Create a Theatrical Vision: Teacher Annie Loffredo
Episode 75: Create a Theatrical Vision: Teacher Annie Loffredo
Teacher Annie Loffredo equates being a drama teacher with being an artist. She loves being able to put on shows year after year and inspiring her students because she was so inspired when she was in high school. She talks about how she creates a vision for a play, conveys that vision to students and executes a vision through production.
Show Notes
Episode Transcript
Welcome to TFP, The Theatrefolk Podcast. I am Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk. Hello, I hope you’re well. Thanks for listening.
Today, we have an interview I recorded with teacher Annie Loffredo last month. I connected with Annie after getting some gorgeous and so theatrical pictures from her production of my play, Power Play. So, I got in touch and we’re going to talk about her vision for the play, her advice for creating a specific production vision, and then executing that vision. Awesome stuff, let’s get to it.
Lindsay: Hello everybody! I am so thrilled to be talking to teacher Annie Loffredo today. Hello!
Annie: Hi!
Lindsay: Awesome. And so, the first thing I want you to do is set up. So, where are you in the world?
Annie: Okay. I am in Miami, Florida.
Lindsay: Miami, Florida. Is it nice in Miami, Florida, right now?
Annie: Today, I actually posted it on my Facebook and Instagram that it felt like a summer day with 86 degrees but it felt like it was 93.
Lindsay: Oh.
Annie: So, I was outside and it feels like the summer here. I can’t even believe it’s December.
Lindsay: Aww. I can because it’s snowing like a thing that snows a lot up here.
Annie: Yes, I saw your Instagram post today with your running shoes with snow on and I’m like, “Wow! How does she run in that weather?”
Lindsay: We’re Canadians. We’re built for it.
Annie: I know, I know.
Lindsay: What are you going to do?
And, you’re a Drama teacher, yes?
Annie: Yes, I am.
Lindsay: How long have you been a teacher?
Annie: I have been a teacher in Dade County Public School for four years but I’ve been teaching Drama probably since I was fifteen because my mother was also a Drama teacher so she was at the middle school level, so when I was in high school, she would be like, “Oh, come teach my kids, come teach my kids,” and I just did it, like, on the side from that point on and eventually I just fell into being a Drama teacher in the school system.
Lindsay: What did you think about teaching Drama when you were yourself a teenager?
Annie: I never wanted… I mean, I always loved Drama. So, when I say I never wanted to be a teacher, it’s just that I never wanted to deal with all the things that teachers have to deal with. But I always loved the idea of teaching Drama. And now, I think it’s the best career I could ever have gone into because, even though there is all of that paperwork and all the things that teachers have to do, I find it to be an absolute blessing that I get paid to be an artist because there are so many artists out there that are starving and being able to make a living because they want to do what they’re passionate about, and I make a decent living and all I do is create art, and I’m very grateful for that.
Lindsay: I think that’s really awesome that you think of teaching as being an artist.
Annie: Well, it is. I mean, every time I go to put on a show, I get to do what so many artists always want to do – get paid to put on a show. And, not only that, I get to inspire students to do the same thing because I know when I was in high school, the only thing that kept me going to the school was Drama, and to give that to kids every day, I just feel grateful that I have that option to do that, that I am able to do that because it meant so much to me when I was a kid.
Lindsay: So, when was that moment when the switch sort of flicked for you when you went from “I’m never going to teach” to “Okay, here, I’m going to dive in”?
Annie: When I moved… I went to school in New Jersey, I grew up down here in Miami, and I moved up to New Jersey with an ex of mine and I was reading the paper one day up there – this is so superficial what I’m about to say to you – but I read that teachers in New Jersey made $75,000 to $125,000 a year after they’ve been teaching for twenty years and I’m like, “Wow!” That made me want to be a teacher so that’s how I fell into teaching. That’s really how I fell into teaching. All the women in my family are teachers and that’s what made me be a teacher then I moved back down to Miami and teachers in Miami don’t make that much.
Lindsay: No. So, nothing about your mom inspiring you or anything. It was like, “Oh, I would like to make some money.”
Annie: Yeah.
Lindsay: Why not?
