Yesterday while doing an exercise, I made a little girl cry. I didn’t mean to. I’m a pretty nice teacher, you know! But I did something different and more advanced for the kids and I think it freaked them out a bit! I asked them to show an emotion.
Now you would think that this was not a difficult exercise, however, we discussed that we did not want any “silly” sad faces. We did not want to indicate the emotion, but to picture something that would actually evoke that feeling in us.
Some kids nailed it while some had a more difficult time with it. Ironically, the youngest were able to do it pretty well. The older children felt some peer pressure to “mug” or be silly.
This made me start thinking about the adults I know. How many of them would be able to do the exercise? As we grow we are taught to mask our emotions and not show how we really feel. In doing this, we are able to continue to work, go to school, etc. and generally get things done. When asked to show our emotions, it is sometimes more difficult to open up and get to those places.
Yet, as actors, that is what we are called to do. We are trained to turn the imaginary into reality for the masses. Yes, the actors on CSI really know nothing about criminal investigation, yet we believe they do because they use their emotions to make us feel it. And although we are far from pretending to investigate crime scenes, the emotions that the children at Acting Up need to show seem no less real when performing.
Today we will try to go a little easier on them and focus on some happy emotions. I don’t think I can handle another crying 6 year old just yet!
