From Page to Stage, one of Roundabout’s successful education programs, brings high school classes together with visiting teaching artists for a series of intensive workshops. At the end of last season we asked students from several schools for some feedback. From their responses below, it was clear that they enjoyed theatre on various levels and for a variety of reasons.

Carlos Gutierrez, Washington Irving High School I like to write about things, but not perform my own skits. And Tony, our teaching artist, told me to act it out: "Go ahead, try it. Just get into character." And I like that, because he motivates you, and it reminds me to be more creative with my writing. Personally I put myself within the characters, aside from being the author, and write like I’m the person. Then I play every role, every person up there. And that’s what Tony has taught us: "Put yourself aside. That’s you on the outside. There’s someone else, who is a totally different person."

Mark Cruz, Washington Irving High School I enjoyed [teaching artist] Tony’s work, because it inspires me to write outside of school, outside of class. I imagine myself wanting to do these fantasies that I can’t do, so I just write them down. I see a lot of movies. You see those sappy, romantic stories – that would be nice if something like that would really happen, like Romeo and Juliet or something. I can imagine it. It inspires me to write my own stuff.

Katherine Gonzalez, Washington Irving High School Our teaching artist taught us how to look for meaning in the play or show we watch. Before, when I used to go to see musicals, I would just go to listen to the music and see them dance. Now when I go I look for meaning in it. I know there’s a moral to it, and that there’s something to learn, because that’s what Tony taught us, that it’s not just the music and the dancing, there’s actually a story behind what they’re singing.

Natalie Estrella, University Neighborhood High School Our teaching artist, Dennis, gave us a picture, and we had to pretend we were one of the people in it. We had to pick their name and everything, and then we wrote a monologue. It helps you learn more about how actors really feel when they’re acting. I look at theatre differently, because before I used to just look at them, but now I put myself in their shoes and pretend I’m one of them.

Marco Panchami, Edward R. Murrow High School The work we did in our English class with [teaching artist] Craig helps when I’m in other classes, like when I do reports. For example, right now I have a global project due. I have to write about Africa and read it in front of my class tomorrow. The work we did with Craig helped me to express myself and to write better.

Michael Candelier, Murry Bergtraum High School Melissa, our teaching artist, gave us an assignment: to look for "changes in status" in Follies: How the actors change, how they behave when they’re young and when they’re older. Knowing that people actually look at status, I would actually act different in front of other people in school or on the street.

Lashay Carr, Murry Bergtraum High School The shy kids learned how to be more open and how to interact with other people. That was really great! Recently when Melissa [the teaching artist] came, one student had to be "a status of number seven," and this girl is very shy. She did a little dance and she was talking loudly, and everybody just went crazy, because she’d never done anything like that—something out of the ordinary, you know? We were shocked.

Dayanara Landa, Urban Peace Academy In A Skull in Connemara I remember that everybody was in suspense thinking that one character killed his wife, but he didn’t really kill his wife, and he promised that he didn’t kill her. Everybody was accusing him, trying to say his wife didn’t have an accident in a car, but it was a fracture on her skull as if he hit her on the head—but it wasn’t her. They kept accusing him of something, and nobody believed him, but he knew deep in his heart that he was telling the truth. I know what that feels like. (Although his situation was more serious. He was accused of killing his wife.)

Sydney Bailey, Urban Peace Academy I remember that A Skull in Connemara was a play about a bunch of people who were trying to figure out things about themselves and things about other people. I could relate to it, because you can find those different things about yourself by being around other people. I’ve seen about two plays before. I would like to see more theatre. These classes are good because they give you a different outlook on theatre, or maybe a look at a career you might want to get into.

Katie Hernandez, Washington Irving High School Tony had made me want to write my own skits. He’s also made me want to go into more theatre. I want to look into it more. I think that’s something I want to do in the future, to be an actress.

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