Way too much drama in "Drama"

Last Wednesday’s English Drama Class was nothing less than a disaster. This group of 18 rowdy, unruly, and bossy middle schoolers were supposed to have started working on their play 2 months ago, but the guy in charge of that class fled the country along with his wife because they hated working at Isikkent so badly. Enter me, a sacrificial lamb being thrown to the 13 year old wolves. I wanted to get to know these kids and make sure they know all the theater/acting basics before we had auditions and started work on Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, the play I recently selected for us to perform.

The 8th graders are exceedingly eager to start work on this play IMMEDIATELY, because they all have to take this difficult high school entrance exam in June, and they don’t want play rehearsal conflicting with their studying. I can understand their sense of urgency, but we can’t start working on a play if I don’t even have a script yet. And once I do get the script, it will be my enviable task to re-write the entire show- make it kid-safe, simplify the English, and cut about half of the show out entirely so the running time will be just over an hour. It’s going to be a lot of work and I’m not exactly looking forward to it, especially if my class-teaching hours increase over the next month.

I have this group for the last 90 minutes of the day, and by that time they’re all wound up and work and concentration are the last 2 things on their mind. I’ve drafted up all these lesson plans to teach them about acting and I have all these improv/acting/teamwork games for them to do, but it’s impossible to get them to do anything or even listen to what I’m saying. Half the time I’m yelling at full lung capacity over the din. I started shaving minutes off their break time last week when they wouldn’t quiet down, and that sort of worked, but it would still take them a good 60 seconds to settle down while I stood in front of my room staring at my wristwatch with a disapproving glare.

To top it all off, two 8th grade know-it-all girls came up to me during the break time and bluntly told me that everyone hates this class and all the stupid stuff I’m teaching them and making them do. Well, excuuuuse me! These 8th graders have been here from the school’s inception, and they’ve always been the top dogs, and they act like they run the school sometimes. I wish we could import some high school seniors for a week or two so they could get a reality check and be out in their place. Never in a million years would I have gone up to an 8th grade teacher between class and told them their lesson plan sucks and they better come up with something else fast, or else. I was blown away by the girls’ blunt candidness. Apparently, they already know everything about acting and theater, and require no further instruction. Heck, why don’t I let them direct and produce it, too? I’ll just sit in the back of the room and see how they fare.

After that “encounter,” I spent the second half of the class reading through a two page plot summary of Forum. I’d have one kid read a paragraph aloud in class, and when I did everyone else would start chatting and nobody would listen. You’d think they’d want to know a little bit about the show they’ll all be performing in, wouldn’t you? Well, I did, and I was WRONG. It took us about 30 minutes just to read through the summary when it should have taken 5 minutes, tops. I’m wondering, if I can’t even get them to read a piece of paper while sitting down in a classroom, how am I going to be able to direct them onstage? Something is going to have to change here.

A bunch of the girls went into a hissy fit when the plot synopsis mentioned courtesans and virgins. They told me that this was inappropriate material and that there was no way the administration would ever let them perform it. Fabulous. I proceeded to tell them that I’d be re-writing the show for them and editing it a little, but I don’t think any of it registered with them.

Anyways, I felt very discouraged after this class. And exhausted after a mere 90 minutes. I’ve never worked with kids before, and I’ve never had to work with such unwilling participants. Being in this show should be a privilege and a treat, but I don’t know if it’s actually possible convey that to them right now.

Time to roll up the sleeves and get creative here.