About the Teacher:
Kirsten Carmody is a professional AEA actress and singer. She has over 15 years experience as a professional performer and 10 years experience as a theatre teacher, director, music director, and choreographer in public school.
https://eujacksonville.com/2015/02/05/theatre-schools-teaching-performing-arts/
It’s never too early to be exposed to the magic of live theatre. Kirsten Carmody vividly recalls her first theatre experience which was also the first time she realized that she wanted to be an actress. She saw a local children’s performing troupe, The Hurrah Players, perform a production of Star-mites. “It was an unusual and campy musical. From that moment on, the performing arts have been a key part of my life,” Carmody says. “Going to see live theatre is a very different experience than going to see movies. The show is alive and breathing where anything can happen. When I see performers, young or old, seasoned or novice, putting their heart and soul into their performances, and that is what continues to inspire me.”
Carmody, who teaches theatre at Fletcher Middle School, was in middle school when she was cast in an AEA production of Annie at the Alhambra Dinner Theatre. That experience started her on the journey of being a professional actress and helps her better relate to the middle school experience of trying to fit in and finding a place to belong.
“Getting them to think about something foreign, like getting up in front of other kids and speaking, can be a challenge,” she says. “I try and coax my most nervous students along with encouragement and scaffolding them with baby steps from roles where they are silent with little responsibility to larger speaking roles where they have to truly become the character. Once they realize that it can be fun, and not terrifying, they become easier to engage.”
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“Sometimes they just need “permission” to shed their own personality and become someone else on stage. It’s really amazing to watch these “child actors” blossom and become fearless performers,” she says. “I’ve heard from the academic teachers that the students have become more comfortable doing presentations and oral reports in front of their peers since drama became a program at FMS. That makes me happy, because I know I’m making a difference in their success in areas outside of the arts as well. I know that not every theatre kid will become a professional performer but theatre as a program, truly is helping to create a well-rounded, empathetic, cooperative, creative mind within each child.”
