Courtney M Klein

My Junior year at Millikin University I was a classroom assistant for the freshman level classes of Acting 1 and 2. Working under one of my favorite mentors and Acting Professors, Alex Miller, I learned how to teach the foundations of acting to a group of fresh minds as well as build a repertoire of exercises and language to help students from beginners to intermediate to grasp new concepts and apply essential skills to their scene work and monologues. We taught these principles through an emphasis on Stanislavski, physicalized tactics, and beginning Meisner techniques. I later continued to assist with this class my senior year under a new professor and was given an opportunity to help guide this curriculum in a more hands on manner, meeting with students one on one or in small groups outside of class to reinforce the work they were doing in class to the scenes and monologues they were working on week to week.

By my Senior year at Millikin, I had gained the nickname of “Super Star CA” among much of the Acting Faculty. In addition to continuing to work as a Classroom Assistant for Acting 1 and 2, I was asked to additionally assist with the class Advanced Scene Study 1 and 2. Building off of the work we have done in Acting 1-2, it was so rewarding to continue working with those same students in their now Advanced level class. From scenes meant to stretch the actors’ abilities, to more traditional “type casting” and navigating a hybrid style of teaching with Zoom, I learned the most about adaptability as a mentor and coach and how to help students to dive deeper into the text and characters they were assigned. This position also required out of the classroom practices involving just the students and myself, so I gained a strong foundation of applying the coaching skills I had been taught to a small group of 2-3 students at a time.

Also my Senior year of undergrad at Millikin, I was asked by our Movement Professor, Denise Myers, to assist with her Beginning Movement 1 and 2 classes. This is an opportunity only available by request of the professor to students who took and passed Advanced Movement their Junior year. I was beyond honored by the request and learned more than I could have imagined as a mentor and teacher. With a focus in the Margolis Method and Stanislavski, this position required a lot of demonstrating and out of class practices with students, which helped me to develop the skills I had already learned into a one on one setting. Denise is a brilliant professor and I learned a great deal from her in the structure of her lessons and how to explain something as complicated as the actor’s body to a group of students that are likely learning all of it for the first time.

As a former Speech competitor myself (note the pic from the NCFL tournament my senior year) it as been so fulfilling to coach the next generation of Speech Students at my Alma Mater. I concluded my second official year as a lead assistant speech coach at Centennial High School this spring. In my time with the team so far I have coached over 20 students in a variety of interpretation categories such as Drama, Humorous, Prose, Poetry, and Program Oral Interp. I have had students qualify for the Minnesota State Tournament and National Individual Event Tournament of Champions two years in a row. This job has helped me to grow as an educator and as an actor myself, and I am so proud of all my students have accomplished. Roll Cougs!