The Show Must Go On!

This past year I initiated a theater club for the 5th grade in my school.  I was really excited to start this club because I've wanted to do it ever since I discovered my hero/mentor Rafe Esquith.  After I stopped teaching music in 2006 I thought of a way to keep in contact with the kids that I enjoyed being around.  I started a theater club with the 5th graders that year and we met for an hour before school 3 days a week.  It went...okay. We went on a few great field trips and we read a lot of Shakespeare.  I knew how to start a theater club, I just didn't know how to end it. We ended that year without a performance and a lot of broken spirits.  I tried it again the next year with even more horrible results.

After I started teaching full time in 2010 the thought of having a theater club has always been in the back of my head.  Last June I went and saw a performance of the Hobart Shakespeareans in Los Angeles.  This is the class that Rafe Esquith teaches.  To see one of his performances has been a goal of mine ever since I read about him.  As I approached the gates of this school in the middle of Korea Town my heart started pumping much faster than normal.  Kids were there to greet us at the parking lot and lead us to the classroom.  I was in awe at how very nice and welcoming they were.

Rafe introduced the group and then took his seat on the side of the room.  He didn't do anything once the play started.  The students were in charge of everything that went on in the performance of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."  That includes coming on and off stage, knowing when to come in on their songs (did i mention they all play instruments and sing rock n' roll songs to put in the play?), and when to start their dances and lines.  That night will forever be known as a defining moment in my life.

I came back from that trip with a strong resolve to start a theater club for the new school year.  I talked to the principal and set up the parameters for the club.  I started the club with 17 students and as the school year progressed it dwindled down to a meager seven.  I almost gave up on the club again, but then I put the power into the students' hands.  I asked them if they wanted to continue the club and then I put the responsibility on their shoulders.

As this post seems to be getting very long it will suffice it to say that they performed two weeks ago and it was AMAZING! I mean, wow. I didn't think they had it in them.  I realized that the other clubs I started didn't succeed because I was the only one bearing the responsibility of its success.  Lesson learned I suppose.  Here is a video they made for  nextvista.org where the video was a finalist for a contest.