From The President - Missey Head
I enthusiastically invite you to join our theatre community to celebrate our first ever virtual conference. I would like to thank the members who completed a recent survey requesting recommendations and preferences relative to the format/content of a virtual conference. Rest assured your convention team is using data collected from the survey to create the experience you asked for and deserve.
TheatreFest 2020 will provide the same great programming and training you have become accustomed to for the past 70 plus years. Until it's safe to meet in person, we need to continue to train and develop as artists and educators.
As theatre artists and educators, we know the importance and value of the adage, "The show must go on." We understand that no matter what was planned or unplanned, the show must go on for "an audience awaits." In this case, your students await. Let's face it, very few groups can match or exceed the perseverance, courage, flexibility, creativity, or endurance of theatre communities faced with difficult challenges or adversity. We can do this together! We always have and we always will! After all, we know better than anyone that the show must go on.
I cannot wait to see you at TheatreFest 2020. It's going to be A GREAT SHOW!
Director of Operations - Jerry Ivins
Friends,
Progress on the virtual Convention is moving slowly, but is moving forward! Here is a brief update:
- I have been receiving emails asking if we will include Exhibits, Auditions, DesignFest, PlayFest, FilmFest and even TETA’s Got Talent in the convention! The answer is…YES! More info to come, plan on participating in each.
- Registration – Registration will open August 15th.
- Volunteering – We welcome all volunteers! This is your opportunity to make a difference within the organization. If you want to assist with the convention, send me an email, jerry.ivins@sjcd.edu.
- College Student Intern program – We are still talking about this program, and will update everyone in a bit.
The Nominations Committee is pleased to announce the slate of nominees for the upcoming positions on the Board of Directors.
A call for nominations from the membership went out in April and after a May 31st submission deadline, the Nominations Committee comprised of Perry Crafton, Committee Chair (pictured right), Charlie Hukill, Jill Ludington, Cheryl Painter, Yvonne Phillips Dupree, Phillip Taylor and Sergio Sauceda vetted all of the names submitted for the positions of President-Elect, Treasurer-Elect and K-12 Member-at-Large. After lengthy discussion and consideration, the following nominees were selected by the committee and approved by the Board of Directors to be placed on the ballot:
President-Elect
Erin Moore
Rod Sheffield
Travis Springfield
Treasurer-Elect
Jared Berry
Kelley Hughes
K-12 Member-at-Large
Greg Arp
Roshunda Jones
Greta Peterson
All current members in good standing of TETA are invited to participate in the electronic election that will be available as members renew their membership and register for TheatreFest 2020. If a member wishes to submit their name as a nominee from the floor for an open BOD position, please submit that intent and the specific position by August 10. Nominations will cease on August 11. Please contact Perry Crafton at president.elect@tetatx.com.
Erin Moore
Erin Moore is a long-time active member of Texas Educational Theatre Association; she wasn’t planning on being a Theatre teacher at all until, as a sophomore in college, she attended her first workshop at her first Theatrefest. Since that first hat making workshop in 1988, she has presented about 50 Texas Educational Theatre Association workshops. It has been her source for training, networking and inspiration. Erin continues to try to give back to this organization that has given her so much. She has served on the board as K-12 Chair--she actually took her materials for the May 2001 meeting to the hospital when she had her son so that they could be picked up and delivered to Austin for the meeting the next day. She has also served as Secretary on the Board of Directors and as a member of the Curriculum Committee. She has been a Fine Arts presenter for Regions IV and VI as well as for UIL Superconference and Capital Conference. She also worked on the Board of Directors for Texas Thespians and Shakespeare’s Globe Center, US. She is a graduate of the University of Houston (BA Theatre Teacher Certification), Lamar University (MS Instructional Leadership) and is currently enrolled at Texas A&M Commerce (MA Theatre). She has directed OAP for 27 years and has been fortunate to advance to the state level a few times. Erin teaches at Sealy High School in Sealy, Texas and lives there with her husband and her son.
