Friday, November 29, 2013
Every Actor's Nightmare, Inverted
HowlRound: Teaching has always made me nervous. Very nervous. Especially teaching young people. Put me on a stage? Fine. No problem. Learning lines, singing, movement scores? Love it! Give me a script and an ensemble: hallelujah. But present me with planning a curriculum for a high school class, and my heart leaps into my throat.
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What so many people don't understand is that acting requires you to be aware in every aspect of your life. In order for this to be possible, you must detach from the prescribed methods of learning that are utilized in every other subject. What is important is that he got the kids to question, "how does this relate to theatre?" When you can connect anything to theatre, everything becomes a learning experience that informs the art you create.
This teacher is giving her students a very valuable lesson by teaching them about theater in this way. Too often, people think that acting is just about reading someone else's work. Just yesterday, I was talking with someone who said that acting seemed difficult because there are so many lines to learn. That is arguably one of the easier aspects of acting, and it's an important lesson to impart upon students.
Another reason that I find this way of teaching very sensible is because those exercises of body awareness and exploration are going to be much more useful to those kids in the long run than reciting Shakespeare. It's often said that theater classes are very valuable, but I think that it's only true if the class is taught away from text, at least early on. That's the part of acting that is useful in all and any life situations.
This article is incredibly interesting in the sense that it allows me to look at the way one teacher deals with their fear. The ways that people deal with fear is something that I am always incredibly interested in. Being comfortable with not knowing is something that has always come easy to me. Although I like to plan, I also like to go into something know that whatever comes out of it could be completely different than I originally planned. I think that is one of the hardest things for many people to understand, but once you do, and once you accept the fact that being unsure is okay, you will find that you can approach things differently. I truly love this statement that comes from the article:
"In order to be true to myself, I must know myself. This begins with awareness and observation. And that begins with being okay with not knowing."
For the longest time I couldn't understand how one could "teach theater." Isn't theater something that one learns just from doing theater. And, is everything kinda specific to the show? It wasn't until I think my sophomore year in high school when I started taking theater more seriously that I understood this concept. Yes, theater is learned by doing. However, by learning the principles of how the industry, departments and many more things work you are becoming more versatile in your theater. You gain more of an appreciation for the work that is begin done. I thank all my teachers for this.
I think this article speaks volumes about how people who don't know what theater is view our industry. There's a lot more that goes into acting than memorizing some text and regurgitating movements on stage. I think what this teacher is doing is great, and I applaud this person for not just teaching the kids what they want to know. Before you can learn how to do something, you must understand the theory behind it. You can't learn to play the piano if you don't know how to read music, after all.
I really appreciate the way this teacher is going about teaching her students about theater. It is especially admirable to read about how this teacher is not only conquering her own fears, but she is also forcing her students to learn in a new, different way. It is true that theater is often taught in high schools in a very simple way. Students learn monologues and perform them, and teachers give them feedback. However, theater, particularly acting, is so much more than that. I admire this teacher for acknowledging how theater is traditionally taught, and for not being afraid to stray from that path. In general, I think this article also brings up a larger issue of attitude towards education in this country. Most students are reluctant or think it is not worth their time to learn something that they do not know or do not think they are good at. Students in America need to accept what they do not know in order to truly begin learning.
Early in the year Cameron Knight came to our Oliviers Nose class and explained that to him acting was what is in the room and often actors get trapped in their heads think about how they feel then explaining it through the text. For some time I was lost on how the two methods get even get close two the other. I didn't understand how they related. This article seem to be the missing link for me. The author was explaining how people must be conscious of their bodies and then then move to the text, seem to be saying that people should know how they are and focus on what they are as a person, then move to the think and explain part of acting. It was as if through the conscious of your body you can act in a room be in that room and at the same time in your head. It is the mixture of the techniques that is acting and I think the author did a good job at explaining that.
So when I started reading this I thought ok, so this is how teachers feel, I wonder if my drama teacher felt this way when he started. Then as I read, the article talks about the standard way of teaching and the way way she used. That surprised me because my teacher also taught us in a similar fashion, and so I assumed that's how it is always taught. Now, I don't know if that was the best way or not, especially since I am a techie to the core. What I do know is that his class solidified my love for theater and that this method is definitely a good one.
This seems like a simple concept, but in reality is very difficult. It's hard to accept not knowing in any aspect of life, especially in situations where you feel like you should know. Specifically in management, it's easy to fall into he trap of feeling inadequate if you don't have all the answers. However, that isn't necessarily true. As long as you are willing to discover what you need to know, be open to ideas, explore, and most importantly, listen, you are not inadequate. It's impossible to have all of the answers all of the time. Part of what makes theatre theatre is what stems from perpetual unknowingness. So, thank you o this teacher who is sharing this with his students, and to my own high school theatre teacher, who often shared this with me as much as I didn't want to hear it.
Not only is this unknown dimension important for theatre, but it is also applicable to other educational classes and life itself. I was a little confused when the author wrote "Theatre is not literature" because she failed to define what theatre actually is. Now, I understand that there is no answer to this question, but I am interested in knowing what she thinks. Personally, I think theatre is a mirror to life, and sometimes the viewer is able to see him or herself in that mirror. I agree with this teacher that self-awareness is very important in this industry because we end up creating a mirror of self-awareness for the audience. But self-awareness is definitely not limited to theatre folk. I had several high school teachers who would spend weeks sharing and analyzing every student's opinion on a subject, and of course, the class thought this was completely stupid. But looking back, I realize that by voicing my opinions, I was boosting my self-confidence in my own ideas. And by listening to other opinions, my ideas evolved. I agree with the teacher in that memorizing is not everything, rather one must find his or herself on life's journey. And that is the most fun part of all!
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