It's production week at AHS for the Mass. HS Drama Guild Festival and I'm exhausted!

We had our tech last night at the festival site (Weston HS). When I got home, I walked

 Jimmy, ate some not so good food (Ramen Noodles and Lean Pockets!) and got cracking

 on my lesson plans for today's Improv. Class. I had also planned to read a book of plays

 by Sophocles in preparation for my MTEL's on March, 8th but didn't have time. Finally at

 midnight, it was lights out.

 I got less than six hours of sleep which brought me to today.... I was up at 6am, at AHS by

 7:30am and teaching Improv. class by 7:40am. First, I took attendance and collected class

contracts and theatre experience surveys. They talked through the very difficult to hear

 morning announcements (as usual). I then had them write a journal entry on something they

 observed or experienced over their February vacation (this was their first class back with me

 since their return). one young lady commented that this was the same assignment I'd given them two

weeks ago after they returned from the weekend. Oh well. They should have observed or

 experienced something new during that time! I gave the homework assignment which was

that they should attend the presentation of the Drama Guild's "Snow Queen" and then create

a list of all theatre techniques and conventions they observed. For those who could not attend,

 the alternative assignment was to write a one page (one side, double space) about a performance

 they had seen recently. I asked them to be as descriptive as possible. We had a one student drop

 the class and another young woman joined the class today.

 We started our improv games for the day. First I had them move about the room and fill the

space giving them prompts like "walk like a robot", "walk backwards", "make an exaggerated

 facial expression of how you feel today and make eye contact with everyone in the room", in

between prompts, I had them "freeze" turn to the person closest to them and tell the other person

 about their vacation in 7 words or less. Almost all of them cheated and used more than 7 words.

 We played this game for about 10 minutes or so. I then asked them to answer questions like "tell

 me the most memorable thing you heard", "who had saddest vacation?", "who's were you most

envious of?" and finally I would call out a student's name and ask if anyone could tell me what

the other person had told them about their vacation.

Then we played "Yes" (Group Improvisation book-page 23) , and I was corrected by the students

 when they said I didn't explain it correctly, I admitted to them I have a very bad memory. So it

 took a while get the game going, but it picked up after a while when everyone got the swing of it.

 Next, we played a game from Viola Spolin (page 59) called "Identifying Objects". I had gathered

 about 30 random objects from home into pillow case. These objects included things like the top

 of a jar candle, a parmesan cheese shaker, a figurine of a frog doing yoga, a spaghetti serving

measurer, etc. The students stood in a circle with their hands behind their backs. I placed an object

 in their hands and told them to examine it with their hands behind their backs and to make

observations about how it felt, and try to figure out what it is without looking or telling anyone

else just yet. I had them step into the middle of the circle (one by one) and turn around while

holding the object so that the students in the circle could see what the object was. The student

 in the middle of the circle then had to describe the object in regard to how it felt. I asked them

 to guess what it was before looking at it and I'd say about 50% figured their object out before

 looking at it. Some of the objects truly were very obscure, so it was ok if they didn't figure them

 out. They really seemed to enjoy this activity.

Finally, we moved on to our playmaking activities.

During the last week of class, I had requested that the students bring in the lyrics to a song which

 speaks to them personally about creativity. I had broken them into random groups of 4 and 5

 and had them choose their favorite lines from each song. They then had to put them into an order

 that made sense to them. I had then assigned that they would choose a narrator, and then create

 tableaux representing each line of the song. We were working on this on the Friday before vacation,

 but were unable to complete this, so today we were to continue with it. I gave them 5 minutes to

finish creating their tableaux together and then had them sit on the floor as an audience. Each

group them presented their tableaux twice along with the narration. They were all appreciative of

 each other's work. I explained that we would continue to work with and expand on these creations

 throughout our playmaking experience. I took video of their presentations so that we would be able

 to recreate them properly during the next class period. Lastly I told them how we may have an

observer from Emerson College in class on Thursday who will be there to observe me but they

shouldn't behave (much) differently than normal. That was the end of class for the day. Tonight,

 I will be at the Full Dress Rehearsal for the  Drama Guild's presentation of "The Snow Queen"

 for which I am the assistant director. I'm so tired!

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So as I had mentioned, Tuesday was a very tiring and busy day.

After teaching  Improv, I worked from about 9:30am til 5pm, ate some yucky fast food

and headed back to the HS in a snow storm. The kids were there when

I got there, but they were mostly fooling around in the dressing rooms

while the techs got the set built. I asked them to be ready for notes by 6:15pm

(They had 45 minutes) and at 6:30pm, half of them were ready. I was frustrated

at that point because a few of them were really trying to push my buttons

with some information I’d told them about what I’d done back in high school.

One kid in particular, was really pushing it too far and when I started reading

my notes to him, I kind of let a naughty word slip out. The kids wouldn’t let that one go!

Mrs. C. showed up and the worst offender was sure to tell her that “Miss G. said such and such!”

she wasn’t upset of course, she just said “teachers acquire better censorship skills with time”.

When the rehearsal got going, I sat with Mrs. C and took notes on my laptop. The show is

looking much, much better. Puppets are finally in the show, lighting looks good, acting is better…

They actually “have a show” which I couldn’t honestly say a week ago. We had them do two run

throughs and then gave notes. They really were much improved. We didn’t get out of the HS

til about 10:30pm. I drove home in really scary torrential downpours and hydro-planed all the way home.

I was so exhausted!