Those Who Can't...

There is an old adage.

"Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach."


I somehow doubt that is true as often as people say it is. And I certainly will not apply it to myself in the near future, though I will be, in a sense, teaching. For a single day.

I won't say for who and under what circumstances just yet, in order to be discreet in case those involved don't wish it to be known right now. But I can say I will be one of several, for lack of a better term, "guest lecturers" at a theatre intensive for younger people near to where I live.

Not you can "lecture" younger people, but I need some sort of term for what I will be doing. It's technically called a "workshop", so I guess "workshopping" is a more accurate, (though awkward) word for it.

The students age in range from around 9 to 16, from what I'm told. The 16 part, I have no worried about. I have worked with people that age many times. I find theatre people of all stripes to be more mature than their non-theatrical peers, and so in many cases I find theatre-teens to be, not unlike adults from an intellectual and artistic perspective. Just with less real world experience in most cases.

In this case, it will be even easier in a way, because when I heard some of the names of the students I realized I have worked with at least four of them in some capacity before. So I won't be going in totally cold.

Yet when you start dipping below, say, 14 or so, I am in a whole different place. I have in fact often suspected I offer little to children of that age, outside of my family. The people who asked me to do appear as a guest obviously do not share my concern, or else they would not have asked me. Their confidence in my is flattering.

Not that I feel I will fail. From what I hear these are good kids, almost all of whom want to be there. (You always have one or two that don't.) I just hope to strike a good balance between providing useful information, and being fun. Or at least not boring. I already have a basic outline of what I want to say and do. (It's later this month!) I will be working on it a little bit each day until then.

When it is all over, I am going to ask permission to mention on here how it went, as well as the subject matter I chose to explore. Check back for me recap if permission is granted.