After returning to New York and finishing my B.F.A. at NYU, I set out to find somewhere I could learn to do that which I’d glimpsed in South Africa. I became familiar with the term “applied theatre,” and started to find a whole field of theatrical, community based and educational work I had never known existed. Through a friend of a friend I stumbled on the Creative Arts Team, and the CUNY SPS MA in Applied Theatre program. It seemed too good to be true, a program that was focused on academic and practical training for applied theatre right in my own back yard.
I was accepted to the MA in Applied Theatre program in 2012. The MA program has been a phenomenal resource for me to learn the very rudimentary elements that exist across the field of applied theatre. It has taken me from an amateur facilitator, just hoping to get it right, to a professional with intentional pedagogy and the skills to both plan and implement educational theatrical experiences. It has widened my range of skills and challenged me to deeply consider how I approach the work and why I do it.
After just over a year in the MA program, I was hired at CAT to assist with development and reporting. This has given me insight into the challenges of working in and maintaining this field that is so deeply fueled by passion, and yet not widely understood by funders and other artists. The combination of my education in the MA program and working at CAT has provided me with vision and confidence to be a professional practitioner in applied theatre, and an advocate for the value of the work across many contexts.
With the support of the MA program and CAT I am more prepared than ever to embark on a career as an applied theatre practitioner.
Dianna Garten
MA in Applied Theatre, Class of 2014
CAT Development Assistant
http://cunycreativeartsteam.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/beyond-entertainment/
