Lifetime Arts’ Roster Teaching Artist and award winning storyteller, Robin Bady, has been teaching theatre, writing and storytelling for as long as she can remember. Her career began with teaching children in schools and later branched out to teaching in libraries, theaters, parks and senior centers.
In 2012, Robin was awarded the National Storytelling Network’s J.J. Reneaux Emerging Artist Grant. She is currently a master teaching artist for Lifetime Arts.
Robin is a graduate of New York University with a BFA from the Professional Actor Training Program.
Lifetime Arts: What is your primary artistic medium?
Robin Bady: Storytelling.
LA: How did you get started as a teaching artist?
RB: I was already teaching preschool music and storytelling, as an independent artist, when a friend, who worked for a large arts in education organization, Arts Connection, hired me. I began to primarily work in the schools through such organizations.
LA: How does teaching inform your own artistic process?
RB: When you teach, you learn what you know, and what you do not know. I find I am often teaching what I want to work on the most! For example, I teach primarily how to construct and tell personal stories. So, the more I teach, the more I learn about the craft, [and] about the other skills necessary. I “hear” what I need to work on myself. Plus, the people I teach are always teaching me. Their problems, their questions, their breakthroughs and their mastery will illuminate my own problems, questions and mastery.
LA: What led you to working in Creative Aging?
RB: A friend said, “You should work with Elders Share the Arts.” And so, I did.
LA: Why do you think working with older adults is important?
RB: Older adults have wisdom and understanding, and we need to hear it and see it. Plus, it gives elders the complement of respecting who they are and where they have been. As I get older, I know I get more interested in learning new things, not less. I want to be able to do the same for other older adults, to be part of the process. Oh, and it is so much fun!!!
LA: What has been the biggest surprise in working with older adult learners?
RB: How easy it is! How much fun it is! How much they want to learn and how much they are inspiring me!
LA: What skills are most important when working with older adults?
RB: Listening, empathy, kindness and flexibility; being able to make mistakes in front of others; to be foolish; working with the skill level of the people you are teaching; and being unafraid to challenge the elders to do more than then they may think they can or will do.
LA: What have been your biggest challenges? How do you respond?
RB: Challenges can come from the administration. They do not [always] respond easily or at all to what is needed for the class (a better space, a more convenient-for-the-seniors time, or not understanding storytelling as an art form). How to respond? Communicate, communicate, communicate. And be flexible if necessary. Challenges from seniors — “Why should I want to tell my story?” “Who wants to hear it or me?” “It is too personal to tell.” “This is a bad time for me.” “I would rather play dominos.” “I forgot about the class.” How to respond? Talk to them, [and] be flexible…. Keep doing what I am doing and let the work attract them. Oh, and bring some yummy food.
LA: What advice would you give someone that wants to do this work?
RB: Have fun! Like what you do and like the people you are working with – it shows and it is attractive.
LA: Tell us a short story from one of your classes that demonstrates the benefits of creative aging for participants.
RB: One group has had a hard time accepting that they had stories to tell that were interesting or important or even “a story.” Either privately or in the group, they would admit that they thought their stories (their lives!) were not meaningful. But as they listened to each other, they began to identify with each other’s experiences. Now, whenever something like that is said, the rest of the group will immediately respond by endorsing, affirming and identifying with the person relating their story.They have been bonding over the joy of listening to each other. They tell me it is therapy, I tell them it is art, we agree that it is both.
LA: What are your current and upcoming projects?
RB: For the past 5 years, I have been hosting a monthly house concert series, the BADYHouse Storytelling Concert, where I invite four storytellers to tell half an hour [of] true personal stories. I also curate a project called “No, We Won’t Shut Up!,” which features diverse females storytelling projects telling their stories of sexual assault, abortion, racism, sexism, bullying and the like. We perform it at festivals, and in theaters. I am touring my own show, “Nancy Drwinsky and the Search for the Missing Letter,” which is the story of the impact McCarthyism had on my father’s work, my family’s experiences and our lives.
Thank you, Robin!
Check out Robin’s teaching artist profile, or search our Roster to find qualified teaching artists in your area.
Photo Credit: Robin Bady
