Thank You, Teachers

For World Teachers’ Day, we’re celebrating all the wonderful educators who have inspired young artists to make theatre happen. We asked some Concord Theatricals authors two questions: Who was your most inspiring teacher? What would you like to say to that teacher today? Here’s a sampling of their responses.

My most inspiring teacher was a Jesuit priest named Father James Gannon. He said discovering your “calling” was essential. How you get there will be revealed. I remember his wisdom with a lifetime of “thank you’s.”

— Walter Bobbie, author of Footloose (US/UK)

My most inspiring teacher is Tony Greco, an acting teacher who taught me how to be more truthful onstage (and off). It’s a constant quest, I flop on my face all the time, but to Tony, I always want to say thank you for the push. Honesty can be terrifying and messy, but I never met someone so excited by the possibility of the truth. His lessons are with me always.

— Eboni Booth, author of Primary Trust (US/UK)

My favourite teacher in secondary school was Miss Bannister, my English teacher. We would do play readings as a class, which naturally I loved, and then as a young wannabe playwright at 14 she let me take over the entire library to stage my own adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Boy, although I’ve got no idea what it was like – sadly no script survives!

— Jake Brunger, author of Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ The Musical (US/UK)

“Thank you for the push… I never met someone so excited by the possibility of the truth. His lessons are with me always.” – Eboni Booth

While I had the pleasure of learning from incredible theatre artists like Richard Foreman and Marshall W. Mason back when I was still directing my own devised work, it was playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins who had the most profound impact on the way I approached writing plays. Though my time spent as his student was brief, Branden swiftly helped me bridge my experimental roots with a more formalized craft that gave me the tools I needed to continue being inventive conceptually while writing within more traditional dramatic modes and structures. He’s a brilliant person I’m thankful to know.

— John J. Caswell, Jr., author of Wet Brain (US/UK) and Man Cave (US/UK)

Richard Trousdell, University of Massachusetts. Thank you for being truthful about your life and your career, sharing the successes and the failures with me.

— Constance Congdon, author of Dog Opera (US/UK) and Under Lubianka Square (US)

Anne Joynes of Longdean School in Hemel Hempstead taught us drama at a critical stage in our teen development – it was an unexceptional space where, for me, some exceptional changes took place. I hope she knows that what she exposed these young people to (e.g., The Crucible, A Man for All Seasons) helped us define and refine the future adults we were to become – these texts were ways of seeing the world through new eyes and wondering what we might do in the same position. In one sense they were simply drama lessons, but also some form of life-coaching in ethics, empathy, and a way of developing a word-view and a critical look at how the world works.

— Richard Conlon, author of Hope Springs (US/UK) and Hope Springs: Youth Edition (US/UK)

My most inspiring teacher was Mrs Pavi, who taught me English at middle school. Luckily I can speak to her today – we are friends on Facebook. She is the person who made me feel as if I had an insight into literature and something to contribute. She introduced me to several memorable books and short stories and gave me a real love for them.

— Monica Dolan, author of The B*easts (UK)

“Thank you for being truthful about your life and your career, sharing the successes and the failures with me.” – Constance Congdon

There was once a teacher who took whole classes away on art holidays. He would inveigle his way in with the mayors of small Yorkshire towns to let 40 kids from some North West school sleep on the floor of the town hall on crash mats, in the days when you could do that. He would wake them up at 6, thrust paper and paint in their hands and get them doing watercolours down by the River Wharfe. He would make them write poems, collect rubbish to make into friezes, eat fish and chips so that he got to eat fish and chips, and compete in ridiculous sports that he had made up on the spot using whatever debris was to hand. He would get the coach driver to hide under a sheet and loom out from behind a grave in the churchyard where everyone was doing brass rubbings. What would I say to him? Thank god generations of Runcorn kids got to experience at school what I got to experience every day at home with this teacher as a dad.

— Tim Firth, author of Calendar Girls (US/UK), Calendar Girls: The Musical (UK) and Neville’s Island (UK)

Paula Jay was the toughest teacher I ever had, but she’s also the reason I am now a professional writer. I used to joke that her edits in red pen on my essays made some of them look like they were bleeding to death, but she would tell my parents she was tough on me because she felt I wasn’t working up to my full potential and she knew it. Apparently she saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself all those years ago. Thanks to her, I now see editorial notes on my articles or plays, as just part of the challenges and joy of the creative journey because Mrs. Jay prepared me so well.

— Keli Goff, author of The Glorious World of Crowns, Kinks, and Curls (US/UK)

I am doubly indebted to the sisters who taught me at St. Mary’s School. First, for an amazing education. And second, for inspiring me to create the Nunsense series. The personalities of my characters are based on nuns who taught me. Sister Rose Francis was the one who encouraged me to pursue a musical career. She is mentioned in all seven Nunsense versions.

