She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.

katrinawithane blogs about

LITTLE PEOPLE. OBVIOUSLY.

yayyy

madeofcarbon:

Series of emails that made my week. :) To set up the context, in previous years our youth classes (6-12th grade) have been divided by experience level. There weren’t enough kids to make four different classes this fall, so I put everybody in one class. This is an email from the parent of a kid who’s been taking class here for several years.

Hi Sam,

I couldn’t get through on the box office number today, but wanted to let you know that I spoke with N—- about the change in the theatre class. He was less than enthusiastic about it, prefering to be with kids with similar or more experience than he has. The last 2 years have been a wash, between J— and C———- who taught N—-’s classes. He really wants to be able to move forward and do some new things, and he is concerned that it will be repetition (again!) of stuff that he has already learned since there will be beginners in the class. I recommended that he speak with you, and at least go to the first class so he can hear from you what is planned for the year. Can you talk to him after class to address his concerns?

Also, I told him that you are working hard to build the program back up again, and that hopefully next semester will see a bigger enrollment. The Pensacola Little Theatre has provided such great experiences for my kids, and I feel sick about the situation with the Treehouse classes. I am sure other families are in the same situation. Please feel free to forward this email to the higher ups in Treehouse if you like.

See you Monday!

L——-

my response:

L——

Sorry I didn’t catch this in time- I don’t check this email as often as my work email. I would be more than happy to talk to N—- and see how we can make this work for him. I know it’s been touch and go. If he is concerned about the class not offering him enough, I can tell him that most of these exercises are modified from things I did in college courses, and as such can be quite challenging if needs be. The scenes later in the semester will be assigned by experience level. And frankly he and the other more experienced kids (there are several besides N—- who would be in higher level classes if there were enough of them) will be held to more exacting standards. As to learning new things, the continued process of studying acting is primarily that of reinforcement. It is easy to become lax, to rely on clever pretending instead of staying in the moment. The reason professional actors continually take classes throughout their career is not because the teacher offers something so fundamentally different, but because you often need an outside eye to keep you on your toes, keep you paying attention to what you’re doing. This class, structured around Stanislavski, monologue work, and scene study, is built on material that he would encounter at every level of acting training, all the way through undergraduate and graduate studies. The thing is, nobody is ever “done” sharpening their focus, making their action specific and their emotional involvement goal-oriented. It’s a constant struggle that starts over every time you are working on a new piece. And no, this isn’t how classes here will be forever. Thank you so much for your involvement, and please don’t hesitate to contact me for whatever reason (although you’ll get quicker responses from sam@pensacolalittletheatre.com)

-S

what she sent me after the first class:

Hi Sam,

N—- came home from class very enthusiastic yesterday, and wants to continue with class. He says he thinks you are going to be a “really good teacher”. Yay! Thanks for all of your efforts,

L——

p.s. He is somewhat freaking out about writing a monologue- way to make him stretch outside of his comfort zone!

woop! Oh, and yes, I am having them do the good old David Turner personal monologue. *cue grinch-like smile*

 I DIG THIS. Also, I dig making kids write their own monologues. How else are they going to be able to connect with other people’s writing if they don’t know how it feels to connect with their own? YOU ARE AWESOME AND I WANT TO WATCH THESE THINGS HAPPEN.