Drama Queen

Last year as I was working on a project for my multicultural education class, I was faced with coming up with a label for myself. Not sure what to put (I'm always a tad indecisive), I took to Facebook to see what friends and family would have to say. My sister Karlyn quickly responded with "Drama Queen." I like to think that there are several reasons for that.

This is from 2011 when I went to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. All the world's a stage!

Yes, I have always been a very passionate person (read "slightly melodramatic"). The reason I tend to go with is that I love theatre. Pure and simple. Theatre has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. When my older siblings did shows at the Junior Theatre in Balboa Park, San Diego, I was elated at being able to walk backstage, hang out in the greenroom, or catch a glimpse of the massive costume shop. Since then I've relished in the opportunities I've had to participate in many theatrical productions on my own. I have been in a few musicals, numerous theatre classes, and costumed several shows for which I've received a few nominations and awards. At times I've been obsessed with Broadway and specific shows, well one specific show: RENT. This lead me majoring in Theatre at both the University of North Texas and Palomar Community College. 

All of this takes me to this semester. For my Elementary Education degree I need to take 2 arts classes (Drama, Dance, Visual Arts or Music). Choosing Drama was a no brainer for me. I've missed taking theatre classes and was elated at being able to incorporate it back into my schedule. 

The official title of the class is slightly ironic: Drama in the Elementary Classroom. It's a brilliant class! So far this semester we've done way more reading than I ever expected, taken personality tests, and discussed the importance of incorporating dramatic learning into our classroom. We've covered units on Story reaching, choral reading, storytelling, process drama, and puppetry. And what a theatre class be without a class play?!

In preparation for our class play, the teacher asked for volunteers for the class drama queen(s). Silence. The question is posed again. I raise my hand. I have nothing to lose by putting myself out there, and at least I get out of the partner projects, right? No one else volunteered, so I became our class' lone drama queen. By doing so, I've become the class facilitator for the devising of our play. I've gotten to work closely with Teresa, my professor Dr. Teresa Love, who has guided and supported me as I've run class the last 4 sessions. I've learned so much not only about devising a play, but also in how to foster class discussions that allows students to take charge of their own learning and construct their own ideas. It's been a blast. Together as a class, we've picked themes for our shows, developed characters, conflict, and a script.

It's neat seeing everything come together so well. My homework for the weekend is to cast the show, email it to my classmates with this weekend's assignments, and prep to teach class again on Monday. This is my first time directing anything more that a scene/vignette, so there will be many learning curves. Already I've found casting to be way more difficult that I thought. There are so many amazing possibilities!! 

I'm very excited to see how the show comes out. It's a silly and fun 20 minute play put together by 11 El Ed majors. We perform on Monday, March 25th if anyone is in the neighborhood and wants to see it. Look for pictures to come as we go into our dress rehearsal and performance. This has been such a busy, wonderful semester with every class making me more excited to become a teacher.