This has been the most difficult year of my sixteen year teaching career. In December, when I was planning for this semester, I had no idea how tired and stressed we would be by the end of this school year. I had an idea of how behind my students were socially, emotionally, and academically, but it was an absolute struggle every day to get them to a better place.
I began the formal Dramaturgy unit in January and it ended when our UIL One Act Play run ended at the end of March. I initially introduced “Dramaturgy” (capital D, “the study of”) to my Theatre Production class, but it spilled over into all aspects of my Tech Theatre class and UIL One Act Play production team. This thrills me to no end because the research and study of the play is half the fun for me and I was so excited to see my students take it upon themselves to study and ask questions beyond what was asked of them.
As I suspected in December, the quality of the written work was not what I would have expected in years past. This class of 5 was composed of two seniors, a junior, a sophomore, and a freshmen. None of them were in any honors classes. When I announced the idea that the packet was ten pages long, I thought they might walk out and I would never see them again. Ultimately, my understanding that a presentation and discussion would be the best way to get the information from then was true and I wish that I had thought to record them for my portfolio, but so many of the conversations we had in class and rehearsal were organic or in the middle of the physical labor of the show that I didn’t fully grasp the significance of them all until it was way too late to prove they had happened.
In addition to Dr. Shimko’s class this summer, I also attended the Maestro workshop led by Rick Garcia in November 2022. In rehearsal, we used a combination of the analyses taught during both of these sessions to have a guided conversation that led us to many decisions concerning our commanding image, set design, and acting style for the show. I have included a picture of the whiteboard in my classroom at the end of this discussion as part of my portfolio. It can be found at the end of my lesson plan. This conversation led to countless other discussions, critical thinking questions (asked by my students and myself), and decisions based on research and newly acquired knowledge.
I will continue to use this modified analysis as I move forward and hope to also introduce triggers and heaps to my Advanced Theatre, Theatre Production, and UIL Production team next year. I think Ball, combined with a modified Meisner technique that we already use in rehearsal, will lead to a deeper understanding of the text, some basis for deeper, more critical ideas and discussions, and will help build some of the reading and writing skills these students so desperately need to practice.
-May 2022