Drama Teachers: How do you run an effective Q and A session?

Episode 193: Drama Teachers: How do you run an effective Q and A session?

In the 21st century, the world is at our fingertips. That means your students can interact with the playwright of their next play through Skype, do a Google Hangout with a professional actor, or talk to a set designer on Facebook Live. But how do you run a question and answer session that’s valuable for your students and gets the most out of your guest?  Listen in for some insight and for a Q and A in action!

Show Notes

• Hoodie
• Humbug High
• Deck the Stage

Episode Transcript

Welcome to the Drama Teacher Podcast brought to you by Theatrefolk – the Drama Teacher Resource Company.

I’m Lindsay Price.

Hello! I hope you’re well. Thanks for listening!

This is Episode 193 and you can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at Theatrefolk.com/episode193.

Today, we’re talking about Q&A. Ah, I’m a rhymer!

We all know what that means – questions and answers – Q&A.

We are living in an age of communication, an age of technology, and age where your students can actually talk to the playwright of their next play – you know, so long as it’s not Shakespeare or some other dead playwright, you know – although wouldn’t that be awesome? Can you imagine, you can have your time machine and you could talk to Shakespeare? I digress.

But you could talk to the playwright of your next play through Skype. You could do a Google Hangout with a professional actor. You could talk to a set designer on Facebook Live. It is all possible and it’s something that I do quite a lot of. I do a lot of Skype Q&As – virtual Q&As with students who are putting up one of my plays. Sometimes, I talk to student directors; sometimes, I talk to after-school programs; sometimes, it’s classes. I’ve talked to high schools, I’ve talked to middle schools.

On paper, I think that these events are kind of fabulous. I would do them and will do them for anyone doing one of my plays. I love hearing what students think. I love hearing what they think about the characters, about what’s happening.

I have one play called “Look Me in the Eye” and students always want to know how to pronounce the names in the play. It takes place in the future so the names are a little bit off-kilter and they want to know if they’ve got the background right for the names and how they’re pronounced and if they’re on the right track. I can answer those questions. I can help their process.

But, sometimes, what can happen is I talk to a teacher ahead of time and the teacher talks about how excited the students are to talk to me and how they want to talk to me and they have all kinds of questions and they can’t wait and the day comes and the Skype is all set up and I’m there and they’re there and there’s maybe one or two questions and then silence.

I get it. I know, I know, it’s weird. It’s weird to do this online. It’s weird to do it over the computer instead of in person. Sometimes – and this happens to me all the time – you have this amazing question, a series of amazing questions, and then, in the moment, it just completely escapes your head. I get it.

So, the question is – for these Q&A questions – how do you run a Q&A session that is valuable for your students and also gets the most out of your guest.

I did a great Q&A with a group of middle school students in Ireland, no less. It was pretty awesome. I just happened to be there on a trip and I get notices of who’s doing my plays and it was all serendipitous. I’m like, “Hey! This school in Ireland is doing my show! Hey! We’re going to be near their area!” and the teacher was, you know, all onboard. So, I got to go to the school and see scenes from the show and then we did this massive Q&A. They grilled me on everything!

I’m going to put a picture in the show notes of the question map they created before I got there. These guys, they were prepared!

We recorded the Q&A and I’m going to play it after this. First, I’m going to go over a couple of points from my point of view.

How do you run a Q&A that’s valuable for your students and gets the most out of your guest?

1. Have everyone write down three questions beforehand.

They can do it in small groups. They can do it individually. But make it part of the process that everyone has to come up with three questions. That way, everyone can either ask their questions on the day or you can get together as a class and figure out which are the overlapping questions.

Compile a list. Come up with a unified list that everyone can follow and everyone has a copy of. This way, there’s no chance that anyone will get brainfreeze in the moment and there’s no chance that someone else will ask your fabulous question. Everyone’s got the same list that they’re working off of and the work is already done. Everyone can sort of just focus on the answers and not on “oh, I had this great question and I don’t know what it is anymore!”

