When Language Lessons Make for Good Theater
Photo: Robert Caplin for The New York Times
A teacher of English as a Second Language, Néstor Rodríguez, moderated questions from students to actors during a play.
By FERNANDA SANTOS
Published: April 9, 2008
The plot goes something like this: Francis and Margot Macomber are on safari in Africa. Mr. Macomber, a hard-drinking British diplomat, runs scared from a lion. Mrs. Macomber, hardly one to shy away from adventure, scorns his cowardice and proceeds to have a fling with their guide. Out hunting buffalo, she shoots her husband dead.
Cut to Ana Nuñez, 46, a home-health aide seated in the audience. “You shoot your husband intention or accident?” Ms. Nuñez, a native of the Dominican Republic, asked in lilting English.
Devin Moriarty, still in character as Mrs. Macomber in this adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” responded: “Oh, my! It all happened so fast.”
So much for the fourth wall.
In traditional theater, conversation between actors and audience are rare. Scenes unfold without interruption, save for intermission. The power to guide the plot lies with the actors; the people watching are left to, well, watch.
But this week at the Wings Theater, an Off Off Broadway spot in the basement of a landmark building at 154 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, an unconventional experiment is at work. The seats are filled by a multinational coalition of English as a Second Language students, who have the power to ask Ms. Moriarty and the other three actors questions or to tell them to replay scenes they may not have fully grasped.
The students are also quizzed, in something akin to a live reading-comprehension exercise.
“When you do a regular play, you’re kind of in control, you call the shots,” said Tim Douglas, the actor who plays the guide, Robert Wilson. “But in this format, anything can happen.”
One part theater, one part language lesson, the production is the brainchild of two teachers who share a performing arts background. The director, Barbara Bregstein, is a Spanish instructor who ran two small theaters in Cambridge, Mass., in the 1970s. Néstor Rodríguez, who teaches English as a Second Language in the continuing education program at City College and worked as an actor in his native Colombia before moving here in 1995, is the presenter, moderating the audience interaction.
Ms. Bregstein and Mr. Rodríguez do not tell the actors about the untraditional aspects of the production until after auditions. They named their company Educational Theater and have financed it mostly through ticket sales ($10 a head to meet the Macombers).
They generally stage short stories rather than plays, which would be too long with all the interruptions. The actors will play a scene of no more than a few minutes, then freeze. The lights come on and Mr. Rodríguez stands up to ask the students about what they saw. (emphasis added)
“What time do you think it is?” he inquired after the first scene on Monday, opening night.
“April 7, 2008,” replied a young man. “Very good,” Mr. Rodríguez said. “But what I want to know is what time it is in the play.” (Mrs. Macomber had indicated noontime.)
Mr. Rodríguez asked four questions and got one correct answer. He asked the students if they wanted the scene to be repeated, or if they wanted the play to continue.
“Repeat,” the students said in a strident unison.
Confronted with the same questions at the next break, they flipped their right-to-wrong answer ratio to three to one. Ms. Bregstein said that she developed the format in a spurt of frustration over the quality of instructive English videos Mr. Rodríguez showed her eight years ago. At the time, they were both teaching English at the downtown headquarters of District Council 37, a municipal union. The videos were the only teaching material Mr. Rodríguez could find.
“The content was so weak and so cheesy and so bad,” he said.
Ms. Bregstein wrote the first of the plays, shown in 2000, and has since adapted short stories by Bernard Malamud — “The Magic Barrel” and “Idiots First” — as well as Plato’s “Apology.” There are two seasons a year, one in the spring and another in the fall, and often each season features one original work.
This is the first time Ms. Bregstein has adapted a Hemingway short story.
“As long as the stories are in the short-scene format, the students will get them, even if the material seems complicated,” she said.
“The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” runs through Saturday, with multiple shows every day except for Friday.
In the audience on Monday, there were students from China, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Ivory Coast. Maria Pagán, 56, who moved to New York from Colombia in 1996, said it was her first time seeing professional theater.
“I like how they play, how the story develop,” she said hesitantly. “Now I know I understand theater,” Ms. Pagán added. “And I try to come more.”
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2 comments:
I liked this article so much that I decided to subscribe to the NY Times home delivery again.
What I love so much about this story is how it reminded me of the major role theater played in my own life when I was a student, in elementary school, eager to learn as much English as possible -- even though English was already
my native language. I just wanted to learn bigger words.
In my elementary school, every class, every year, from K through Grade 6, was required to put on a play. Every class.
And, we, the students, would go to the audiorium and see the plays.
Students had to MEMORIZE their lines. AND they had to REHEARSE.
You would be amazed how much English one can learn in the context of theater.
I realize that what we did is not exactly what these students are doing in the article, but this article is a step in the right direction.
However, involving the students more, so that they, too, are on the stage, is an even bigger and better step, in my opinion.
I don't know why schools don't require students and teachers to engage in theater as much today. It's recognized as an important strategy in terms of teaching. But schools don't tend to think this way any more. In 15 years I have been in education as a teacher, I have never once seen a play in a school by elementary students.
Nor have I ever been in a school where putting on an annual play was required of each class, like it was in my elementary school.
Yet, there are thousands of plays suitable for students, including English language learners. And what a thrill it is when you get it right! And see your classmates up there!
Plus, you learn so much about history, seeing it happen, if the play has a historical story about the USA. These are the kinds of stories new citizens need to see and learn.
Well, the play's the thing. Always. In my book, at least.
This is what I had posted on the homepage about this entry:
[image]
Teacher's Corner is my blog, here. As some of you may have noticed, I went off-line for awhile. But, now I've returned.
Usually I write a monthly essay sharing my thoughts on creating and editing "Inspiration Lane." However, this month I decided to post an educational news article instead.
Your comments are welcome, too -- and, so are your essays!
I explain more on my blog under the graphic of the birthday cake, so I hope you'll take a look there. In short, I hope you, as a teacher, will consider sharing your reflections on teaching English Language Learners, and jot down something you've learned that would be useful for other teachers to know. Or, maybe you've read an article you'd like to show to other teachers.
Along those lines, I 've posted a news article this month about an ESOL teacher who teaches adult learners in a community college in New York. He teaches in a theater as classroom, and works with actors as well as students. It's a good read!
In the meantime, I hope you and your students continue to enjoy "Inspiration Lane" in your classroom over the summer.
Sincerely,
summer
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