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Teaching: Comedy and Tragedy

February 24, 2023

Woman in Black

So, when is our actual exam, miss?“

“In about 15 minutes.”

I was expecting a dramatic look of horror, a glance at the clock or even a frantic search of the script.

Nope. Utter diffidence. Brilliant.

I’m a drama teacher, and exam season this year was no exception to the usual avalanche of anarchy and amazement.

I teach from years seven to 11. There are days I dread going in to school: I might have had my small children keep me awake all night, or be running out the house on a wintery morning to be greeted by a windscreen frozen so solid it would require a full on forensic team to extract the door from its hinges. What keeps me going? The development of each student each year is amazing.

For instance, today was made rapidly better by a student telling me they were writing an entire performance (and music) to show me in the lesson later.

From the silent, shy students that emerge after being cast as a door, to performances so mesmerising you forget you’re the teacher and the students find you sobbing hysterically just a tiny bit weird. The lunchtimes spent with children with social challenges who learn how to deal with conflict using humour and the heartbreak you feel when you hear a student say ‘drama is my only escape’.

The afternoons of optimism when you tell a student they have done well, or consoling them when they are upset because a Hollywood agent isn’t in the audience. Or unlikely to spot you in Asda. Especially in Bognor.

I emerge from the stage door to my family like the Woman in Black; you can feel my presence, I might do something evil and I scare children unwillingly. The curtains close on a long day. Or one of them: the mechanism got damaged on the other when the students did their gothic horror performance.

Teaching really is an incredible profession.

Woman in Black

The Woman in (a bit) of Black loves teaching drama (including comedy) and has taught at a variety of schools for the last 15 years. She has also acted professionally and admits to having always been in love with comedy. Her students inspire her everyday. On the odd occasion she convinces herself she is supernatural because she can predict how the students will react; more often then not it is the unexpected reactions that haunt her or make her want to vanish!!! The exam period is no exception and she has to reluctantly admit that fate is in their own hands…

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