Sunday, November 20, 2011

No drama classes or after school plays for now.  I was at ODCVI for about 2.5 weeks in early September, and since then, I've been a substitute teacher.  Since late September, I have covered two classes each afternoon for a person who is on sick leave.

I thought I'd include my drama bio here.

Bio for Marg Sawatsky

The first time I ever saw a play was “Anne of Green Gables” in Charlottetown, PEI, when I was twelve years old.  My Mom and Dad took our family to the East Coast for a holiday, and I had just finished reading the “Anne Books”.  To see a play made out of a book was really fascinating. A few years later, I got involved as a student in after school drama helping backstage with performances of Agatha Christie’s “Ten Little Indians” and Gilbert and Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore”.  There were other plays, but those are the ones I remember.

 More Drama:       After finishing high school, I studied fashion design at Ryerson U in downtown Toronto.  Some of my fellow students intended to work for theatre, and one actually made costumes for the Canadian Opera Company.  Another one got work at the Shaw Festival Theatre, making hats.  At Ryerson, I got to see the theatre department’s costume warehouse… and quite a few of their stage productions too.  Although I attended stage productions, I didn’t think I would get involved, but that all changed when I became a secondary teacher in 1998.

High School Drama:       My school, Parkside Collegiate in St. Thomas, ON, put on a musical stage production every other year, and although I didn’t teach drama, my friends were the drama and music teachers, and I always got involved in those plays.  We staged several original works written by our staff:  “RockShow ‘ 79” and “The Stork Club”.  Other things we did included:  “Suds”, “Godspell”, and “Jesus Christ, Superstar”.  We also staged Shakespeare’s  “Twelfth Night”.  At that time, I taught English to grades 9-12, and when I had a chance to do my Honours Specialist, I chose to do “Teaching Shakespeare in the Classroom” through the University of Windsor, on location in Stratford.  Just some more drama.  That was when I started to really use drama in my classroom, and things got to be rather fun.

MuchMore Drama:                  Two years ago, at an interview to teach English, the principal suggested that a drama job would be available in the fall of that year, and would I consider taking Drama Part I?  I registered for Part I, got the drama job, and have taught drama ever since:  grades 9, 10 and 11.  I also helped with some other stage productions:  “High School Musical 2”, and Woody Allen’s  “God”.  Here I am taking Drama Part IIIJ.