Our sixth week welcomed two guest artists into our midst. Regina Brooks threw us headfirst into a hip-hop routine that had all of us stepping and grooving until our muscles were sore. For the less coordinated, it was a challenge to just attempt moving in time with the class, but for others, it was a fun opportunity to learn some new moves and be up on our feet.

Jessica Wallenfels joined us that week as well, and guided the students in creating their own form of dance, unique to them, and to the story they wanted to tell. Using the raps that were created the prior week, she gave a few pointers and led the students in a group dance to the beat of the class’ collective rap.

However, it was Friday that truly captured the spirit of each of the students. As John took on various physical traits, the students witnessed the endless possibilities of building characters based on physical movements. What happens if a character leads with their hips and walks on their toes? What does that look like? What if they’re in a rush? How does it change when they are nervous? Then, students filled out a questionnaire, which guided them through the creation of their own characters. These were then shared in front of the class. Their imaginations were impressive. From a character with no eye sockets, to a mumbler, to one with rapid-fire speech in a high-pitched voice, we were entertained with the unexpected.

This made a perfect transition into Monday’s art project. We had each student create a character collage on a blank sheet of paper, using magazine cutouts, markers, pipe-cleaners, random buttons, beads, and other various odds-and-ends. The only requirement was that each body part must be created with a different material. So if one eye was a bead, the other could not be. These were collected at the end of class on Tuesday. My only regret was there wasn’t any time set aside for sharing what had been created. One of our greatest challenges throughout this semester has been our limited class time with the students, which was why we had given everyone two full days to complete this project. Personally, I’d love to see a gallery of their pieces displayed as some part of our final production, but of course, we’ll leave those decisions up to these students in the end. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

After quite a bit of reflection about the past seven weeks we’ve shared with this class, three projects stood out in my mind as cutting to the core of What Do You See? Not surprisingly, these three projects seemed absolutely entwined with one another. You See, I Am was one exercise that fed so many others, and allowed each of us a little window into the world of these individuals in our class. Next, John’s rap workshop built on the ideas, personalities, and voices of each student in a single form of expression that most had not been exposed to before, other than as bystanders. Without prior knowledge, it was remarkable to me how I could identify each unique voice that composed each stanza of the collective rap created through that workshop.

All of us are part of multiple communities (our families, our peers, our city, state, country, our interests, our fears) and yet, our genetic makeup clearly proves that we are one-of-a-kind. So here in our Roosevelt classroom, this collective rap was artistic proof of our “one-of-a-kind” voices within the voice of the community of Jo Lane’s drama class. Amongst us, a competitive roller skater who shared a day of practice in rhyming couplets, a guitarist who rocks “Superstition,” an actress burnin’ with rage, a generous friend, and a person who hates the aroma of sweet pickles. By way of You See, I Am and the raps, we discovered the wealth of talent beneath the surface of these supposedly “typical” teenagers, so, we decided to give them a platform to express those interests.

Thursday and Friday were dedicated to a talent sharing show, and the third project that I felt gave the students a chance to share their true voices with us. The lineup included a solo dance reenactment of the choreography to “Thriller,” an improvised display of B-boying, a singing performance of “The Rose,” the impressive work of a comic book artist, the drawings of a talented sketch artist, and an original piece performed for the first time by our resident band of two guitarists and a drummer. With everyone being engaged and supportive, it seemed natural that the students were unaware when class ran overtime, even with Spring Break just around the corner. Who knows? Maybe our talented sketch artist will take her classmate’s recommendation and “do sketches of criminals for the police!” as a future profession. Wherever this may lead, it has been incredibly encouraging to be a part of a program that allows students to explore various forms of expression and hopefully, find their original voice through the process. May the work continue to surprise us. . .

This semester-long class began at Roosevelt High School five six weeks ago. Since then, we have discussed body image, how today’s American culture views beauty, and how the media is involved in the pressure placed on teenagers to be beautiful.

Each day of class begins with a warm-up that centers our focus (usually a quick game of Popcorn or Zip Zap Zop). After our warm-up, we then do an activity based on body image. Finally, the end of each class is spent with about ten minutes of writing time in our journals reflecting on the day’s activity.

