Well, I just survived another day after being on stage with an unruly group of 8th graders. And let me say this. I get it that actors have to supplement their income by any means necessary but days like this make me reconsider those pole dancing classes I nearly signed up for. Because, I have to make sure that my voice is in tip top shape for auditions, I refuse to yell and scream. Ever! In fact, once I got past Year 2 and vocal nodules as a full-time time public school teacher, I figured out more creative ways to command the attention of any classroom. And today was a testament to my ability to maintain my sanity and composure.
Teacher is absent. Teacher leaves work. Students don't want to do work. You have no leverage to make them. Students try to break every rule known to man. Why??? Because they have a substitute. In the history of substitutes, this is a standard tradition. And each school has their own version of Napoleonic rules that make it nearly impossible to keep up. And the students simply want to talk. Unfortunately, each of them speak as if they are yelling to another across ten football fields! I think I may have actually said today, "If any of these are private conversations, everyone else in the class and next door can most definitely hear them."
Yet, there is always that moment when you can share some wonderful story that magically gets them to all respond as if they are in their own sitcom, but not today. Today, I watched as a few of them defied gravity and how even fewer simply completed the goddamn assignment!
If I ever needed to be reminded that performing, advocacy, writing, and singing are my permanent calling then today was the day. I do remember being in the classroom every day and I have some awesome, not so awesome and downright ridiculous stories from that experience. My life was forever changed from those years. But today is a new day and I can't wait until I get another gig. And that's the truth!
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