Getting to Know Hannah Glass!
By Gwen Leahy
Bio:
Hannah Glass (She/Her, 32) is a teaching artist originally from Marietta, Ga who has been in Savannah for 10 years. As a SCCPSS teacher, she has taught approximately 3000 students at either the STEM academy at Bartlett, or the Savannah Arts Academy.
Her artistic training began with Atlanta Workshop Players, and continued in Cobb County Schools. She received her BsED from Columbus State University in 2016. She worked in Orlando in the Disney College program for a year and then moved here to Savannah.
Hannah found a home here at the Savannah Children’s Theatre as a performer, then a stage manager and summer camp instructor. At the Arts Academy, she teaches Technical Theatre 1, Technical Theatre 2 and Acting 1. She is the technical coordinator, where she assists student technicians in their jobs in various productions. Hannah is the assistant coach for the current state championship One Act Competition Team, as well as the Troupe Director for International Thespian Society Troupe 5952. This is especially meaningful to her because she helped to found a troupe at her Alma mater (Pope High School) in 2012.
When she isn’t teaching, Hannah performs at princess-themed children's parties with Itsy Bitsy Princess Parties, where she has been on staff for over five years.
Her educational philosophy is kindness in action, opportunities for all, and stage lessons are life lessons.
Q&A
Q: First and foremost, congratulations on completing your first year teaching at the Savannah Arts Academy! With the new school year quickly approaching, do you have any advice for aspiring theater students who might be nervous for the new school year?
A: Kindness is the strongest special skill that you can have. In this industry, it can be very easy to feed into negativity or feel the need to talk about or talk down to other people. You never know when your words can come back to help or hurt you. Be kind, give people grace, and be grateful for every experience.
Q: You have been inspiring the future actors in the Savannah area for years now, from teaching to your participation in the Savannah Children's Theater. What is your favorite lesson to teach, performance-based or otherwise, and why?
A: This is a really difficult question! My favorite lessons to teach are usually technical skills like lighting programming/design and hand sewing. Watching kids have the “light bulb” moment, and then have the confidence to go and perform that skill afterward without you is such a joy for me.
Q: Teaching, as a whole, is a severely underappreciated profession. Between the physical, emotional, and mental workload it takes to continually draw from yourself to inspire your students, what can be a truly fulfilling job is often also a relentlessly taxing one. Do you have any advice for other teachers, performing arts or otherwise, on how to protect your own peace while getting the job done?
A: This is a lesson that I am still learning. I am really grateful to have an incredible team at the Arts Academy (David Poole and Becky Solis) to help spread the load and work collaboratively with. I guess my biggest piece of advice is to not lose yourself to this. You have to take time for yourself, and put the work down. When you work with kids and you know the stuff they go through at home, it’s nearly impossible to keep your mind from wandering and thinking about if they are safe, fed, or loved that night. Do what you can, and what you can’t you have to not stress about. You can’t fill from an empty bucket.
Q: Taking a detour from profession-based questions, you are a massive self-professed Disney fan. In the age of Disney reaching out and adapting more of their original stories into stage productions, what is one movie that you are hoping makes a theatrical debut at some point?
A: “Princess and the Frog.” Tiana is my FAVORITE princess, and there are such excellent opportunities in that show for spectacle, puppetry, and performers of color to continue to shine.
Q: Finally, on top of being a first-rate teacher, you are also an equally talented performer yourself. What is one show that you have not worked on before that you want to perform in or work on in the future?
A: I’m at a strange age where I am too old to play romantically, and too young to play the mother/old woman. I would love to see some other opportunities for ladies of my age (and my size, for that matter). I would love the opportunity to perform in “Sweeney Todd” as Mrs. Lovett, if I could be so lucky. Technically, I would love to do a production of “Wiley and the Hairyman,” as it is one of my favorite children’s theatre plays.
Promo:
Please support the Savannah Arts Academy and the Savannah Children’s Theatre as they enter their new seasons!! They both do such amazing work and support thousands of kids in the surrounding area. Plus, SCT just moved to the castle, and needs butts in seats!
