Building Characters Through the Years...
An Interview with Sister Jean Dummer
Formerly Sr. Francine, Drama Teacher at St. Joseph's Academy
| Jean Dummer remembers every play she’s directed, during every year, at every school. She says that the students will probably remember her standing in the back of the auditorium hollering ‘Project!’ to the young women rehearsing their parts on the stage. At St. Joseph’s Academy Jean spent eight years investing in the excited minds and sundry characters of her students. As a Sister of St. Joseph, Jean saw her calling to education as “helping people become all that they can become.” Looking back Jean has fond memories of the way the plays would come alive on the stage. |
 | She had a special appreciation for Children’s Theater. As she says,“Children’s plays were more real, because to the children they were real.”
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Jean remembers a moment when a witch was booed off stage by an audience of frightened kids, and the student went off and cried behind the curtain. Jean recalls, “She didn’t realize how well she had done, to give the children such a strong reaction.”
The life-like effect was always the result of a cooperative effort, and it was the collaborative work of the students that made the experience so enjoyable. The Juniors would focus on the sets and costumes, and the seniors would focus on reading, acting and developing the characters.
| As Jean says, “When the character, tempo and pacing come together, it’s a very exciting moment.” Through a mixture of talent and preparation, the students learned how to bring a story to life.
She remembers one performance of "The Wizard of Oz" in particular. Dorothy was on stage wondering how she would get home, and Jean was watching with the children from the audience. Just as Dorothy was fretting that she had lost her way, a child turned to her mother and asked, “Why doesn’t she take the bus?”
While the children's theater brought excitement and hillarity to young audiences, the more dramatic plays performed at student assemblies allowed students more insight into acting as a craft. They also allowed a little more room for creativity on the part of the director. |
| Now, many her former students have become friends, just as many of her professors at St. Kate’s have become friends. Although Jean is retired she still takes a very active role in the field of education. She continues to teach one class at St. Catherine Univeristy, for master students in education and advises seven graduate students. She is also a member of the Sisters. of St. Joseph Ministries Foundation and sits on the Education Committee. She takes a very active role in educating the public in the ways the Sisters are active now and uses her passion share that message with the community. For Jean Dummer education is essential to transforming a person and thus transforming the world around us. In her words, "We’re not just intellectual and physical, we’re spiritual. For me, spirituality getting at who you really are, and everything intellectual leads to that.”
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