I'm so bored being bashed for "not working", yet I've been knocking myself silly to teach theatre remotely. Stop posting hate about teachers not working, you're an ass. My colleagues scream and they're not wrong THEY'RE NOT WRONG it's worthy of a full throated shout. We Didn't Cause This, Stop Attacking Us Because We Cannot Fix It. I was lending my voice for a time, but I just can't anymore. Nobody Cares and I'm hoarse. My last contribution to the online fray regarding the "I have to work,go to work teachers!" inaccurate, uninformed mantra was "Ignorance +Anger =America's Favorite Cocktail".
We've decided to do a "Hybrid Cabaret" on 11 March, the anniversary of our shut down. The adults will be on stage, the kids will get on google meet and perform both live on stage and on google meet: social commentary. Hybrid building, hybrid cabaret. And twice the work of a live show.
I told the kids the theme was "It's Been A Year" but I don't want pieces that whine or yell. I want to see what they've been doing this year. I want songs that feed their souls, poetry that inspires them and original work that reflects the journey.
I was delighted when one girl said she and a few others had found something akin to a Minecraft fan fiction, stories written about the characters. She's been playing a lot of Minecraft this year, and decided they could build a scene around this.
YES. Do That.
I told them I was writing a slam poem, but it was not going to add to the white noise. It's a slam about how I overcame my tech fear by learning what I could, embracing my passion and looking backward to theatre's roots to inspire my students.
I can write about it now, because it worked. No need to go into the history of my previous building and my new district. Irrelevant.
All that matters is that my building chose to keep all electives ( you heard me, all electives) remote for the entire year. That means theatre, choir, band, art....all remote.
Remember how I teach theatre?
In a blind panic, I decided to first cling inexplicably to my IB status, and teach history.
History is necessary and a personal chocolate for me.
To three sections of Intro, largely freshmen.
Ummm....sure...?
I'm also up against a district that dictated that we break each of the classes (I have six) into 20 day sessions. OH, there are only two classes a day in each session. And they're three hours long.
I had to teach an entire fall semester in 20 days in August. Then when they returned in January, hope they remembered and teach some more.
So much for IB and Theatre history.
I am surrounded by colleagues spending money on blue screens and cameras. By others who can see their kids in person for rehearsals. This is where I reiterate that I was cut off. Cut Off. Soccer and tennis and football were fine to practice and play, but performing arts were cut off. The Theatre Is Dark. I'm writing this on 3 Feb 2021 and I have not seen a student in person since 12 March 2020.
For Real.
So here is what I decided: The Muppet Show worked. Mr. Rogers worked. We Don't Need No Stinkin' Stage. (WRONG WE NEED A STINKIN' STAGE!)
History. Yes. Lectures and Crash Coruses for fun. NO PEAR DECKS EVER. Some google doc quizzes and connecting various histories to movies and video games in meet. A few demonstrations in combat and mime that went poorly. But the kids were so patient and wonderful, and none of it was sticking.
They need to learn to read a script. That's a thing that can be done on google meet. My personal Intro fave is The Odd Couple by Neil Simon. But in August, I had no capacity to create break rooms ( neither did Google Suite), so...I decided each student had to choose one scene and create a puppet show for that scene. Only their little selves, some sock puppets and their district Chrome book. They would become actors and prop masters and get to figure out camera angles. Sounded like a stretch, but I needed something to engage them in theatre, not film.
I gave them work time and instructions for the puppets: buy nothing. They must be sock puppets you build from whatever you found around the house. I stayed in the meet while they searched, helped them figure out eyes ( is it a marker or a button you stitch on?) and camera angles. We had done a costume history unit, so several were interested in created costume pieces for their puppets.
They at it up.
I was gobsmacked.
Really?
Yes, really. One "Murray" had a police hat. Several "Felix's" had ties. Oscar's had stubble, and one kid gave both his Oscar and his Felix his own hair: a fro. There were stripey socks with hair, and socks with full costumes "sitting" around a table of stuffed animals for the poker scene. They used dialects. They loved on each other in the chat. They laughed and cheered each other on.
I do not believe, in my entire career, I have thoroughly enjoyed so many scenes. I laughed so loud I disrupted the dog's nap. I told these kids I loved their commitment and their creativity and I meant it.
For puppets. Not film. Not Pear Deck or Screentastify. Not You Tube editing or Tik Tok.
For the core of theatre: to tell a story.
To Tell A Story.
You can't tell a story if you are uncomfortable, or your wifi cuts out. Which happens with several kids, daily.
You can't tell a story if you're afraid of the camera or if you can't see the final product until it's edited together.
Theatre is defined by a live audience. A Live Audience. Live Performers. Period.
Funny, nobody's wifi gave them trouble during their puppet performance.
Because we were worshipping Dionysus at his base, building puppets from things around the house, learning to create, adapting to the "live" audience awaiting the show behind their own screen.
So while my colleagues created films, allowed kids to record on flipgrid, taught editing and leaned into the tech...I reached backwards.
You can keep your tech, y'all. I'll be in the corner with my sock puppets, retelling the story of how much fun it was to tell Neil Simon's story with sock puppets.
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