10:32 - The second group gets up and begins to rehearse. They are loud and distract the students sitting near them.
10:33 - I approach the distracted students. "Are you ready to rehearse?" They nod, so I send them into the hallway as well. I follow them.
10:35 - I lean against a locker and watch the first group. They're adjusting their blocking, giving each other advice on where to stand. They make a lot of mistakes and burst into laughter.
10:39 - I interject. "Think about where your audience is." "Oh," one student says, "We have to change this. We have our backs to them." They readjust.
10:40 - The students go back to working and I go back in the classroom.
10:41 - I approach another group who is still seated. "You've been sitting here talking about this for a while. Maybe get up and move around and see if that helps. Sometimes improvisation can give you ideas." They smile and nod, but ignore my advice. "We've only got three more lines to write," they tell me.
10:44 - "Can we work in the hallway?" the fifth group asks. I send them to the far end so they'll be away from other classes. I stand in the doorway as they head down to the far end. The security guard and I talk for a couple minutes and I ask him to let me know if I need to pull them back into the classroom. He assures me they're fine and that he, too, loved Drama in high school.
10:49 - I watch group number two. They've got their blocking down and are working on the vocal styling. "Where's your audience going to be for this?" "All around us," one student tells me. "Wait, no," another interrupts. "That doesn't make sense. They have to be over there -she points- so they can see." The students agree about this.
10:52 - Group number four sits back down and takes their scripts out. "What are you working on?" "We need to change some of these lines. They don't make any sense. We've got to add something else in the middle." "Good. I'm glad you're thinking about that." I read over their shoulders as they write.
10:55 - Five minute warning!" I tell the students in my room. I walk down the hallway to tell each group the same thing. By the time I get to the end of the hallway it's actually a four-minute warning.
11:00 - The students take their seats. I pass out permission slips. We discuss the upcoming field trip: I remind them to get their permission slips signed by next Friday and the bus costs $8. A few of them are surprised, even though I've told them before and it was in the syllabus at the start of the year.
