Max: Theater (& Edge as Performance)

Max has spent much of his Edge time interviewing - and reflecting upon the words of - Broadway producers Stewart F. Lane, Bonnie Comley, and Sharon Carr as well as Playbill.com founder and editor Robert Viagas.  For his thoughts on the experience, please read below.

---

Max, pictured at right, interviews Broadway producer Sharon Carr.
Image taken by Max.

"A play is like a corporation.  It's got a lot of different people all doing different jobs.  When people see a Broadway show, they think it is just one larger thing.  But it's not.  It's got a lot of moving parts.  You've got people picking the venue, picking the costumes, the director, the actors.  It's all that coming together to put the show on.  I mean, I didn't know all of that before the interviews.  I had to learn there are people they like to work with and teams that they like to pick.  Like, when they do a show, is there a certain person that they like to be with before they pick everyone else?

"Directors have people that they mesh well with.  If they need help, they can give them suggestions.  If they need help, they give suggestions on how to do things in a different, better way.  You know, how to make clearer a scene or the understanding of what is happening at that moment in the play.  Producers are like the CEO.  They help everyone do their part.  Directors ask, 'Are you doing your part?' The producers are kind of like what the Edge team does every week.  They say, 'Have you worked on this? Work on this more.  Go into more depth into your character.  Have you found this costume yet? Are you almost done?'

"The thing is - at the end of the school year - we do a performance of what we have learned.  We show what we've learned and show how Edge has helped us to pursue that and go more in-depth.  I think the depth of it is what helps everyone get as much as they want out of their searching and their project.  They're thinking about what they want to do.  It's kind of like them not having a schedule, but they can make their schedule in the structure that they're doing it.  They're making their own school in a way that works for them.

Posters of Broadway shows The Elephant Man and The Scottsboro Boys.
Image taken by Max.

"I [did] a show recently.  We listed things that are important to us.  We saw what could connect:  social art and music, social media (because you can share it), etc.  We whittled it down to three things that connected with each other, and then we made three different plays.  I'm in the first play, which is showing how social media enhances my life.  I am an actor.  I am the boyfriend in the play.

"In college, you create your own schedule:  what classes you want to take and when they are.  Edge helps kids with that because you're not going to have a schedule that someone hands you at the beginning of the year.  You have to make that.  You have to see when the classes are, what the classes are.  You have to build that schedule toward what you want to do.  That approach makes it set in the people.  It makes us more susceptible to what is going to happen in the future.  It helps us know what is going to happen.

"Edge makes me get more in-depth with what I want to do.  So I understand more about where my life is going and how I can make that happen, or how it will affect my life.  When I choose what I want to do and what I want to study, I can automatically have a sense of where my life is going to go if I choose it.  I think it's just easier to know how you're going to function in a setting like that.  Some of the Edge setting is like that.  It's better to know how to act in a setting than to get in the setting and not know how to respond to it."

---

Have a thought on Max's work? Please post in the comments section below! (If you do not see that section, please click on this post's title to be brought to its individual page.  Once there, scroll all the way down to see the comments feature).

Graduation!

 
Congratulations to the Class of 2015! On Saturday, June 6th, The Kildonan School saw ten students (Khaled, Paige, Jonathan, Piterson, Brad, Patrick, Bull, Trey, Sarah, and Misha) walk across the stage to receive their diplomas.  Family, friends, faculty, Kildonan alumnus Ahmed al-Rahim, and Kildonan founder Diana Hanbury King all attended to celebrate this special day.  We will miss these students, but we wish them well in their future educational journeys at Goucher College (@gouchercollege), Curry College (@CurryEdu), Columbia College Chicago (@ColumbiaChi), Oxford Academy, LIU Post (@LIUPost), Full Sail University (@FullSail), and Marist College (@Marist)! For more coverage, consult an article released by local newspaper The Poughkeepsie Journal (@PokJournal).

Even though we have finished the 2014-2015 academic year, please expect further blog posts! The Edge /​ IP team plans to release updates concerning students' finished pieces as well as our unfolding professional development (PD) pursuits.  Check back soon!

College, Here We Come!