Annie: But now that I’m here and I’m doing it, I’m completely satisfied with it. Like, these past three weeks have been a complete hell for me because not only do I do Thespians but I do Junior Thespians because I’m at a school that’s six through twelve. So, it’s been IEs for the Junior Thespian. Well, first, it started with one-acts for the Thespians, then IEs for the Junior Thespians, and the first weekend of one-acts for the Thespians, second week of, I’m sorry, first week of IEs for the Thespians and second week of IEs for the Thespians, and we just finished yesterday with one-acts for the Junior Thespians. So, it’s been that every single weekend so I’ve been working six days, probably in-between fifteen to twenty-hour days. And, you know, I was just thinking today, I’m like, “Oh, I haven’t seen my friends and I’m trying to give them this excuse that I’m working so hard, please excuse me,” but at the same time they don’t understand that because they don’t do that, and I don’t need to be making excuses for what I do because I love it and it’s my choice to do this and I’m passionate about it. So, I love my job.
Lindsay: I think that’s one of the biggest misconceptions about Drama teachers. It’s like, “Oh, they only teach Drama,” and it’s like, “Do you know how many hours?” It’s the hours that Drama teachers put in.
Annie: Yeah.
Lindsay: It’s just amazing.
Okay. So, you’ve just spent all this time doing IEs. So, what would you say is the – and, for those who don’t know, IEs are Individual Events, they’re competitions in monologue and duets and singing. So, do you coach them, too?
Annie: Yeah, I’m very hands-on because I have a very small school and I’m building my Drama program from the bottom up. So, unfortunately, I don’t have the kids yet that are so independent. Like, I know when I was in high school, my Drama teacher had to do nothing – I picked my own pieces, I cut my own pieces, I directed my own pieces, I directed other students’ pieces – I was very independent and maybe that’s why I am a Drama teacher. But, my kids, they’re very dependent on me and that might be my own fault partially too. So, yes, I literally, after school, I am sitting there with them from 2:45 when we get out until 6:00, 7:00, and 8:00 at night, helping them out with their pieces.
Lindsay: So, what do you find is the most common coaching thing you have to say to your students? What’s the most common thing that comes up when they’re preparing?
Annie: “Memorize your line.”
Yeah, well, one of my students – I think this is a great example – I have this one student who’s a brilliant actor. He’s really… He just has great timing, he has a great voice, he has a great physique and presence on stage, and he’s doing this one monologue from Freak, John Leguizamo, and he was sitting there doing it. I’m like, “You don’t know your lines because every other word out of your mouth is ‘and’ and ‘um,’” and then I sat there literally with him for an hour and a half going through the script with him, and every time he would mess up, I’m like, “No, that’s not the line.” And we got it on point and it really helped. The timing, like, it’s so important to know exactly what the playwright writes.
Lindsay: I tend to think so!
Annie: I would hope you would feel that way. I think, you know, the one thing… I think the best way to describe this is, when I was younger, when I was a high schooler, I would always listen to music and I’d be like, “Oh, I want to sing that, I want to sing that,” but we had to lower it to fit my voice, and just a few years – I think it was Les Mis when it came out in the theatre last year – and they had, who was it? Hugh Jackman playing…
Lindsay: Jean Valjean.
Annie: Yes! And the song did nothing. He sang, oh, what song was it? Bring Him Home. He sang that and it absolutely nothing for me, and I realized, when somebody writes something, there’s emotional reason that they’re writing it, and there’s an emotional reason why he’s hitting those high notes, and there’s an emotional reason a playwright writes the exact words that they are writing, and you have to honor that and you have to find the truth within the words or the notes that are being written. And if you think that you can improv with them then you’re not getting across that message.
So, I was sitting there with him, we worked on it, and, you know, he did extremely well in competition. He got straight Superiors, almost all fives down the lines and that’s the best you can get. And it really made that much of a difference just knowing the lines because, when you have these talented kids, they’re going to get the emotions across, they’re going to find a connection physically and emotionally, but if they don’t know the exact words, that takes away so much – it really does.
Lindsay: Well, that’s an awesome little segue because the one thing that I really wanted to talk to you about is that you recently did a production of my play, Power Play, which is a dramatic piece when it’s all about high school violence and the whole notion of violence as a thing of power and, also, the stereotype of those who commit violence in high school. And you had a very specific and a very vision-orientated take which I love. So, can you just tell me why you decided to go in this specific direction with this piece? Let’s start with that.