Rod Sheffield
Rod Sheffiled has been a high school theatre teacher and a member of Texas Educational Theatre Association for 32 years. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Theatre Education as well as his Master of Arts in Theatre from Baylor University, where a large portion of his graduate hours were earned while studying in London. He has taught at four very different high schools through those 32 years: LaMarque, Kingwood, Atascocita, and Magnolia. “Sheff”, as he is known to his students and colleagues, was awarded the 2018 TETA K-12 Educator of the Year and 2003 HEB Excellence in Education Texas Teacher of the Year. He was also the Humble ISD Teacher of the Year, and toured Germany representing Texas Education as a Rotary Ambassador. He is currently the Past-Chair of the UIL Theatre Advisory Committee, where he has served as a member, secretary, and chair. He was the Fine Arts/Theatre Representative on the TEA Sunset Commission which evaluated and re-constructed the UIL Constitution. These honors/responsibilities have allowed him to work closely with fellow teachers, administrators, professors and members of the legislature to come to consensus and reach conclusions which take multiple points of view in mind. In 2000, Sheffield innovated, implemented and developed a Special Needs Theatre Production class and curricula that integrated Special Needs students with advanced theatre students. His course is now taught throughout Texas, Arizona and Colorado. For twelve years he has spent his summers teaching/directing at both TAMUCC Camp on the Coast and at Tal’s Camp. In UIL, he has been to the State Championship 9 times, and Sheffield is one of only two people in UIL History to take 4 different schools to the State level. Currently, Sheff has former theatre students studying and working coast-to-coast and on five continents.
Travis Springfield
Travis Springfield is a native Texan from the Austin area where he majored in theatre at Texas State University graduating Summa Cum Laude in 1991 with a BFA in Acting. Travis taught theatre for nine years with Bishop ISD, Humble ISD, and Klein ISD. During his teaching career, he received numerous awards for directing including a UIL One-Act Play State Championship and two addition UIL One Act State appearances as well as multiple state and national finalists in UIL, TFA, and NFL competition. Mr. Springfield completed his Masters of Counseling degree in 2003 and has worked at Kingwood HS and Atascocita HS as counselor and lead counselor. He left counseling in 2008 to join Houston ISD in the UIL Academics department eventually serving as the Director of UIL Academics coordinating competitive music, theatre, speech, debate and academic activities for over 100 K-12 campuses. He was eventually recruited to become the lead counselor at Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) where he has most recently been serving as Dean of Students.
Travis has continued work in educational theatre having served on the State UIL Advisory Committee, as the Past-Chair of the One Act Play Adjudicators Organization-TTAO as well as other offices and positions with the previous TETA-AO organization and on the Board of Directors for the national Arts School Network organization. He most recently served the Texas Educational Theatre Association as Board Secretary for the 2018/2019 term. Travis is a respected and sought after One-Act Play judge and clinician working with 70-80 high school productions annually and has been invited to judge the UIL state contest six times. In addition, Travis is an Adjunct Professor for the University of Houston Theatre Department’s summer master’s program for theatre educators as well as a respondent for the Houston Shakespeare Festival Summer Conservatory. His work in theatre in Houston includes appearances with Scriptwriter’s Houston, Unhinged Productions, Mildred's Umbrella and The Country Playhouse.
Jared Berry
Jared Berry (he/him/his) is Houston ISD's Fine Arts Curriculum Specialist for Theatre K-12. Previous to his current position Mr. Berry was in campus leadership as the Magnet Coordinator at Pin Oak Middle School in Houston ISD. Before moving to administration, Mr. Berry was the Director of Theatre at Pin Oak for eight years. Other theatre-teaching credits include a two-year stint at Shenfield High School in Brentwood, Essex, England and one year at M.B. Lamar High School in Houston. Mr. Berry holds a B.A. in Theatre Studies from Wright State University, an M.A. in Theatre Education from Emerson College, and Principal certification from Lamar University.
Kelley Hughes
Kelley Hughes has been a member of Texas Educational Theatre Association since he began teaching and directing 20 years ago. His first 5 years where at Beck Junior High, where he was the Head Director and Fine Arts Department Chair. He spent 12 years as the Head Director and Performing Arts Center Manager at Mayde Creek High School and is now entering his third year at James E. Taylor High School. Mr. Hughes has a BA in Musical Theatre from West Texas A&M University and an MFA in Staging Shakespeare from the University of Exeter in England, training with both Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. More recently, he studied Educational Leadership at the University of Houston – Clear Lake. He has directed over sixty productions. This year he received a Tommy Tune Awards nomination for Best Direction. He has been recognized six times at the Katy ISD Awards of Excellence as an Outstanding Teacher. In 2016 Katy Magazine featured him as a “Life Changing Educator.” Mr. Hughes has actively served Katy ISD on various committees including KISD Leaders of Learners, Bulldog Council, Campus Advisory Team, Building Operations Leadership Team, and has led numerous professional development sessions. An avid fundraiser, he has raised over $10,000 for type one diabetes research. Following the Harvey floods, he, and a team of ten teachers solicited, organized, and distributed over half a million dollars worth of school and clean supplies to students and the community. Prior to teaching, Mr. Hughes participated in American Express’s National Arts Marketing Project for Advanced Audience Development. The subsequent 3-year marketing plan he wrote for Theatre Three was awarded a $10,000 grant. He has assisted the registration table for SummerFest. Currently, he is serving on the Texas Theatre Administrators Conference committee for the Safe Reopening of Performance Spaces.
