Theatre at School

Since I have been feeling under top notch, I decided to take the rest of the week off. Well, actually I didn't decide my roommates did and convinced me to. If you know me, you know that it is hard for me to just give in and stop. Especially when it is with teaching and theatre. I really only have the energy to do 1 or 2 classes a day, but I have 3 or 4. It is not fair to only show up for some and not the others, because then it would be like I am picking favorites. And really I know I should just rest and listen to my body. I just wish I could understand what the fuck it is trying to tell me!

But classes are going well...besides this week of course.
Class 1 and 2 I am still doing Story Drama which is absolutely amazing and so fulfilling for me and the students. Well, that is with all of the classes really. They are so cute and so engaged. Even if there are 28 of them (class 1)! or 18 (class 2 - which seems like a piece of cake after the 28 students). I really could not do it without Sudha, my translator :).
Class three is OK...I haven't had them for 2 weeks now, so that is a big big bummer especially since I am doing a creative drama curriculum with them, aka episodic drama.
In Nepal, the students learn a lot by repeating what the teacher says and does. It is hilarious, because they have been conditioned to do so. So when I am giving instructions, they will repeat what I say and how I say it and move their bodies like I do. For example, in class 1,2,3 we have travel rituals. We can't start till I say 'Go', then they say 'Go' and then start. We point to the center of the circle, and to prompt them I will say 'point to the center of the circle'. They will mumble something along the lines of 'point to the center of the circle' but I don't think they can actually say all of those words so it's more like 'pon to te cnt v crcl' and THEN they point. Oh, it is so cute. And ridiculously funny.
Class 4 and 5 is am doing a lot of theatre exercises with engaging body, mind and voice...they love anything we do. Lately we have been working on tableaux and filling the negative space. Also creating different environments, and machines.
Class 6 and 7 rock. They are very focused students and so happy to be there. I am doing a lot of acting exercises with them and they catch on really fast. They are great at working together and want to improve. I am going to be working with them more in their English classes. They are almost done learning what they need to for their exams. I got this awesome book of African folk stories, and we are going to act them out. It will be a blast!
so, i know it's not good to have favorites, but Class 8 is my favorite. :) They wrote me stories and poems and jokes, and we are going to act their stories out.
Class 9 and 10 are the hardest for me. A lot of the kids, mostly the boys, are way too cool. So it sucks for those who want to be there and have the impulse to do things, but then they see the kids being too cool and they block themselves. Class 10 is the MOST challenging. I had a conversation with them about it last week. So, hopefully things will continue to improve. I wrote up questions for 9 and 10 to answer. Questions like: what is your biggest fear? what is your biggest hope? What are your goals? If you could be the one person to change Nepal, what would you do and how would you do it?
I told them that only I will be reading their answers, so PLEASE open up and tell me how you really feel about life and your situation. I hope they do. From this I am planning to write scripts for each class and we will put on a play, and also film it. Half of them want to learn about film, and the school has a camera, so I will teach them about film. Also a large number of them want to learn about backstage, so I will have them build our sets and be the behind the camera people. I just hope they give me some juicy details about themselves. I wanted to write a script for them from the start, but I want it do be relevant to their lives. Then they can really connect and see how theatre can really be a great channel for your life.

So, that is what's going on in the classroom...the last week and the following weeks.
I am really so glad that I can be here for these amazing kids. I wish you could all meet them. They don't take school for granted. They know how important education is. It is really good to see coming from a place, where unfortunately the students do take education for granted. Not all, but a lot.
Love you all!