— Dan Goggin, author of Johnny Manhattan (US/UK) and the Nunsense musicals (US/UK), including Nuncrackers (US/UK)

“She made me feel like my very uncool love of musicals wasn’t just a silly hobby or something I needed to be ashamed of.” – Joe Iconis

My most inspiring teacher was Louise Coates. She was my music teacher at school, and she believed in me enough to offer me the role of the narrator in our school play A Christmas Carol. This role gave me the confidence to be a performer, leading to the delusion I would be a star and after soft-landing back to earth, led me to become a writer. Teachers at school are the most inspiring magicians of our industry. I love them. 

— Julia Grogan, author of Dogs of Society (US/UK) and Playfight (UK)

Mr. Hackett always referred to Shakespeare as ‘Bill’. Literature, for him, was a living and breathing experience rather than dead words. Thanks to his quiet genius, I found worlds opening up between the lines.

— Joel Horwood, author of The Ocean at the End of the Lane (UK)

When everyone else in my fourth-grade class was doing normal book reports, I begged my teacher, Mrs. Gleason, to let me write a full musical instead, and amazingly, she agreed. I would love to thank her for allowing my imagination and creativity to flourish and always encouraging me to think outside of the box. 

— Samantha Hurley, author of I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire (US/UK)

I’ve had many inspiring teachers, but I was particularly inspired by my fifth grade teacher, Ivy Harrington. She made me feel like my very uncool love of musicals wasn’t just a silly hobby or something I needed to be ashamed of. She was tolerant and supportive of my particular ability to make any school project about theater, and she had the most distinctive handwriting I’ve ever seen, even to this day.

— Joe Iconis, author of Be More Chill (US/UK), Punk Rock Girl! (US/UK) and Things to Ruin (US/UK)

“I would love to thank her for allowing my imagination and creativity to flourish and always encouraging me to think outside of the box.” – Samantha Hurley

One of my most inspiring teachers was Ruth Davis, who ran a kid’s theater program in my hometown of Ithaca, NY. If I could talk to her today, I would thank her for igniting my love of theater and storytelling through the arts. I wouldn’t have the life I do now if not for her.

— Kyle Jarrow, author of The SpongeBob Musical (US/UK)

Caryl Phillips. He told us to call him “Caz.” The summer before my senior year, I had just written my first play, and I left it in his mailbox with a note. I had gotten into his elite fiction-writing workshop, but I knew he also wrote plays. After our first class, he asked me to come to his office hours. He glared at me. “What the hell are you doing in my fiction workshop? You’re a playwright. You can make a living doing this.” If I could tell him something now, I would say — this is all your fault.

— Kait Kerrigan, author of The Mad Ones (US/UK)

“He inspired all of us to work hard and do our best.” – Ken Ludwig

My most inspiring teacher at York Suburban High School in York Pennsylvania was Arlington Kahley. He led all the music programs, and I was a trombone player in his band, both orchestra and marching band. He inspired all of us to work hard and do our best, and I have always held him up as a lifelong inspiration and mentor.

— Ken Ludwig, author of Crazy For You (US/UK), Dear Jack, Dear Louise (US/UK) and Lend Me a Tenor (US/UK)

Andrea Hairston’s Black Theater class was legendary at Smith College; even the non-majors wanted in. Andrea’s syllabus moved plays from just outside the canon to the center. She directed Pearl Cleage’s Mad at Miles, a play that made me wrestle with how do you reconcile love for a brilliant artist’s work when he bragged about beating women? I wanted to write flawed characters struggling with the human condition. Andrea led with love – for art, for her students, for life itself – and it was contagious. Adding to her aura, she wore crushed velvet jumpsuits in mauves and purples and out bench-pressed everyone on campus. 

— Winter Miller, author of No One Is Forgotten (US/UK) and Colored (US/UK)

I’ve had so many great teachers, but my high school guitar teacher leaps to mind: Justin Perdue. He taught me to play the songs I most wanted to learn, took geeky pleasure in explaining theory, inspired me with his own graceful finger-style feel. I’d say to him… thank you for opening the world to me! For opening the door to my life in music.

— Anaïs Mitchell, author of Hadestown (US/UK)

Mr. Torres—or as my classmates and I referred to him, Mr. T—was a brilliant man who taught me Geometry, Calculus, Calculus II, and Physics. His ability to approach a problem from multiple angles taught me that there is more than one way to arrive at a solution.

— Marisela Treviño Orta, author of The River Bride (US/UK) and Wolf at the Door (US/UK)

“Thank you for opening the world to me! For opening the door to my life in music.” – Anaïs Mitchell

Way back in 1983 I had the great fortune to take a short story writing class with Mr. James Baldwin. He suggested that I “try my hand at playwrighting.” Almost 40 years later I’m still doing as he suggested — still trying my hand at playwriting.

