John's Journal: A Great Day For Learning About Theater

On one of the final days of summer before a new school year begins, something remarkable took place at St. Michael-Albertville High School. Summer is generally a time when young athletes work on their skills by attending camps, clinics and other traditional offseason improvement sites. But at the home of the St. Michael-Albertville Knights, theater and the performing arts were the focus one day last week.

From 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., around 220 students from 15 high schools in Minnesota gathered for a full day of instruction from a talented slate of 49 teaching artists, including high school theater educators and stage professionals in what was a first-of-its-kind event in our state.

It was called a Theater Festival, and it was jam-packed with clinics, hands-on sessions and more. The kids learned about almost everything involved in theatrical production, including monologues, the basics of acting, hip-hop, working with masks, makeup, set design, costume design and more, including “Fighting with hands, clubs and knives” and “Blood and guts special effects makeup.”

There were a bunch of colleges there to answer questions from prospective students, and theater-related vendors had tables, as did several branches of the military. Food trucks sat outside the school, doing a brisk business at lunch time.

Students came from Andover, Anoka, Blaine, Buffalo, Coon Rapids, Rogers, Elk River, Maple Lake, Roseville, Springfield, Zimmerman, Orono, Irondale and St. Francis. At least one adult accompanied each group, and no one paid to attend. Most of the costs were taken care of thanks to a generous grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.

The Minnesota State High School League is longtime supporter of the arts, sponsoring activities like one-act play, speech, debate, choir and band.

The person behind the festival was Joshua Mann, who has been a social studies teacher at St. Michael-Albertville since 2012.  He is also the theater director for the schools' one act, musical, and other theater productions. Mann was a finalist for the Minnesota Teacher of the Year in 2023 and was honored with the Minnesota Theater Educator Award in 2024 from Hennepin Theater Trust. He has produced more than 35 productions over the last 15 years.

“I love that the state of Minnesota sponsored it and all these schools could get together and learn from these professionals,” Mann said. The grant paid for food, supplies and more. Examples: for classes on building sets, lumber was purchased. For classes on lighting, equipment was purchased.

“Over half the grant money went to people,” Mann said, “local Minnesota artists getting paid to teach Minnesota kids.”

Those artists, including working actors, came from organizations such as Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, the Hennepin Arts Spotlight Education program, the University of Minnesota and more, including veterans of the Broadway stage, television and film.

Brigid Brady, a veteran Broadway actress and singer from New York, was on hand to work with students. Her television appearances include, “Law And Order,” “The Sopranos,” “How To Make It In America,” “Gossip Girl,” “Orange Is The New Black” and “Succession.”

The assembled students held a Zoom session with Andrew Keenan-Bolger, an actor most of them were familiar with. He has appeared on Broadway in “Newsies,” “Tuck Everlasting,” “Mary Poppins,” “Seussical,” Beauty and the Beast” and more, and on TV in shows including “The Blacklist,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and “Nurse Jackie.” He visited with the students from New York.

“The kids just lost it when he was on the screen talking to them,” Mann said. “The kids got to think about where this could take them.”

The teaching sessions went beyond theater. Sessions included “How to manage rejection and disappointment” and “Managing anxiety on the moment.”

“I thought it was really well thought out and wonderful for Minnesota theater students,” said Jessica Chipman, veteran theater director at Alexandria High School and recipient of the 20024 Outstanding Theatre Educator Award from the National Federation of State High School Associations.

“Students involved in the arts deserve a chance to thrive with a variety of different educators, and it was really wonderful to see such specific sessions from such a multitude of different teachers,” said Chipman, who led sessions on Directing A Show and Ensemble Movement and Storytelling.

St. Michael-Albertville first held similar, but much smaller, events for its students beginning 10 years ago. Seeing that other schools did the same thing, Mann thought and the pooling of resources made sense.

“Last year we incorporated some surrounding schools and they all volunteered to teach classes. It’s such a cool collaboration,” Mann said.

Once the grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board was approved, things took off for this year’s event. But before that, nothing was certain.

“I applied for the grant and thought there was no way we’ll get it,” Mann said. “I thought, ‘But if we do, this will be huge.’ ”

Indeed, it was huge.

Much of the organizing before and assistance on the day of the festival was the responsibility of St. Michael-Albertville students. Ann Weigle, a senior, theater veteran and president of the school’s International Thespian Society chapter, was one of those students.

“There are workshops for everyone,” she said while leading a tour of the festival classes. “You might be into tech, you can do costuming, you can do make-up, there's sword fighting classes, there's dancing, there's acting, there's singing, there's really something for everyone. And the whole point is that a lot of high schoolers don't get these opportunities. And so something that’s really cool is that all of these high schools come together, and then you get to meet kids from everywhere, and you're all learning and growing together.”

A post-festival survey produced an overwhelmingly positive response.

“People thought it was amazing and said it exceeded their expectations,” Mann said. “Having it be free was one of the best features of this event. I want to do everything in my power to reduce cost as a barrier for any students, I don’t want that to hold up a kid from doing something amazing. Our students deserve to be showcased, they deserve to be seen. And they are so talented.”

--MSHSL senior content creator John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]