I taught Sunday School for years, working my way up through the ages as my children grew along. Finally, I got to sing in choir and stayed in church for the sermon. Later, in Toronto, in my next life, I taught at different times a range of school children of all ages, guiding them to an understanding of puppets as more than crafty creations, or helping them to the creation of a play of their own. This play project happened twice when I was granted 14 half-days (when the prescribed time was up, I threw away the calendar, and any hope of further income, in order to see it through). It involved seeing a class once or twice a week through to a production, which the creators performed in, the one for their peers in a school production, the other for an audience of parents and family at an end-of-year celebration This latter play was actually published and has been performed by other classes in other schools . I wonder if I can find it…
This is from the Playwrights Press catalogue:
Audience Age: Theatre for Young Audiences
Synopsis: Aliens have mistakenly sent a "Discovery Capsule" to Earth and are determined to retrieve it, but before they can, it is found by children on their way to school.
Playwright: Betty Jane Wylie
Play Information Format: Copyscript Year Printed: 1993
First Produced: First produced in 1981 at Kohai School, Toronto, ON. Publisher: PGC Running TIme: 30 minutes
That’s amazing, haven’t thought of it in years.
We started with what I called a “pudding play” or story. I used to do this with my own kids but I had only four to deal with It’s different and harder to sit in the middle of a group of 12 to 16 or more children, each one taking a turn to give you an “ingredient” to stir into a story you are telling , improvising on the spot as required. Later it was their turn. I won’t go into that now. I brought it up because of the nature of trust involved tin these exercises.
It is a rare privilege to be privy to the inner workings of another human being’s mind, child or adult. And I am enjoying that privilege now. i’m conducting a teaching/writing workshop with half a dozen writers as we/they develop ideas and images into some semblance of a play or a dramatic structure. Of course it isn’t easy but it is so much fun, and offers unsuspected revelations.
revelation |rɛvəˈleɪʃ(ə)n| noun 1 a surprising and previously unknown fact that has been disclosed to others: revelations about his personal life.
ORIGIN Middle English (in the theological sense): from Old French, or from late Latin revelatio(n-), from revelare ‘lay bare’ (see reveal1). Sense 1 dates from the mid 19th cent. [Online Dictionary]
i seem to be living in a world of constant wonders. I am so blessed.