Local Dance, Music, and Theater Teacher Illustrates the Need for Storytelling in our Technology-Ridden Society

Molding Young Storytellers:

The Story of Setting the Stage Productions

I believe the children are our future. Teach them well, but buddy, you’ve got to let them lead the way. Whether you hear Whitney singing those words or Jack Black saying it in School of Rock, nearly everyone knows and stands by these words. The children ARE our future. They are the ones who will be taking over our government, our economy, and our entertainment, which are now intertwined with one another. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What our job, and especially my job, is, is to mold this next generation to be storytellers who want to make this world a better place.

You heard right, STORYTELLERS. Now, hear me out, storytellers aren’t just those performers who stand onstage and do a one-man or one-woman show. It’s not just the singer/songwriter that you hear at Bluebird Cafe. And it’s not just the novelist, creating the next great work of fiction. It’s also the teacher, making science come alive for a generation of children who’ve lost interest in maths and sciences. It’s also the carpenter, who’s creating a place where people will live out their lives. And it’s the doctor who must use everything that she was taught to diagnose her most complicated patient’s symptoms. We are all storytellers. It’s been engrained in us since humans have been able to communicate.

But through both our need for instant gratification and our self-imposed ADD that comes from social media and a world of information literally right at our fingertips, I feel like the art of storytelling is being lost on this generation. But when you make a child REALLY sit down and work on a story with a beginning, middle, and end, and let their imagination fly… BOY! You get something really special. That is what I’m trying to bring back at Setting the Stage Productions, a non-profit organization whose mission is to mold the next generation of storytellers who use their gifts in the performing arts to better our community. We do quirky educational entertainment through our one-woman puppet show called Mizz KT and Friendz, where we do live theater and television for the classroom and families. And we have a performing arts studio where we teach dance (ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop), music, theater, and creative writing.

I started this studio with two of my best friends and dance colleagues to make a place where students could create in a nurturing environment, kind of like a safe creation playground. We also wanted to start a place where we encourage children to really think for themselves, through a storytellers curriculum. At Setting the Stage Performing Arts Studio, we have the standard dance, music, and theater classes, but we also have two other programs that are new and exciting to the Middle Tennessee area. One is the “Review Crew.” The “Review Crew” is a touring musical theater company of students who learn a musical theater style revue to be performed for those who can’t see live theater normally, mostly to those in assisted living homes and those with special needs. We also have started the Creator’s Studio, who in the fall writes, performs, and films content for The Mizz KT and Friendz Show, a children’s television show that airs on the NECAT network, and in the spring writes the music and script and creates the set and costumes for a brand new student-written musical.

Even Psychologists know the importance of storytelling. In Phycology Today’s piece on storytelling, they say that stories have always been a primal form of communication. And that stories are about collaboration and connection. “They show how we think and how we make meaning of life. Stories provide order, and stories are how we are wired. Lastly, stories are the pathway to engaging our right brain and triggering our imagination. By engaging our imagination, we become participants in the narrative. We can step out of our own shoes, see differently, and increase our empathy for others. Through imagination, we tap into creativity that is the foundation of innovation, self-discovery, and change.”- https://www.psychologytoday.com/

So, join me in my great experiment to see if we can mold a more compassionate generation of genuine storytellers who will take this society to new heights of compassion and advancement. At Setting the Stage, we are not just creating the newest Disney star or Broadway actor, no, we are creating the next entrepreneur who will create technology that will revolutionize the way we live and work. We are creating the next humanitarian who will end some new atrocity in a third world nation. Or maybe we’re creating the next great creator who will mold an entertainment empire that will educate a new generation. Only time will tell.

For more information on Setting the Stage Productions and Setting the Stage Performing Arts Studio, please visit our website: http://www.settingthestagenashville.com. You can also email us at info@settingthestagenashville.com or call at (615) 348-7877.