I had the lesson plans we'd been given, and my adaptation of them. I had 12 lovely, very Italian children in front of me. I ran through my lesson plan in about half the time, and ended up doing both lesson plans together. Mental note: slow down. The children were lovely but I lived in fear that they hated me. What if whenever they spoke Italian they were telling each other how terrible I was? No, stop it. You're a good teacher. You wouldn't be here if you weren't. You can do this. We went through the basics 'My name is Emily. I am English. I live in Nottingham. I like reading books and playing netball.' Simple, but useful. They picked it up easily and we made some nice posters and laughed about universal pop songs. 'I'm blue dabadee dabadi!' I made it through the first class, and as the week progressed I felt more confident in those English classes. We did adjectives (to describe our characters), directions (for games!) and stage directions (upstage, downstage, stage left, stage right). Everything linked in with the drama classes, but I can't take the credit there. I used the initial lesson plans much more, just changing the games to my preferences, and have never been so grateful for such a supportive team.
The drama classes were easier, I was on home ground there. Even with a language barrier, I could settle into myself a little. I demonstrated games, made a true idiot of myself, and finally began to win the children round. There was a moment when I was on my hands and knees mooing like a cow, where I practically heard them all think 'ah yes, she's a fool'. It seemed to work.
I told them we were doing 'Annie' and was greeted with silence. Apparently that one hasn't made it over to Italy! Never mind, on we went. I knew the option was there to choose a different story, but I wasn't confident with anything else and decided to stay strong. So it was Hard Knock Life as a song, and Jess Glynne 'Rather Be' as a dance. I'd done both before, and was surprisingly adept at making up a semi decent pop dance on the spot.
I told them we were doing 'Annie' and was greeted with silence. Apparently that one hasn't made it over to Italy! Never mind, on we went. I knew the option was there to choose a different story, but I wasn't confident with anything else and decided to stay strong. So it was Hard Knock Life as a song, and Jess Glynne 'Rather Be' as a dance. I'd done both before, and was surprisingly adept at making up a semi decent pop dance on the spot.
Now, Annie is a story I have mixed feelings on. I knew it growing up, we all do, but I had no feelings about it. Ginger girl gets adopted, I love ya tomorrow, got it. The first time I did Annie, was in America. For those that don't know, when I was 19 I did a summer in Connecticut at an all girls YMCA summer camp. It was equally horrific and fantastic, and absolutely changed me as a person. I taught drama and set design, and had a cabin of 14yos. I'll let you decide which bit was horrific.
Now, when I did Annie at camp, the script we had was the film script. We basically copied the film verbatim and the show was lovely, and I was miserable. I did four shows at Camp, Annie, Sound of Music, Beauty and the Beast and the Wizard of Oz. It took years for me to recover from performing those shows, it was such hard work in such hard conditions. I swore off Annie and the Sound of Music for years, I was scarred by a horrific week and I never really liked them anyway. Then I took on my theatre school, and the first play we did was Annie. Desperate to try and enjoy my term, and to make a name for myself, I watched the new version with Quevenzhane Wallis and Jamie Foxx. A modern upbeat sound track, a handsome male lead, I was sold. Starlight's version of Annie was modern and fun and I loved it. Still wasn't 100% an Annie fan, but hey, my kids did great. So I chose Annie for Italy because I know it so well. A Hard Knock Life is burned into my brain forever. Over this week, I found a new love for the show.
First I had to simplify my script. I'd brought in my Starlight script reduced to 6 pages. This was too much for the language, and I spent Monday afternoon scribbling down a new script while the kids watched (and loved!) the film. It became about 8 minutes long, just the plot points and character introductions. Listening to the Italian accent struggling with some of the names 'Mis 'Annigan', having to simplify it so much, made the story seem new to me. It was suddenly soft, friendly, kind. The children who played the 'villains' Rooster and Ms Hannigan stole the show with their hilarious acting, and the lovely young lady who was Annie was a sweetheart who smile the whole show through. My favourite moment? One of the girls who had been practicing all week and who every day told me no, she couldn't remember her line, spoke it clearly and precisely on stage, looking straight at me the entire time. I was so proud. The show was simple in the end, and in England I would have been disappointed. But to these children they did an entire performance in a second language! That's incredible.
Every day, regardless of the heat, we would spend an hour dancing, an hour singing, and an hour of games and blocking. They were hard working, they'd ask to practice again and again and again, they laughed, and they definitely talked about me in italian, but it was positive.
We made a poster for the show, and they made a statue of liberty to be used in one of the scenes. My favourite actually. I played 'The City's Yours' by Jamie Foxx from the Annie 2014 soundtrack, and Annie, Grace and Mr Stacks did a 'tour' of New York. The others walked behind pretending to also be in NYC, and they had the statue of liberty in the middle. It took longer than any other scene, with the language barrier and the newness of the idea. It was about 1minute long in the end. It was wonderful. After the performance on the last day, my class all signed the back and gave me the Statue of Liberty to take home. It was too big for the suitcase but I persevered. I'd spent a week wondering if they got me, and they so clearly did.
I think I learnt more about myself as a teacher in that week than I ever have. Since being back, I've noticed a change in my teaching style within my usual classes. I speak slower, I simplify, everything has a gesture to help along. By the end of the week I'd learnt a few words in Italian, I could say let's go, after, repeat, useful one word instructions that I could translate into English. Not that there was much danger of this, but I knew that speaking too much Italian or attempting to learn Italian would hinder their learning of English. It was a long week, and there were times that I'd have to repeat something three or four times, in different phrasing, to make myself understood. But that moment where things would click, the mutual comprehension was exciting! Yes! Let's do this, we understand! Laughter, nodding, si si si!
Watching the show on the Friday evening, I have never been as proud of a group of students, or myself before. There is a video of the show, and during the end dance the camera pans to me dancing with a huge smile on my face. I hate videos of myself, but I will savour this video forever.
Watching the show on the Friday evening, I have never been as proud of a group of students, or myself before. There is a video of the show, and during the end dance the camera pans to me dancing with a huge smile on my face. I hate videos of myself, but I will savour this video forever.
