Nominating an Outstanding Student in any year is tough, but infinitely more difficult online. As Performing Arts, we have to first go through the kids we all know. You can't be outstanding unless you're enrolled in two of the three departments. We teachers also have to be in possession of a functioning brain that can hold more than one name at a time, which is a requirement that is still up for debate. So we named the obvious kids, and then for some reason decided to keep looking. Our outstanding freshman almost didn't get nominated because I had been saying his name wrong. Devan nominated him based on his skill in band and his kindness, and asked if we had the kid. I said no, and then immediately realized if you spelled his name the way Devan was saying it, it looked like his screen. I had to go back to my roster and reverse my original "Nope, don't know him" to "Oh ya, he's awesome". Communication breakdowns dictated that he had no idea he was our Outstanding Freshman, and he did not get an email about the online google meet ceremony. So I had to tell him in class and send him the link. While I was at it, I explained that he almost didn't get nominated because I've been saying his name wrong. I pointed out that he was allowing me to say it wrong, in fact, I record class so I can prove he said "Yes ma'am" when I asked how to pronounce it, so really, this is all his fault.
The hybrid was a shit show, let's just say it. I'd have three or four kids in person and 22 online, and the ten regularly engaged online kids would show up early to chat with the in person kids, also logged into google meet for class but sitting six feet apart in the room. In one session I had four kids in person, and at least all four were willing to do the scene work. We spent most of the session in the theatre. I even gave them a tour and told them to take anything they wanted out of the costume closet. It was a glorious day, they had fun and I got to dig out years of Whatever Was Going On in that closet. There were props everywhere as well. One girl found four pair of jeans---right? WHY are there jeans in the costume closet? Anyway, they fit and she was delighted. Another managed to ferret out every weird prop being stored: skulls, chains,a fake spider, a goblet---can you guess which genre this kid identifies with? They were also beyond joyful, and managed to locate an old Canon camera as well as a big camcorder from the 1990's. I told them they couldn't have those, too valuable and vintage, and they shrugged and kept digging. They left school that day with a stuffed backpack and an additional plastic bag of treasures. I wondered what their parents thought when they arrived home. They ended up being on quarantine for their final scene, so their group had three in person on stage and one online for The Three Little Pigs, and they used the props from school for their scene in their bedroom. The ones in person built their set on stage, taking time to shop the props loft. They couldn't be heard in the meet, no matter how well they projected, due to the masks and the fact that they were performing on stage in a crappy google meet, but I did not care, and neither did they. I honestly cried a little.
The kids who were online for am class would gather early in the meet and chat each other up. We followed one girl's saga of wanting to talk to the boy next door (literally, he lived next door, it was ADORKABLE) but she was too shy. We helped her construct some non creepy intro lines, most of them regarding his puppy. By day 14 of the 20 day session, she had managed to say hello to him, get his name and have a conversation. She found out he only spoke Spanish, which delighted her to no end, and he called her pretty. What a rare opportunity to get to be part of a student's life like that.
In the same session, I had a kid who always logged into class from his back porch. During the fall session, which was Nov/Dec, this was a pretty cold choice. He said there were too many people in the house and he couldn't hear. By the spring session, we had adjusted to him in the chat, because it wasn't so much quiet outside, either. I would have to say his name at least three times to get him to realize I was talking to him. The whole class would get involved. He made sure everyone had his discord information, and always participated to the best of his ability. For his Favorite Actor presentation, he chose someone named "Canoe Reeves". Everybody tried to correct him, and he spelled it three different ways in his slide show: "Canoe", "Keanu", "Kanoe". We laughed with him, and he never did get it. It's fine. Let his favorite actor be "Canoe Reeves because he does a lot for other people and respects women and he's John Wick and played Ted and I think he's cool."
Struggling in the fall when we were 100% remote, I panicked and decided they had to make sock puppets and perform The Odd Couple. It combines memorization, reading a play, and building a prop: take that state standards. They also had to worry about camera angles, so bonus points. I got The Best Sock Puppets from these kids. One kid gave his Oscar his 'fro, and his was too tall to get out of the shot, so it was a sock puppet and the top of his own afro. Another built a cop hat out of paper for Murray. Yet another built a tie for Felix and used a Sharpee to give Oscar a five o'clock shadow. A few did the poker scene and since they only have two hands, used their stuffed animals or siblings. I recorded them all, and in the darker days of February, I would go back and watch them.
These are just a few. Now that I'm through it all, I can look back and choose a few Moments That Didn't Suck (aside from the obvious limited success of two live/hybrid/livestreamed cabarets, which were not class based. Those were extra curricular, and I expected those kids to shine). These are kids who were Freshmen through Senior, some enrolled in a theatre class involuntarily in the first place, then forced into remote in the second place. Without any prompting, they lived the mantra: "Never give up, never surrender."
We all made it.
To quote Clark Griswold "...Halleluiah, Holy shit, where's the Tylenol?"
No comments:
Post a Comment