I taught my first class in theatre yesterday… all on my own. It was scary, while at the same time, liberating. I molded my curriculum after Boal’s theatre of the oppressed, allowing the participants to guide what was happening on stage. This lasted for about 5 minutes, until I realized that I did not have enough language skill, no did these children know anything about theatre. I think that I was being a little too optimistic.
So, while still thinking of Boal, I taped some tongue twisters to the board and had each of my 8 rowdy 6-12 year olds read one, in a dramatic way (at least they could interpret it how they wanted to). I must admit that they were hilarious. One boy decided to sing the twister about chickens as if he were singing a hym. A little girl fell to her knees and almost cried about her mother spoiling her. Another boy, with a lot of potential, was an alien reciting a twister that is something similar to “if I can, I can, if you can, you can.” All in all, I laughed way too much.
Another anstonishing point to all of this, is that I had more boys than girls! How often does that happen in the USA? It was fantastic! They were pretty crazy a lot of the time, and a few of the more clam games I had planned were pushed aside for more communal, dramatic games. GO SOCIAL WORK FLEXABILITY. I think that those children went away with a sense of empowerment and a sense of self-expression, now I just hope they all come back on Thursday!
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