High school drama teacher Madeline Michel is modest when it comes to her success at Monticello High School in Albermarle County, saying the credit should go to her student playwrights.
But judges with the Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University might feel a little differently. Michel been named the recipient of the 2019 Excellence in Theater Education Award, which, since 2014, has recognized top K-12 drama teachers, and celebrates arts education.
Her only prior experience on stage was during high school. She's certified in English, math, and as a reading specialist. But during Michel's involvement with the National History Day organization, her group put together short plays based on its research.
Michel has now been with Monticello High School for 12 years. Many of the performances are original plays written by students. She also taught English in Baltimore, where “we put theater into everything we did, because it makes it so much more interesting.”
Three recent Monticello Drama productions have won awards from the Virginia Theatre Association, including #While Black, a one act play by Kayla Scott in which she reflected on her personal experiences in Charlottesville.
“That sparked her attention,” said Michel, who said Scott also experienced a lot of her relatives being marginalized. “Gentrification is a huge problem for Kayla and her community, so she decided to write this play that takes place in a gentrified café.”
“I find that students are so much more invested when you give them power and authority over their own work, when they’ve got that kind of agency," she said.
The other recent 1-act play, “A King’s Story” tells the fictional story of a local teen being shot by police.
Michel says student Joshua St. Hill started writing it in 2017, before the August ‘Unite the Right’ rally, and changed its trajectory after those events. She calls it a hard-hitting play about police brutality.
To qualify for the Tony Award, Monticello High School had to submit a video to the judges. It was prepared by 15- year old student Luca Huff.
"“He’s only in 10th grade and he has the maturity of a much older person," Micel said. "He made this video, where I only appear at the very end of it. And it’s really just my students talking. And that’s what I want to represent about my program. I don’t even put my name on t-shirts, or anything, It’s really not about me – I’m just really the person who is the vessel, or whatever. I’m just there to provide a platform for kids.”
About 140 students at Monticello High School participate in the drama program, a school with a diverse population. Michel says she has strongs beliefs about equity, and wasn't seeing a lot of people of color on high school stages.
“It requires some recruiting, and that’s what I’m pretty good at," she said. "I’ve got that motherly nagging quality. I’ll sit down at a cafeteria table, and give kids some food or something, and just have a chat. And the next thing you know, I’m pulling somebody in.”
Michel says she's not a huge fan of Broadway musicals, but will put on shows that engages her students and the local demographic. Some of past productions have included Once on This Island, In The Heights, Memphis, and Urinetown.
“I love theater but I’m able to take myself out if it, and make theater about other people,” she said. “And think that’s kind of the best of both worlds.”
Michel's Excellence in Theatre Education Award comes with a $10,000 grant for the school's drama program. It will also enable two of her students to receive full scholarships to the six-week Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama Pre-College Program.
The Tony Awards are at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS.
