By Kaitlin Candelaria
Roy Hudson is no stranger to the theater scene in Alabama.
He was named teacher of the year in Alabama in 2008 – the first time a fine arts teacher had ever claimed the title.
He founded the now well-known Shades Valley Theatre Academy at Shades Valley High School, where he taught for more than 15 years.
And now he’s added a new entry to his resume; in August, he was named the artistic director of Birmingham Children’s Theatre.
A Texas native, Hudson moved to Alabama after the birth of his first child to teach at UAB. Although his plans originally were to move to L.A. and try to make it big in the film industry, becoming a father altered his course of action.
However, the move to Birmingham proved to be a fruitful one. He worked at Town and Gown Theater before moving on to a larger production company. His production work includes a litany of big-time acronyms – the SEC, the PGA and even NASA.
“It was an exciting time,” he said. “But I also had small children at home and had to figure out the right mix.”
It was then that Hudson accepted a teaching position at Shades Valley High School, which he calls the best move he ever made.
“As much as I love doing everything – and I really love doing everything – I really like working with kids the best,” Hudson said. “There’s something that’s so special about that. I was very blessed with wonderful kids and great support from other teachers and the administration.”
Hudson said he saw the figurative writing on the wall when the state began making cutbacks to fine arts in education and knew he had to do something to make his theater program viable.
“I started working with kids on the academic side of things,” he said. “I’d have a dozen kids graduate each year with between one and two million dollars in scholarship offers, which was huge. And we were able to send them to school – some in theater, but many in law and medicine and architecture. These kids became people who loved the arts but that are excelling at whatever career they chose to do because they worked with a comfortable, safe group of people who pushed them and made them feel good about themselves. And every kid needs to feel good about themselves.”
Hudson hopes to apply that model at the Birmingham Children’s Theatre, as well.
“I love working with young people in the field because it’s an opportunity to find kids who may not fit in some place else,” he said. “They come here and they’re able to work and feel positive and confident about themselves.”
His first big project as the artistic director has been to implement a youth education program. The Young Actor’s Theater will allow children and young adults to work as performers at the theater.
“We’re going to start doing the first shows that feature just children,” Hudson said. “We’re also now offering classes in the fall, meaning that classes are available year-round, which has never been the case before.”
Hudson said one of the biggest challenges will be figuring out ways to reach everybody.
“We live in a digital and mobile world now,” he said. “We’ve got to come up with ways to bring the arts to children because it’s very critical.”
He also said he wants to make sure that Birmingham Children’s Theatre is focused on bringing relevant material to children.
“Gone are the days when we can just do fairytales,” he said. “There are so many issues that children and young adults have to live with these days, so we’ve got to reach them with things that are important to them socially and educationally.”
