The good kind of drama

Last month (good lord, have I really procrastinated writing this post for a whole month?) I took the Drama Club to the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild High School Drama Festival. Once you’ve caught your breath from that mouthful of a name, please continue reading. This is an annual festival/competition that I participated in for three years in high school, so it was quite exciting and nerve-wracking for me to participate this year as an educator. I found myself getting nostalgic about my high school experiences with the festival, and it seems that my students also had a wonderful experience.

I went to a tiny, weird, awesome charter school for just about my whole life. We had these classes called “Projects” or “Workshops” which students could choose according to their interests—art, engineering, environment, etc. From 10^th through 12^th grade, I chose theater. This class met several afternoons a week, though we would frequently continue our rehearsals after school, turning it into a hybrid of class and club. In addition to our spring performance of a professional play, each year we also all wrote our own one-act plays, then chose one to perform at the Drama Festival.

Being a poor school, our budget was basically whatever we made at fundraisers and some donations from our parents who took pity on us. Our costumes were dug up from closets, attics, and the Salvation Army; sets were kept as simple as possible, and what we didn’t have lying around we had parents help us build or borrowed pieces from a kind school nearby; props were similarly scavenged for. Our teachers were not trained in theater, so mainly they were our supervisors and gophers, devoting many unpaid hours to us. I can only hope we thanked them enough. We students were given nearly limitless creative freedom—we were the directors, producers, stage managers, actors, and designers. This often put a lot of pressure on us, because if we wanted to make something happen, we had to figure out how to do it. And it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

My mother once asked me if I ever regretted going to that school, as it offered no AP or honors courses at the time, and had only a fledgling sports program. I told her that while I do wish I hadn’t missed out on those aspects of high school, what I gained instead was of much greater value. One of the many things it taught me, especially through the Theater Workshop, was self-sufficiency. We had to make something out of nothing, and work hard for anything we wanted. Nothing was handed to us on a silver platter, and that made us even prouder of the final product. At the Drama Festival, we went up against schools with established theater programs and actual budgets, and most used professional plays. And even though we never moved on to the next round, we always knew just how special our experience was, because it truly was OURS, every last detail. Moving on would have simply been icing on the cake.

At the school where I teach, I began getting involved with the Drama Club last year. This year, I am one of the co-advisors, and I knew that one of the things I wanted to do was participate in the Festival. I soon learned just how stressful being on the other side of it was…paperwork and scheduling and busses, oh my! I often felt that next to my credit as director it should also have said “child wrangler,” as getting all those students into one room together proved nearly impossible, and they were often not good about telling me when they could not be at rehearsal. I told them how lucky they were that they’re so darn funny. After all, it’s hard to stay too annoyed at a kid when they’re performing a scene for the 12^th time and STILL finding ways to make you laugh.

In some ways, this felt like my high school experience. Granted, the Drama Club had some money for us to spend, but as the play was about people auditioning for a play, the stage consisted of a table, folding chair, and a ghost lamp that my dad constructed (thanks, Pops). Costumes were closet pulls that the students and I collaborated on. Plus, our school doesn’t have much of a drama program—we don’t have a real theater (just a little “backstage” theater and a big stage in the cafetorium), no light/sound board, and no professionals who really know what they’re doing (because lord knows I’m not trained in this stuff, unless a little acting/directing experience and watching a crapload of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and some of the great comedians and studying their timing and whatnot makes you qualified to direct a comedy….). And just like when I was in high school, many of the people in the cast had never acted before. I badgered several of these kids for weeks about auditioning because I’d seen them act in class and knew they’d be great. What was really fantastic was that a couple of the new actors are members of the football and wrestling teams, and these two worlds are usually kept quite separate at this school. Bridging that gap felt like a victory in itself.

The day of Festival had its heart-attack-inducing moments, which I won’t go into (other than to say that at the end of the night, there was about a twenty-minute period during which I thought I’d have to go to my principal on Monday morning and say, “Hey, sorry, we lost one….”). But mostly it was great. The show went well, and even when a couple of kids messed up, one of their castmates covered for them beautifully. I was a nervous wreck in my chair, schvitzing like I’d just gone for a run, but delighting in how confident they looked up on that stage and in all the laughter coming from the audience. The rest of the day was filled with watching other shows, which was a fantastic learning experience for my students that made them want to improve to those levels, socializing with kids from other schools (I tried not to get too grossed out when a few of the boys had already picked which girls they wanted to chase after within an hour of our arrival), and having a great time with each other. And it’s fun for us teachers to have a chance to talk to these students and connect with them in a different way than we would in the classroom.