Another reason it’s good to do this beforehand is that you can monitor the types of questions that are coming up. You can figure out if there are indeed enough questions. You know, you’ve asked a professional to take time out of their day to talk to your class. You want to make sure that you’re going to get the most out of the time that you have with them. If your students are struggling with questions beforehand, you know, maybe you need to address that – either have a discussion about possible questions, figure out why they’re struggling. What’s something maybe that they’re not keying into? Or maybe even rescheduling with your guest. Don’t let that moment go to waste.

1. Divide the questions into three categories – the person, the process, the product.

If you’re talking to a playwright like me, have students compile questions about:

• me – for example, how long have you been a playwright?
• the process – how long does it take you to write a play? Where do your ideas comes from?
• the product – whatever it is that you’re specifically discussing in the moment. In the case of a play, where did you get the idea for this play? How do you pronounce this character’s name? Where did you come up with the character names?

That way, students are thinking on a variety of levels for their questions.

Also, if you have students who are crew members or ensemble members and don’t feel that they have a part in this process of asking about the product itself, there are lots of questions they can come up with when it comes to the process or the craft – be it acting or writing or set design – and they can ask questions about the person and where they are in their craft

1. Have a designated order when it comes to the day of the Skype or the Hangout or the whatever. It’s hard to get a whole class or a whole group in front of a small computer screen. If you put together an order for who’s going to ask a question and then create a designated spot right in front of the computer to ask that question, things will run pretty smoothly.

You should give everybody numbers and make sure you know who’s in front of you and who’s after you and you know that, at a certain time, you’re going to ask Question 7, for example. You come up to the front, you ask your question, and then it just makes things more than a little bit of a chaotic free-for-all – like, “Okay, who’s got a question?” or “You come up from the back and ask your question.”

If you’re 6 and Question 5 is going and you’re at the back, you know, you’ve got to kind of make your way up to the front.

That’s number three – have a designated order when it comes to the day of the Skype.

1. Lastly, monitor your students’ engagement level during the Skype or the Facebook Live or whatever. This is especially true if you have middle school students. If they’re getting squirrely, it’s time to end the session.

Again, your guest is taking the time to consider the questions asked of them. They’re trying to give the best answer possible. If it looks like no one is listening, that’s not great. So, just keep an eye on are they listening, what’s happening, and you’re the one who’s sort of in-charge on that and there’s not much that the person who is on the other side of the Skype can do. Just to kind of keep an eye on what’s happening and if the squirrely behavior is coming out.

Those are my four tips for running a Q&A session with a professional artist. Brainstorm your questions ahead of time. Create questions in categories – for example, the person, the process, the product. And then, monitor student engagement.

Now, I’m going to take you across the pond to a live Q&A session with middle school students at the North Wicklow Educate Together Secondary School in Bray, Ireland. Just as a little heads up, it is live and we’re in a gym-like room so the sound won’t be the best but it is the best that we can do and I hope that you enjoy the session.

LINDSAY: What was it like doing the play?

CHILDREN: It was fun.

LINDSAY: Yes?

STUDENT: And stressful.

LINDSAY: Why was it stressful?

STUDENT: Well, just the general…

STUDENT: Yeah, because we’re drama sensation.

STUDENT: We gave our teacher a gray hair.

TEACHER: I did get one.

LINDSAY: One gray hair. But that’s good. What was the most stressful scene or what was the most stressful part?

STUDENT: The last one!

STUDENT: Oh, my god, the scene! Oh!

STUDENT: When we did our live performance…

TEACHER: Shush! We don’t talk about that!

STUDENT: Just climbing. And there was just, like, five-minute silence whenever someone was supposed to speak.

STUDENT: Someone skipped their lines. There was like…

LINDSAY: Well, it feels like five minutes, doesn’t it though?

STUDENT: Yeah.

LINDSAY: Three seconds and then it’s like, “Uhh.” Did you find your way back?

