Patel accepted as Fund for Teachers Fellow
MADISON – Amy Patel, theatre director at James Clemens High School, has been named a Fund for Teachers Fellow for 2017.
Fund for Teachers supports educators’ efforts to develop skills, knowledge and confidence that impact student achievement. The organization trusts teachers to design their own unique fellowships.
“My colleagues Peggy Boynton and Clint Merritt are both Fund for Teachers Fellows and encouraged me to apply,” Patel said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to design your own professional development. Basically, I asked myself, ‘What do I want to learn? If I had $5,000, how would I learn it?”
For several years, Patel has wanted to study at Synaesthetic Theatre in Massachusetts, “which focuses on a mind/body approach to acting developed by Jerzy Grotowski. This year, they introduced a week-long Theatre Pedagogy workshop, specifically for teachers and directors.”
The workshop leader will be Stephen Wangh, a director, playwright and author of “The Heart of Teaching: Empowering Students in the Performing Arts.” “I’m eager to experience it with other theatre directors from across the country and participate in practice teaching sessions to get feedback and ideas,” Patel said.
In the workshop, Patel will explore Grotowski’s physical acting approach and subsequently help her students build those tools. “As a director, one of my weaknesses is helping students connect their minds to their bodies. They think like the character, sound like the character but they’re unaware of what their body is doing,” she said.
Patel then will take a train to New York to watch Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-off Broadway shows, including “Dear Evan Hansen” and “War Paint,” and shadow professional actors, directors and designers. “I’ll FaceTime live with my students and take photos and video to help them visualize a day (of work) in NYC,” Patel said.
“My goal with this NYC trip is to dip my own toes into the business,” Patel said about gaining first-hand knowledge to relay to students about professional acting.
After earning a bachelor’s degree at University of Alabama in Huntsville, Patel received a master’s degree in directing from Roosevelt University in Chicago. A Huntsville native, she moved to Madison in 2000 when she married Sandy Patel.
Her husband Sandy owns Patel Technologies. Their sons Kieran, 12, and Connery, 10, are in sixth and fifth grade, respectively, at Columbia Elementary School.
