This past year I worked with the Overflow Foundation to try to teach theatre to some inner city kids who do not have drama, music and art in their school. During last summer I spent weeks asking advice about what and how best to teach drama to kids grades 8-12. I bought some lessons, took others, modified some classes I found in my notes from college and put together weeks of lesson plans.
After the first class, I came home and had a bonfire with all of my lesson plans. Everything I had planned was not only way beyond what these kids could handle. They were quick to tell me that they were not willing to do anything I thought they would want to do if they indeed were interested in being actors and singers some day. (And many told me that that was EXACTLY what they wanted!)
They informed me as a group that they would not memorize anything, they did not want to read anything, they did not want to learn anything about the history of theatre and most shockingly, they did not want to “perform” in front of each other!
I found some games and such that we could play, warm ups we could do, all in hopes of them getting comfortable in front of each other and eventually ready to do a skit or something, even if it wasn’t until the end of the year. After two weeks of this, they again bluntly informed me that class was boring and they wanted to go straight to doing a play. I was shocked. How could we do a play when they were unwilling to read, memorize, or speak in front of each other? I was totally confused.
That week I went to an audition and decided for class the next time, I would have them audition. In my audition I read from the script and had to sing my favorite Christmas song Acapella. So I had the kids read some simple stories for me and then sing. I brought them in one at a time so that their peers would not be able to laugh at them. Many struggled to read where I could hear them or understand them, others were scared to stand in front of me and most wouldn’t sing. (Most of the non singers were the very ones who had told me they wanted to BE singers!)
From the auditions I cast a short skit we would try to get ready before Christmas break in about 5 weeks, one class period of 30 minutes per week. When we were suddenly informed the program would shut down for the holidays in 3 weeks, I had to scramble to get it together and to find an audience. I had told the kids they could hold their scripts so that they didn’t have to “learn” the words, but the real struggle came with the fact that every week I had a different group of kids. I would recast the skit and go over blocking again, just in time for the 30 minutes to be over!
On the day of the skit, my sweet husband and son, a theatre friend of mine along with the few volunteers I hadn’t forced into roles in the skit when kids didn’t show up, made up our audience. The kids got really shy and the skit was only marginally coherent!
Part of the way through the second semester, I finally hit on some games that they liked. I had gone from high school/ modified college curriculum to middle school, to elementary school the semester before. Now I was into preschool classes that I reinvented a bit. It was during this time that I realized part of the problem was that these kids can hardly read. So I began to incorporate more and more words into the games. I was downhearted that I didn’t know this about some of them sooner.
By the end of the semester I had four of them read a Bible verse as part of the end of the year program. We took the short readings and worked on them for several weeks, learning about emphasis, looking up words, working on projection and although the program wasn’t great, the turn out of parents and the community, and the pride the students showed was.
Right before the program we rehearsed one last time. Just before they were going to perform, I went to each child and gave them a pep talk. Almost every one of them asked if I would be back the next school year. To be honest, I wasn’t sure. This had all been too hard, too discouraging, too exhausting. I try not to lie to anyone, especially children, so some I told that I wasn’t sure, others I said I would be back thinking they wouldn’t care and they wouldn’t remember anyway.
During the summer break I have felt sort of useless. I have helped my son move, redecorated two bedrooms in my house, gone on a fabulous vacation and I am helping to direct a play. But I could tell something was missing. When Overflow agreed to help with a summer camp in the same neighborhood, I agreed to go teach a few classes for one day. I looked over the games that had worked before and picked out a few.
The camp had ten times the number of kids we had had during the school year and they were wild. The first group took the ball we were tossing and had a free for all with it, so I put the ball away quickly. I was going hoarse raising my voice to get their attention. I remembered now why I had not been sure I would ever go back.
The second group was a little better and then I went to a third group to try to talk to them and realized (and said out loud) that no one was actually listening. Frustrating! They weren’t learning anything, much less anything about theatre and acting! It was dinner time so I was done and about to leave.
It was then that I heard one of the kids say to me, “Hey, you came back!” I smiled and he said, “You told me you would come back and you really did!” I muttered, “Sure I did” or something and moved on. Another kid then said, “Look, she came back!” I turned and two little girls we had allowed to join us in the spring even though they were too young, were smiling and pointing. I waved and then got my stuff and went to home and then to rehearsal, not really thinking too much about it.
Later, Julie (Overflow director and founder) told me that these kids aren’t used to people coming back. It was amazing to them that we had! Other groups had started different programs, but quickly given up. I could completely understand why! Each night after Overflow I would come home to pour a glass of wine and wonder why I was putting myself through all of this!
None of my classes were effective, the kids didn’t know any more about theatre in May than they had when we started in September. They had MAYBE learned a few new words, but even that I can’t be sure of. I felt like a total failure and told Julie several times that she should look for a different drama teacher, someone they could connect to, someone closer to their age and their race. I just wasn’t getting it done.
One of my pet peeves is feeling useless. If I go in to work on something, I don’t want to chit chat or have coffee or take breaks every 5 minutes, I want to WORK! And I want to get things accomplished, I am a do-er, a go-getter, a completer! At Overflow I had not felt like any of those things and although I felt something missing this summer, I was pretty sure I was done.
But I came back. And they noticed. They didn’t follow my instructions often, they didn’t listen to what I tried to teach them, they didn’t care what my agenda was, but they saw that I came back. And it mattered to them. And to me.
I have applied to be the assistant to the director for next school year. I am going back. Maybe it does matter.
