Performance Post Script
By ABIGAILRAMSAY | Published | No Comments
I’m working on a closing offering for the girls.
TL/DR: They were absolutely magnificent.
Performance notes: I’ve been fighting the overwhelming feeling that a cycle has been completed, and yes, one has. Our collective journeying has come to an end. About half will go to college! While going from newcomer to college freshmen is a huge accomplishment and a great testimony to the supportiveness of their environment and the tenacity on their part – all brilliant successes, I cannot digest this “loss” at the moment.
Now, if I was looking for validation for my directing, this day was not the day to offer me that reward. While the girls did EXCEPTIONALLY well, the absences and the time for me trying to figure out how to redirect teenagers coming from the bigness of the school day to do things they have never done before, took its toll. We ran short of time. Again, I want to stress how brilliantly they did throughout the process while illustrating a learning.
It was my sister who gave me the framework to begin the conversation: what worked really well, what didn’t work that well and I added what would you do differently.
On our final day together, i bought the young artists their requested ice cream flavors and we dove into it all. Many discoveries were made. After I apologized for choosing anger at moments, they made fun of me and my mini backstage stress outs.
I started to fully appreciate the extraordinary task they executed. They conceived, devised, wrote, rehearsed, and performed a theatrical piece with no prior experience. And it was very well received. As I was leaving the auditorium, one of the audio technicians stopped me to gush about the girls work. I honestly thought he was about to cry in front of me. He never considered life through the perspective of an immigrant.
That day, more girls started speaking to me in Creole, and astonishingly to all of us, I was picking out phrases, which really has more to do with my high school French. Again, I benefitted more then they did.
But they taught me how much they learned over the years and through this process. Fighting for their narrative of our journey, I listened to them advocate for themselves and the work they did. Girls who previously barely wanted to open their mouths because they were so timid, withdrawn, and conscious about their lack of English.
When I told them they could have done more, one girl, quiet but with some spice, who we discovered is a beautiful writer in English and Creole, challenged me: “how do you know?”, and I told her: “I’ve watched you, and I know what you all are capable of.” She paused and looked at me with much consideration and then said with a very wry smile and a twinkle in her eye: “I used to be very shy, and I’m not anymore. And I think that is a very good thing.”
