Meet our LOVers - Lisa Lemmens

Who are you?

My name is Lisa. I teach Dutch and English in the fifth year of secondary school at the Paridaensinstituut. I am also production manager at fABULEUS. Behind the scenes, I coordinate the artistic team that creates the performances. Because we work with young people, it is also important to ensure that they feel comfortable and that we maintain contact with their parents and schools, so that everyone is involved in the bigger fABULEUS story.

Is it an advantage that you are a teacher?

The two jobs balance each other out really well. At fABULEUS, there is an open mindset, where everyone thinks freely. I provide the structure that the young people need. I am close to them, but just like a teacher, I have enough responsibility to be a kind of anchor point for practical questions or when things aren't going well.

At school, I notice that I am closer to the young people than when I was just teaching. Because I get to know the young people at fABULEUS in a different way, I am much more aware of how they are all still searching. That they are not only young, but also interesting and ambitious. As a teacher, you can sometimes forget that. You walk into a class, you have to set the pace, and you often see young people in a context where they are worried about grades or exams.

Was it a conscious choice to seek out other opportunities alongside teaching?

I did both jobs separately at first, but I felt that something was missing in both. In terms of content, teaching is extremely interesting. I enjoy learning new things, especially in relation to the students. However, when you teach full-time, your world can sometimes feel quite small.

When I was working full-time for fABULEUS, I was constantly meeting people with new ideas. We create performances about the craziest subjects. But my job there is mainly very practical, supportive and emotional. I did miss my subject expertise.

Is it true that combining two part-time jobs is harder than one full-time job?

At peak times, the combination is very demanding, but the variety makes it more than worth it. I can count on great colleagues on both sides. At fABULEUS, they step in when I can't be at school, and vice versa, I have colleagues at school who swap a lesson with me when I'm on tour. I couldn't do it without them.

Within the Lab Education x Culture, you also put this combination into practice. How does that work exactly?

This year, we experimented with a collaboration between the educational master's programme at LUCA School of Arts, the Paridaensinstituut and fABULEUS around Mitch Van Landeghem's performance “Remember my Name”.

It's about child stars and coming across as authentic, both online and offline. The performance shows how people constantly allow themselves to be directed by everyone around them in order to fit into a certain image.

The LUCA students developed a workshop based on the performance, which they gave to third-year secondary school pupils at Paridaens. The focus was on the cultural objectives of the common core curriculum. Pupils went through a simple creative process and reflected on the performance.

What did the collaboration mean for the pupils?

The added value for them is that they do much more than just go and watch theatre. After the performance, they have their own ideas about it. The students ensured that a deeper layer was touched upon. Behind the child stars that young people now know as influencers on TikTok and YouTube, there is much more than you might think at first glance. It is fascinating to reflect on this with pupils.

The pupils then put these insights into practice. They created short scenes and well-thought-out staged images, such as paparazzi photos. Imagine you are a child star and you can anticipate what is going to happen. What would you show about yourself and how would you do that? What if you were photographed unexpectedly? What would be embarrassing and what should people definitely not see?

How did the students and teachers respond to the collaboration?

The interesting thing for the students was that they were able to talk to the educational staff at fABULEUS, to me as the production supervisor and teacher, and to my colleagues. That gave them a lot of input.

On the other hand, it was quite a challenge for them to teach a class of third-year students, who are not necessarily all interested in theatre, in a building that is not designed for performances.

My colleagues at Paridaens were very enthusiastic about the completely different approach to the learning objectives. Drama students have a much clearer idea of why they are doing these kinds of things than a Dutch teacher who has to achieve rather vague objectives. So, together with the students, we had to find a happy medium where we could inspire each other.

Your students are never far away in your work for fABULEUS either. What makes the job of a teacher so wonderful for you?

For me, it's the process I go through with my students. In the first semester, I work on structure in my subject and I'm quite strict in certain areas, in order to clarify expectations. After the December exams, I know that I can work in more depth and tackle more complex and sensitive topics. At that point, you can feel how they are fully engaged and learning. At the end of the year, I increasingly feel that I have contributed to their development. I think to myself, “fly birds”. Bring on the next group!