By Kaushik
A typical day of Dreamer afterschool programming is filled with activities. Today we are thrilled to have two guest post from our friends at Lang College, which offered weekly drama literacy workshops for our East Harlem Dreamers. We hope that you will enjoy reading about the theatrical magic they created! Many thanks to them for sharing their story!
The days start hectic and we walk in as it peaks. Homework time, the students are spread across the cafeteria. We all rush up from Union Square, the 4 and 5 train at 2:30, and plunge in. As Cecilia briefs us all throughout the tutoring session, the kids are eager to know what the next theatre session is going to be.
“Are we going to play museum?”
“Did you bring the costumes? Did you!?”
Around 4 our kids shuffle into Mr. Kendall’s room. Tristan sits them down on the carpet and the four of us delegate the games and lessons for the day. Two leads and two support. Today the Dreamers are particularly anxious, the boys are jumping off the walls, they want to play!
Quickly we’re all in a circle and the first game: Crazy 8’s. All of us start flailing our hands and legs, our hips, counting down so quickly the words turn into breathless whispers. Everyone’s up, everyone’s breathing, Zamir is ready to go, his eyes wide open, his smile famous all around campus. Next game? Twenty second improv, two students in a quick scene tell us who, what, where and why with three pieces of dialogue.
The hour long session speeds by. The kids are running around practicing their scenes and characters across the room. Some of us are superheroes, others supervillains, but mostly we’re acting. Losing ourselves, suspending reality for a moment, the line between student and teacher gets blurred at times and other times we remember that a long day for our 9 year olds is a long day for everyone. We practice patience, love and logic, and a fast pace. What can we learn from characters? From stories?
“Class, what does it feel like being in a story?”
Shy’on says as he catches his breath from the last game,
“You don’t have to be you. That’s a lot of fun.”
The kids trickle out as 5:30 approaches. Our class meets in a corner in the hallway, we debrief, what worked and what didn’t. A rough day and a good day stays with you for a while. We all walk up Lexington Ave together, down the stairs, talking about the day, already planning for the next game.
By Phoebe
This fall semester the afternoon Drama Literacy program was held on Wednesdays from 4pm to 5pm. During these sessions we explored theater and, as the semester came to an end, prepared for a final theatrical performance based on Aesop's Fables. These fables provided fun and exciting stories whilst teaching valuable lessons.
A typical day:
On Mondays, during our seminar class at The New School, Lang students planned the lesson plan for Wednesday. Each week our professor, Cecilia Rubino, provided us with a theatrical theme to use as a platform throughout the session. Some examples of these themes are: story, play, character, scene, dialogue, improvisation etc.
On Wednesdays, at PS7, each group had a warm up that they would use at the beginning of every session, in our case it was 'crazy eights'. This game released energy and prepared them to be active in the following exercises. After the routine check in we would introduce the theme of the week. We discussed the theme with the children and made sure everyone had an idea of what it meant and how it related to the class as a whole. After having discussed the theme we would play a series of relevant theater games and exercises.
Specifics:
A reoccurring theme was improvisation. Improvisation is a crucial element of theater which allows the actor to freely create a character, a scene or a dialogue. Some children were natural at improvising and others were more timid and reserved. We introduced specific improvisation games to explore their imagination and build on their self-confidence. As previously mentioned, the overall theme of the program was Aesop's Fables. We selected a few stories and read them to the children at the beginning of class, we would then discuss theatrical themes within the story and the moral. After grasping a full understanding of the story the children were broken up into groups and asked to create their own versions of the story, through the use of improvisation.
From our perspective:
Working with the Dreamers was a wonderful experience. It was a pleasure to embark on a theatrical journey where we exposed the Dreamers to a new type of knowledge whilst learning from them and being constantly inspired. We learnt the importance of being brave and open to trying new things even if they may seem challenging. It was inspiring to see a group of children, who don't have art as a priority in their life, explore their creativity- which is limitless. Seeing the Dreamers utilize their creativity to the fullest made us better artists in turn.
This program is unique and crucial because with today's forms of entertainment and technology, children are less inclined to use their imagination. The afternoon Drama Literacy program encouraged the Dreamers to indulge in their imaginations and discover new vehicles of creativity, outside of current norms such as television. We will miss the children and are truly grateful for the experience.