EXCLUSIVE: Theatre Education Tony Award Winner Corey Mitchell

Fresh off of his win as the inaugural recipient of the Tony Award for Excellence in Theatre Education, Corey Mitchell granted BroadwayBlack an exclusive interview to discuss his success, which emanates from his students. The Excellence in Theatre Education Award is a special honor recognizing a K-12 theatre educator in the U.S. who has demonstrated monumental impact on the lives of students and who embodies the highest standards of the profession.  Mr. Mitchell has been teaching for 20 years, 14 of them at Northwest School of the Arts in Charlotte, NC.

BroadwayBlack (BB): What does it mean to receive the very first Tony Award for Excellence in Theatre Education?

Corey Mitchell (CM): It is really overwhelming. The Presidents of the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League called to let me know I was the first winner. What they kept saying was how important it was to establish someone to be the prototype, or archetype, of what they’re looking for. It’s astounding that I am the standard bearer, and that’s what I carry. At our school, I try to be that person around the city that people look to, to show what is the best in high school theatre. I cannot do this alone; I have a fantastic team of colleagues. Since the Tony Awards, we have had more Technical Directors who have shown interest in wanting to work here {there is currently a job vacancy} and be a part. We know now that what we’re doing is being noticed. It is tremendously humbling. I know that it’s not singular, what it is I carry, but representative of the work that we all do: colleagues, parents, and kids.

BB: What opportunities have presented themselves to you since receiving the Tony Award?

CM: In addition to there being an increase of interest in working for the Northwest School of the Arts, I have already received invitations to be a Keynote Speaker for two theatre organizations, in Florida and South Carolina. It is cool to be offered the opportunity to become a standard bearer in other states.

BB: There has been significant talk about STEM education but perhaps it should be STEAM to include an “A” for Arts. Please share how the Arts are vitally important to a well-rounded student, especially students of color.

CM: What I truly believe is that Arts Education gives students the opportunity to be more than just creative. It is an opportunity to see things from someone else’s perspective. To get behind their eyes and understand where someone comes from and has their life. To figure out where the humanity is and where you, too, are in common with this person. Studying history doesn’t do that. Shows like Hamilton and Rent (which we did in the fall) are able to talk to the students. I graduated college in the early 90s. So when many of my friends were diagnosed as HIV+, it was a death sentence essentially. Rent made it real for my students that AIDS was not an arbitrary thing from the past. We brought in counselors to talk about today’s statistics. As a result, five kids got tested the next day. One said he did a matrix, looking at who’s been with whom around school. That was the real fear and urgency during the AIDS crisis in that time period. Arts Education gives a world perspective that other subjects don’t do. You can talk about it in a Health class, but the theatre turns us into human beings, and more than autobots. Stepping into someone’s shoes makes it real. We were proud that we raised $3500 this year for Broadway Cares on behalf of the school.

BB: Are the Arts especially important for young Black men or would you say the Arts are equally important among genders?

CM: Equal. My father always used to say, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” The Arts are a great opportunity. So often our society is set up such that we expect Blacks, especially boys, to be successful through athleticism. What gets negated is the brain. We are accustomed to thinking in terms of the physicality of Blacks and the intelligence of Whites. Being a vital part of the arts takes away some of the physicality of the “young buck” pathology. Students in musical theatre don’t have time to be idle. Theatre gives them an opportunity to be vital, even those who are not physically impressive. We have a number of things that we do here at Northwest: spoken word, poetry slams, playwriting, and technical theatre. We try to model ourselves after a conservatory. The kids who are really willing to invest into it find their return on investment is incredible.

BB: In 2013, Mitchell took an all-Black adaptation of The Color Purple, with a cast, crew and orchestra totaling 107, to the International Thespian Festival in Nebraska. Mitchell raised more than $171,000 for the production. We asked how he accomplished this herculean feat.

CM: I had been going to the festival for ten years. I’m only not going this year because I will be directing Chicago. I have taken kids every year, but this is the first time I brought a show. So if we were going to go, I wanted to show the best of what it was possible for us to do at Northwest. Doing The Color Purple production was six years in the making. It took me really studying the show and waiting for the right group of kids.

With respect to fundraising, I called Phoenix Entertainment, which was in charge of the second leg of The Color Purple national tour and we rented the actual set that they used on the tour. Wells Fargo helped to jumpstart the fundraising with a sizeable donation. A trucking and moving company did an in-kind donation for all of the shipping. They picked up the set and transported it. They also custom wrapped the two 18-wheelers so it looked like we were on tour. We had an online fundraising campaign in addition to incorporating 16 staff members to help be a part of the production. We were able to bring the cost down per student to roughly a quarter of what it would have been normally. There were also benefactors who sponsored students that weren’t able to afford the costs. In essence, we made the show about community pride.

BB: What was the students’ experience traveling to and performing in Nebraska?

CM: It is the best of the best that gets invited to perform on the main stage in Lincoln, Nebraska. Our production of The Color Purple was the first ever all-Black show in Lincoln on the main stage. To have this group of kids be there and invited to be the Featured Show of the International Thespian Festival was amazing. The Festival is in two different theaters because it is so big, so you don’t see every show that is brought to the main stage. But everyone gets to see the Featured Show and it was incredible. The kids felt like rock stars. For the rest week, every show got compared to The Color Purple. In every workshop, the presenters acted like our students were celebrities and were honored they were willing to take the class. Our students felt legitimized. It was a true confirmation of what I had been saying to them all along: “You’re wonderful. Own the wonderfulness of you.”

There was a standing ovation and the walls were shaking after our performance. Some of the kids in the cast faced significant personal challenges or have less than ideal home lives, but it never affected their performance or attitude. They so deeply believed in the project that nothing stopped them. The other thing I say to them is “there will be times when your life is going to be in a low spot. But I want you to know this is a moment of pure triumph. Try to access what you’re feeling now when you’re feeling low. You’ve worked your way out of adversity before and you can do it again.”

I tell them to “leave it outside.” The school is a haven. It’s not just the kids coming from tough situations. We are a performing arts magnet school and kids from all over the city all come with their particular baggage. I wouldn’t say it’s harder or easier for middle class kids because it isn’t. All are facing some time of challenge but the thing that unites them is their talent and work ethic. The Arts equalize everyone when they’re on stage.

BB: How is your triumph at theInternational Thespian Festival being memorialized?

CM: Grey Hawk films, a production company, is making a documentary that features our production of The Color Purple. I had written a treatment to treat our journey to the International Thespian Festival as a TV documentary series. That was in 2012 when the Democratic National Convention was in Charlotte. Although the treatment wasn’t picked up, Grey Hawk Films followed us. Grey Hawk really went all in telling the stories of 5 students in the cast, paying attention to what we were doing and calling it “the transformative power of the art.” We saw the kids change and blossom; the entire cast, not just the leads. Grey Hawk has been following us since 2012 and now it’s 2015. They’re still following the students, and I joke this might turn into {the movie} Boyhood. The young lady who played Celie came with me as I attended the Tony awards so she could do the Open Call for The Wiz. She got a callback! The Editor of Selma {Spencer Averick} did a cut of the film. The intent is to have the documentary completed for the fall.

Finally, we end with Corey Mitchell speaking to the press after accepting his Tony Award. Listening to him speak with such passion about Arts Education and his students, it is no wonder that he was chosen out of over 4,000 nominees for the award.