- Name: Lilly Stannard
- Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
- Where I’m from: Baltimore, Maryland
- Major & school at NYU: Educational Theatre at Steinhardt
- Why did you want to get involved with VPL?
Throughout my time at NYU I have been exploring the ways in which theatrical engagement can create a more collaborative, activated, and adaptable educational experience. I briefly learned about verbatim technique and performance in various classes, and then took a class with Joe Salvatore in which we wrote an ethnodramatic play using community-engaged research techniques. After these experiences, I began to see the power that verbatim performance has to offer in the ways in which we learn about and interact with our world and how theatre can be used in educational settings.
- Why is ethnodrama/verbatim performance important to you?
I believe that the infusing of verbatim and ethnodramatic forms of study and performance can enhance our current education systems in a multitude of ways. It can serve to highlight voices often unheard, make spaces where diverse skills and needs are valued and necessary, and teach and learn from a new generation of more critically reflective and accepting citizens.
- Can you tell us about taking VPL’s work into the classroom?
Throughout the past couple of months, I have been actively involved with VPL’s work at The Chapin School where we have had the opportunity to work with two Senior History Seminar classes incorporating verbatim practices into their curriculum. It has been infinitely rewarding to not only be able to have a direct role in planning the projects and activities that will occur throughout this residency, but to have the chance to see ideas on paper be invigorated by the enthusiasm and brilliance of the students. While our work with Chapin is not yet finished, the results that I am already witnessing have reinforced my belief in the power of verbatim work to create a bilateral learning environment between facilitator and student, and to push norms of thinking to places unimaginable without this work.