Greg Arp
Greg Arp is the Coordinator for Speech and Theatre for Plano ISD and was the 2012 PISD Secondary Teacher of the Year. While teaching at Plano Sr. High School, his musical was chosen as the Dallas Summer Musicals High School Musical Theatre Awards Best Show, Best Technical Execution and garnered the Best Actor Award for 2013. He has competed in the UIL One-Act Play process as a student and Director, served as a Stage Manager, Contest Manager, and as an Adjudicator for the past seven years. Greg is actively involved in supporting elementary schools as a facility manager for the districts 44 elementary schools, and is the curriculum coordinator for all speech and theatre courses in Plano ISD’s 13 middle schools, nine high schools, and special programs center. He is a graduate of South Plains College (Associate of Arts), West Texas State University (BA Theatre), completed post graduate work at the University of North Texas and received his Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction with a minor in Teacher Leadership from Concordia University Portland. Greg served in the inaugural TTAC conference and currently serves as the secretary, has served as the Texas Educational Theatre Association Programming Director and Co-Convention Director for five years, and is a current member of TTAO.
Roshunda Jones
Roshunda Jones graduated from Prairie View A&M with a B.A. in theatre and Master of Education in administration. Ms. Jones was recently inducted into the Texas Thespians Hall of Fame. In 2019, she received Arts Educator of the Year from the TUTS Leading Ladies organization. She was also Texas Educational Theatre Association's 2017 Secondary Educator of the Year and Carver High School’s teacher of the year in 2009 & 2014. As the director of the Panther Players #6753, the troupe has been successful on the state and national level at the UIL One-Act Play contest, Tommy Tune Awards, Texas Thespian Festival and International Thespian Festival. Jones currently serves on the chapter board for Texas Thespians and parliamentarian for the C. Lee Turner’s Black Theatre Educators’ Caucus. In addition, she was the director of the Litefooter youth program at the Plaza Theatre for eleven years where she was part of the Board of Directors for four. She was honored with a proclamation from the City of Wharton for the work she did in the community. During her limited free time, she's a teaching artist for TUTS Humphreys School of Musical Theatre and works as an actor/director in the South Texas area theatre scene.
Greta Peterson
Greta Peterson has served as a high school Theatre Director for over 22 years at Rockport-Fulton High School, Pfugerville Connally High School, and now Lampasas High School. Her passion is sharing with her students the thrill of musical theatre, playwriting, student directing and, of course, the UIL One-Act Play competition.
Educational theatre has always been a priority and she has stayed involved with promoting theatre in as many formats as possible. Her students have had the privilege of performing on the main stage at Thespians and have also advanced to the state level in One-Act Play, Costume Design, Prose and Poetry.
Additionally, Greta has directed many hundreds of students in scores of stage performances for her local community. She loves to engage elementary and middle school students in her performances, filling the stage with young thespians of all ages and garnering the support of the entire town. Many parents are active in Greta’s Theatre Booster Club which strives to give students the opportunity to travel outside the state of Texas.
Greta graduated from the University of Texas with a BFA degree in theatre and ten years later decided to get an MS degree from Texas A&M in counseling.
Much of Greta’s time away from the stage at Lampasas High – when not chasing baby cows on her ranch - is happily filled with everything theatre as well. Greta serves as a contest manager for One-Act Play contests around the state and stage manager for the State OAP. The clinics which she conducts are well reviewed by all of the schools which attend. Greta also shares her time with students from across the state every summer in Texas A&M Corpus Christi’s “Camp on the Coast.”
Greta has been a member of the Texas Educational Theatre Association for over twenty years and has served in many capacities throughout. The goal has always been to advance the love of theatre. Greta believeis that the Texas Educational Theatre Association gives everyone the opportunity to get involved and make those goals a reality.
