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Blair Singer (Group 24) discovered a love for acting as an English major at U.C.L.A., and graduated from Juilliard's Drama Division in 1995. In addition to performing with the Hypothetical Theater Company, the Lincoln Center Institute, All Out Arts Festival, the Shakespeare Theater, and the Hidden Theater in L.A., Blair taught and/or designed curriculum for Lincoln Center Theater, Southern Westchester BOCES, the 52nd Street Project, and the Young Playwrights' Festival in Stamford, Conn.

Blair Singer (right) and faculty member Richard Feldman chat during a rehearsal break, during the 1993-94 school year. (Photo by Jessica Katz)

Until recently, Blair was a full-time teaching artist with the DreamYard Drama Project. Through DreamYard—an arts education organization committed to providing an educational pathway for students in which the arts are an integral aspect of how they learn—Blair held full-year teaching residencies at the Bronx Academy of Letters, Mott Hall High School, Marble Hill School for International Studies, and M.S./H.S. 368. With DreamYard, he taught acting, playwriting, poetry, and filmmaking.

At the Bronx Academy of Letters, Blair developed a drama curriculum that was replicated at other New York City high schools. He also started a Bronx Drama Club, which performed to great acclaim at the Scholastic Theater in SoHo.

Currently, Blair is a staff writer on The Book of Daniel, a new mid-season drama for NBC television, starring Aidan Quinn and Ellen Burstyn, and Monk, a comedy for the USA network, starring Tony Shalhoub.

Blair recently spoke to Emily Regas, associate director of national advancement and alumni relations, about how Juilliard shaped his own approach to arts education.

How does what you learned at Juilliard shape your daily life?
I think the biggest thing I got from Juilliard is discipline. Being a writer and a teacher, to me, discipline and preparation are the most important aspects of the job. Juilliard taught me to do everything I can to be prepared. It is the Juilliard essence that really pays off when I relate to students and when I write. Having a deep understanding of the craft of acting and theater helps me as a teacher, and also as a writer. I can draw on that knowledge and pass it on, hopefully inspiring the students I work with.

Can you recall a specific moment or experience at Juilliard that resulted in an important artistic or personal insight?
During my time at Juilliard, fellow student Michael Stuhlbarg (Group 21) played Don Armado in Love's Labor's Lost. The transformation he did in that role was so incredible and mind-blowing, it changed my perspective as an actor as to what was possible.

What Juilliard teacher made the largest impact on you and what was that impact? Has it affected your teaching style?
Deborah Hecht was my speech teacher, and she was kind, supportive, generous, smart as hell, and relentless. I hated that class more than anything, and yet I ended up being really good at it only because she wouldn't let me not be good at it. Liz Smith and Robert Williams were my voice teachers. Liz took me aside when others were giving me flack for splitting my focus as an actor and a writer, and inspired me to continue pursing both. I teach a lot of "Robert" stuff in my classes. He doesn't have favorites in his class. As a teacher, now I realize how hard that is. Every kid deserves the same instruction and the same chance to succeed.

Do you believe it is important for effective arts educators to have a career first as a performer?
I do—although I teach with people who have stopped their artistic careers, and they are phenomenal. Performing keeps you alive and active in your own artistic life. You learn new things to bring to your students. The two should go hand-in-hand, if you teach arts. I have access to the N.Y.C. theater community, which allows me to bring my kids to theater that is interested in making a political point, by artists who came from the same community as my students.

Can you be an effective teacher while maintaining a performing career? If so, how do you balance these two extremely demanding careers?
It is demanding, but doable, because one feeds the other. I come home from a day of teaching and it is the best feeling in the world. It stimulates creativity. To do it well, teaching is a full-time career. The kids don't care that you are up for some big TV job. They want to be taught and you owe that to them. As long as you go into it knowing you have two full-time jobs, you can do it. If you go into it thinking, I will do this teaching thing until I make it, it is the wrong career for you.

Does arts education empower inner-city kids to express who they are? How?
Yes, it is so important. In my experience, the expectations set for inner-city kids are very low. In order to get onstage and write a play, the expectations are extremely high. When you see kids who meet those expectations in a creative way, who haven't had to meet high expectations before, their whole bodies, minds, spirits, and souls are activated. Then the other expectations in their lives, like math tests, aren't so difficult. I am under no delusion that these kids take drama and their lives are turned around instantly. But I have seen change in the drama club I started a few years ago at the Bronx Academy of Letters. They are such a supportive family for each other now. The arts allow them to be good at something that requires craft, discipline, and giving your best effort. It is a building block for them, which they take back to their lives in general.

Your students must come from a variety of backgrounds. What is the range of their goals and needs—and how do you meet them?
I think you take each kid at his or her own needs. That is part of the job, dealing with kids based on their individual personalities; each presents a challenge. I also empower the students to get involved in each other's lives. They can start to inspire each other—creating a team to meet their needs and provide new challenges. I am pretty up-front with the kids; that seems to work.

Do you bring the history of your art form into your curriculum?
Usually the curriculum is based on the school's curriculum; that is what DreamYard does. We will create an arts curriculum that approaches the class material from a different direction, but every once in a while I branch out from their curriculum a bit.

If you could go back in time and change one thing that you did or that happened during your years at Juilliard, what would it be?
I wouldn't change anything, because then I wouldn't be where I am today. Teaching has changed my life drastically. I am really grateful for what I learned at Juilliard and am constantly surprised by what stuck. If you came up to my class and knew all the teachers I had taken from, my exercises are all an amalgam of their teaching styles. I might not stay here forever, but it is a place I am very content with.

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