’s curriculum and schedule, and is a bargain to boot.
"This is our first year trying something with Capital Rep," she said. In creating the play, Wells said, "They used primary sources of women in New York State who worked to get the vote."
Wells went on, detailing the practical advantages of the program. "It takes less time," she said. "We’re not losing a day going to the theater. They bring their sets and actors to the school."

Also, the scheduling is easier, Wells said. With so many required tests, it’s difficult to take kids out of school, she said.
"It’s less costly, too," she went on, noting the district doesn’t have to pay for buses. The price for two performances, she said, is $1,600.
With the new state emphasis on standards, Wells said, "We have to pick and choose" when it comes to out-of-classroom activities.
"The topic is very important...It was one of the state’s DBQ’s," she said, referring to data-based questions, where students have to consult original sources.
"This production is based on primary sources," said Wells.
Capital Repertory is aware of the "focus on testing" in schools today, Rafferty said. "It’s hard for teachers to justify art for enrichment sake," she said. "They have a hard time giving up even an hour when they’re under pressure to do well on a test."

Hence, the company developed its On the Go program four years ago.
"A lot of schools couldn’t get to us," said Rafferty. "Now we load it all in a van. We can play in gyms, cafetoriums, any school space."

And the plays are chosen or written to fit with school curricula.
"Theater is story telling; good history is good drama," said Rafferty.

Last year, she co-authored a play called Friend of a Friend, about the underground railroad. The name of the play, she said, came from code words used by enslaved Africans escaping to the North.

Like Petticoats of Steel, that play, too, was based largely on local historic documents.
"Data-based questions are how assessment is being done in New York State," said Rafferty. Students use historical documents and their general knowledge to interpret facts.
"They learn how to judge their sources, which is important with the Internet and the preponderance of media today," she said. "Students need to ask, ‘Who’s telling it and how does it fit in with my belief system"’"

Authentic links
Rafferty said she and Capital Repertory have come to this work "organically."

Rafferty began as an actor — she has a bachelor of fine arts degree in performing arts from Adelphi — and has been with Capital Rep for a decade.
"This work is generated from really listening to teachers and students and to us as an arts organization...It’s hard for arts organizations these days."

Capital Repertory’s mission, Rafferty said, is to provide meaningful theater with an authentic link to the community.
"We’re building an audience for the future," she said. "If a child doesn’t go to the theater before high school graduation, there’s a 98-percent chance they never will."
Although the actors for the 45-minute traveling school plays have often not performed for young audiences before, Rafferty said, "They come away with a great love for it."
She went on, "We get incredible questions from the kids. Actors often get applause but not right inside the mind of the audience. With this, they can see the impact they’re making."

Wells, too, sees the value of the arts, from the perspective of a teacher.

Wells began her career as a special-education teacher.
"I always wanted to be a teacher, even when I was a little kid; it was in my blood," she said.
She’s carried her approach as a special-education teacher into her current post. "Every student has some special need," said Wells. "Every student has to be looked at individually."

The arts help fill that need, she said.
"The arts bring another layer," said Wells. "Students can learn about a subject and talk about it. But when you take it to the art level, they can feel it...Whether they are making something with their hands, like a drawing, or playing an instrument, making music, you need for them to feel it and own it."
"Part of the school"

This spring, as the Guilderland School District was trying to economize in creating its $76 million budget for 2005-06, a line was cut for cultural arts at the elementary schools.

That budget line paid for students, through BOCES, to be bused to see professional performers.

This year, instead, the district is focusing on bringing cultural enrichment into the schools.
"There is a per-pupil enrichment budget of three or four dollars per student for the arts," said Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Nancy Andress. "The middle school and each elementary school works with their enrichment teacher and the principal on a committee to bring programs to the school."

While the middle school is working with Capital Repertory this year, each elementary school has different plans, she said. School PTA’s are chipping in for many of the programs, Andress said.
"We’re really determined to give kids a good experience," she said, adding that the current approach may even be preferable to busing students out to see performances.
"We’d like it to be part of the school and the fabric of the curriculum," she said.

Andress has first-hand knowledge of and commitment to teaching the arts at Guilderland. Her son, a Guilderland graduate, went on to Parsons School of Design in New York City and now works in design marketing for Liz Claiborne Corporation, she said.
"I’ve seen, as a parent, how important it is. He was not interested in sports. He was interested in things like theater," she said, where he worked on lighting.
"Even if students don’t go on with the arts in college, they will have left with a well-rounded education," said Andress.
She said that teaching the arts goes along with the district’s philosophy on early childhood development. "Research on multiple intelligences and brain development shows how we all learn differently," said Andress.
"The importance of movement, music, hands-on creative projects, and language development are all interrelated....That enhances learning and brain activity, allowing kids to make all kinds of connections."
Andress concluded, "The arts, for all children, are an essential part of learning. It teaches them a way to look at the world, a way to think and discover and create. It melds well with academic learning. I’m sad to see schools cut art and music programs. I don’t want to lose that in this era of testing and accountability. Our district has a history of outstanding programs in music, theater, and dance; we want to maintain that."