STUDENT: We did.

TEACHER: Oh, what happened was someone skipped a part and said that Milo was cued to come on but Milo never came on. We’re like, “Rude!” But, you know, it’s fine.

STUDENT: You’re blaming Milo. Don’t blame Milo.

LINDSAY: Which was the scene that you liked the best, you think? Which was the scene?

STUDENT: The boy scenes were amazing.

STUDENT: We were supposed to do that! Someone forgot to go off.

STUDENT: We’re still going to be there but they went off-stage.

STUDENT: The part where he walks across.

LINDSAY: Oh, the cologne?

STUDENT: Too much cologne.

STUDENT: Oh, his was amazing. Do it now. Do it for us now.

STUDENT: Come on, do it for us now.

STUDENT: Go on.

STUDENT: “Aw, what is that smell?”

STUDENT: “Too much cologne.”

LINDSAY: All right. Questions?

STUDENT: Okay, I have a question.

LINDSAY: You know what? Yes, you have the list.

STUDENT: I have the list, yeah.

LINDSAY: Yes, go!

STUDENT: Jonas is different.

LINDSAY: Yes.

STUDENT: We all know that but how did you picture him? How did you picture him different?

LINDSAY: Here’s the thing. I think that people, particularly at this age – and I know for myself, that was one of the things that I remembered from being 12 and 13 – sometimes, you think you’re different and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with you, right? Because there’s different in how you think everyone looks at you then there’s other different, right?

I’ve seen it where it was someone who felt that their weight was too much and they didn’t want to get in the shower that way. I’ve seen it done in the States where he was played by an African American and what that meant to be different. I’ve seen it done with all levels of different and that’s why I didn’t want to say specifically in the dialogue what exactly made him different so that whoever was playing Jonas could make up his own mind.

So, what did you decide?

STUDENT: We said he was trans.

STUDENT: He was transgender.

LINDSAY: Yeah, all right.

STUDENT: Really?

STUDENT: Sorry, Amelia.

STUDENT: I thought it was just like skinny and weedy.

LINDSAY: It’s been done that way too where he’s like really, really…

STUDENT: Scrawny?

LINDSAY: Yeah, because sometimes there’s boys who are 13 who are like – boom! – and they’re like…

STUDENT: Who do you think you relate to most in the play?

LINDSAY: Who do I relate to most? Well, it all depends on the day. Hoodie, I relate to a lot – that whole notion of just wanting to throw your hood up and wanting to hide from everybody. I think that’s something that I absolutely relate to.

STUDENT: Did you base any of the characters on yourself?

LINDSAY: No, I think that there’s a little bit of me in all of them. There’s a little bit of me in the Clump. There’s a little bit of me in the squares and the triangles. I’m an octagon! There’s even a little bit of me in Jonas. But I make up a lot of stuff so there’s nobody in the play who’s like a person from my life or a person that I know. I have a very active imagination so I like to make up everything and make up everybody.

STUDENT: Who’s your favorite character?

LINDSAY: Who’s my favorite character?

STUDENT: Trilby.

LINDSAY: Yes, and you played her with sass! Like, I haven’t seen her done like that before so that was lovely. That was a real treat. I thought the two of you worked really nicely together.

STUDENT: What happened to Emily and Emma after their scene?

LINDSAY: Well, it all depends if you’re an optimist or a pessimist. If you’re a pessimist, they were never friends again. If you’re an optimist, then they just took up right where they left off and became friends again.

STUDENT: Who are Flimflam and Dr. Lou?

LINDSAY: Who are they? Well, again, it all depends on your point of view. I think they’re not real. I think they’re…

STUDENT: They’re just part of my imagination.

LINDSAY: Well, not imagination but they’re not human, that’s what I mean to say. I don’t think they’re human.

STUDENT: What happens to Briana?

STUDENT: Yeah, what happened?

