No Opt Out

There is nothing better then seeing students figure something out and get excited about it. I love when my students bring me ideas, when they create scenes that make me lean forward in my seat to watch. I've had several of those moments with my intermediate class recently. They are working on Neil Simon scenes and I've been using those scenes to work on acting techniques like inner monologue, creating a physical character, high stakes, emotional range, tactic and objections, etc. I love the dry wit that Simon's scripts have and his characters are great for character work.

Over the past several days they have been doing preview performances. I saw some great work! They went beyond my expectations. And today I realized how that happened.

We are moving to blocking and today students were creating the sets they will be using. One student was struggling with how to make his scene work and came to me for help. Instead of telling him what to do, I asked questions about what the problems were and how they possibly be solved. After a few minutes of discussion, his face lit up and he walked away. At the end of the period he came to me and told me he had it worked out and was excited to have solved the problems presented by the script. He did it on his own and came up with stuff I probably would not have thought of. And he did it on his own because I made him do it.

In Teach Like a Champion there is a technique called "No Opt Out." It means not giving students answers or letting them get away with saying "I don't know" and not having to answer questions. It is a technique I have modified to use in drama. My students don't get to opt out of any performance, even if they are totally unprepared. I also don't create characters or block for my students when they are working in groups. That is what I have been doing with my intermediate drama class. They come to me wanting me to tell them how to play a character. I ask them questions, tell them to make it up, give them they play to read, tell them to go to their partner for help, anything but tell them what to do. It drives them nuts. I get lots of "This is hard," or "I thought about it already!" or "I can't think of anything!" and all kinds of things. But then they go away and come up with stuff on their own. And in the process they are able to create something better then the ideas I could have given them.

Whiny students are not fun. But getting them past the whining is awesome!