Columbus Day
Posted by Rachel on October 11, 2010
We’re off, we’re off!
The fact that a day off from school actually feels like a break tells me we’re well into the school year. Normally, at this time on a Monday, I’d be at Loyola Park, helping the 9-10-year-olds in our after-school program create original superhero characters. And my first residency of the school year, Avondale, is already in its fifth week.
Last week was Dialogue Day, which means the kids get to suggest lots of characters for each other to play when they improvise scenes. Dialogue Day is easily my favorite lesson because it results in conversations like this one from Dewey last year:
ME: Would you rather play Invisible Girl or Nose-Picking Boy?
STUDENT: (after a looooong pause) They’re both good.
Yes, yes, they are both so good, but these are the decisions we have to make as artists.
Last week at Avondale, a girl wrote a dialogue between a girl and the monster who was about to eat her. She gave the girl a line that went something like this: “Wait, let me put on some makeup! A girl has to look her best before getting eaten.”
Who knows whether that gem will end up on stage? We’ll have to wait for November to find out for sure. It’s kind of beside the point, because kids in every single residency we teach write lines that goofy-delicious, and they make us, their teachers, laugh, and I think they have fun doing it whether or not they ever see those words performed on stage.