I haven’t forgotten about RT and a template. Yesterday in a reading class I decided to just try a little very basic RT, to get over my nervousness about the whole thing, because, when you see Jason do RT, you get intimidated by the power and scope of what he does.
The text was about a couple of guys who decided via texting to skip their French test that day and steal a car. That, by the way, is typical Matava. When she writes scripts, they grab kids’ attention. It’s harder than it looks to come up with scripts like that.
All I did was have a few kids in the class act out the scene. It was SO basic. I knew I couldn’t do all the magical things Jason did in the workshop, so I didn’t even try, but the result was VERY powerful all the same. I took just that basic scene, which we had read and discussed A LOT so that they knew it really well.
The prop was a desk and their cell phones. All of a sudden they were interested. They left class high fiving and saying how cool it was. But I didn’t do anything – I just stood behind the “car” (the desk) at that big whiteboard that I use to bring the class content right up close to them (nothing wrong with LCDs but when I really want the text alive I use that white board).
I read and they acted it out. No Jason here. Just a scared new RT teacher. But the text, at some point, as it was acted out as per my rule #7 (actors synchronize your actions with my words), started coming alive right in front of my eyes and I wasn’t doing anything. There was some point where the kids were no longer aware they were in class.
They kind of “latched on” to the scene. It was interesting to them if not compelling. When that happens, my mind is always blown as a teacher. It is the interesting text being read to them by me, with very minor direction and meddling on my part, that pulled their interest.
We just have to have the interesting (i.e. appealing to teenagers) content and Matava had put that into this storyso that, as the scene played out, they forgot about the language. We talk about it all the time here, but when it really happens, and honestly it doesn’t happen very often, we can say that we are tapping into the potential of Reader’s Theatre.
Why doesn’t it happen very often? I think it is because we don’t give it a chance. We strangle it. I have to admit that I mostly work too hard (I don’t trust the method as per Skill #22) and therefore I often fail to get out of the way. I make it all about me. I fail to let the scene unfold in a natural way. My real role as a director of the RT should be be nothing more than a Voice from the Side. The director of a play doesn’t get on stage with the actors during the performance.