Improv Environmentalists

I was teaching my sixth graders the improv game, “Freeze”. The idea of this game is that two people onstage use their physicality as inspiration to begin a scene, with an effort to keep it physical. Once the scene is established someone in the audience can call “freeze”, take on the physicality of someone onstage, tag that person out, and start a completely new scene based on their physicality.

One of my students came onstage and made a pose that looked like he was holding a shovel. I tagged him out, and took on his physicality…

“So, if I were going to tag him out, from this pose I could be doing an end-zone dance after a touch-down, or playing mini golf, or starting up my chain saw to chop down a tree—”

Collective gasps of shock and horror from the sixth graders. 

“What? Chopping trees is fine. Lumberjacks are people. We all use wood products.”

6th Grade Girl (stone cold deadpan): MISS GROSSMAN!!!!!!!!!! Have. You. Ever. Read.          The. Lorax????

 

I had to turn upstage to collect myself I was laughed so hard.

Our Family…

New quarter, new bunch of students– and they are hilarious!

And sensitive, caring, observant and surprising.

This week we worked on creating tableaux of a family portrait for a family of ________. Each group drew a card: A family of aliens, farmers, cave people, circus people, super heroes, etc. They were told to create a tableaux, to identify their family relationships and names, and that each group can only have one baby or pet (tabluaux of many cats or many babies make the next parts of the exercise challenging and less interesting).

We talked about family diversity, how there are some families with two dads, two moms, single parents, grandparents who raise kids. Some families that don’t have kids. Some families that are chosen families. So long as the relationships are clear, make the family that makes sense to your group in this exercise.

In my class I make an effort to support non traditional gender roles, and acceptance, and in our storytelling to find the truth and authenticity in the stories being told. This time that emphasis really showed.

Out of the 5 groups, 3 of them had boys who chose to play Moms–without irony or cruelty, but with an authentic eye towards “what would a Mama Cave Person be doing? How would she treat her teenage daughter?” , “Mama Farmer isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. She likes to go hunting.”, etc. Looking at the truth of these characters beyond a boy playing a girl.

In the Circus family, they decided the family was made up of acrobatic husbands, their adopted daughter who is an arielist but longs to be a clown, and the Grandma gymnist who approves of the family but doesn’t care for her son’s traditional mother in law (not shown in their scene). Once again, without irony or cruelty– this is their story. And they committed to it. The two boys who played the husbands are some of the “cool” kids in the class, it was so great to see them making an example by committing freely to their work.

The next class they took thee characters and crafted short tableaux stories, (beginning, middle, end). They got a little dark– The circus story was entitled “Circus Sadness” and was about a tragic circus trick gone wrong, the farmer story was the farm family discovering a bear on their property, being scared, and Mama farmer taking out her shotgun to protect the family, the Superhero story was a story of sibling rivalry. The Cave people story was about Papa cave person discovering fire and Mama cave person making everyone stone soup, and the alien family was a scene of the alien pet mind-controlling his masters. It was wild!

They are very creative and are really nailing their understanding of tableaux, transition, story, and Given Circumstances (they based their story scenes off of the given circumstances they know).

We’re moving on to movement now, and then on to some social justice theatre with poetry. This group with their humor and energy are going to do really great with improv. I’m excited to see their kindness and humility work on some more serious material.

The Chicken or the Egg?

Overheard in 6th Grade Improv:

“Hello. I am Professor Bob. I am the leading researcher on the philosophy of why chickens cross roads. Come to my lecture on what came first, the Chicken or the egg. Spoiler. It’s neither.”

Publicity Team Lives on.

I wasn’t going to do Publicity Team this semester unless students specifically expressed interest in it. I had a great time working with the girls I worked with last quarter on Publicity, and they learned a lot and we all had fun. But for this semester most of the team decided to get more involved and joined Crew.

I wasn’t about to chase after kids.

In the hallway today, one of the sixth grade girls from Publicity Team this fall stopped me on the way out of the school and asked me why she hadn’t seen any publicity for Publicity Team. And how ironic she found it that Publicity Team had poor publicity.