To give a little peek at the kinds of activities we do, I will explain our most recent (and, in my opinion, most fun) activity we have done in class.

Last week, we participated in an activity called, “You See, I Am”. We listed things that people see us as in a category titled, “You See” and then wrote about who we really were in a category titled, “I Am.” For example, I put, “You see a skinny girl” under “You See”, and then “I am really not that skinny and am actually trying to gain a few pounds,” under the “I Am” category.

On the next day of class, to much of my surprise, we learned about rap and how to write a rap. After writing a few “practice lines” in our journals, our goal was to turn our “ You See, I Am” list into our own rap.

The following day, we all came to class to find that we would be beat-boxing. We were split up into groups of three or four, each group making different beats such as clapping our hands, stomping our feet, and “chip-chewy”-ing. While we did all this, John read a few lines of each of our raps. We, as a class, had created our very own rap together.

Personally, I do not like rap. When I had first learned that we would be writing our own raps, I was reluctant to do so. But when I did, I found it to be quite enjoyable and ended up writing more than the required two lines. Then, when John created the big rap out of all of our smaller pieces, it made it even more enjoyable.

So far, this class has been one I look forward to every day. Each day holds something new and exciting to do. The staff involved is open and friendly and the entire class seems to enjoy it as well. I am very happy to be involved in this class and I look forward to the upcoming activities that await us all.

An ordinary day hasn’t been very ordinary ever since this semester. Ever since I started this program called “What Do You See?” (which is Oregon Children’s Theatre partnering up with Kaiser Permanente) during sixth period, I have had so many great moments and participated in so many activities about body image and how it affects our everyday life, along with advertising and other things we are exposed to in our daily lives that we are not even aware of most of the time.

One of my favorite activities we’ve done so far is when one time we were offered a variety of random pictures. We each had to pick one, partner up and make a scene. The picture me and my partner got was a kitty, tiny and fragile looking in the mirror (picture at right). In the mirror instead of the tenuous kitten, it reflected the picture of a big, well-built lion. This symbolized so much to me and my friend. We thought it was a small person looking into the future, or a dreamer with high hopes, or possibly the reflection of someone on the inside. We had a lot of material to work with along with ideas. And it really got our minds going with this inspiring image.

Beyond the magnificent opportunities we get to think afar from ourselves, we also have fun activities that go with the program, such as music, and dancing. These last few days we’ve been creating a rap. It was so fun and it has helped me understand things better. To start, before this, I only saw rap as a way to say how “great” you are and how you are superior from others. But it is actually very fun and it really helps you express how you feel. Such as “you see what people tell you to see, but I am more than what you tell me to be” this is the line of the chorus so as you can see it is very strong.

On top of that we’ve all had the chance of having a blast dancing to hip hop and making our own dance moves. Without knowing, we are all making original pieces that we never even thought of doing.

In conclusion this has undoubtedly become one of my favorite classes, it has the largest range within the activities that there are, there is no time to be bored. I am so glad they decided to choose Roosevelt for this wonderful collaboration.

Sincerely,

Pablo Saldana (formal student in the “What Do You See” program)

Thank You

The surest sign of this is when everyone is listening, not because someone told them to, but because they want to.  That magical moment happened several times this week.  The first time was on Monday when Molly and Amy, from Kaiser Permanente showed the film, “Killing us Softly” about how body image is portrayed through the media.   Not only was everyone attentive, but it created very strong reactions which were then great fodder for discussion.  The only negative about Monday was that we didn’t have more time to break into smaller groups to discuss the film; an natural progression from the film and a desire from the students. One of the challenges with the structure of the class is that just as we are getting rolling, the short 58 minute class is over.

Tuesday.  What an incredible day.  The students were to perform monologues that they wrote based on an interview they had had with one of their oldest living relatives.  They were to interview them, turn that interview into a monologue and then perform it as if they were their relative when their relative was their age.  Talk about supportive.  Everyone was very interested in each of the performances and learned something more about each of the students who performed. Not only did it take a lot of courage to perform in front of the class alone, but to reveal something about their relatives made it more personal and that much more challenging.

