 As you may or may not know, we're on Spectrum Theatres, No Diversity Matters Conference. So I'm an artist, founding member, et cetera, et cetera, of Spectrum Theater. And this panel is, we will be discussing the programs at the Norwich Free Academy with Bill Krossler. So hi, Phillip. Hey, how are you doing? Thanks for having me. No problem. So we're just going to have Phillip discuss some of his school's programs for a little bit. And then we will open it up for questions from Facebook Live, if you have any. And I have a few questions myself. So if, you know, so. Great. So yeah, I work in Norwich Free Academy. It's a public private school in Norwich, Connecticut. Means it's the school of choice for about nine different towns. But it's a normal high school, public school. I started working there as the theater director slash theater teacher in 2016. Been working there for four years. I'm an alumnus of the school. I did theater while I was there, went off into the real world, got my degree in theater, acted a little bit in London and New York, ended up in Los Angeles for a while before I decided I think it was about time to teach. So came back within a year. I was lucky enough to get that job at my high school. So when I started working there, they have always had a theater program, but it wasn't a consistent yearly big thing. In fact, when I started, it was more of a part-time position because maybe for four years there would be an English teacher running it. And then for two years they'd bring somebody in from the community to teach a class. Then they'd have somebody else do a show. So when I got hired, my goal was to really just sort of transform it into more of a professional, real way to get these kids what they need on their way to college and professional. So it's turned out really well. It's been a journey. You're talking to me at the end of year four. So 10 years right around the corner, it's been fun. We've done three shows a year consistently. We've had kids go off to college. We've had kids do lots of different interesting things. But in terms of neurodiversity, it's a huge part of what we do in that I don't think there's a show we've done out of like 12 shows we've done since I've been there that didn't have at least a few kids on the spectrum in those shows. Absolutely positive. Because a lot of my major actors, I find out after the fact that they're going through this on their own. And then also we have a program called Unified which is for science, art, cooking and now Unified Drama. We have mainstream students, special ed students combined into one class doing active learning, social learning, and those are classes that now are getting much bigger and better. So there's a lot. I mean, there's a lot of different ways we deal with lots of different kids. So if there's anything specific you want me to hit upon, I'm happy to. Yeah, so again, we're asking for questions as well from anyone who has them, but for myself. So obviously, you know, you discussed how you have both neuro-civil students, neuro-diverse students. Well, I spend, we usually refer to them as neuro-divergent and the combining together of the two is the neuro-diversity. But so how do you, how do you dress inclusion in your program? How do you bring the various groups, various abilities together to make a show? It's maybe it's because I didn't start teaching until I was 30, but I never really had an idea of what the right way or the wrong way was to include kids. So it's just a natural thing where it's anybody that wants to do it, anybody can take the classes. And then in terms of auditions, I just didn't come in, I came in with a clean slate. So all the favorites were pushed to the side. It just became this thing where if you can audition and you earn a part, you get it. And so that's why, I mean, I'll tell you about unified briefly. When I started my very first class, my very first day as a high school teacher was unified drama. So it wasn't necessarily students on the spectrum, but it was a whole variety of students that took special ed classes. And because when I'd been hired, it was a part-time position, unified drama was created to give me another class. And so right from the first day they put me in, I'm with all different types of students. There's a few para educators and I didn't know the right way to deal with them. I didn't know the wrong way to deal with them. I just naturally took them as who they were, talked to them as individuals. And I'd get praise from the para's, not knowing why, because for instance, a kid might say hello and wanna put his hand on my shoulder or he might wanna physical contact or he might need a little break because it's a little too much stimulation for him. And it never bothered me. It was never this thing where all we have to stop class so-and-so is having an issue. It just became this natural community thing. And so that was probably the best possible way to start my high school career because it just happened. And leading into the full theater program, we called NFA Play Shop, the full theater program, I remember the first fall, like the first day or so, I got an email from a parent. And it was a parent of a student who has autism. And she emailed me and just said, he's gonna be a freshman. I've heard you're the new teacher. He's interested in acting. It'd be fantastic if you just kept an eye out for him. Make sure he's involved. He's great at memorizing, we'd look. So I don't know. I've never worked with autistic students and never worked with students before. So right away, all these different students are coming in and this particular student happened to audition for the first show as a freshman and he happened to get cast and a big part as a freshman. And there was no, I didn't remember it was him. I didn't notice the name. He just came on stage. He's a very specific person, but so is everybody. So he did his job. That extended to be his entire four year of working with my program. And I think it helped them just socially in terms of other things as well. But I just, I never kept a box of like, here's these kids, here's those kids. If they audition, if they audition, they don't get a part, but they wanna do better. I'm happy to work with them as well. But there's never been a separation really. Right. Okay. So going from there, so obviously you said that you, you literally started basically out of the frying pan in the fire. I guess it's a good way to put it, right? Yep. Going with that, you said you've been working for four years, what are some of the challenges that you've discovered