Kerry Hishon's guest appearances

Kerry Hishon

The Drama Teacher Podcast

The Lovers The Dreamers and You

Allison Williams

Elaine Stritch

Jeffrey Harr

Stephen Gregg

Clint Snyder

Ken Preuss

Ruth Wareham

Janice Harris

Jana Beck

Christian Kiley

Steven Stack

Annie Loffredo

Matt Webster

Lindsay Price

Bradley Walton

OwlTail

Episode 102: Directing Youth with Kerry HishonYouth Director Kerry Hishon talks about the process from auditions to rehearsal to performance and shares her hints, tips, and tricks.  If you’re auditioning for Oklahoma what type of song should you definitely NOT choose? How do you build ensemble? How do you plan a rehearsal schedule? Bonus: Listen in to find out how Kerry directed Peter Pan without the wires.Show Notes	Kerry Hishon	Original Kids Theatre	Student Directing Series: Plays and Publishers	Student Directing Series: Directing Your Peers	Student Directing Series: AuditionsEpisode TranscriptWelcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast – the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, theatre educators everywhere.I’m Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk.Hello, I hope you're well. Thanks for listening.This is Episode 102 and you can find any show notes for this episode at theatrefolk.com/episode102.So, it is a very unique skill to be able to direct youth well. And, as a drama teacher or educator or even if you’re a student director, learning how to direct well is a continual process. So, let’s keep learning.Today, I’m going to talk to youth director, Kerry Hishon, and bonus! Make sure you pay attention. In the middle of this, she’s going to talk about how she directed Peter Pan without the wires. I love it.Lindsay: All right. Hello, everybody! Welcome to the podcast!I am very happy to be talking to Kerry Hishon. Hello, Kerry!Kerry: Hello!Lindsay: Hi! Okay. So, first off, where are you in the world?Kerry: I live in London, Ontario, Canada.Lindsay: Awesome. You guys are practically just down the road from us, you know, give or take a few hours. So, Kerry, you have a really interesting background. You do a little bit of everything.Kerry: Yeah, I do, actually. I’m kind of a jack of all trades. I’m primarily a youth theatre director, I’m also an actor, I do a little bit of playwriting, I am a stage combatant, and I also work at Original Kids Theatre Company.Lindsay: Awesome. All right. Well, we’ll come around to talk about all of that, but let’s talk first about how you got into this. What was the first thing that really drew you to theatre?Kerry: Oh, gosh. Well, I grew up in Stratford, Ontario, so it’s kind part of the culture there. You learn iambic pentameter before you learn to multiply in school and being around the Stratford Festival, you get to see shows and you don’t really realize that it’s actually a luxury for so many other people and we’d go with our schools every single year and see multiple shows and you’d think it’s no big deal, “Oh, yeah, I’m just going to go to the Stratford Festival today,” and you don’t realize that other schools, like, save up and this is their big end-of-the-year trip, and for me, I was just used to it.Lindsay: Or that other people don’t live in towns that have this amazing theatre resource, like, right around the corner.Kerry: Yeah, you don’t even think about it. You just think, “Oh, yes, of course we have a world-renowned theatre here, doesn’t everyone?”Lindsay: So, it’s kind of like it’s part of your life always. So then, how does that translate into trying to pursue it?Kerry: Yeah. I’ve always enjoyed it. I loved doing theatre during public school and high school and I then pursued it in university. I went to Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and I majored in Stage and Screen Studies, and I just really enjoyed it. I loved every aspect of it and the wonderful thing about that program is that you get to do all sorts of different disciplines. I took acting classes and directing and playwriting and screenwriting and theatre and film history and even design which was terrifying for me because I am so not an artist. I have mad respect for all those designers out there because I could not do that – that’s why I get people to do that for me.

Episode 102: Directing Youth with Kerry Hishon Youth Director Kerry Hishon talks about the process from auditions to rehearsal to performance and shares her hints, tips, and tricks.  If you’re auditioning for Oklahoma what type of song should you definitely NOT choose? How do you build ensemble? How do you plan a rehearsal schedule? Bonus: Listen in to find out how Kerry directed Peter Pan without the wires. Show Notes 	Kerry Hishon 	Original Kids Theatre 	Student Directing Series: Plays and Publishers 	Student Directing Series: Directing Your Peers 	Student Directing Series: Auditions Episode Transcript Welcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast – the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, theatre educators everywhere. I’m Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk. Hello, I hope you're well. Thanks for listening. This is Episode 102 and you can find any show notes for this episode at <a href="http://theatrefolk.com/episode102" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">theatrefolk.com/episode102</a>. So, it is a very unique skill to be able to direct youth well. And, as a drama teacher or educator or even if you’re a student director, learning how to direct well is a continual process. So, let’s keep learning. Today, I’m going to talk to youth director, Kerry Hishon, and bonus! Make sure you pay attention. In the middle of this, she’s going to talk about how she directed Peter Pan without the wires. I love it. Lindsay: All right. Hello, everybody! Welcome to the podcast! I am very happy to be talking to Kerry Hishon. Hello, Kerry! Kerry: Hello! Lindsay: Hi! Okay. So, first off, where are you in the world? Kerry: I live in London, Ontario, Canada. Lindsay: Awesome. You guys are practically just down the road from us, you know, give or take a few hours. So, Kerry, you have a really interesting background. You do a little bit of everything. Kerry: Yeah, I do, actually. I’m kind of a jack of all trades. I’m primarily a youth theatre director, I’m also an actor, I do a little bit of playwriting, I am a stage combatant, and I also work at Original Kids Theatre Company. Lindsay: Awesome. All right. Well, we’ll come around to talk about all of that, but let’s talk first about how you got into this. What was the first thing that really drew you to theatre? Kerry: Oh, gosh. Well, I grew up in Stratford, Ontario, so it’s kind part of the culture there. You learn iambic pentameter before you learn to multiply in school and being around the Stratford Festival, you get to see shows and you don’t really realize that it’s actually a luxury for so many other people and we’d go with our schools every single year and see multiple shows and you’d think it’s no big deal, “Oh, yeah, I’m just going to go to the Stratford Festival today,” and you don’t realize that other schools, like, save up and this is their big end-of-the-year trip, and for me, I was just used to it. Lindsay: Or that other people don’t live in towns that have this amazing theatre resource, like, right around the corner. Kerry: Yeah, you don’t even think about it. You just think, “Oh, yes, of course we have a world-renowned theatre here, doesn’t everyone?” Lindsay: So, it’s kind of like it’s part of your life always. So then, how does that translate into trying to pursue it? Kerry: Yeah. I’ve always enjoyed it. I loved doing theatre during public school and high school and I then pursued it in university. I went to Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and I majored in Stage and Screen Studies, and I just really enjoyed it. I loved every aspect of it and the wonderful thing about that program is that you get to do all sorts of different disciplines. I took acting classes and directing and playwriting and screenwriting and theatre and film history and even design which was terrifying for me because I am so not an artist. I have mad respect for all those designers out there because I could not do that – that’s why I get people to do that for me.

Directing Youth Theatre with Kerry Hishon