Journal 3 - February 8, 2007


Today, Iliana (or should I say Ms. Phirippidis?) and I experienced our first day teaching our own class at Jordan High School.We officially started our residency! I have to say, overall, I thought it went very well. Most of the kids that were in Kori's theater class last semster are in one of (or both) our classes for this semester. It made me very grateful that we had the experience of observing and getting to the students before we started teaching. Seeing familiar faces made me feel much more at ease. the ones we knew seemed noticeably more comfortable interacting with us. Though it's hard to say if they were more outgoing because they knew us, or whether it is just in their nature; some of the kids have a natural knack for making jokes and performing in front of people. Also, it is clear that the kids who had Kori's class last semester are more confident.
For the first class, we went over the most basic skills and concept in theater/drama and introduced them to a couple improvisation games. Though I had high expectations that they would be creative with their character choices, most of the kids had a really hard time thinking on their feet and being able to stay engaged in the scene. We had some very good laughs though, and it gave us a good sense of who our class-clowns are, who we can count on to participate, and who needs a little gentle coaxing to get involved. I'd say the most successful part of the activity for them was getting more comfortable in the group, since it's their first week in their classes, and for us, it was an opportunity to get to know the students as much as possible in the first meeting.
Expanding on their character choices, etc -- I noticed one thing that was really interesting. We instructed them in the game "freeze" to start a new scene when they took the place of another actor in the scene. However, most of the scenes ended up being about similar topics: a drug deal, gambling/making a bet, spittin' game/hollerin', breaking up with a cheating boyfriend/girlfriend, etc. And it was hard to influence them to try a different setting and characters. Then after I thought about it, I realized that part of the game is thinking on your toes, and extrapolating scenes from your consciousness in order to use them for acting/improvising in the scene. It made me realize that the reality they were drawing from is much different than the one I would draw from when I played improv in high school. It was a good reminder for me as to where these kids are coming from, and what they've been subjected to in their environment. And it makes me so happy to see that so many of them have really good hearts and really want to learn.