During the final week of Pulaski Technical College's Teen College, I co-taught with Paula Morrell of Tales From the South.  I taught My Story (an autobiographical performance class), and Paula taught Journey Into Writing (a creative writing course). Most of our students consider themselves writers more than they consider themselves performers.  Knowing we would be expected to present something for parents and invited guests at the sharing Friday morning, we devised an extremely safe way for our writers to perform.

The acting class decided to perform a mini-revue of *Wicked* songs, so Paula had the foresight to give her writing students a complementary prompt during the Teen College's first week.  She asked students to write a prequel short story for one of the other characters in *The Wizard of Oz*--much like Jonathan Maguire did with the Wicked Witch of the West in *Wicked*.  Two students co-wrote the story of the Scarecrow, and we staged it during the second week.

Given my knowledge of our students' comfort levels, I wanted to provide them with a way they could feel both safe and successful in staging the work.  In devising with my AGS students this summer, I challenged them to consider alternative light sources, and two groups took accepted that challenge by using silhouette incredibly effectively. I thought silhouette would provide a comfortable way for our students to perform their work.  They would be behind a sheet, after all.  So we recorded students reading the story.  Then two students (Scarecrow and Witch) volunteered to perform the tableaux which provided the visuals for the story.  The students not involved in making tableaux on stage created live sound effects.  Finally, we assigned another student to lower a green gel over the light for the Witch's entrance.  It was a very cool, very comfortable performance for our writers!

Last week I taught Improv Insanity at Pulaski Technical College's Arkansas Teen College--a two week enrichment program for 6th-12th graders.  Between large group warm-ups and large group rehearsals for a few songs from *Wicked,* I taught five students.  We learned the basic rules of improv such as being spontaneous, accepting offers, and assuming our partner's brilliance through improv games and scenarios.  Improv has technique just like acting, and improv technique can be particularly difficult for middle school age students in particular.  One of the cardinal rules of improv is never to say no in a scene.  If your partner says you're riding a horse, you don't say:  "This is not a horse.  This is an elephant."  You must accept whatever your partner sets forth.  Middle school students often operate in the negative with each other in everyday life--self-deprecating jokes, "harmless" put-downs, etc.  Most of my students were middle school students, so we worked A LOT on the never say no rule.  By the end of the week, I felt all students had improved...even if improvement meant simply speaking in front of others.  I am constantly reminded how good theatre is for kids' self-confidence.  Teaching Improv Insanity reinforced that belief.

For four weeks, I have taught drama at Arkansas Governor's School on Hendrix campus in Conway with my co-teacher, Christina Riggins.  This was my fourth time to teach drama at AGS but my first time since in the economically-svelte four week format.  Feeling like I just worked my way through a minor tornado, I must agree with my friend Richard Gobble.  I believe that of all the classes, drama suffers the most from the loss of two extra weeks.  There simply isn't enough time. 

We began the summer with auditioning and acting basics.  After sitting on the THEA Foundation's performance scholarship panel, I know the majority of high school students aren't taught auditioning skills.  I also know the majority of high school students (at least in Arkansas) learn to act through scene work rather than learning acting technique.  In fact, only students from two of the schools represented (Bentonville and Little Rock's Parkview) raised hands to indicate familiarity with the acting technique covered when polled.  (This may be due to Arkansas' requirement that drama teachers certify in speech rather than theatre--two very different disciplines.)  Therefore, I felt it imperative to cover the concepts of goal, obstacle, tactics, and expectations in order to insure a common vocabulary.  

During the second week, we explored avant garde theatre movements such as Dadaism and The Happenings in preparation for AGS's Happening--an annual inter-disciplinary arts event.  Under the theme of "Weathering the Storm," we collaborated with visual arts students using slow motion pantomime scenes, multimedia images and sound, an interactive rain storm, and the deconstruction of our "set" to indicate the various emotions experienced during extreme natural events such as tornadoes.

This left us with two weeks.  I LOVE devising.  Anyone who knows anything about devising knows there's NEVER enough time, but two weeks is NOT enough time.  We charged the small groups of students with devising a ten minute play inspired by the Arcade Fire song of their choice.   Though I definitely don't think a lot of the students initially bought into the concept, they created really cool work in spite of our EXTREME devising time period.

As an educator, I leave this experience feeling very conflicted.  I am ultimately very happy with the students' final work; however, it was incredibly stressful to get it there.  Due to our shortened time period, Christina and I couldn't guide students through questions to discover the holes in their scripts.  We had to be very direct with feedback which inspired quite a bit of resistance.  In spite of our best efforts to explain our transition from facilitators to directors (which is a major part of the devising process) and to talk them  through their scripts' issues, many students felt we squashed their ideas.  Ultimately, I believe the success of the show led them to forgive us, but this one really hurt in the process.

bell hooks discusses how learning is often painful, and I would argue that pain is felt on both sides of the learning--teacher and student.  As I prepare for my next devising experience at Hendrix College in the fall, I feel newly charged to insure the students bond as an ensemble, lead through questions rather than directives, and maintain positivity in the face of the inevitable frustration that is part of the devising process.  As I told my AGS students, though, I believe it is the pain of that frustration that makes the joy so much more powerful.  Devising is incredibly hard work that stretches acting, writing, movement, improvisation, designing, and directing skills.  And THAT is why I still believe it is one of the most holistic, rewarding experiences in theatre.