The long day/night ended with four members of the cast receiving recognition awards for their excellent acting, and yes, I cheered and took pictures like a proud mama. We didn’t move on to the next round, but the victory came on the bus ride home when the kids all started asking me about next year. Those who had been most skeptical about this experience at the beginning admitted that I was right about this being fun (duh) and said, “We have to start working on next year’s play TOMORROW!” I wish I could just bottle up the enthusiasm they displayed that night and take it out whenever I need a lift to my spirits. Even though the road to the Drama Festival was bumpy (as it always seems to be), I managed to turn a whole bunch of kids into Festie enthusiasts. Don’t hate me for being clichéd and corny, but there really are things more valuable than winning. When the host school was announced to be moving on to the semifinals, the person that went up to the stage to receive the award was the teacher/director, rather than one of the kids like the other schools had done. I don’t ever want that to be me. I always want to remember that it’s about the kids, about them having a positive experience. Knowing that my students were proud of their work, had learned a lot, and wanted to keep getting better was one of the best feelings I’ve had so far as a teacher. And I’m so grateful for my high school experience for making that possible.

Sunday night procrastination

Ahh, Sunday night. I should be grading papers right now, but I'm choosing instead to "productively procrastinate," aka pretend that blogging makes it okay to not be getting my real work done.

Last week was quite the adventure. No school on Monday and Tuesday thanks to Sandy causing power outages (luckily not at my apartment). Luckily, this meant I had a great opportunity to catch up on some of the work I felt like I was drowning in. Unfortunately, it also means that, if we get a couple snow days, I may end up going to school on my birthday (near the end of June) for the first time ever. It also threw off my plans for my classes a bit, and some things needed to be re-shuffled. However, we're getting back on track now.

Wednesday was Halloween. The English department, being the cool kids that we are, dressed up as various Harry Potter characters (I was Professor McGonagall). We looked pretty great, and the students got a kick out of it; I think it's good to show them that we've got a sense of humor about ourselves. I gave out candy to all my classes as well as the trick-or-treating daycare kids--ohmylord were those little ones ADORABLE. They are my favorite part of Halloween. Since I gave out so much candy during the day, I didn't feel so guilty ignoring my doorbell all night. My apartment is a second floor unit in a house, and there was no way I was running up and down those stairs all night. My roommate and I just grumbled about the doorbell like the crotchety old ladies we are at heart.

Tomorrow we are finally having our first meeting of the year for Drama Club! Oy, this has been SUCH a process trying to sort this whole debacle out. But I'm trying not to focus on that, and instead working on getting excited for the fabulous things we're going to do. This month I have to pick out a one-act play for the Massachusetts High School Drama Festival (if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!). I participated in this for three years back in high school, and it was always such a fantastic experience. It's strange to think that now I'll be participating in a completely different role. I hope the students love it as much as I did.

One of my big goals with the club this year is to make sure that the students have more ways to get involved rather than just acting--I'll get a student to be stage manager, students to help with backstage crew and publicity, etc. I'll also be running an improv/sketch comedy group. It's not my area of expertise, but it'll be a great way to get more kids involved, especially those who want to write. A couple of other teachers will also be putting together a show, possibly a student-written one. Several students who were involved with the Drama Club last year excitedly came to my classroom after school on Friday to do a partial reading of a play they've been writing. It seems to have potential, and it's nice to see how passionate they are about it. I'm hoping we get a lot of students to show up for tomorrow's meeting...we really need a lot more kids to get involved, and hopefully all the new stuff we're trying will help invigorate the program.


And I'll leave you with something to make you chuckle:

The play's the thing.

Just a quick update today, and I will post again later this week, so be sure to check back!

This year I'm trying to be a bigger part of the school community. Part of that has meant going to a few more events/games than I did last year. Besides making me look good in front of the boss, it also makes the kids quite happy to see me there to support them. This semester, I am also taking on the challenge of directing a play. For the spring show there are going to be two one-acts, and I am directing one of them. I chose a show called 'Dentity Crisis, which I had vaguely remembered seeing back in high school at the Massachusetts High School Drama Festival. It's an (extremely) absurd comedy, and right up my alley. (Go here to read a synopsis.)

When I was in high school, I loved performing in comedies. My favorite was when I played sextuplets in Wonder of the World--each character was crazier than the last, ranging from a bald woman desperate for friends to a marriage counselor who moonlights as a clown and has a shady past (Amy Sedaris originated that role, so those of you familiar with her can imagine just how wacky it was). I got to create different personalities and even use some different voices, and it was great fun. Even though I'm not a big fan of public speaking, doing this was fantastic because it wasn't really "me" onstage, so I could be as crazy as I wanted, because that's what I was supposed to do. With 'Dentity Crisis, I'm very excited to explore that kind of absurdity with the five students I have cast. We had our first read-through yesterday, and spent some time getting to know each other, then read through the show. They were all thoroughly tickled (and confused) by it, often breaking out in laughter while reading. They seem really excited about it, and their energy is exactly what I need right now. I think it's going to be a fun couple of months, and I may actually start looking forward to Mondays (at least a little bit)!