Growing up, I always used to say I wanted to be a pre-school teacher. Why pre-school specifically? I couldn’t tell you. But I think it had something to do with how much of an impact my own pre-school teacher had had on me, and how I wanted to be able to have that kind of impact on someone else someday.
I’ve been very lucky to have had many impactful teachers in my life who empowered me to strive high, believe anything was possible, and feel ownership over my work. Those are the philosophies I try and impart when I teach – an excitement for learning, a space for creativity and collaboration, an assertion that your voice is always important in any space you’re in, an ownership over the work you create, and a belief that anything is possible if you set your mind and heart to it.
I hope that I’ll be able to pay forward the way that the influential teachers in my life made me feel to the next generation of theatre makers – and make them see just how powerful they can be.
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Colette Richardson 