Experimenting with Seeds… of Drama!
Una amiga es una flor. Una amiga es brillante y amable. Una amiga es una hermana.
A friend is a flower. A friend is brilliant and kind. A friend is a sister.
I can hardly believe week 2 of the (somewhat grueling) Theatre-English teaching schedule is almost over! Only last week we were just finishing up doing Round 1 of lesson plans. In the process, we learned the strengths and interests of each group, helping us to tailor future lessons depending on the community. Using the same formula of warm-ups, improvisation games, and cold reading of a short play, we did our own version of a FIPAH trial with theatre in each youth CIAL.
After noticing that the kids at La Ladera were terribly shy when it came to ad-libbing, I noticed that they took immediately to writing their own dialogues and performing those. For the next class, we provided a template for a poem using repetition. A few of the results are above. Everyone wrote touching, imaginative, and beautiful sentences about their best friend.
Towards the end of the class, I had them narrow down their life into 10 major events, such as: ¨My brother was born,¨ ¨I started acting,¨ ¨My grandfather passed away,¨ ¨I graduated from high school¨ - to use a few of my own. However, they were not to read theirs aloud; they were to be kept private. Tomorrow, when we see them, we will have them map out their life with the 10 events as place markers on the guide. Then they will use the stage as a space to express their life in mime, following the ¨map¨ for acting and movement direction. I think they will take to it wonderfully.
But before we get to La Ladera tomorrow, we have the opening of the school in Rio Arriba, where the youth CIAL will perform two plays - they took immediately to the cold readings. Shaping theatre to give each of the communities a valuable and diverse experience has been a thrill. It feels great to stretch my artistic muscles again.
PS: In lieu of a photo, here is a far-less-than-accurate digital representation of the coffee we enjoy nearly every morning. Better to close your eyes and imagine. What an aroma...
Quiero semillas de ese cafe! Quien me va a traer granos de cafe tostados pero sin moler? Estira y fortalece los otros musculos tambien. Si llegan a leer esto, que sepan que los Talones de Brea es la unica Universidad que llego a los "Final Eight" en baloncesto y beisbol! Aunque perdieron el segudo juego, los finales de beisbol son de "double elimination" y el viernes, luego de no haber bateado ningun homerun, dieron uno con las bases llenas ( Grand slam homer)en el octavo episodio (iniing) para eliminar a LSU! y lleger a los "Final Four".
In the final four, last night they beat Fresno State that had defeated them in the first round with their second homerun in as many nights, so today Fresno and UNC play to see who goes to the Final series against University of Georgia that eliminated Stanford yesterday.