I told her that I wasn’t going to run it this semester unless students showed specific interest in it.

She said, “Well, I do”, and e-mailed me mock ups of posters she’d been designing on her own time.

Looks like she’s getting an independent study.

First Exposure: The Scottish Play

Me: “Fear me Macbeth, ‘for MacDuff was from his mother’s womb, untimely ripped!'”

Kids: Wait, WHAT?

Me: He was a cesarian section.

Kids: What’s that?

Me: Some challenging pregnancies require the baby to be removed from the mom’s womb…surgically.

Kids: Oh. Wait. He’s still from a woman then…

Me: It’s 1606. Roll with me.

6th grader playing Macduff: “IM A CESARIAN. GIVE ME YOUR HEAD.”

Genre Surprise!

Today’s lesson was inspired by the concept of the “Exquisite Corpse”. Surrealist artists and writers in the 1920’s used to play a parlor game called “Consequences” where they would begin a story or a drawing each, and rotate their pages adding onto each other’s work until it returns to where it started.

Students brainstormed genres, discussed genre, and got into groups. Each group started with a genre— Science Fiction, Horror, Comedy, Mystery, and Dystopian.

Stories featured missing jewels, cheeseburgers, a girl who mysteriously loses her legs, magic, rage, and cliff-hangers. Some pretty exciting stuff!

When I asked the class if they were surprised by the stories that were made out of the stories they began, the answer was a resounding yes.

“OUR PROTAGONIST WAS EATEN BY A CHICKEN!”

We also discovered how challenging it can be as an artist to share the storytelling. It’s hard to start something and release it into someone else’s creativity. That’s partially why it’s worthwhile.

Reflections on an Experiment: Student Led Warm Ups

I’ve been experimenting with my sixth graders this quarter. In an effort to get to know the group better, provide leadership opportunities, and learn new warm ups, and build community, I’ve challenged my class to lead 2 minutes of warm ups each class. It can be anything from a stretch to a tongue twister to a game, it can be something we’ve learned in class already that they’ve found useful. I set a stop watch to keep us on track. It’s not graded, but it is a requirement and an expectation.

It’s had mixed rates of success. For one student, early in the quarter– our first volunteer, it was a game changer. He led the group in his favorite theatre game from summer camp. He had struggled a bit with cues and focus in class, and was interrupting quite a bit. He has so much energy and enthusiasm, it was hard for him to hold it in. When he led his game, he was able to own that focus. When other students who also went to his camp started to chime in as he was giving instructions, he not only asked them politely to wait for him to finish giving instructions, but he got to experience what it feels like as a teacher to be kept from finishing giving instructions. He led the game successfully, and his focus for the rest of the week was excellent. He still struggles sometimes, but it was definitely a good week. His game has become a class favorite. There have been great tongue twisters, new games, old games, stretches. Lots of good stuff.

On the other hand, there have been some students who haven’t really thought about what to do, there have been the tongue-twisters that come very close to using non-school appropriate language, etc.

Sometimes, as a teacher, it’s frustrating. It breaks up the flow of the lesson sometimes and it creates more transitions than necessary. I’ve reserved the right to skip over student led warm ups some lessons, I usually take 3 volunteers per week out of our 4-lesson per week schedule. If students sign up to lead, they are ready to be called upon for the full week. There have been definite pros and definite cons.

Today, however, was absolutely on the “pro” list.

Mindfulness:

Today, Arthur* led the warm ups. I led a movement exercise, got the class into the circle, set my stopwatch, and asked him to lead us through what he had prepared.

Arthur: Great. OK everyone. I want you all to lie down on the floor. Get comfortable–breathe. We’re all going to take a nap for two minutes.

Some students giggled and squirmed, but they listened.

Unsure of whether Arthur meant to start a mindfulness exercise, or actually nap, I picked up the reins and led the group through a 2 minute relaxation exercise, focusing on breathing and mindfulness, and preparing to reset for the rest of class.

After the exercise, I asked Arthur why he chose this exercise.