Annie: Well, the one thing that, first off, I read Power Play and then the whole way it was written, it had so much possibilities in my mind. I’ve always been a huge fan of, like, movies like that were created… My favorite director in the entire world is Julie Taymor and she’s a very visual director and there’s so much possibility, like, the way she did Titus – I don’t know if you ever saw that film.
Lindsay: No, but I’ve seen the visuals. Like, the visuals, the pictures that they always show from that movie are just incredibly striking.
Annie: Yes, and I saw those possibilities in Power Play, and that’s the first thing that drew me to it, and I don’t like things that kind of beat you over the head with a message that kind of play with ideas and take you out of and bring you into it, and I saw that in Power Play where you had these serious dramatic themes but then it took you completely out of it with all of this stuff, with the almost cartoon-y stuff in it, you know? And I love that about it and I saw endless possibilities with it, but the one thing that I loved about that play – at least the way I took it – is it wasn’t necessarily about power, it more about how do you deal when you realize how powerless you are in situations, and that was my whole take throughout the entire play. In the beginning of the play, what I did is I had a student come out dancing and he was like power and the whole concept of the play was the actors within that show were completely powerless – they were puppets.
Lindsay: Yeah, they sort of, particularly at the beginning, the girls, they sort of came out like marionettes.
Annie: Right, right, and that’s the entire concept we went through with the play. Like, when somebody was going into the monologues, the rest of the actors were just hanging there like they puppets not being used. And then, again, at the end of the show, they went back to that to show that, even when you get out of high school, you’re still pretty powerless – we’re still all in this fight to achieve power, to get some sense that we have power over our lives and situation. So, that’s the way I approached that play.
Lindsay: So, the one thing I want to hit on is how you took a concept for the show, you read the show, you had your own impression of it, again, not changing anything but just going, “This is how I’m interpreting the play,” and that you came up with a visual – a visual vision – a vision for the play and that everything that happened with the actors and with the action all fed back into this vision. And the thing that I find frustrating sometimes, particularly at the high school level, sometimes it can just be lines and blocking, lines and blocking, lines and blocking, and that they’re not taking it to that artistic level, and I think that’s so important, yeah?
Annie: Yeah, oh, yeah. I mean, well, why do something if you’re not going to try to evolve it? Try to get something new out of it. That’s the one thing I believe art is. I don’t believe in original ideas. I just believe in combining different ideas and finding something new and I don’t want to do anything and I think most successful directors – whether it’s a high school or trying to direct their own scene, or a college student, or a high school director, or even, you know, when you go higher up, any artist, you know – if you’re just going to throw out something that’s already been done, you’re not going to be successful in what you’re doing. It’s about finding different inspirations and combining them and making something new of it. So, I don’t know.
Lindsay: Yeah. So, you combine this vision, did you do anything like storyboard it or do Pinterest or…? Ah, my words are failing me! Did it stay in your head? How did you make it tangible for yourself? Or did you?
Annie: Yeah. Well, my biggest thing that I find that helps me directing is listening to music. Music was so important throughout this show. Like, it started with music and what I would do, literally, is every day driving home, I would listen to music and, if I found a song that struck me, I would listen to it over and over again and play it out in my head. I had one of my mom’s former students, he is great and there’s some vocal sections that I just wanted to bring out in this show. Like, you know, when they’re overlapping each other and they’re saying the whole thing about power and the whole “all I want is” and all that – I wanted to make it very vocal. So, I asked him to come in and help me. And, you know, he also worked with the kids and he came up to me one day and he goes, “You know, this show really reminds me of Requiem for a Dream,” and I go, “My god, that’s like one of my favorite movies of all time!” So, then I watched that movie again and that brought in ideas – we brought in music from Requiem for a Dream – and it really ticked in and I think that one moment where he said that to me changed the entire show for me. I’m like, “I am going to make this, like, completely out there and visually striking and just say they’re either going to love it or hate it.” So, it’s mostly music for me. That’s my thought process. That’s how I think.
Lindsay: And, also, it seems being open to, like, collaborators. Like, you know, letting somebody say something to you and going, “Oh, my god, that’s a great idea. Let’s run with that.” And, also, you know, not being afraid of people liking it or hating it too. I mean, I think that’s the only time when you know you’re doing something right is when you get those reactions I think.