LINDSAY: I think that, again, it depends. It depends on your point of view. If you think good of people, then she changed. If you don’t think good of people, she moved and went to a whole new school where nobody knew her.

STUDENT: I’m actually still not over that snow cone, by the way.

STUDENT: Who is Dr. Change?

STUDENT: It’s Dr. Lou.

LINDSAY: Dr. Lou, he’s just someone who monitors the streets. No.

STUDENT: Sounds like me.

LINDSAY: He’s somebody who thinks he knows he has the right answer to what teenagers are going through.

STUDENT: Exactly.

LINDSAY: But he doesn’t.

STUDENT: Is he, like, 40 years old?

LINDSAY: Yeah, something like that.

STUDENT: Wait, what? I played an old man? Okay.

LINDSAY: I’ve seen him done as a woman so you’re fine. Yes!

STUDENT: What happened to Lucas’ voice?

LINDSAY: It gets deeper. It just changes. It’s an exaggeration. Like, the scenes with the voice and the scene with the square, I tried to think of a really theatrical but a really exaggerated non-real thing that would happen when guys change and guys change their voice.

STUDENT: What was your favorite scene to write?

LINDSAY: I think the Dr. Lou ones were pretty fun because it’s always fun to write for characters who aren’t bound by reality. Like, he just says whatever. “Just call me Dr. Change!” like, he’s that guy.

And then, I also really like writing two-hander scenes where characters say what they really mean because I think that’s something we don’t do in life. You know, if your best friend came and told you that they didn’t want to be your friend anymore, you know, I don’t know how many people would stand up the way that Trilby does and gives and says it so eloquently. She says everything I’ve ever wanted to say to an idiot girl who came up to me and said, “I don’t want to be your friend anymore.” I never would have said that, you know? I like giving voice to characters who don’t have voices.

STUDENT: Did mom ever buy Jeremy his shoes?

LINDSAY: No.

STUDENT: Sorry, only I have them.

LINDSAY: Yes.

STUDENT: What happened with Hoodie? Did Hoodie make friends?

LINDSAY: Yes, that’s the point. That’s what I hope that you get from the end – that there was a change and we don’t see the change; we just see the possibility of change.

STUDENT: Dr. Change!

LINDSAY: Yeah, Dr. Change!

STUDENT: Some of us felt that all the people in the play who ended up going to the cinema should all end up being… You know, there’s Neve, there’s Tina.

LINDSAY: They all met at the movies, right?

STUDENT: And became besties.

LINDSAY: I like it.

STUDENT: What did they go see, though?

STUDENT: Spider-Man Homecoming.

STUDENT: Beauty and the Beast, Spider-Man, you know, whatever one.

STUDENT: The Beauty and Spider movies.

STUDENT: Have you ever thought of writing a prequel?

LINDSAY: Not a prequel.

STUDENT: A sequel where they’re all adults.

STUDENT: Where they’re in college.

LINDSAY: Oh! No, I’ve never… It’s really funny because I write a lot of plays like this where there is a theme and then there are very short scenes and I’m never taking characters from one play and thought about them other than outside of a different light.

There’s two other plays. Hoodie is in a trilogy of plays but it’s the same thing. It’s just a play on a theme. We don’t meet these characters ever again.

STUDENT: I’m horrified with Dr. Change.

LINDSAY: It’s like a window, eh? You just sort of see a little window into their life and then it’s gone.

STUDENT: I prefer Papadakis as well. “If you didn’t want to talk, call me Dr. Change.”

STUDENT: What was your inspiration for the play?

LINDSAY: I go into schools a lot. When I’m working on a new play, I always take it into a school and sort of give it to them – to guys your age to read it to make sure that I’m on the right track since it’s been a long, long, long time since I was twelve.

I was in one school and there was a huge deal being made about hoodies being worn with the hood up and hats in school. As an outsider, I didn’t get it. You know, we had a long discussion with students and with the teachers about what that actually means and why you’re not allowed at that. But that was the inspiration for me.