With only twenty-eight school days remaining in Kildonan's academic year, all graduating students (seniors and PG's) have their minds on college.  As they continue to announce their final decisions, we would like to celebrate with two statistics:

(1) Our 10 students have successfully been accepted to 30 institutions of higher education.  Please consult the full list below (and check out the sites and Twitter profiles to boot!).

(2) Thus far, our students have earned $1,121,000 in possible scholarship moneys.

Thank you, Kildonan, for encouraging these students in their educational pursuits.  A big thanks goes out to Joy Klvana (our indomitable college advisor) as well as the tutors of senior students; your guidance, organization, and support have proven invaluable.  Finally, we would like to thank the future graduates themselves.  You have won over interesting and exciting schools, and we look forward to seeing how you apply your intellectual and personal prowess in the future.

1. Berry College
   
   1. Twitter:  @berrycollege
2. Brevard College
3. Cazenovia College
   
   1. Twitter:  @CazCollege
4. College of St Rose
   
   1. Twitter: @CollegeofStRose
5. Columbia College Chicago
   
   1. Twitter: @ColumbiaChi
6. Curry College
   
   1. Twitter:  @CurryEdu
7. Duthchess Community College
8. Flagler College
   
   1. Twitter:  @FlaglerCollege
9. Florida Southern College
   
   1. Twitter:  @FSCadmissions
10. Full Sail University
    
    1. Twitter:  @FullSail
11. Goucher College
    
    1. Twitter:  @gouchercollege
12. Johnson and Wales University
13. Long Island University (LIU):  Post
    
    1. Twitter:  @LIUPost
14. Lynn University
    
    1. Twitter:  @LynnUniversity
15. Marist College
    
    1. Twitter:  @Marist
16. Marlboro College
    
    1. Twitter:  @MarlboroCollege
17. MECA(Maine College of Art)
    
    1. Twitter:  @mecaart
18. MICA(Maryland Institute College of Art)
    
    1. Twitter:  @mica_news
19. Mitchell College
    
    1. Twitter: @MitchellCollege
20. Naugatuck Valley Community College
21. Pace University
    
    1. Twitter:  @PaceUniversity
22. Quest University (Canada)
    
    1. Twitter:  @QuestUniCanada
23. Sarah Lawrence College
    
    1. Twitter:  @SarahLawrence
24. SCAD(Savannah College of Art and Design)
    
    1. Twitter:  @SCADdotedu
25. Sewanee:  The University of the South
    
    1. Twitter:  @univofthesouth
26. St Thomas Aquinas
    
    1. Twitter: @STAC_edu
27. Suffolk Community College
    
    1. Twitter:  @SUNYSFLK
28. Western Connecticut University
29. University of Connecticut:  Waterbury
    
    1. Twitter: @UConn
30. University of North Carolina:  Asheville
    
    1. Twitter:  @UncAvl

Have a thought to share? Please post in the comments section below.

Description of image:  Students at Reed College.  Photo located at http://www.reed.edu/.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over the picture above.

Charles Bingham: "Why we should shred our diplomas" @TEDxSFU

Epistemenarchist, philosopher, and professor Charles Bingham (@bingbingham) offers an intriguing perspective on higher education (#highered) and the implications of a diploma.  Let these words be food for thought for all of our budding graduates:

I think the main way the myth of schooling continues is through a small piece of paper called the diploma.  The diploma has two lives, really.  On one hand, a diploma is that thing that we all know and love.  It's a sign that I graduated from high school, or college, or university.  On the other hand, with every diploma that's printed, the diploma says, 'Knowledge is scarce, and it's supposed to be obtained only at this or that school.'

A Visit to Marist College

Minus Piterson, who is currently exploring Mitchell College, the IPians joined the rest of the Kildonan juniors and seniors in touring Marist College (@Marist) yesterday.  Boasting an eclectic mix of Gothic and modern architecture, finely manicured lawns, and easy access to the Hudson River and Poughkeepsie, NY, Marist College gave The Kildonan School a warm welcome.  Our students learned of the LD services available at Marist through the Director of Special Services and an Admissions Officer.  They also received a tour of the campus and enjoyed a meal of the College's fine lunch offerings.

Our students were engaged throughout and are very thankful for the trip.  For some, yesterday marked the first of many such college visits.  We must pay thanks, then, to Joy Klvana, who arranged this wonderful opportunity as Kildonan's own College Counselor!