Blog
Filling the Silence
As the world shuts down and people turn to film, television, music, podcasts and books for entertainment and comfort and sanity, I hope most take note that we do, in fact need the Arts.
@EliseMichaela
After reading this quote on Twitter, I couldn’t help but think how much we’re relying on the Arts right now. Whether it’s listening to the radio to help fill the silence in our offices at home, having the TV on in the background during the day, or signing up to the new Disney+ streaming service - because what better way could there be than to spend the weekend watching Disney films? - we need the arts now, more than ever.
I’ve also noticed that in adapting to ‘home learning’ it’s often the creative tasks that are keeping families working together and having fun, whilst also allowing them to develop new skills. It made me realise how much I miss the practical aspect of my teaching.
When colleagues from other disciplines step into one of the busy studios in the Arts Centre, they’re often greeted by noise: It could be thirty students collaborating on their next Oscar winning performance, music playing a soundtrack to their rehearsals, or even 20 chairs being used as various props, planes, cars or boats. Or all of the above. They often ask ‘How do you cope with the noise in here?’ to which I reply, ‘I’m used to it. I love it!’
The truth is, I miss it more than ever as I teach in my silent home office.
Teaching over the internet is tough for myself and my colleagues, but we’re definitely rising to the challenge. For me, adapting from a practical subject to mostly theory-based work has been very hard.
I miss the noise of the studio and the laughter. The laughter the most.
At least once a day I genuinely cry with laughter at the creativity of our students and their natural comedic abilities: I miss how they try to justify using a tenth chair from the Gallery because they simply ‘Must have a limo in the scene otherwise it ruins the whole piece’; I miss shouting ‘Andy’s coming!’ (from Toy Story) and the students all dropping to the floor pretending to be a toy (because in Drama-land this means ‘Shh! Miss needs to talk!’); but mostly I miss watching students perform in front of the class, gaining confidence each time they do so, and I miss hearing the whoops and applause they receive from their classmates.
I hope our students are staying creative; performing, dancing and singing.
I hope our students are continuing to get whoops and applause for the work they’re doing at home.
But even if they’re not, know this: we’re applauding them all for their courage, resilience and hard work.
It helps fill the silence in our offices at home.
