“Theater is a tool for equity”: An interview with our director, Kara Seigal

Theater is a place for creativity and performance; it is a place for expression and self-defiance. But how can it shape our future? At Spotlight, we answer this question with an education proposal that focuses on the individual that receives the artistic training. In a recent interview, our director, Kara Seigal, explains that theater empowers us because “theater is a tool for equity”. When we are acting, we are interacting and engaging within a fictional space where we all are all on the same playing field. Students get to interact with each other without the societal limitations placed upon them. This is, perhaps, why theater also becomes a tool to teach empathy. Acting means committing oneself to a character and their unique perspective, troubles, and experiences. When acting, empathy becomes an action rather than an abstract concept (Minch, 2006). Young students get to experience tolerance and respect while encouraging their own imagination and keeping their body active.

In our goal to shape young leaders, Spotlight education prioritizes agency: “We give our students the tools to become empowered”, Kara declares. While receiving an artistic education at Spotlight, students are encouraged to “take charge” by making character choices, directing their own scenes, creating choreography and more. The formation of young leaders requires them to, well, lead: just like with empathy, engaging with your own education becomes a reality rather than a concept to be kept at an arm's length.

The question of how theater impacts us isn't new, but new answers surge and reinvent themselves. When asked the question, “When the play ends…what remains? When the play ends…what begins?” (Bharucha 2011), Kara Seigal answers with the Spotlight education proposal. When the play ends, our young leaders, the students, remain. When the play ends, a better future in search of equity begins.

Bibliography:

• Bharucha ,R. (2011). Problematising applied theatre: a search for alternative paradigms . Research In Drama Education: The Journaln of Applied Theatre and Performance, 16(3), pp.366–384
• Minch, K. (2006). The value of speech, debate, and theater activities. crux, 77, 82.
• https://youtu.be/YuUJmvmxJe8