Joshua's World

This post is from the energetic and thin (yes, really!) Joshua Morgan. This is Joshua's first season with Open Dream Ensemble. He is a graduate of the UNCSA School of Drama.

We've just started up our third week of residency work. The kids are so appreciative of the work we're doing with them. They love these shows and have been more than willing to dive into all of the explorations we're asking them to participate in.

With that said, there were these two girls in this fourth grade class the other day who had raised their hands to be "musicians". Note...they rose their hands to be "musicians". They spent the entire 15 minutes we had as a small group complaining about how they wanted to be with the "dancers". They made snide comment after snide comment and completely shut down the other kids in the group. They said one too many things and I told them to get out and go with the dancers. I'm sure I was pointed because I was angry so they backed down and were relatively quiet for the rest of the class. I felt bad but I was more upset that they were ruining the experience for everyone else. I'm not one who deals well with a complete lack of respect for other people. It doesn't matter who you are...if you're demeaning an experience or someone, you shouldn't get any respect back. I just wonder to what extent we're allowed to put these kids in their place if they get out of line. I suppose it should be the teachers responsibility but they're not always around if they're working another group. Anywho, to make a long story short, I beat them. Just kidding! We've done three performances already this week and all have gone well. Oh! Except for the fact that Orville's shirt wasn't packed yesterday so I had to wear fellow ODE member Peter Shanahan's button down in place of it. I actually liked it better... Alright. Talk soon.