Originally posted Aug. 17, 2018
Dean hired as THS drama adjunct instructor
By Barry H. Hendrix
Karen Dean is serving as drama/theatre adjunct instructor at Thomasville High School.
Dean, the artistic director for the Thomasville Arts Council and director of the Thomasville Civic Center, was a sponsor, along with THS media specialist LeAnn Moore, last school year for the THS drama program.
She teaches the Theatre I class, an introduction to theatre including history and technical history. “We really only do acting one day-a-week,” she said. “On Fridays, we read a play.”
Half of the students in the two classes have not previously worked with Dean in local community theatre.
The high school program is a chapter of the International Thespian Society.
Thomasville students will present a one-act play Nov. 3 in the District 5 Walter Trumbauer Secondary Theatre Festival at Baker High School in Mobile. (If THS students are fortunate to move forward from district, the state festival will be held Nov. 29-Dec. 1 at Troy (Ala.) University.)
Students will also travel to the Alabama Thespian Festival Feb. 15 and 16 at Vestavia Hills High School in Vestavia Hills, Ala.
The THS program plans to stage a production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat” Nov. 2-4 in the Thomasville Civic Center. The THS drama program received a grant from The Musical Company (TMC) teamed up with the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) for free theatrical rights to put on the Webber and Rice musical.
“Dreamcoat” was designed with a cast of 15 males and one female – so Dean’s creative challenge is to find a way to add more female students to the production.
Another THS production, which will highlight women in theatre, is expected in spring 2019.
Arts in education have been an instrumental as part of the Thomasville City Schools District’s commitment to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics).
Arts and drama in schools have been proven to improve student performance on test scores. A student’s familiarity with the arts also helps build a well-rounded character.
“You need the arts to improve the quality of life,” Dean said. Drama also inspires young people to have “a human connection.”
Drama class breeds “students of humanity.” Actors assume different roles and appreciate the different lives of people. You have to try to understand someone with a difference of opinion, she said. “There is the importance of finding out what make that person different. …Did they have a different upbringing?
“Instead of looking at other people and writing them off, you become a student of every personality. …You have to take the time to think about it and use it.” A character trait of someone you have met might become useful in a future role.
“…(Acting) gives you an air of confidence that maybe you didn’t have,” she said. “It can make you more comfortable speaking in front of people.
“I tell the class, “Good theatre does not offer the answer for everyone, but good theatre does ask a good question.” Plays have been composed throughout history to ask fundamental questions: “why do we do this? Why do we act this way? Why did this happen? How did we get here?”
Students in the THS drama class will “learn that they have a voice and that they have a body to use – to get their point across – to become better communicators.” Dean is not just inspiring a classes of better actors, but also classes of better future doctors, lawyers, supermarket managers.”
Dean was named as the 2011 City of Thomasville “Citizen of the Year.”
A Thomasville native, she is a 1989 graduate of the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham. She studied stage management at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, and while at UAB, she became the stage manager for the State of Alabama Ballet (Ballet South). The company toured all over the country.
Dean has worked as artistic director with the arts council since 2003. Thomasville’s Rambling Rose Players community theater program is in its 13th year, and she is a director and performer. “It is a labor of love,” she said. Dean also has directed and performed in community theatre productions in Demopolis.
She and her husband Andy have four children: Jack (THS Class of 2011), Samantha (THS Class of 2012), Jessica (Alabama School of Fine Arts Class of 2015) and David (THS Class of 2016). Jessica attended Thomasville City Schools until her junior year.
A graduate of Troy University, Jack is a musician in Nashville. Samantha is an actress, living in Atlanta, Ga., who has appeared in TV commercials and recently completed a film. She graduated from SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) in Georgia.
Jessica attends Auburn University and is majoring in journalism. David is majoring in communication at the University of South Alabama in Mobile.