snow day

You know, this is my 25th year at Lake Forest High School. In the first 23, I cannot recall a single time when I was awakened to the news that school had been canceled because of inclement weather. We had to go home early a couple of times due to weather. We even had to go home early due to a power outage. But I don't remember a snow day. And now, we've had two years in a row with them.

Go ahead: tell me there isn't global climate change going on.

(Just kidding: we all know that individual weather patterns have nothing to do with long-term trends.)

Anyway:

Because I missed yesterday--the Dickens seminar was illuminating, BTW, and makes me want to add Great Expectations or A Tale of Two Cities or something to our reading list--we have a bit of a conundrum. So here's what I'm going to do:

E3H: I am torn between two very powerful desires. I really want to finish Portrait next week, and I do not want to lose workshop time so close to the portfolio due date. My solution is this: I am going to put a few specific topics about Chapter Five on the boards today for you to discuss over the next few days in the hope that these discussions will inform our in-class conversations next week. I hope that everyone will be highly involved. We will go back to our normal workshop-first weekly schedule next week.

E2H: I don't know how far you got in the movie yesterday but it would have been nice to have some time today to discuss it and talk about some specifics re: characters and themes. I'm going to introduce a few specific topics for you also. Please discuss them on the boards and we will try to dive into this play next week. In your class, we are going to push the workshops to the end of the week: Thursday and Friday. That way our opening of DOAS is not as choppy and disorienting. Please finish reading the play over the weekend.

Drama: You guys are so much harder than the others in a situation like this! We are not yet in scene work territory, so I can't say "work on your scenes." But I can give you a performance-prep assignment, and here it is:

I want you to come to class on Monday ready to show us two solo scenes. These scenes, in which you will portray yourself (and, if your scene involves anyone else, simply speak to an unseen "offstage" character), will illustrate for us behaviors that are either typical or completely atypical of you. In your "typical behavior" scene, show us something that you do when you are acting normally; in your "atypical behavior" scene, show us a scene (preferably that same scenario) in which you are acting in a manner that is just not the way you respond to things. (This is sometimes an opportunity for humor or wish-fulfillment.)

Now here is the kicker:

In these scenes, I want you to show us a part of you we don't know. I want you to take a risk. It doesn't have to be a huge risk. (I have seen some very uncomfortable behaviors in some years--I'm not really looking for Drama Class As Group Therapy here.) You risk what you're comfortable risking. The boy who knelt down and said a nightly prayer by his bedside felt as much risk showing that, or maybe more, than the girl who showed us the horrific way she used to treat her mother (the reason she had been in a group home for violent children for three years).

Decide what you want to play. Improvise it. Script it out. Analyze it according to the nine elements we've been discussing; perhaps some don't apply, as may not be a true theatrical beat, but which do? Make any comments that seem appropriate, as in a journal, but don't post this one on the board. Then...

Practice it. Practice it. Practice it.

Did I mention practice it?

Before Monday, email me the "script" and analysis/commentary.

Meanwhile...

Enjoy the snow.

Random thought for the day: If you need time alone, try cleaning the house.