The Acting Teacher

I'm stealing this. I admit it. I read it, and think it's important. So, thanks to Robert Barton for providing the words. I suppose, Robert, if you ever come across my blog, then let me know, and I'll get a cheque off to you or something.

"An acting teacher creates an environment (physical and emotional), and provides exercises, to help you explore and discover your potential. The teacher rarely inflicts his will or forces change. he aims to make you self-sufficient, and, particularly in beginning acting classes, is usually more concernedwith your overall awareness and growth as a person than with technical precision.

An acting coach functions much like a coach in sports: working with you on specific problems, having your try a number of solutions, fine-tuning the same moment over and over, driving you a little further than you thought possible. You go into a coaching session with definite problems to be solved. If it's a good session, you leave with some solved, and more to work on because the coach stimulated you to move ahead in specific areas. A coach's attention is in many ways the most direct or personal, and the efforts the most precise.

A director is the most likely of the three to impose his will on yours. He is the most likely to tell you (at some point sooner or later in the rehearsal process) exactly what he wants and (very late in the process) to lock much of what you do. This is because he has an opening night and a huge group of other company members to think about. In a show, you are part of a much larger package, one which will ultimately be in some way marketed. The director is ultimately concerned, to a larger degree than the coach and to a much larger degree than the teacher, with a finished product. The teacher is the one most concerned with process."

That was long, I know. If you read it, great - thanks.

Anyway, I feel like it emphasizes something about my job that not a lot of other teachers might understand. (Phys. Ed teachers may be the exception here) There are three distinct parts to the job. I work as all three things in Robert Barton's quote - a teacher (my primary function), a coach (those beautiful moments where I get the privalege of assisting a student with something specific (thanks Celia, for allowing me the opportunity to help you with your material)), and of course, a director (the role which, for several months of the year, takes up most of my time and effort).

It's not such a stretch, if you've read carefully what is written above, to begin to understand the nature of the relationship that a Drama Educator (all three roles in one!) builds with his students.

Is it different than the relationship that other teachers devolop with their students? In a lot of ways, yes.

But once you understand it.... well, it's not such a bad thing at all.

Grade 11's and Masks

Last year, while attending an IB Theatre workshop in San Francisco, somebody suggested that if you're studying Greek Theatre, and don't have time to make masks, it would be okay to throw something together with, say, cardboard and masking tape. After all, something is better than nothing, right?

Well, maybe not quite.

My Grade 11's last year made masks.....
Out of cardboard....
and masking tape.....

Okay, it seemed like a good idea at the time. But later, as the Grade 7 girls watched our performance?
Ummm.... not so hot.

This is a formal apology to last year's Grade 11's for that traumatizing incident.
Please accept it.

This year, my Grade 11's made the masks a large part of our study. They made phone calls, sent e-mails, read books, searched the internet, all in an effort to understand everything they could about Greek masks.

How were they used?
What did they look like?
How were they made?
How big were they?
What materials did they use?

Well, as it often does, their persistence paid off with some very useful information.
Today, we began to build our "authentic" Greek masks. (We committed ouselves to making ample time this year to do it right.)

I've made masks with students before, but never with this particular process. So this is a bit of an experiment for me.

I wasn't exactly planning to make one, but in a moment of spontaneity, I cut some clay and began to mold.

It all underscores a few of the things I love about teaching this subject. I have the freedom to change what I teach, and how I teach it. That's a beautiful thing. I am able to explore safely with my students those things that I am not totally familiar with, and learn with them.

I have studied Greek Theatre before, but each year with my students, as they persist in their research, I learn new things. That's completely perfect to me.

These next two weeks should be really great, as we explore a new (to us) process of mask-making, make mistakes, help each other, laugh with each other, and hopefully learn a thing or two.

Thanks IB Theatre Arts 11 for keeping it real for me.
You're great!