Sweetness

"For I feel like an experiment, I feel exactly like an experiment; it would be impossible for a person to feel more like an experiment than I do, and so I am coming to feel convinced that that is what I AM--an experiment; just an experiment, and nothing more."

-- Eve, in Papers from the Adams Family, by Mark Twain

--

This morning, I went back to the high school where I have my "residency" (instead of a single workshop, I revisit every week with the same kids, in this case, for eight weeks). The program takes place on the stage in the cafeteria, and only children who sign up are allowed in the workshop. The rest, along with bored-looking parents and jaded teachers, sit on the lower level at the lunch tables, fiddling with cell phones or doodling.

On the stage, we play.

It lasts two hours every Wednesday morning. About twelve of the kids are staples, and the rest come and go at random. It's unusual to lead any kind of activity when the children themselves get to decide when they need to leave, but those are the house rules. And we play by the house rules.

I've been trying to build their theatre savvy, starting with simple warm-ups and progressing into advanced games. Lately, this has meant variations on Charades, including the following:

- Props (Charades with a prop, where we have to guess not what you're doing but what the prop has become)
- Animals (guess by physicality and voice the animal being portrayed)
- Dance Moves (guess what kind of music a person is listening to based on how they're moving)
- Machines (guess what kind of machine a group of people are representing, again based on movement and sound)

They may see the connection, but they have fun anyway. And given that the summer program is so loose, "having fun" is really the only goal.

--

We were playing Zip-Zap-Zop. Clapping and sending "it" around the circle, making eye contact, keeping up the pace.

For those who aren't familiar: Zips keep it going, Zaps reverse direction, and Zops can go anywhere in the circle.

At times, I would break from my spot and instruct the group, advising on all kinds of situations: can you zop after a zap, is a zip the only response to a zop, etc. And then this happened:

GIRL. Mr. Chris!

MR. CHRIS. Yes.

GIRL. If she zops to him (points) and he zips to her (points) but then she zops across to me, can I make it go back?

MR. CHRIS. Yes. You can zap a zop.

ALL. Ooooohhh....

GIRL. (nodding with eyes closed) Sweetness.