Drama Class began as usual. I gathered children from all corners of the building. Thus, we started four minutes late. I asked everyone to form a circle, and they mostly complied. Metal Man and J. caused general disruption. I could barely wait to implement my new plan. But in my distracted state, I was not very eloquent.
“So, last week,” I said, “we were creating characters. So, this week we're going to act out our characters. Okay? So, there's kind of a ritual that starts off drama things, where you go –– Could you sit down J., Metal Man?”
Metal Man chased J. around our newly formed circle. I could not imagine that they were able to listen very well.
“I'm trying to,” J. responded.
They eventually sat down, and I continued. “And we all –– to put on our characters –– we go to a spot in the room, and we let go of everything we're thinking about....”
“So, pretty much we blow up our brains,” inserted Metal Man.
“No,” I said, “it's more like you empty––”
Little, straggly haired Bunny said, “I'm not thinking of anything.”
“Well that's great!” I replied, “That way you can start thinking as the character. So, to do this, we're going to each find a place in the room. You're going to––”
“Do you smell a big gas?” asked Metal Man.
I ignored him and continued, “––empty out everything that you're thinking about. And then you become Link, or whatever character you are.”
In the very first class, Metal Man decided that his character would be Link (yes, the elf from the video game). Obviously, I wasn't thrilled by the originality of this choice, but I allowed it to slide. As far as I know, the other students have created new characters. Actually, never mind. Boy Nicky's character, Fire, has some relation to Pokemon.
I told them I had also created a character. My character was a Drama Class Teacher, and he was firmer than I.
We each found a space in the room. After we became our characters, we called each other by our character names. This is our cast list:
Zachary ........ The Instructor
Metal Man .... Link
J. ................... Sir Locaver
Bunny ........... Mariposa
Dani .............. Pinky
Girl Nicki ..... Snowdrop
Rachelle ....... Isabelle
Boy Nicky ... Fire
In some ways, I feel that I have made this class too complicated. Creating characters with objectives and obstacles is very difficult. Additionally, it's hard to remember everyone's names.
Fortunately, I discovered that my character was much better at teaching the class than I. At least, he was able to keep some semblance of order. Metal Man (who was supposed to be playing Link) was not allowed to touch or grab this instructor at all. This instructor stopped rowdiness. This instructor refused irrelevant student requests. This instructor achieved levels of assertiveness that I, Zachary, couldn't even dream of. This instructor will definitely teach next week's class.
I don't know if the students were as happy in their characters. Rachelle and Bunny did extremely well acting as their characters, though. At least, they seemed to discover a lot of new information about their characters. In particular, I want to see what Rachelle does with her character, Isabelle. Isabelle wants respect and The Instructor is giving her none. He doesn't give her a chance to talk to anyone, and he forces her to clean. Hopefully, Isabelle will find a way to get what she wants...... Next week.
Thank you for reading.
Zachary W.
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