Horace Mann - Summer 2016 - 11

photo by Barry Mason Team Up in First U.S. K-12 Partnership RSC actor/educators (also seen in films and on TV) Olver Lynes and Nia Lynn (foreground) instructed teachers from HM and area schools at a June 2015 RSC workshop for educators that HM hosted. An unforgettable experience, while learning at the source Becoming part of the teaching team required a minimum two-year commitment to training, including a brief session in England, and in a series of weekends during the school year, Dr. Casdin explained. "The teachers also had to commit to training their colleagues. My mandate was to make sure these teachers would be able to train others." Along with Dr. Casdin the HM teaching group now includes the Upper Division's Rebecca Bahr and Harry Bauld, the Middle Division's Jamie Brink, Isaac Brooks, Cat Cooper and Morgan Yarosh, Lower Division teachers Jean Eifert and Kristin Schmid, Kindergarten teacher Nora Meredith, the Nursery Division's Literary Specialist McKenzie Craig and MD/UD Theater Arts teacher Alexis McGuinness. Second grade teacher Jena Costin recently became part of the team, and several more teachers will be added in January 2017. The first intensive training took place in September 2015, when the HM teachers traveled to the RSC's education center in Stratford-on-Avon. The whirlwind extended weekend of living and breathing Shakespeare had the teachers arriving in London late at night, traveling directly to Warwickshire, and entering the rehearsal room themselves early the next morning. Mentoring continued during meals with RSC practitioners, with only two other breaks to attend RSC productions. For Dr. Casdin, being on the other side of this teacherstudent exchange was as transformative as he hopes the RSC partnership is for HM students. The opportunity he had to delve more deeply into the Company's rehearsal room exercises gave this veteran teacher of Shakespeare new perspectives on texts he's studied and taught for years. "The RSC educators put the HM teachers in the role of students," Dr. Casdin reported. "We did their exercises. We learned to be attentive to sounds and gestures as a prelude to working with the texts themselves." Dr. Casdin was particularly moved by his experience practicing the exchange in Act I Scene 7 of "Macbeth" when Lady Macbeth pushes Macbeth toward murdering Duncan. "I played Lady Macbeth," Dr. Casdin said. "We did exercises to see if we could convince the other character of our point of view. We looked at what it was about Lady Macbeth's presentation that finally brings Macbeth along. We tried it in whispers, in shouts, with Macbeth stationary and Lady Macbeth walking around him, and then reversed. We did it as if lecturing to a child, then cajoling and sweet. Each attempt brought out different qualities in the moment, all with their own force and power. "I've taught that scene for at least ten years, but it was as if I was hearing it for the first time," said Dr. Casdin. "It helped me understand how this teaching impacts our students. It was an experience I will never forget." Stand Up for Shakespeare, in full swing The "teaching the teachers" facet of the HM-RSC partnership continued throughout the 2015-2016 school year as RSC educators returned to HM every other month to work, during the week, with HM students, on Saturdays with Summer on the Hill, and Sundays with the RSC teaching corps. Horace Mann Magazine Summer 2016 11

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