Open Forum

One of my favorite actors of all time was (is?) Alec Guinness. Apart from being my first recipient of idol worship as Obi Wan Kenobi in the originalStar Wars movie, he did plenty of other really cool things which, after getting slightly bored of watching him say 'You don't need to see his identification' for the hundredth time, I discovered for myself. Ladykillers. Kind Hearts and Coronets (which, coincidently, used the same source material as the Tony award winning Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder). A Bridge on the River Kwai. You get the idea. In one of his whimsical semi-autobiographical books, one of the chapter headings was a line borrowed from Shakespeare's Hamlet, 'The Readiness is All.' Guinness took the quote and adopted it for himself as a life motto, wise words to live by as he navigated the avenues and streets of the major metropolis of the film and theatre industry for the many decades in which he was active in it. 

As I have been holed up in my school office for the last few weeks (early in the morning, before my kids and wife awake) preparing for the coming year, I remembered Guinness and his adoption of this motto, and started ruminating. And by ruminating, I mean the definition to do with thinking deeply on a topic, not the animal definition of swallowing and then bringing up one's food again to chew once more. Obviously you knew what I meant. Smiley face. What constitutes being 'ready' for the start of a new school year?

I'm entering my third year as a theatre teacher. I still feel fairly green, so I'm still writing from the perspective of a novice. I have learned a ton of things in these past two years; in my first, panicking about exam outcomes and being informed that a whole year's curriculum would be tested in January, I taught theatre as more of an academic pursuit, with far too many notes and diagrams, before switching over to what I claimed to be teaching improv for the second semester. My first year felt like an unmitigated disaster in the classroom, yet thankfully, students are very forgiving. We did three shows, and they were well received, which was nice. But there was little link between the classroom and our productions, which was odd. In my second year, we went at a frenzied pace, and insisted that all my Theatre classes would be performing in after hours productions as well, meaning that we did 9 different productions last year. Still well received, though the class productions in some places were a little spotty, but again, a great learning experience for myself and for my students, many of whom improbably decided to return this year. What happened in the classroom was a falling off of the notes and diagrams, and the class was almost purely performance based, but there was definitely a far stronger link between the classroom and the performance spheres.  

So back to the drawing board. This year, we've assembled a raft of classroom activity; more reading, more writing, more practical and useful stuff, as borrowed from far more experienced theatre teachers than myself (thank you, Drama Teacher Academy!). Thanks to Bob and Marti Fowler and a wonderful theatre angel's generous donation, I also have a much more firmed up and thorough Technical Theatre curriculum. I've spent weeks assembling the curriculum map for Theatre and Tech Theatre, and I feel much more prepared than I have done in years past.

So am I ready?

To compare the process of teaching to performing is not a new idea, but let's hash it out again, for kicks. We study (or need to, at least) our material thoroughly. We make sure we memorize huge chunks of 'script'. We pray we have a good 'stage manager' who has prepared our space ready to perform, with all relevant props and settings. And then we have our audience: a highly visual generation, with research-proven diminishing attention spans of less than 10 minutes, a varying degree of apathy, and numerous situations developing outside of the school day that have no bearing on your theatre class, other than it makes them somewhat crotchety. We sweat buckets, either externally or internally, perform, and reflect on our performance.

I've come to the knowledge that the more I prepare in advance, the more comprehensive I've been in preparation, then the better it seems to go. Not the most ground breaking revelation in the world, but if you're new at this (or even 'old' at this), sometimes we can lose ourselves in the mix of preparing for shows, filling out school activity and facility request forms, balancing a budget, searching for revenue, trying to find a good one act/play/musical/monologue/red double breasted gold buttoned jacket, and can neglect the main source of our personal income; the fact that we are paid, in the main, to teach several classes of students a day in various disciplines, whilst the payment we get for the shows and competitions we attend is the sideline.

As you get ready for what I pray is a wonderful, challenging, inspiring new school year filled with hope and opportunity, be sure to ask yourself, whilst there's time, if you feel ready. Ready-ish. Readier. Not only should we take the maxim 'act well your part' with gravity and sincerity, but truly, consider how you relate to Guinness' appropriation of Hamlet's 'the readiness is all.' Are you ready for the year ahead?

Then go and relax for a while, watch SpongeBob, and look forward to things to come.

And for the record, 'You don't need to see his identification' is a line that still hasn't lost its charm for me.