Arthur: “In this class, so often we’re very high energy. I thought we could use a moment to relax and re-set to be better prepared for class.”

There were several nods of agreement from the class.

Me: “Was this approach to warm ups helpful to you?”

About 2/3 of the class raised their hands.

Sasha, who’s leading 2 minute warm ups tomorrow asked if he could do a similar exercise. We talked after class about him leading the relaxation exercise similar to how I did today, or leading an energizing activity following.

I’d been reluctant to do these kinds of exercises with this particular group since they themselves are so high energy and struggle sometimes with transitions, I had avoided these kinds of exercises. Turns out it was exactly what they needed.

Given the freedom to lead, Arthur showed me what he and the class needed. Sasha picked up on that and thought critically about how to serve the needs of the ensemble tomorrow.

I am so incredibly proud of them.

Maybe I will keep this experiment up for next quarter.

 

 

 

Meta Classroom

A few weeks ago in class, my students explored Environment.

They “built a where” by choosing an environment silently–an environment that can easily be defined by a large object. One student adds that object through Pantomime, and other students add to that environment by adding other objects and/or repeated gestures to build that environment, one by one, around the first person.

By round 3, my class got Meta when one of my students chose to build the classroom/studio we were all sitting in!

Apparently, according to my sixth graders–specifically the one who played me, I point a lot when I teach, and I bend my knees when I laugh.

Dungeons & Dragons & Improv

During our Improv Unit, I looked for a structure that would allow students to be creative and free while also emphasizing the importance of structure in Improv– Once you know the rules of improv and the structure of the exercise, that’s where the freedom comes in. I’ve found that a lot of young people while learning Improv believe it to be a free for all–

“Improv is made up! We make it up as we go! It can be CRAZY!”

Yes, all of this is true. But if you don’t honor the rules and the structure, it becomes a free-for-all onstage, it confuses the audience, and it makes it difficult for your scene partners to know how to help you look good (Make your Partner Look Good is key, and is one of the rules of Improv).

I was also looking for a structure that would allow as many kids to be involved as possible without giving way to chaos.

While describing this conflict to my partner, he explained to me how  he and his friends used to play Dungeons & Dragons in High School, suggesting that I adapt that structure for the classroom.

Once I found a six sided die among some 20-sided ones, I decided to give it a try.

I reviewed the rules of Improv with my class, and then asked the class to provide for me 6 locations or environments (The Where) and 6 Occupations (for the Who), and number them 1-6.

My 6th graders are incredibly perceptive and culturally aware. One of my students suggested that the Where be a Divali festival and explained what that is to the class with enough detail that they were on board with me putting it on the board.

We did a brief model scene, I rolled the dice once for a Where and once for a Who, and I performed a brief improv with two of my students about Swimmers in Outer Space, which quickly became a scene about looking for signs of water on Mars, and the swimmers being very sad.

Once we set up the structure, they got into groups of 4 and practiced improvising brief scenes corresponding to the Wheres & Whos announced. I gave them about 40 seconds with one combination before giving them another one.

Then we made an audience, and I got volunteers onstage to begin a scene relating to one Where and Who. After a bit I would ask the actors to freeze, I’d roll the dice again, and add another character to the scene. It was their job to keep the scene going and to make it make sense.

One great example of when it worked was when we had Political Leaders in the Hospital. They called for a nurse and the next Who was a Sumo Wrestler, who took so long to enter in Sumo-wrestler style that the Political Leader had to lose a limb, then had him fired.

Another good one was Sea Monsters trying to take over Chicago, who form an unlikely allyship with some Mobsters and they settle for overtaking Burger King.

The lesson kept them saying Yes, And and working creatively within Structure. I’m definitely using this again.

Le Hamlet.

*6th grade girl runs into the studio and stops directly in front of me, grinning*

6th Grader proceeds to declare “To Be or Not To Be!” in French.

6th grader grins, giggles, and translates, to make sure I got what she just said. She repeats the french. Nods. And puts away her backpack.

I’ve got ’em LOOKING for Shakespeare, unprompted.

Teaching Win.