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Drama Class

Chilling out with class

The drama classroom is carpeted, has a small stage, and our seats are throw pillows. Before class begins there is a short meditation. The teacher has a record player and LPs with the sounds of nature playing in the background. We are instructed to lay on our backs and just breathe and listen. I breathe and I sleep. I’m not alone. It was like being in a lush forest with the sounds of water gently flowing downstream. The birds are chirping. Suddenly, someone starts cutting down a tree. There are a few trees being cut down. Sleeping was allowed if we tried to meditate. We slowly regain consciousness and are ready to learn.

Send in the clowns

We sit on our pillows and watch TV. Marcel Marceau is clowning around and after watching we are encouraged to do the same. One kid pretends he is standing on the ledge of a building. Another is walking a tightrope. I want to push them both off, but I decide to get caught in a windstorm instead. With my torso leaning forward and my arm stretching out trying to grab onto something. I basically invent the moonwalk years before Micheal Jackson. I’m sorry but even if those two guys did fall off, I would have killed better and I did. Laughter filled the room. Humour made high school better. I learn a lot. My imagination went wild. School plays, impromptu impressions and improv. I might have been small but I wasn’t short in creativity and imagination.

Laughter and letting go

The library was a place where I investigated all things funny. The librarian, Mr. Christie helps me find the comedy section and I pull some books off the shelf. I had seen the Academy Award in seventy-two and it must have stirred something in me. Charlie Chaplin was on the screen. The tramp was larger than life. Maybe I identified with the little tramp. I left the library with two books: a picture book about Charlie and a book on how to draw cartoons. I go to the library often. I was very close to the librarian. He was a kind gentle man, and I was lucky to have known him. Unfortunately, he died in a tragic auto accident. I and many other students were devastated. 

This wouldn’t be the end of the drama I was yet to face. I’ll address that later. The best distraction ends with a good funny story. 

A funny thing happened on the way to the assembly

I was once locked in my locker. That wasn’t funny.  Luckily, there was just a pencil in the lock, and I was able to break through. I had learned something that day, I fit.  One day there was an assembly in the gym. The gym was huge. I thought they wouldn’t even notice I was gone. You must have a sense of humour if you get caught hiding in your locker. Around the corner came a custodian. He opened the locker door looked at me and said What are you doing? I said I can’t find my book. I know it was here. He wasn’t buying it, but he did laugh. Off to the assembly I went. 

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