My experience at Irvington has been great. It’s been very stressful, very busy, but very rewarding. At the end of each play, I feel really good. It’s also always been gratifying when our students do well at the end of competitions — what used to be the Ohlone Theater Festival, now the Linnea Theater Festival. I’ve always enjoyed working with the students. My main frustrations have been with more administrative tasks which sometimes I feel takes me away from interacting with the students. If I were to describe my experience in three words, it would be intense, gratifying, and creative.
I think the impact I’m most concerned about are the students that I’ve had and what they’ve learned from me while I was here. I don’t know if everybody’s going to be an actor, but my main goal has always been to help kids learn how to tell a story in front of a group of people, whether that means projecting and articulating, using their imagination, or taking on different characters. I think that skill is extremely valuable and can really aid people in their success in life. Before I started teaching, there were a couple of jobs I got simply because I interviewed well that I probably wasn’t qualified for. I’m hoping that the skills that students learn will help them get better jobs, have better interpersonal skills, and have empathy based on inhabiting other characters and other points of view.
During my time at Irvington, I have learned from my students that I can never make assumptions about what’s going on with a student. Everybody’s got something going on in their life that is a struggle. It can be minor or as banal as not getting enough sleep the night before, not getting a good breakfast, getting in an argument with your little brother, or something that is making them uncomfortable and frustrated. Many students have real tragedy and crisis in their lives, so I am astounded sometimes when I learn about things that kids are going through and I never would have guessed by their behavior, because they’re always on top of everything. Sometimes kids have some behavior issues that I get really annoyed about, and then I find out there’s a reason for it. I used to think that every student has an issue, and I think now I’ve extrapolated it out to know that every person has an issue, and empathy is so important.
One of the things I’m proud about the Drama Club program is that we teach empathy, and I’m also very proud of the way the kids are open to and welcoming of all kinds of kids. I don’t see much racism and I see a lot of embracing kids with disabilities. What stands out to me most is the camaraderie that kids have. It’s not so much what they say, it’s what they do. I’m also amazed at how a kid can handle a part like Romeo and still get good grades because we work minimum five to seven days a week, three hours a day. I’m constantly being impressed by students.
If I were to go back in time to when I first started working here, I would tell myself to get all the paperwork in as early as possible and to listen more. There’s also a lot about working with my staff that I would tell myself. My goal has always been to give my staff what they need as a manager. The staff includes our stagecraft teacher, vocal director, costumer, choreographer, and sometimes band leaders. Those are the adult staff. Sometimes working with them is a bigger challenge than working with students only, because as adults, they don’t always assume I’m right. Students are very forgiving. Adults aren’t, and I’ve made lots of mistakes in terms of that. One thing I’d say is, I don’t think I’ve gotten very angry very often, but almost every time I’ve gotten angry with somebody or lost my temper, I regret it.
My favorite play is always the one I’m working on at the time, or the next one or the last one. Everyone is so different that it’s like comparing apples and oranges. There has been a great deal of joy in every single project, but there also has been a great deal of struggle. But for my favorite play, I’d have to say, “Fiddler on the Roof.” A lot of people really loved it, and it’s very personal to me. I’ve played in it twice as an actor, and it happens to be about where my family is from, almost exactly geographically, and the time my family left Ukraine and came here.
Some words to my current students: I feel very bad if they feel like I’m abandoning them by leaving next year. But I want them to know I’m very proud of them, and that some set of students, at some point, were going to be the last group of students. I know they will do fine without me. The new teacher is going to need their help, so I want them to know that I feel confident that the Theater Department will continue to succeed because of them.
