The Room Where it Happens
“Oh, I’ve got to be in
The room where it happens
I’ve got to be, I’ve gotta be, I’ve gotta be
In the room”
Did you know we are in the middle of a global pandemic? No? Huh - well we are. I have given into the bread making, the TV show binges and the excessive Tiger King memes. I’ve eaten far too much and then cried about it while shoveling peanut butter into my mouth with a spoon. I’ve seen all the at-home workouts, craft creations and beautiful looking meals that pour like lemonade out of my social media accounts. I am thinking of ordering blue light glasses purely for the amount of screen time I have consumed, both by necessity and choice throughout the day. I read. I try to meditate, though quite frankly, I don’t get it. I’ve given in to it all, been angry at it, given in to it again and now just scroll with one eye on my phone and one eye looking for something new and engaging.
Week four of quarantine has brought me back here to this blog. Part of me hopes that I will find the magical spark of creativity that quarantine has to offer. I think the other part of me longs for my students and the moments that are only possible in the room. Like so many others, I have been teaching remotely for the last few weeks. I have recreated and restructured my classes and I am really proud of what I was able to come up with. We are doing accents, dramaturgy and costume design. We are talking to professionals in the industry and learning about voice overs. I love the lessons and I love my students…so why does it feel so challenging? Why don’t I feel nearly as fulfilled?
Theatre is made up of tiny moments that are impossible to replicate. Theatre is live. Theatre is sitting in a room and sharing. Theatre is vulnerability. Theatre is connection in its purest form. Actor to actor, actor to audience or even audience member to audience member, all are experiencing something that will never be seen or experienced in the same way again. We are forced to feel, think and breathe together. Theatre is not film or television. Theatre is presence.
I teach kids so it is not always this... deep. Sometimes it’s about the inside joke told during an improv or a word completely misread in a scene. Those “you had to be there moments” are produced at an alarming rate in educational theater. Why? Because the students are putting themselves out there to make mistakes, to be messy and to feel … something. The room where it happens is equal parts raw emotion and belly-busting laughter.
I recently had a Zoom call with four ferocious, female high school students that have missed out on their school shows, as well as performances at an outside company where they all perform. They are doing school online, theatre workshops online and in some cases, dance classes online. They are still busy and immersed in the culture of theatre, and yet they all feel disconnected and separated from the moments in the rehearsal studio or in performance that help define and create their relationships. These moments can be subtle, like a glance across the room when something interesting happens, or playfully teasing each other about an on-stage love interest that perhaps should be an off-stage love interest. They can also, in true theatre kid fashion, be not so subtle - like the burst of raucous cheers when someone hits a high note or when the shy student in the corner finally says their line with gusto. Theatre kids live for those moments.
If I have realized anything during this quarantine it’s that I, too, live for those moments. I think I became a theatre teacher so that I never had to give them up.
In 2020, as Gen Z relies on social media as their only way of connecting and building relationships, theatre asks kids (and adults) to go back to the basics. To experience something together, to share what you are experiencing with others and connect in the moment, in person. It’s so simple and yet so foreign. Everyone in the world is feeling the weight or our current predicament. We can do our best to replicate recipes, workouts, game nights and even school. I will even do my best to replicate rehearsals and theater lessons. I will find new ways into A room, and a GREAT room at that. But it won’t be THE room. The room where it happens is impossible to replicate, and that is a beautiful thing.