Thursday and Friday.  You See, I am.  Grace and Anya did a great job creating and facilitating a very vulnerable and challenging project for the students.  On one side of a piece of paper the students were to list as many things as they could think of beginning with the words, “You see. . .”  For example, “You see a short person.  You see an artist. You see someone who doesn’t listen.  You see someone who doesn’t dress very well.”  This is the student’s perception of how others see them. On the other side of the paper they were to list as many things as they could think of beginning with the words, “I am. . . ”  For example, “I am not tall nor short, I am my height.  I am an artist.  I am a listener but I react to everything I hear.”

On Friday they presented these in front of the class.  Magic!  For the first time we saw each other for how we really were, not how we perceive each other to be.  Everyone shared. Everyone listened and supported each other.  The dynamic in the class that day changed.

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” Helen Keller.

Standing in a circle, as we do every day at the start of the session, a student begins a round of “Popcorn” a warm-up game designed to establish focus in the group. He makes eye contact with the student to his right, and sends a domino of claps around the room; each student clapping in unison with their neighbor and then passing the movement to the person on their right. Some days, the energy is palpable and the room quiet, save for the rhythm of our claps. Other afternoons, the wave of claps barely makes it past the first few students before we are interrupted by giggling and chit-chatting. We are all still getting to know one another, making sure that the atmosphere is safe, but we have all begun taking little risks and challenging ourselves.

This week we jumped into the task of really questioning “what we see” and what we think others see when they look at us. Students were asked to describe their face in as much detail as possible, as if they were meeting someone for the first time. Their vivid verbal illustrations of a “zit on the tip of my nose” and “shoulder length frizzy brown curls” and “eyebrows like caterpillars” enabled their classmates to correctly (and excitedly) pinpoint who they were.

Next week we delve more deeply into this exploration as Kaiser Permanente presents a unit on Media Analysis and students share monologues that they’ve written about their oldest living relative. As the weeks progress, answers are emerging as to the nature of our show and the vital issues the students want to address, but mostly, we are relishing in the wealth of questions that materialize, both from the students and the teaching staff.

For example-when an actor created an advertisement that seemed to magically judge the body type of it’s viewer, I noted how the sketch successfully entertained the audience while still raising important questions in the realm of what we’re dealing with. And that’s exactly what we want.

We have journal exercises requiring the students to write continuously for a determined period. We encourage them to keep writing throughout that period-even if what they write is non-sensical. But when one hungry student’s journal repeated the words “waffles”, “bacon”, “cake”, and “pie” over and over again, I laughed. I can’t help but think we can use that in some way.

These first two weeks have been exhilarating and challenging. And they have contained many of these moments already-pearls formed from the sands of our process-which, right now, is still discovering what it wants to be. I do think we have been most successful when it comes time for the students to perform, and that’s encouraging. I’m excited to see more of it.

There is something so special about working with high school students. Maybe it’s their total willingness to dive into an exercise which requires them to feign seasickness over the back of one of their fellow students. Perhaps it’s their cheekiness which inspires them to introduce themselves as Jackhammering Jessica and Narcoleptic Nathan. Some might consider it a futile challenge to get a word in edgewise over nearly 30 social teens in the first week of a program that has never been done before. However, one thing is clear; their individual personalities will not be mistaken. Just listen to their post-interview introductions of one another, or take a quick glance at the “I Am” posters hanging on the wall that they each created to represent themselves. Individual identities were increasingly evident today (Friday), as each student navigated their way through a card game in which the rules never stayed the same from one table to another. Who would dictate the rules for each table? Who would question themselves and give into peer dominance? How would they communicate without speaking to resolve the inevitable conflicts that arose? Certainly, life would be a less complicated place if we all spoke the same language and adhered to the same set of rules, but this class is about more than just finding a common ground between people of diverse backgrounds. We’re interested in exploring how and why what you see may not necessarily be what I see. Hmm. . .Stay tuned. . .