Local teacher to focus on city’s youth as part of inaugural theatre fellowship

Taking the non-traditional approach has never scared Jane McEneaney.

After directing her own theatre company for several years, the 47-year-old found herself bit by the teaching bug a little more than a decade ago, and quickly switched careers.

Having landed at Culver City’s Turning Point School three years ago, she’s employed novel approaches to the study of performing arts, asking students to find inspiration and insight in unlikely places, all with an eye toward a social justice component that’s a major part of the school’s curriculum.

So when she stumbled across an application for a new fellowship program offered through the Center Theatre Group focused on professional development, McEneaney eschewed the safe route of theatre festivals and workshops in favor of a hard look at the real-life experiences for youths in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.

“It was broad enough that you could create your own idea as for what would be professional development,” McEneaney said. “For a theatre teacher, you don’t often get that opportunity.”

It’s a risk that has paid off in a big way with her selection as one of five Los Angeles-area teachers selected for the inaugural year of the Chase Theatre Educators Fellowship Program. According to a press release issued by the Center Theatre Group, the program is “intended to help educators build their capacity to teach and integrate theatre in their classrooms.” Each of the five selected fellows will receive up to $5,000 to use in achieving those goals.

“Center Theatre Group is honored to have this unique opportunity to invest in theatre educators, particularly at such a tumultuous and challenging time for teachers in general, and for arts teachers specifically,” said Leslie Johnson, director of education and outreach for the P.L.A.Y. education and engagement department, in the aforementioned press release.

“The CTG Chase Fellowship Program allows teachers to investigate new approaches, and gives them resources to access innovative teaching practices and the ability to regularly communicate and collaborate with fellow educators. Through these awards, CTG hopes to empower theatre educators as instructional leaders, change agents and artists.”

Such empowerment is exactly what McEneaney has in mind with her project, not just for herself, but for those she is counting on to make her paper dream become an onstage reality.

Inspired by a documentary titled After The Storm that she watched at last year’s L.A. Film Festival centered around life in New Orleans following the crushing hurricane that hit the city in 2005, McEneaney used the city and its Cajun music as subject material for this year’s 6th Grade Vocal Concert at Turning Point.

Now she is taking her research into the Crescent City one step further.
McEneaney is using the $5,000 to fund a four-week visit to New Orleans this summer, where she will volunteer and work with youth at the North Rampart Community Center. She is still attempting to set up a similar arrangement at the Lower Ninth Ward Community Center as well.

Her plan is to elicit first-person accounts from the city’s youth, return to her students at Turning Point next year armed with that information, and work in collaboration with them to create a new play in time for next spring. Taking the unifying spirit one step further, she hopes to also utilize computer technology to allow the youngsters she meets in Louisiana to take part in the performance simultaneously with her Turning Point pupils.

“My goal is to gather stories and do what I call ‘documentary drama’ with them,” said McEneaney, who prior to her teaching career operated the MYE Theatre Company that performed at the Gascon Center Theatre in the Helms Bakery District. “I wanted to learn more about how Hurricane Katrina affected their lives and continues to affect their lives. …

“I’ve never been able to go anywhere and study first-hand and be able to bring the information back. I think it will resonate more for my students if I’m able to go and bring it back first-hand for them. It’s just great to have this chance.”

McEneaney went on to say how it was a great honor to be selected for the fellowship — designed by Center Theatre Group’s education and engagement department, known as P.L.A.Y, and supported by a grant from JP Morgan Chase Foundation — especially given the out-of-the-box program she outlined during the application process.

“It wasn’t a traditional approach to professional development,” McEneaney admitted. “But I decided that that’s what I wanted to do, and if they didn’t like it, they could say no.”

Instead, the original group of applicants was narrowed down to 10 semifinalists, with the committee offering critiques for that final pool of candidates before one final application had to be submitted March 15.

“They thought it was ambitious,” said McEneaney of the committee’s initial reaction. “I was concerned that they would think it was too big for me to accomplish. I’m glad they took the chance.”

A chance that, if all goes according to plan, will not only result in the aforementioned professional development of one lucky teacher, but also a unique opportunity for two groups of students on opposite coasts to come together and create a powerful piece of art.

Editor Scott Tittrington can be reached at (310) 437-4401 ext. 210 or editor@
culvercitynews.org.