One primary indicator of how long you have been teaching is the number of t-shirts you have in the closet. Every time you go to anything competitive there is a t-shirt. Every big event at a school – every senior graduating class – every year – in every season there is a t-shirt. And of course you have to take it. It would be rude to refuse – much as if you refusing the food at a friend’s dinner party. You gotta take one. Of course knowing you will never wear it – – it will hang in your closet in perpetuity. There will come a time to thin out a closet and you will pull all of these t-shirts out of the closet only to realize that there are names and faces attached to all of these shirts – and they really are in perfect shape – and you really may need something to wear when, in a most unlikely event, you decide to paint the house. So, back on hangers and back into the closet.
But – surprise – today I wore a prototype a t-shirt I designed for my new “Company Acting Class – Year One.” It felt right to me to give this new, sophisticated – and really hard to get in – class. I used to hate any memorabilia associated with theatre. In addition to the t-shirts I always turned up my nose to all of the keychain, ashtray, shot glass, cd, jacket, sweatshirt, and signed program kiosk now found in every theatre in NYC. Aren’t we above this? But I have changed my view. Especially in high school where there is a plethora of team jackets, varsity and junior varsity, senior, junior, sophomore t-shirts and pennants. These things do actually do serve a purpose. They make you feel a part of something. They make you feel selected and elected. They are something tangible that represents pride and good spirits. We don’t have a sports team at our school – but most high schools do – and shouldn’t we have our letter jackets too.
I designed a t-shirt. I am wearing the t-shirt as I write. It is not a particularly good t-shirt but everyone loves it and wants it. It validates our work as a class now half complete. They smile; it is worth it to me.
Tonight I will pull the clothes aside; there is surely space for one more hanger.