while working with people on the Spectrum Media Program and how have you worked to resolve those challenges and make them positive? It's a good question. You know, I'm always, I'm very aware of how I interact with students as individuals. And so I know that for some students, they might want a little more tough love. Some of them might need a little more reassurance. And I generally, I just try to keep a consistent demeanor and a consistent, they know that if I'm gonna harp on something, it's important and they know that I'm gonna hold them to high standards. And so at some points, it can be a little challenging for new students, but at the end of the day, I'm always told that was the best thing. That's why I was able to succeed. So in terms of Spectrum, you know, I have three, to my knowledge, I have three major players in my group who have various degrees of autism or Aspergers. And in fact, it's so funny that you guys invited me for this now because literally like a week ago, I found out that third guy was on the Spectrum. Had no clue. He's a senior, he's been in shows. He did Shakespeare for me this year. I had no clue. He was like a class president. And I guess I found out because he and his mother did a live stream on Autism Awareness Day talking about his journey. I had no clue. And so with him, and I've had leads of musicals and I've had the student I was talking about at the beginning, two different degrees, the ones that I was aware of, I would find out in different ways. So the first one, mommy emailed me, new school wants to make sure he's being looked out for, worked out great. The second one is someone who joined that year as an 11th grader. He had been there for two years before I arrived. And I've heard from the choir teacher and from his family because he was so involved in the arts. And for the first two years, he was very socially awkward, had a hard time talking to others, very quiet, very sensitive. By the time he auditioned for my musical, because he's such a great singer, I never would have known. He came into the audition a little nervous, but so was everybody. But it was brought to my attention pretty quickly because they wanted to make sure that this went well and it's a new thing for him and a new thing for me, that he takes criticism very harshly. He takes it very personally. And so that my first year teaching, that was something that really set me to where I am now in that. When I gave criticism or constructive criticism to the cast, when I said, hey, everybody, we need to work on this, or hey, I'm not sure this was the way we want to do it. Let's do this. I always made sure that that student and anybody else that was doing a good job got positive prey separate because I think one of the early rehearsals, we're learning, hey, everybody, I need you to go home and work on this. This is not the way, this is not where we need it to be. I guess he would go home and he wouldn't complain, would he be sitting and wondering, oh, no, I'm doing poorly, what am I gonna do? And so as soon as I heard about that, I talked to him, I found out what his background was, told him he was doing a great job. But that lesson stuck with me and that always make sure the kids that are doing a good job know, make sure there's always a little bit of a carrot at the end of that branch, right? And I think with the two kids I knew from the beginning around the spectrum, that was always something I looked at, was make sure they know they're not going home, going, well, everyone else is doing a bad job. I guess I'm doing a bad job. It's like, no, I'm doing this well. Be happy with that, but know there's always room for improvement. Basically that makes the implicit explicit as some of my friends at Spectrum like to say, right? Yes, yes, and it is a learning experience for me. But it was great though, because I can do that with any student. Any student needs to hear both and I can use it in my classes when kids give feedback to each other. Don't start with the negative, positive, a little bit of negative, what do they need to work on, but end with an overall positive. Exactly, yeah. So, that type of stuff. But I'm always, I just, I'm more aware because I may know something more as a teacher than the other students do. So I'm sure in high school, if someone's a little different, if someone says something a little strange, if someone, that can be a stigma, but I try to keep a community and an environment where everyone feels comfortable. And actually the thing with, I'm sure you with theater is that everyone is so different. It doesn't matter, it's not just the Spectrum. Everyone's so different that it just naturally is a place that's very inclusive. So I think, like I said, with the unified class, I think having access and having interaction with students like that from the beginning is the best possible thing that could have happened to me. I was coming from the professional acting world in Los Angeles, and I was, I don't wanna say I was rough or anything, but I was coming from adults, I was working with adults, I wasn't worried about censoring myself, I wasn't worried about being, I'm naturally nice, I would hope, but I wasn't worried about that. So having that challenge put forth to me right from the beginning, that led me to change the way I thought, and it led me to look for things, and it led me to become a better teacher and a better person. So I have, that's why I'm so thrilled to even find out the third student is because I'm sure there's more. I'm sure there's people I don't know about that have their own personal things that just they express in a different way. So I just, I love it. I think it's so exciting. So my last question for you is, so obviously you've done plenty of shows, activities, et cetera. So can you explain to us what sorts of activities or exercises that have your students and found fun? What did they find enjoyable? What just really stood out to you in that manner? We, from the first day with the Unify class, I just started playing games, things I would have done when I did improv. And improv really stuck with a lot of the students because there's no wrong way to do it. They can say whatever. Obviously there's a goal of trying to match up with each other, but that's why it's so great is because the improv for the, especially the students on the spectrum, it allows them to use their brain and find and solve that problem and get connected to the person that made the comment before them. So my students really love improv across the board. Sometimes that means we're doing something