What if there was a character who wanted to wear their hood up for a very good reason and was being told no? That was the base. And then, I just started thinking about other things that happened – changes that happened and friendships that go awry and just different relationships. After that, I really was thinking about The Clump because it’s all about being theatrical. So, how do I take what people are thinking and turn it into something that I can show?

STUDENT: Hoodie the TV show?

LINDSAY: Aw, I wish.

STUDENT: What happened to the girl that turned into an octagon?

LINDSAY: I think she turned into an octagon for a very brief moment and then became just a normal teenage girl.

STUDENT: What happened to the guy that turned into a square?

LINDSAY: Same thing – although he seems a little more anxiety-ridden about it. The girl who turned into the octagon probably wasn’t affected. The guy who turned into a square, it probably affected him a little bit.

STUDENT: How did it go out in the costume room?

LINDSAY: I know, I heard. But that’s all right.

STUDENT: Did Nicky actually get grounded for life?

STUDENT: Did I get grounded for life? Please don’t tell me I did.

LINDSAY: No.

STUDENT: I feel really bad.

LINDSAY: Yes.

STUDENT: Parents say that.

LINDSAY: Yes.

STUDENT: Did you lose it? Where’d it go?

STUDENT: Did boy ever find the right amount of cologne to wear?

LINDSAY: Oh, that is a great question. I’m going to say no. He was always overdoing it or underdoing it. And then, someone came along. Eventually, someone came along and sat him down and kind of was like, “Maybe just use soap.”

STUDENT: Just clean yourself. Have a shower.

LINDSAY: Just clean, be clean, and maybe not so much the covering up of the odors.

STUDENT: We were thinking of adding, well… was involved in this.

STUDENT: We thought of it while we were planning the questions.

STUDENT: Yeah, for Ronan to come back in and be like, “Hey! Right amount of cologne!”

STUDENT: “Just enough cologne.” Like, at the very end when The Clump had gone off.

STUDENT: Did the top actually make Emily look lucky?

LINDSAY: Yeah. Who played Emily?

STUDENT: I was Emily.

LINDSAY: What do you think?

STUDENT: Well, I think that Emily was just looking for an excuse to involve Emma.

LINDSAY: I agree.

STUDENT: Emily was just jealous of your shoes, honestly!

LINDSAY: Yes, you know how sometimes people say things that aren’t true because…

STUDENT: They’re jealous.

LINDSAY: They want whatever, yeah.

STUDENT: Did she actually handle her shoes then?

LINDSAY: What do you think?

STUDENT: Yeah, I think the shoes worked.

STUDENT: We had the same top on because I have, like, three of these so I gave one to Jess and then we had the same tops for Emily and Emma.

LINDSAY: Very good!

STUDENT: You know Stacey and Paige? What was actually their plan? Was it just be, like, “Hey, you can be popular” or was it like…?

LINDSAY: I think their plan was to get rid of everything and anything that wouldn’t make them popular. Trilby – number one. But I think that Charlotte, I think she was headed down that road anyway. She sort of seemed like that kind of character that she would have left Trilby behind and just happened to, in gym, start talking to two other girls who were fast-tracking that.

STUDENT: Did they ever become friends again?

LINDSAY: No.

STUDENT: Never?

LINDSAY: Yeah.

STUDENT: Did Amber and Ashley stay with Briana? Did they continue being her friend?

LINDSAY: No.

STUDENT: Servant.

STUDENT: That’s not fair. Well, my snow cone.

STUDENT: Get your own snow cone.

STUDENT: How did Flimflam and Bamboozle actually know, like, about the spirit of… and thought she was wearing that top?

LINDSAY: They’re not human.

STUDENT: They’re servants of Lucifer.

STUDENT: That’s weird.

STUDENT: Excuse me.

LINDSAY: All right, what do we think?

STUDENT: What happened to Bailey and Jazz?

LINDSAY: I think they lived happily ever after. Like, just in terms of…

STUDENT: And got married.

