A Play

I took 10 of my drama students to the local University on Tuesday to watch a production of The Importance of Being Ernest. It was brilliant, and my students really liked it. On the way in, we took the roundabout way, and I gave a brief verbal tour of the University, pointing at the buildings we passed. It went something like this:

Teachingchris: There’s the lab building. It’s where you’d do Science labs.

Awed silence from students.

Teachingchris: There’s the classroom building.

Shawn: (sarcastically) What’s in there? Classrooms?

Teachingchris: Yeah, kind of obvious, heh? There’s the library.

Shawn: Do they have books in there? Our school doesn’t get books – just magazines.

Jordan: No Shawn, we have books. You just don’t know how to read them.

Teachingchris: There’s the Language Institute.

Shawn: Too easy, Teachingchris, too easy.

I know that the banter doesn’t translate very well, but I was rolling by the end of it. Trust me. It was funny. Some days, I have the funniest job in the world.

Drama Class

Today we had our first real drama classes, and there is much to tell, but I’ll stick to one story:

Student A – we’ll call him Harold – is doing an exercise with me on Accepting, one of the fundamentals of improvisation. In the exercise, Harold is to enter with an offer, or an idea, and I am to respond with “Yes” accepting his offer and building on it. Perhaps you know the game. Here’s how it played out:

Harold <enters petting a fake cat> My cat is sick. Can you look at him?
Teachingchris: Yes, I am a vet. What’s the problem seem to be?
Harold: <motioning below the cat> Well, the shit. There’s shit everywhere.
Teachingchris : <motioning to Harold’s white sneaker> Even on your shoe. Gross.
Harold: So can you fix him or what?
Teachingchris: Well, I suppose. Leave him here and I’ll look at him.
Harold: How do I know I’ll get him back?
Teachingchris: Why would I want a cat covered in crap?

I am not sure that this translates well to the blog, but as I said before, that isn’t too important — what is important to me is documenting these quick interactions, for they are the stuff that teaching is made of. Moments of brilliance, moments of humor, moments that make you shake your head.  More moments to come…