Keri Wormald directed "Well" at the Barksdale Theater at the same time she led her high school students in a production of "Pride and Prejudice." Both plays opened within one week of each other in the spring.
"I said I would try to never have two shows opening within a week of each other ever again," said Wormald, who teaches at Thomas Dale High School's Specialty Center for the Visual and Performing Arts in Chester. "It was really hard."
Though it's not required, Wormald is one of several faculty members at the center who also are successful professionals outside the school. They say their professional work feeds their souls, keeps them current in their fields, enhances their teaching, gives them credibility with students and provides opportunities for young people to work with professionals.
It's demanding to teach and work professionally, but the two duties complement each other, Wormald said. "I can't imagine my life if I only did one of the two things," she said.
Teachers' professional work opens opportunities for students, Wormald said. This year, she will be directing Irene Ziegler's play "Full Plate Collection" for the Barksdale Theater and tackling the musical "Three Penny Opera" with her students.
She has involved her students in her professional work in the past, and a couple of students will be assisting with lighting and stage management in the Barksdale production. Some female students will have the chance to audition for acting roles too, she said.
"My involvement is definitely generating some resume material for my students," she said.
Chris Johnston, band teacher at the center, has involved students when he has coordinated musicians and music selections for cable movies, such as last year's HBO series "John Adams."
The mix of professional work and teaching gave Johnston a chance to show his students the different career paths they can take with music -- whether it's hiring, arranging, managing artists or doing publicity, he said.
"I just want them to know that I'm not just sitting in a classroom disconnected," said Johnston, who plays violin with the band Offering. "The things that I'm talking about in class are the real world of music."
Their professional work is essential to their personal lives and teaching careers as well, said Denise Purvis, dance choreographer teacher and dancer with Starr Foster Dance Project. She becomes someone she doesn't like when she's not performing professionally.
"I end up feeling kind of empty and get really nasty to live with at home, even though I try not to be that way," she aid. "My husband insists that I continue dancing because it helps our marriage. I'm a much happier person when I'm dancing. It just feeds a part of me that nothing else feeds."
Taking classes also puts her in the students' position of having to learn choreography quickly, messing up, getting frustrated and frustrating the choreographer, but finally getting it, she said.
"So when I go back [to teaching], I totally understand what's going on," she said. "I can say, 'Let's try it this way. This helped me before. Let me see if this will help you.' It's more like my students and I journey on a path together."
Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or jlizama@timesdispatch.com.
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