— Suzan-Lori Parks, author of The Book of Grace (US/UK), Fucking A (US/UK) and White Noise (US/UK)

A high school English teacher plucked a one-act play I had written as a classroom assignment and included it in that year’s Literary Yearbook. When I saw my words laid out across that publication’s pages – looking so professional and final – I felt like I had stepped onto a larger stage, as if I just might have a future as a writer.

— Dean Pitchford, author of Carrie: The Musical (US/UK) and Footloose (US/UK)

My most inspiring teacher was the late Gary Bird from the University of Michigan. I wish he was still here with us so I could tell him how his way of breaking down a text and physicalizing characters transformed the way I think about interpreting songs. He taught me to be curious and brave.

— Rob Rokicki, author of The Lightning Thief (US/UK), Monstersongs (US/UK) and Punk Rock Girl! (US/UK)

“He taught me to be curious and brave.” — Rob Rokicki

When I reflect on all the things Paula Vogel taught me, among them, bravery, stick-to-it-ive-ness, how to write a play in 48 hours, how to write stage directions that are both impossible to stage and possible to stage: the greatest of these is love. Love for the art form, love for fellow writers, and love for the world.

— Sarah Ruhl, author of Eurydice (US/UK), In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (US/UK) and Becky Nurse of Salem (US/UK)

In ninth grade, Mrs. Pleas read a paper I’d written for her English class. She took me aside and told me I was one of the most talented writers she’s come across. I think my career started that day. She validated me. She instilled a new level of confidence in me. I wouldn’t be a playwright today if not for that conversation. Thank you, Mrs. Pleas.

— Tori Sampson, author of Cadillac Crew (US/UK) and If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be A Muhfucka (US/UK)

“When I reflect on all the things Paula Vogel taught me…the greatest of these is love. Love for the art form, love for fellow writers, and love for the world.” – Sarah Ruhl

All my love to Madelin Marchant, my drama teacher at South Miami Middle School, who nurtured and cultivated my fledgling passion for theatre and inspired me to chase my dreams. Thank you, Ms. Marchant. We did it!

— Alexis Scheer, author of Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (US/UK) and Laughs in Spanish (US/UK)

My most inspiring teacher was Katie Seggerson, who taught me English Literature in my last two years of school. I still remember my first class with her, when she explained to the class that whilst she trusted we would be able to get the grades we needed to pass our exams, the thing she was more concerned with was that we truly walk away having learned on a deeper level than just measuring up well against a mark-scheme. She cared about our education in a more honest and holistic way than just delivering good results in a test, which is a quality I found unfortunately rare when I was in school. I hope she knows that she made a massive difference in shaping my mind and inspired me to keep using my writing to investigate the big questions I have about the world. 

— Tatenda Shamiso, author of No I.D. (UK)

Oddly enough, the teacher that helped me most with my writing career wasn’t associated with the arts – he was actually my PE teacher. Mr. Hughes taught me about determination, competitive spirit, will power, self-belief, about never giving up, and always striving to give a personal best. Without his inspiration, I’m sure that many of my writing projects would have been abandoned, half-finished. In short, he gave me the mental stamina to succeed.

— David Tristram, author of Going Green (US/UK), Inspector Drake and the Black Widow (US/UK) and Lockdown in Little Grimley (US/UK)

My most inspiring teacher was Kate Lindsay, theatre teacher extraordinaire at Salina South High School in Salina, Kansas. Because of her I started thinking of myself as an artist and discovered the joy that comes from collaborating. She is an egoless educator whose vision, positive attitude, and heart are all things that I have taken with me in my artistic endeavors. She is a mentor, an inspiration, and most importantly, a friend.

— Nathan Tysen, author of Amélie (US/UK), Dreamland (US/UK) and Tuck Everlasting (US/UK)

“Thank you for continuing to be a mentor, inspiration and friend.” – Nathan Tysen

I was led to the realization that I am a writer by my tenth grade teacher Mr. Bowkett, who repeatedly urged me to apply myself more diligently to the task of expressing myself through my fingertips. I learned writing doesn’t come easily to any writer and the pursuit of the perfect phrase is a game of solitaire constantly played within all writers’ minds. I thank Mr. Bowkett for recognizing something in me for which I wasn’t yet yearning to reach.

— Nia Vardalos, author of Tiny Beautiful Things (US/UK)

My most inspiring teacher was a speech professor in college named Prof. Greg Goodale. Prof. Goodale, wherever you are, thank you for teaching me to believe in the power of my voice. I hope that by doing so my voice can transform lives, as you have done mine.

— Loy A. Webb, author of The Light (US/UK)

“Prof. Goodale, wherever you are, thank you for teaching me to believe in the power of my voice.” – Loy A. Webb

To learn more about our authors, visit Concord Theatricals in the US or UK.