Annie: Yeah.
Lindsay: Okay. So, how did you convey your vision to your student actors?
Annie: We read it and I explained it to them and they fell in love with the play right away. They got all excited about the play. They got it because they know that I’m the type of person that doesn’t like overdramatic pieces so they knew why I liked it right away, that I like something that’s going to make people laugh but convey a message and we just went over and over it again, we talked about the power structure of the way things were set up here in the United States. I probably said stuff that I shouldn’t say as a teacher talking about, like, how the banks are all in control, blah blah blah, a whole bunch of conspiracy theories, but they always think I’m crazy so it’s okay.
Lindsay: Just live with it, right?
Annie: Yeah. I’m like, “This is just my thought. Some people believe this, I’m not saying it’s the way things are but, you know…”
Lindsay: Well, it’s an example of what you’re saying for the show, that’s what it’s for, it’s a support.
Annie: And even, like, you see that concept when you have the guy coming out dancing in the beginning and in the end, and he’s all in a suit with a tie and the rest of the kids aren’t dressed like that, so it shows some kind of power structure and, for some people, that is the power structure, that is what controls us here in the United States, capitalism. So, you know, it’s all about money. So, I explained that to them and a lot of them have seen, I have shown bits and pieces of Titus to them. I have shown – no, I haven’t shown them Requiem for a Dream, I lie – but I show them bits and pieces of Titus, some of the very visually striking moments of it so that they understood what I was going for.
Lindsay: How did you develop your concept for the makeup and the costumes? Because I really loved it, they’re so unique, and fits your vision really nicely, I think.
Annie: Well, I just was driving home a lot at, like, 7:00, 8:00 at night and watching the sunset and I thought the most beautiful thing was the purples and pinks and dull colors fading behind the sun, and that’s where the color scheme came from. I just love the faded, like, it was almost beautiful and haunting at the same time, and that’s kind of what I wanted for the design. And then, the skirts that you saw all the girls wearing is their skirts that I just started making myself and I’m like, “Oh, they look cool so I’m going to put them in there and it also works with the whole puppet thing.” So, yeah, it’s really nothing special.
Lindsay: No.
Annie: Because I wanted it puppets, I wanted it to be kind of dull. You know, I didn’t want to go with, like, blacks and dark colors. I wanted colors but I wanted it to be dull and that’s just really what it came to, because whenever you watch these darker movies, it’s almost a sense of the color faded, you know, so the color, it takes, like, kind of a black and white concept but it just puts a little pop to it when there’s the colors, and that’s really what I was going for.
The two strongest movies for me in creating it was Requiem for a Dream and Titus and the darkness in those movies. But the way that it plays, it brings out the emotional – not the emotional, the mental process of the emotions that these people are feeling and that’s what I wanted to bring out in the show. So, that’s why those colors came through.
Lindsay: Yeah, no, that’s awesome. So, what was the audience response?
Annie: That’s a hard one for me because I was sitting there in competition and I was sitting there as a really critical director and I was commenting, my mom was sitting right next to me, I’m like, “They just screwed up! They just screwed up! They just screwed up!” That’s all that was going through my head and then, at the end, they got a standing ovation and I’m like, “Oh, these are just thespians being nice,” and I ran out.
Lindsay: Oh!
Annie: So, I didn’t take any of that in. And, you know, when they called our name at the end and we got a Superior, I started crying as did the rest of my cast because we’re a four-year-old program, we’ve only been doing competitions, this is our third year doing the one-act competition. In the past two years, we got Goods. So, when they passed our name for Excellent, we’re all thinking, “Oh, crap, we got a Good again, great.” And so, it was a complete shock for us and, you know, the audience love that the kids keep on getting compliments up to this day. We went to my mom’s school just recently and we performed it and we did the whole Theatre of the Oppressed thing afterwards where we invited the audience to come up and solve the problem of the play, and my mom had a show that night and she kept on getting compliments the next day about the show, and she would say at the end of the compliment, she would realize they were talking about my show, not hers.
Lindsay: Oh, no!
Annie: So, you know, the audience response has been great. I just wish that I was able to stop thinking as a director and actually was able to take it in at the competition because I just was so lost in being a director that I didn’t get to appreciate that. I just really hope my students were able to really appreciate it and take in that moment because that’s the kind of moment that’s going to change their life forever.
