Fire up those Synapses!

The very idea of being up on a stage acting in a play makes my stomach do flips. I can't imagine staying "in character" performing in front of an audience. My daughter, who is much more introverted than I am absolutely loves the idea and has incorporated drama and theatre into her life with full enthusiasm. Last year, when she delivered a speech on child poverty for a school competition, she delivered it with her dramatic flair and ended up with second place for the whole school. Even though it was her delivering a serious speech, Martha performed it. This is where her comfort is found. Last spring, she performed in two plays and loved every minute of the process. Yesterday, she came home from the first day of theatre "camp" with a monologue to learn and to be performed at the end of the week. She was beyond excited.

If it was me? No way! You couldn't pay me enough to get up on stage and deliver a monologue. Throw me up at the front of a classroom to teach however, and I'm a happy camper. Ask anyone who loves to teach and they will tell you it's performance stuff, but there's a big difference and I guess this is where my comfort and confidence comes from.........its your own stuff you're performing. Both are genuinely delivered, but one is acting out a character and the other is performing as yourself. It's different personas and parts of one personality through a litany of emotions, but still flesh and bones me. It's real.

I was asked the other day by a new aquaintance, one who is a random conversationalist like moi, what it was about teaching that I loved so much. You'd think after all these years, I'd have some pat answer to give. I know I've answered it many times during job interviews, and I talk about teaching often. I've even delivered several "train the trainer" sessions.................coaching others to teach. So............what gives with the hesitation in the middle of a rambling conversation? Well, all of a sudden i felt flung into a reflection. Perhaps it was the way the question was asked.....the person really wanted to know rather than one of those frequently cast offs often found in idle chatter. This person wanted some sustenance.