English Drama

I thought I'd write a little blog about the process of the English Drama.

I was asked the first week of school if I would write the play and then a few days later I was asked if I'd help out with the play. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

After writing and rewriting the play we held auditions. Over 20 students turned up for the auditions and we (my 6th grade Co-Teacher and myself) were able to pick the top 12 (6 girls and 6 boys) for "The Table Fairy Saves the Day".

If the title sounds familiar that's because I decided to create a story about a beloved character that came out of the Crazy Campaign my church hosted when I was in 10th grade. Way up high in James Brown's office one night birthed the Table Fairy and my wonderful and crazy bother brought the character to life one unforgettable night in an Arby's. It was so much fun to work with this character and I think the student we picked for the part was perfect. He was so cute, one day he came to class early and told me he googled "fairy" and only saw girl fairies. I was then able to share with him about where the Table Fairy came from. I think he left thinking my brother and I were crazy. :)

Play practice started 8am sharp every Tuesday-Friday for 40 minutes. Those mornings weren't as rough as I thought they would be because I did enjoy practice (once we got past the reading of the script and actually performing). The students started to develop their characters and started to call each other by their play names. We had two afternoon practices when the performance got closer and I could tell some nerves were developing in some of the students.

The morning of the performance we were in the middle of a run-through when the vice-principle called to say she wanted to watch the play now. So we had to move practice from the English room to the gym. I didn't get to watch their run-through because I had story telling but when I went to the gym after the students were being given advice by the vice-principle. I just stood their watching their faces. I could tell they were all nervous now.

After lunch the group met in the entry way and the vice-principle came again to speak. She ended by putting her fist in the air and say "fighting" and all of the students followed. I'm not sure of the history behind "fighting" but it seems to be a common saying. I didn't get to go with the group for reasons that are still confusing (and frustrating) to me. So I sat by my computer watching the clock tick. At exactly two I had all of my stuff together and I was standing by the door. However, my 5th grade Co-Teacher was not ready. I have never been more frustrated by the cultural differences. I stood their trying to calm the fire in my eyes but deep down I was yelling, "hurry up! I can't miss the play! I have worked too hard to miss it!" But we didn't leave right away. We had to go say goodbye to the vice-principle and they chatted for five minutes and then the vice-principle followed us out. Then we went to say goodbye to the principle and then the vice-principle continued to walk with us. I wondered if she was going to take a taxi with us. We ended up continuing to walk until we got to an auto mechanic. Can you feel the heat coming out of my ears? We had to wait until the vice-principle's car was brought out. I did my best to stand far behind and keep a straight face. Once in the car everything seemed to move in slow motion.  For a few minutes I didn't think we'd ever make it their because my CT and the VP kept talking in Korean in a hurried worried tone and the name of the school we were driving to kept popping up.

We finally got there and ran into the school, found school slippers to wear (the things that slow you down in Korea) and followed the signs to the English Drama room. My 6th grade CT was standing by the door and told us that our school was next. I breathed a big sign of relief. We hadn't missed the play. We moved to the front of the room and watched our students.

I personally thought it was the best they had ever done. I was swelling with pride the whole way through. There were a few mistakes but the students covered them up so well. The foreign judges laughed at all the right parts and I even heard one say to the other, "this one is really good". I left the room walking on a cloud. I was so proud of my students. Their English was clear and their actions were in tune with the words. They had made so much progress from the first practice.

My 6th grade CT wasn't so confident. She told me that two other schools were better. She was right. Two days later she told the drama students and I that we got 3rd place (out of 7 schools). They seemed very disappointed and sad that it was over. If we would have gotten 1st we would still be practicing for the final round with all of the other 1st place schools. (40 some schools competed in groups of 7 and the top finishers perform at the end of this month with costumes and props).

That day I was in a funk because I felt so sad about the outcome. I thought they did so well and brought the Table Fairy to life. I had to remind myself that this experience was about learning English and not about winning. This was suppose to be about having fun while using English. In those regards my students succeeded. They always seemed to be having such a good time in practice and on stage. I'm still so proud of my little English Drama Students.

They and this whole experience I will treasure forever.

If you'd like to watch the performance you can find the link here:
http://www.okseo.es.kr/index.jsp?mnu=M001006004&SCODE=S0000000325&frame=&search_field=&search_word=&category1=&category2=&category3=&page=&nPage=&cmd=view&did=27540

Bless friends.