Lindsay: Oh, absolutely. Well, you know, the experience is something that would change their life. You know, they’re not doing, you know, they’re doing something unique, and then, getting a response for it, and then, it sounds like you guys have, you know, taken a really important step forward.
Annie: Right.
Lindsay: So, what’s it like having such a young program? Like, is it frustrating? Is it exciting? Do you feel alone? Like, what’s it like? There’s a lot of teachers out there who are in your same boat. So, what’s it like?
Annie: Well, the great thing about Miami and this might only be because I grew up in this program – you know, my mom’s a Drama teacher also so, you know, I started Drama very young and then I went to a magnet school when I was in high school and all of the Drama teachers in Dade County know me – they either know me because they were my teachers or they know me because just the connections we make because, in Dade County, we’re all pretty close and we all know each other and we have a really big program, too. So, I don’t really feel alone. You know, I’m probably blessed in that sense and then I have a very supportive administration also and I’m very grateful for that because I know a lot of arts teachers, you know, struggle to get any support from their administration. My administration loves me, they’d do anything to support me so I don’t feel alone. There are definitely struggles in trying to get things started. You know, teaching the students theatre discipline and letting them know, you know, it’s not just getting up on stage and trying to create a culture within the school to have that discipline. It was really hard at first but now I feel like I’m finally getting somewhere. I love building my own program. I’m, fortunately or unfortunately, a very independent person and I feel that building my own program allows me that independence to structure something the way I feel it should be structured. So, it’s a little bit of ego there, I guess.
Lindsay: Ah! You know what? Why not? You know, because it means that things happen, right?
Annie: Yeah.
Lindsay: Okay. So, pie in the sky, where would you love to be with your program in ten years?
Annie: In ten years, I want a theatre. My school, we don’t even have a theatre. I want a theatre and I know that my administration has talked about making my school into a school for the arts. I would love to see that happen and I would love to have a program where my students experience all different forms of theatre, all different forms of art, and understand that, you know, it’s not just about studying… Well, the one thing I love about theatre is it’s not just about studying acting. Theatre is one of those art forms where you need the art, where you need the music, where you need the dance, where you get to combine and synthesize all these different forms of art and produce something new. And I just really want them to experience that and, yeah, that’s be a Drama teacher or the only other thing I’d ever want to do is Drama therapy.
Lindsay: That sounds awesome. Yeah, that sounds great. Okay. Well, I think that about wraps it up. I really appreciate that you took the time to talk to me tonight and I just love, I just think that the most important thing that any director can have is vision, and any time that we can sort of get that out there and share it, like, okay, as we wrap up here, just put out there for any beginning Drama teachers who are just sort of getting into directing and not sure where to start, where do you start with building a vision for a show?
Annie: I think the most important thing to do is to find things that inspire you. Don’t just read a play and try to go from there. It’s about listening to music and watching as much as you possibly can of films and other plays and looking at art and just find in nature and even architecture. Looking at all different type of things and combining those ideas to create something new because, if you just have a narrow vision, it’s going to take you nowhere. You have to look at everything. You have to look around you. You have to look at the smallest little bits of nature to the biggest things you can possibly see and find a way to combine them and synthesize those ideas.
Lindsay: It’s like finding examples from the sense, I guess, right? You know, textures and sounds and just visuals and…
Annie: Yeah, that’s the way to do it.
Lindsay: Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. Thank you so much, Annie! Now, go get some sleep and, hey, are you going to Florida State this year?
Annie: Yes, of course!
Lindsay: All right. Well, I’m going to be there, too.
Annie: Nice, nice, nice! Okay. So, I definitely will come and say hi to you!
Lindsay: Awesome. Thank you so much, Annie.
Annie: You’re very welcome. Thank you.
Thank you, Annie. My favorite part of this interview is how she equates teaching to being an artist and I know a ton of actors who think of teaching as the fallback plan. “Oh, if I can’t make it as an artist, I’ll teach,” and Annie doesn’t think that way at all. I love how she loves inspiring students because she was inspired by Drama when she was in school. You know, I just think that’s great. Great, great, great talk.
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Music credit: “Ave” by Alex (feat. Morusque) is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
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