One of my favorite things in my rehearsals for Shadow Box – and there are many, many wonderful things in spending my evenings with these young artists – is to watch my lowly freshman actor work in a cast of almost all seniors. From the moment he was cast he seemed to be in awe of everything and everyone in the room. For the first few days I am sure he thought that his name on the cast list was a mistake. Without question he was the perfect actor for the role.
But I do love to see him learn the ropes of high school acting. It is one thing to parrot the learning that you get in the classroom for all those terms, all those stage positions, all those improvisations and all those games. That is one way to learn the ropes of high school acting – but nothing can beat the traning you can receive from a senior while sitting off to the stage preparing for the next scene. Clearly he is more wanting to impress his senior co-actors then he is interested in impressing me. I mean, wouldn’t you? He wants to sit like them. He wants to laugh at the same jokes. He wants to celebrate the “irreverence” of his older peers.
Most beautifully, the seniors are proud of their freshman partner. They bend over backwards to celebrate each and every scene he is in. He is never too far away from a “high five” no matter what side of the stage he exits. I am sure they are telling him some wrong things and encouraging to consider other wrong things – – but this is initiation in its very best form. No teacher will ever seem as smart as a senior – for any freshman walking down the hall. I am proud of my seniors; they have fully embraced the spirit of “giving back” even in a dark, and seldom mopped blackbox.
6 comments on “Training Wheels”
That’s awesome!! 🙂
I know how tough it is to be a Freshman – especially when in many cases, the Seniors can be so immature about interacting with them.
The new kids in the new school want to be liked and accepted – so I’m not surprised that the opinions of their elder peers may have mattered more than the teacher’s – because the opinion of these “superior” beings (as opposed to the instructor who is expected to be unbiased and accepting – like the role of a parent) means the world to someone in new surroundings.
We all have valuable things to learn from one another. It happens more often when we refrain from identifying ourselves with our supposed roles and titles.
The fact that these students were encouraged to interact with one another in a creative setting brought out the best in them. If this happened more often, I think we’d see society make some significant shifts for the better.
Wow…it sounds like to me that the freshmen have something to prove. Its sounds like the freshmen have something to work towards. Its sounds like the freshman is the underdog and has something to show the older classmates. And I’m glad that the seniors are taking such a huge role in the freshman growth and also being proud and taking a huge role encourage the freshman. Because not too far in the distant future the seniors will become freshmen once they enroll college. And hopefully the seniors in college will treat them the same way as they treated this freshman in high school.
I’m proud of your seniors… they sound like they are the next generation of youth to move this country forward. And you also sound like a great teacher. We need more teachers like you too encourage the students to be better. I wish all seniors were more like this, but unfortunately we have seniors that put freshmen in lockers and freshmen in trash cans. I remember growing up they had this thing called freshmen Fridays where every Fridays the seniors will take a freshman to pick on and bully. So I’m glad that this is not the same case and I’m proud of these seniors.
Isn’t it fun to watch the younger actor really take flight and with help from the more senior students? It does not happen often that you see a “blend” like this and when you do, it must be a great feeling as a teacher.
That’s pretty amazing that the seniors were so nice to him. Normally, you’d be expecting a lot of ribbing, practical jokes, mean tricks, etc.
It must have something to do with the atmosphere you’ve developed in the class. When I was in high school, you had to be in the “in” crowd or things could get pretty rough on you. Fortunately, I was one of the blessed ones.
Good for you for having that kind of influence!