Rubber Chickens

So, back in February I started working at a local high school with one of my best friends, Phaid, who is the drama teacher. P, (or "Ati", as the kids call her) is pregnant and due in April, so we planned out a good 2 months for her to train me and move me into teaching the classes and directing the shows, facillitating a smooth transition when she steps out and into maternity leave after Spring Break. Things have been going well - I really like the kids, and when I came in the Productions Class ("the really good ones") were halfway through prepping a one-act play for Region Competition called "The Rules of Comedy".

It's... pretty self-explanatory - the Narrators describe the "rules" that make things funny, with demonstrations by the ensemble, and then the rules are applied to the final, tragic, scene of Shakespeare's Hamlet. There are goofy hats, odd musical cues, all kinds of slapstick, and half a billion props, including curdled milk and cream pies. I ended up becoming the official photographer, and I've got a good 700 pictures on file. Here are just a few:

Good times for all. About a week and a half before the competition we opened the show for the public for three performances - and things got funny. (Not funny "ha ha", although there was that, but more funny "crazy unexpected".) An hour before the last performance, P/Ati was futzing on stage, prepping, and her foot slipped on one of the risers we were using for audience seats. Evidently, pregnancy makes your joints "loose" - that slip totally dislocated her knee. (She described it to me in great detail later, in the ER when she was doped up on morphine.) The show did go on, and the kids did a great job - and Monday morning I came in officially as the sub, a full month earlier than we'd planned. It's been an interesting week, to say the least. My tech class has been great, the Careers class has been like pulling teeth to get the kids to participate (though I think they're warming up - and we're now watching "Thoroughly Modern Millie" in class - it's got lots of business/job references!), I LOVE the Drama 2 class (and they LOVE Improv), and the Productions Class is driving me nuts. Poor Phaid is having an awful time - she can't move very well (though she's finally allowed to drive) and she just can't take sitting around and not doing things. Against the doctor's wishes she came to the Rules of Comedy pick-up rehearsal yesterday (getting ready for the actual competition next week), and will be back Monday afternoon and will attend the Tuesday competition.

We're working on putting the next show together already, too, and that's been scary - I think we've worked out some morale issues (love each other, dagnabit!) and hopefully the choreography won't completely blow my mind... And that's what my last couple of weeks have been like!

Incidentally, the yearbook is giving us a full two-page spread for Rules of Comedy, and EVERY SINGLE PICTURE on those pages was taken by ME. (Except the one above, which I'm IN.) Also, there will be a quote by me printed on one page. I'M MORE POPULAR IN THIS SCHOOL'S YEARBOOK THAN I EVER WAS IN MINE.