like freeze. Sometimes that means we're just doing activities where they have to think really fast. So maybe a sort of a charades or another game that they love is called categories. And that's where you go around and somebody might say types of trees and then everyone says a different tree. But because you get to know each other as a group, you can start choosing categories that are specific to each other. And so this is gonna be really good for this one but this is gonna be tough for this one. But in shows, I mean, so games, I mean, I can play games for hours with unified. I can play games for hours with my other classes. They love games. But in terms of shows, I've found, I've tried to introduce both the classics and other different styles to my crew. The very first show I did coincidentally was a student-written show. So the very first show I did at the high school was a show written by a senior. She had written it over the previous years with other teachers. I arrived, she contacted me right away before school started and said, this is who I am, I have the script. Would you like to read it? And blew me away. Again, I'm like a year or two removed from Los Angeles. My year or two removed from auditioning for stuff myself blew me away. It reminded me of something I would have seen on TV, like a sitcom, but like a slightly higher quality of, you know, not like a corny thing. I think I am a silly thing. And, but for my high school student, right? Yeah, yeah. So that, I guess that was a great choice because it got the community interested. It was the perfect show for us. It was the perfect show for a first year teacher to do. And it let them take ownership of what they did. And so that goodwill let me then go on to something like almost Maine, which has happened to be like the most popular play. And this school hasn't had a consistent theater program. Let's hit the big ones, right? So we do almost Maine. We do into the woods. Tried out, you know, other comedies. One thing that the students really liked was we did this play called 13 Ways to Scroopa College interview. Okay. It's a very specific. I imagine what it might contain. Yup. Yup. So there's a lot of stuff like that where everyone, it's almost like SNL, where everyone gets their own spotlight. So that play did have multiple spectrum students in it because they were able to make believe and be someone else with a different sort of specificity about themselves. In fact, you know, so you'd have the student that's always talking on the phone or the student that is a bully or a student that thinks they're a vampire. And then, you know, it's great. It was great for the school as a whole. They loved watching their classmates do that. But it also was a little more casual compared to something like, oh, we did Midsummer Night's Stream this year. So Midsummer Night's Stream on the other end of the spectrum is a little more difficult. It's a little more challenging, but I did it because I'm trying to bring Shakespeare into the school. We're doing Shakespeare classes. So that, you know, again, we have, we try to do the gamut. And that's the thing that the students know about me is I'm always gonna, I'm never gonna let them do a high school show. We might do shows that high schools do, but in terms of quality, we may not always be successful, but we're always gonna strive to do something where if someone came and didn't know anybody in the cast, they would, it would be like going to a local show and be going to like maybe off-broadway or something like that. Definitely, definitely, yep. All right, so I'm gonna go into, I believe we almost have just a little over five minutes left. So I'm going to ask just one more kind of two-part question. So if someone wanted to contact the Norwich Free Academy, you know, to place a student, you know, whatever, what did they do that? And number two, what does the future hold for your program at the school? What do you hope to be doing, you know, a couple of years from now, say? Sure, well, in order to contact, if you wanna reach out to me, it's just Trostler P, T-R-O-S-T-L-E-R-P at NFASchool.org. And if you go to NFASchool.org, the website, you'll see directory and you can find me. But in terms of the future, thanks for asking, because there's probably something I should mention. We are starting to collaborate with the Miracle Project. Okay, do we go and I presume? Yes, yes, so Elaine Hall from Los Angeles, she came to visit at the beginning of the year. Student Services at my school got me involved because I've worked with Unified. And it just, it was one of those meetings where everyone left very ecstatic because it was that perfect fit of like, here's what she's offering, here's what we do. Oh my God, where have we been all our lives? So of course the pandemic has sort of put a pause, but at the time that pandemic happened, our Unified class was about to put on a show. It wasn't gonna be a Miracle Project show, but it was the first year before we started working with them. That was gonna be for autism awareness. So we were in the process of doing that. The goal is that at the beginning of next year or as soon as we can, we'll start becoming a Miracle Project school. I guess it might be one of the first in the nation where we might be officially collaborating with them, officially being trained as Miracle Project teachers, professional development and yearly doing a Miracle Project show where our students in the special ed program are gonna be able to have a show made around them based on who they are. They're not gonna have to necessarily put themselves into a box in order to fit apart. They're gonna be themselves. Or if they wanna, I mean, if they wanna write something, we can do whatever they wanna do. But it's gonna be something where even more of a collaboration between our Unified program and the natural NFA play shop, which has only right now only really occurred with the kids that audition. There's two different things we do. This way we can combine them into one thing and it's just a natural, it's a natural evolution of what we've been doing at the school. Great. All right, thank you, Phillip. You gave us a lot of good information. I hope everyone enjoyed this segment. Spectrum Theater would love to reach out and collaborate with you and your program in the future. So thank you very much. Perfect, thanks so much for having me. Like I said, this is like the most exciting part of my day. And it would have been for anyway, but this has just been nice actually having a conversation. Alrighty, thank you. Have a good one.