By ROBIN STANTON GERROW
BG Independent News
The title of Jo Beth Gonzalez’s book may be “Temporary Stages III: How High School Theatre Fosters Spiritual Strength and Critical Consciousness,” but the affection of her current and former students has proven to be anything but temporary.
Gonzalez, a theater teacher at Bowling Green City Schools, spoke to a full room at the Wood County District Public Library, Saturday, about the third book in her series examining secondary theater education, through examples of her own work, and that of other drama teachers.
Her volunteer work with a church drama group sparked many of the ideas she examines in the book.
“We were trying to understand the gospels’ deeper meanings by creating metaphorical, devised scenes,” Gonzalez said. “And in the case of these kids, they always turned out to be pretty funny and very contemporary. I started to think about the deep questions. What’s the meaning of this? And I began to realize those deep questions only led to deeper questions, which is what happens when we are exploring drama.”
She said examining those big questions helped her students, and herself, address topics like temptation, privilege and forgiveness. She read excerpts from her book about a particular experience at BGHS while training for emergency protocols during an active shooter event when during the drill, she chose to stay with students in her group who were escaping, rather than return to help other students in distress.
“Did my decision to not help them in that scenario diminish their trust in me in real life?” she asked. “Does this situation point out degrees of compassion? And does it present a truth about my nature?”
Other examples include helping students come to terms with their changing bodies, and the anxieties of being a teenager.
Another speaker was Kory Meinhart, theater director at Perrysburg High School and one of the Northwest Ohio teachers featured in the book.
“She impressed upon me, that being a teacher of teenagers, especially in theater where we are all vulnerable, is not only incredibly rewarding, but is also meant to be incredibly challenging,” he said. “Jo Beth always approaches our conversations with ‘I wonder’ statements looking for ways to identify opportunity, tackle challenges, and provide the best opportunities for all involved.
“One of the early mentions in the book is a sequence talking about disguises and the disguises that you hear,” he said. “And teenagers are very good at wearing disguises. Their emotions can be very challenging. When we as teachers and adults in general are just going through the day-to-day responsibilities—we’ve got a show to do, we’ve got this overwhelming to-do list—to take that time and getting personal with our kids can be difficult to really feel like I have the time to stop, to breathe, to listen. And Jo Beth inspires that through many, many situations.”
Section two “Temporary Stages” discusses examples of connection through the lens of students and teachers of color and in the LBGTQ+ community.
“I remain aware that I’m white, female, and able-bodied,” Gonzalez said. “And as such, I represent the majority of high school theater teachers in the United States. Yet, theater teachers like me are asked to teach students who don’t look like us and who don’t come from an environment of privilege. One theorist refers to this problem as, ‘the incredible whiteness of education,’ where teachers with limited perspectives are being asked to teach or being prepared to teach students from backgrounds that are very different from their own.”
“Free to Fly,” an original one-act play about the dangers of sex trafficking of minors, is featured in the third section. Written with students over 8 years, Gonzalez said it is an example of how the Bowling Green community is an important part of the book.
“In order for us to even conceive of this topic, we needed to be educated,” she said. “Wood County law enforcement agencies taught us and observed drafts of the play. We presented sections of it at Bowling Green State University. The community is embedded in the fabric of this play.”
The community returned the warmth with several former students and colleagues expressing gratitude for Gonzalez’s work.
“I was a student of Dr. G’s from 2012 to 2015,” said Drew Kopp. “I learned to be fearless and to have the courage to step outside the lines I draw for myself and to try something new. Because I was such a shy kid, I didn’t really know what I wanted and I just kind of took the leap. And I don’t regret to this day.”