LINDSAY: Not together – their lives. Their lives worked out great.

STUDENT: Jailey and Bazz.

LINDSAY: No, they became happy.

STUDENT: So, you know the scene, the comp scene where one of them is like, “I don’t get it,” and she explains how she looks fine at home and then, when she’s in school, she’s not? Does she ever figure that out and become happy with herself at school?

LINDSAY: I think you can play it both ways. I think it depends on the person who’s playing that part and see how they see themselves because there’s lots of people who take that feeling their whole lives and then there’s other people who it’s only a little while that they feel that way and then they start to see it’s different – that who you are inside is what makes you the good person and not what you see in the mirror.

STUDENT: After Tina went to the body factory, did she look perfect?

LINDSAY: No.

STUDENT: Did Neve stay out of The Clump?

LINDSAY: Yes.

STUDENT: Go on, Neve.

STUDENT: Yes, Neve.

LINDSAY: Yes, she went to the movies, yes.

STUDENT: Did The Clump disband?

LINDSAY: Oh, never. That’s the sad part about The Clump. It’s that there’s always new people who want to go into The Clump.

STUDENT: Did more people leave The Clump?

LINDSAY: Yes, but that’s the sad part. People will always be ready to leave The Clump just as there are people who need The Clump.

STUDENT: Who’s your least favorite character?

LINDSAY: Oh, I don’t put them in if they’re my least favorite. Briana is not my happy but I bet you played her really well. I’ll bet you were. I can tell 100 percent that you were awesome as that part.

STUDENT: Who was your least favorite to write?

LINDSAY: Oh, who was my least favorite to write? Well, they don’t usually end up in the play. They usually get kicked out.

STUDENT: Which scene was the most challenging to write?

LINDSAY: The Clumps are always challenging because I was trying different things – like, with the message, message, then this, this, this, this. I know, people say that. I’m going to say those were the most challenging to write. The Clump scenes were the most challenging.

STUDENT: Were any characters actually written and then you decided not to keep them in?

LINDSAY: I’m going to say yes because it’s been a long time since I’ve written it. What I usually do is, whatever the first draft is, I don’t say no to anything. That means that scenes go in and characters go in and I just write as much as I possibly can so that, when I’m ready to do the next draft, then it’s like, “Okay, well, how does this all fit together?” Sometimes, that’s what happens. When I’m fitting it all together, scenes don’t quite work. If I had a Scene A and a Scene B and it’s like Scene B really fits in here, Scene A is kind of saying the same thing as Scene B and Scene B is better. There’s sometimes that that’s what happens and that’s when characters get kicked out.

STUDENT: How long did it take to write?

LINDSAY: I’m going to say that it probably took me a month to write it and then I took it to three different schools because I thought The Clump was hard. I wanted to see students work on it and then I took the draft back and then probably a couple more months.

Totally from beginning to end, it probably took about three to four months.

STUDENT: What happens to Jonas? Does he become a hypocrite?

LINDSAY: Does Jonas become a hypocrite? It depends on how you see the character because I could see him going both ways. I could see him crumbling. I could see him just going with the status quo. And then, I could also see him fighting up for himself.

It depends how you see him. How do you see him? Is he a fighter or is he a crumbler?

STUDENT: He’s going to crumble.

LINDSAY: Is he? All right.

STUDENT: Apple crumble. I want apple crumble.

STUDENT: Oh!

STUDENT: Ha! I don’t like it so it’s fine.

STUDENT: Same. Chicken nuggets.

STUDENT: What’s your favorite version of the play that you’ve seen?

LINDSAY: Of course, this is my favorite version of the play that I’ve seen and I haven’t even seen the whole thing. Just think!

STUDENT: We have a film!

STUDENT: Oh, stop, stop, stop! No, no, no!

STUDENT: Wait, no, that was the really bad version. Please don’t show her that one.

STUDENT: What is your favorite play and/or musical?

