Twelve kids, realism and a headache later...

I am truly amazed at my difficult morning.

I have had the good fortune to teach drama (specifically commedia dell'arte, clown and exploration of classic texts) to a group of young children ranging from 5 to 13 years of age for the past couple of years now.

Yes, it's on Saturday morning. Yes, I'd rather stay in bed. Yes, without my coffee I wouldn't be able to handle it. However even through the rough times, I find myself greatly enjoying the experience. Teaching kids has allowed me to make many discoveries about myself as an actor and as a director.

This term, the head of the drama class decided we would explore contemporary texts and a realistic style of performing. We figured that most of the kids in the group had been with us for a couple of terms... they were familiar with basic theatrical conventions... they had developped a basic working style... they had discovered their own clown... they had learned neutral mask... they had performed with commedia masks... they felt comfortable with physical exploration. Tackling realism was, in our minds, the next logical step. Since they'd been to one extreme of "grandiose" performing, now it was time to get them to explore the "minimal".

Well, there's one aspect of this whole plan that we didn't really think of... that we didn't realise at the time would be a major obstacle -- their great difficulty with learning lines!

Here we are, trying to get these kids to communicate to one another, to listen, to re-act in the moment... and all they're thinking about is "what's my line?" Granted, the texts chosen are quite substantial, but we had no idea how hard it was going to be for them.

So, we present the fruits of our labour to the parents and families next Saturday. We never expect a "finished product" at these presentations... we make it clear to the parents that this is not just a show, but another step in the creative and learning process. However, I'd best make sure to do a vocal warm-up and have the scripts on hand because I have a feeling that I'll be seeing scared little faces looking at me and calling "line" quite often.

It's a good thing that parents sometimes wear blinders... under good (and even not-so-good) lighting, with (or without) memorised lines... they'll still applaud their little angels. And that's the way it should be.