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Tales from Real LifeReflections on Classroom as TheaterOne memorable moment in my teacher-as-actor career came a few years ago when I was delivering a history of theater lecture as Pantolone, a sixteenth-century Commedia dell'arte character. Midway through my presentation, a student asked how these Commedia companies earned money. I told him one way they covered expenses and kept body and soul together was to "pass the hat." As the class ended and I was leaving, this same student asked if I was going to "pass the hat." Staying in character in my teaching/acting role, I obliged by leaving my hat. Returning to retrieve it before the next class, I found four pieces of Juicy Fruit gum and thirty cents in coin---not very encouraging! But the real payoff came at the final exam. All students were present except the brightest one. I assumed she was ill because she had not been absent the whole semester. As I handed out the exam, I could feel the jitteriness of the students. Just as the class was about to begin writing their exams, in walked the missing young woman dressed in an Elizabethan gown. I could feel the students release their nervous energy as they laughed and then applauded their imaginative colleague. ---Morris U. Burns , University of Texas at Austin |
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