LINDSAY: My favorite play and my favorite musical? Great. My favorite play is a play by Thornton Wilder called “Our Town” which is realistic but it’s also a little bit surreal. Like, there’s no real set. A lot of the way that I think about sets are really influenced by Our Town.

My favorite musical? I really like Stephen Sondheim.

STUDENT: Have you listened to Hamilton?

LINDSAY: I have listened to Hamilton.

STUDENT: Do you like it?

LINDSAY: I like Hamilton.

STUDENT: Be careful.

LINDSAY: Of course, I like Hamilton.

STUDENT: Yes!

LINDSAY: There’s a musical called “Merrily We Roll Along” which is by Stephen Sondheim. I change all the time because I listen to things all the time so that’s currently my favorite musical.

STUDENT: How many plays have you written?

LINDSAY: Over 60.

STUDENT: Whoa!

LINDSAY: Thank you so much, guys!

Before we go, let’s do some THEATREFOLK NEWS!

Any links to today’s episode can be found in the show notes at Theatrefolk.com/episode193.

And, today, it’s a play feature! It’s a play feature! It’s time to feature a play!

This month, over on the Thearefolk blog, we are featuring Christmas plays! Seem weird? Not really. You’re not going to be thinking about a Christmas play in December, right? It’s going to be months and months ahead of time.

So, let’s talk about Deck the Stage – this is a vignette play which is a number of short scenes on a theme so it’s awesome for classwork. Everyone gets a scene. Everyone can be working at the same time.

In the play, every scene is based on a Christmas carol in some way. We’ve got comedy, drama. One of the scenes in the piece is called “Still as Stone” – which is based on the carol, “In the Deep Mid-Winter” – is one of our most popular two-hander drama scenes.

My favorite scene is the one based on the “12 Days of Christmas” in which a teacher goes a little off the rails, shall we say, over her class and their participation in the annual Christmas assembly.

I’m going to read a small sample of the off-the-rails-ness.

“Don’t you understand? This is my crowning glory! This is my shining moment!

No, no, of course, you don’t. You don’t understand anything! What would you understand about lost dreams, forgotten hopes, dashed desires? What would you understand about anything? What do you know? Tell me, you rotten pipsqueaks, what do you know?

Every year, my class is expected – nay, demanded upon – to present the most original, the most creative spot in the program. In September, Mr. Herbert comes up to me, rubbing his hands in glee. ‘So, Miss Meyermyer, what are we going to see this year?’ Students run up to me in the halls, tugging insistently at my sleeves, ‘Is it lasers, Miss Meyermyer? Are you going to do the confetti cannon again?’ and the teachers, the covetous, envious, desirous, jealous, jealous teachers, ‘Oh, isn’t it interesting how you taught thirty 8-year-olds how to roller skate? How fascinating!’ They don’t understand!

They don’t understand at all. I could never repeat an idea or a concept. Oh! If I ever dare to repeat something like they do, year after year, with the Night Before Christmas and, oh! Aren’t they cute? If they did that, they’d attack me like the pack of wolves I know they are! I’ve spent an entire year on this! I can’t back out now! My whole life is determined by this stupid, stupid pageant and you are going to do this, Marilo. You’re going to sing your heart out and you’re going to hold up that toxic waste with pride. You’re all going to do it and you’re going to like it, too!

You’re all going to do it and you’re going to like it! Oh, yes, you are!”

Okay. So, that is Deck the Stage and you can find sample pages at Theatrefolk.com or you can click the link in the show notes which are at Theatrefolk.com/episode193.

Finally, where can you find this podcast?

Go to Theatrefolk.com/podcast. There are a ton of options. We’re on iTunes, Android, Google Play, Stitcher, and more. Again, that is Theatrefolk.com/podcast.

And that’s where we’re going to end. Take care, my friends. Take care.

Music credit:”Ave” by Alex (feat. Morusque) is licensed under a Creative Commons license.