Teaching Artist: Theater Studies - 9th Grade/Theater History- 10th & 11th Grade

LOCATION*
Professional Performing Arts School
338 West 48th Street, New York, NY 10036

*Please Note: According to the current updates put out by the Department of Education, classes are intended to happen in person starting in September. Please note that Waterwell takes the safety of our staff and students very seriously and will be working with our Teaching Artists to implement teaching plans that are safe and responsible.

OVERVIEW
Waterwell, a civic-minded theater and education company, seeks a Theater History/Theater Studies Teaching Artist to join the Waterwell Drama Program, the company’s growing arts education wing.

Waterwell Drama Program (WDP) is seeking passionate teaching artists dedicated to inspiring creativity, discipline, and collaboration to join the faculty at the Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS). Partnering with PPAS, WDP provides 6th-12th grade students with comprehensive, conservatory-style Drama training during in-class hours, 5 days per week. Strong classroom management skills and experience working with youth required. Classes meet for the full school year, September 2021–June 2022.

The theater studies curriculum is a core part of the drama curriculum for our high school students. The scaffolded curriculum provides students with the opportunity to develop their dramatic analysis skills, and allows them to survey the major styles and texts that have shaped theatrical history. In addition to learning about writers and artists from around the world and across time periods, students will develop their own unique artistic voices, influenced by the scripts and performance styles that they study throughout their three years. In addition to being knowledgable about theater history, teachers should be passionate about anti-racist theater and acting training techniques and come with a willingness to share their expertise on these approaches as well as continue to learn. We are interested in candidates who have an interest in connecting theater studies to larger program goals of empathy and citizenship.The entire program is rooted in our Artist as Citizen pedagogy/curriculum: a focus on civic-minded arts practice for our students to begin to understand how their theater training relates to their engagement with larger issues facing society.

We currently have three open classes:
-Theater Studies for 9th grade high school students. This course provides students with the foundational skills they will need to analyze plays, on the page and on the stage. The major units cover storytelling, dramatic analysis, design and directing. Students are also introduced to the ancient forms of theater, including Greek and Sanskrit drama. By the end of the term, students should feel confident articulating their responses to plays and performances, and describing their own aesthetic values.
-Theater History I for 10th grade high school students. This course explores global theater from 1500-1900, looking at plays, performers and writers from the period as well as their cultural contexts. The major units cover Shakespeare (in his time period, and in adaptation), Japanese noh and kabuki, female playwrights (like Aphra Behn and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz) and Ira Aldridge and 19th century drama.

-Theater History II for 11th grade high school students. This course explores revolutionary American theater in a global context. It focuses on theater from 1900-today, looking at plays and theater makers in their cultural and historical contexts. The units highlight the rise of realism at the turn of the century, and the various responses to realism that emerged later, such as surrealism, epic theater, Theater of the Absurd, etc. Texts include works by Ibsen, Brecht, Lorca, Baraka, Kennedy, Hansberry and more.

Requirements

Responsibilities:
-Teach rigorous arts education curriculum for a public magnet school
-Develop class curriculum, lesson plans, papers and projects
-Collaborate with staff on best practices
-Participate in professional development and planning meetings
-Grade students and provide meaningful feedback about their work and growth
-Liaise with students, parents, fellow faculty and Waterwell staff about student progress throughout the year, take attendance and participate in two yearly parent teacher conferences.

Qualifications:
-A deep commitment to/belief in the combination of conservatory-style theater training and artist-as-citizen practices
-An anti-racist teaching practice and inclusive pedagogical approach
-Significant teaching experience required, prior work in urban public schools a plus
-Exemplary classroom management skills
-Experience writing curricula that includes clear, active learning goals
-Dedication to assessing student growth

Compensation:
Seasonal salary based on $50/hour for class time, plus additional for planning and meeting time.

Please send resume, cover letter and a sample lesson plan to jobs@waterwell.org by 10AM on July 12th, 2021. In your cover letter, please be sure to address why you are interested in the Waterwell Drama Program and the aspects of the curriculum that interest you most. In the subject of your e-mail, please indicate “Teaching Artist Application - Theater Studies”