Page 8 - Priorities #16 2001-February

Tom
8
Conversation with Performing Arts Chair
CARTER
When Woodside Priory decided to expand its performing arts department a few years ago, Tom Carter was tailor-made for the job of department chair. He is a creative dynamo whose teenage love of music led to musical theater and acting and whose passion for teaching and directing was more compelling than the alternative choice of an acting career.
As a young child, Tom and his parents moved frequently with his father’s academic career. The experience of being the “new guy” gave Tom perhaps more opportunity than most kids have at sizing up other people, understanding their motivations, and reflecting on himself in different situations.
These are not bad skills for an actor/director, but Tom didn’t know he was headed in that direction. Being part of an outstanding high school choir (with 75 performances per year) led to the rest.
Now, about 20 years later, he has acted in, directed, and designed lights and sets at all levels from children’s theater to adult professional theater. His credits include West Side Story, Anne Frank and Me, Dracula, Anything Goes, David and Lisa, Fiddler on the Roof, Nicholas Nickleby, Grease, Side by Side by Sondheim, Guys and Dolls, Big River and even the world premiere of Footloose. He’s taught high school English and studied the teaching of Shakespeare in Ashland.
One might expect a talented actor and vocalist to want a stage career but after three seasons of summer stock , Tom, says he, chose “working at something he loved (teaching and directing) rather than waiting tables.” He holds a BA in drama education, an MA in music theater, and two teaching credentials—one in English and one in theater arts and related technologies.
He is single-handedly the Priory’s drama department, producing three open-audition plays, and three drama class plays, as well as teaching all the drama courses. The performing arts staff also includes orchestral and vocal music, led by colleagues Kris Yenney and Daniel Hughes. The final members of the Performing Arts creative team (although the department is separate) are Visual Arts teachers Cayewah and Reed Easley, who have among their talents a background in designing and building stage sets with their father.
In this “Conversation with” Tom talks about his own love of performing arts, what they bring to a student’s life and what we can expect in the performing arts at Woodside Priory in the near future.
Drama is a very personal experience. Students gain in s elf-confidence, self-knowledge, self-discipline, empathy, and the ability to understand human behavior.
—C. Dobervich