Perfection
By Alysse Rich
I am very honoured and excited to be writing for
Sharing to explain the project that I have been developing. I am a summer student working at the Epilepsy Ontario office; during the school year I study English-Theatre at McGill University. Last summer, and again this one, I have been working on a classroom program for grade four and five students which is focused on a Readers' Theatre play and accompanying activities.
I have assembled the materials into a handbook for teachers/coordinators of the program. The handbook includes instructions, activities, helpful hints for implementation, and 2 copies of the script. The first script is a Readers' Theatre version for grade four and five students, and the second is a version for older students to perform for a grade four and five audience.
In both versions, the play is about a young lady named Jenny who is living with epilepsy. Jenny is worried that she is not "perfect enough", and when she falls asleep she has a dream that takes the form of a reality television show called "Mr. and Mrs. Perfect". The hosts attempt to convince her of ways to be more perfect by watching flashbacks of recent events in her life and commenting on them. The hosts are critical and their advice is superficial, and Jenny slowly comes to the realization that no one is perfect, so what really counts is
how you choose to deal with your problems. In the end, she decides that being a good friend and being honest about her epilepsy are important to her.
This plot is relevant to the age group of the students, and the issues outlined in the play lead to many opportunities for discussions about bullying, being a good friend, the media and body image. These themes are, in fact, elements of the grade four and five curriculum, and the handbook outlines methods of evaluating students accordingly. In addition to exploring curriculum issues, this play adds the lessons of epilepsy awareness and fist aid for seizures. As it allows the students to explore the issues through role playing, it is my hope that the program will be seen as an interactive and challenging educational tool.
In the Readers' Theatre version of the play, the physical events of the plot are not acted out, but read by narrators. These narrator parts not only clarify things like first aid procedures, but also provide parts for children who are uninterested in drama, less familiar with the English language, or are perhaps just shy. The goal of the program is to involve everyone, and it is structured to give equal parts to all students; everyone is a star! The following is an example of a narrative section from the middle of the play.
Narrator #5: All of a sudden, Jenny fell to the floor
Narrator #6: Her whole body shook, he'd never seen that before.
Narrator #5: Jenny was having a seizure, but it wasn't scary for Andrew.
Narrator #6: He was prepared and knew just what to do.
What follows is a description of how a child can help in first aid: Andrew calls out to Jenny's dad, moves sharp objects, puts something soft under her head, and helps to roll her onto her side when the seizure reaches its end.
I am excited to report that two major steps in promoting the program have recently been achieved! The first step was taking the program to a classroom. The teachers of Highview Public School in Aurora were kind enough to allow me to work with their grade fours for a morning in June. The students were excited, enthusiastic, and willing to learn! The result of this morning is not only increased awareness in the classroom, but also a DVD of the students engaged in the program, performing the play, and presenting an improvisational activity.
This DVD was shown at a launch for the program held at the end of June. The launch was attended by executives from Epilepsy Ontario, representatives from many chapters, as well as a few teachers, a student trustee from the board of education, and even Mario Racco, our MPP! Everyone gave excellent feedback, and expressed interest in helping to promote the program as a resource. This launch event went very well, thanks to all the amazing help I received and all the wonderful guests/actors.
I would like to conclude with a small piece of the Readers' Theatre text, which I hope will demonstrate both the simplicity of the text, and the important issues it explores. The following is from Scene Seven, the end of the play, when Jenny begins to gain power and take control.
Jenny:
I think that film clip shows that
no one is perfect, and everyone is dealing with something. But it's how you deal with your problems and how you treat other people that counts.
Lawrence: Isn't she funny, audience? Now listen, Jenny. If there were no such thing as perfect people, then how could we be here?
Jenny: I bet you have problems and just hide them by being mean and judging people like me – you're just like Samantha! And you're
not really here – you're just a dream. You're
my dream.
Within the next two weeks, the program and materials will be available on our website, where I hope that they will serve as a useful tool for chapters, teachers, and parents of children with epilepsy. To access the program, simply visit
http://epilepsyontario.org and click on the program title on the main page. We ask that you contact us if you plan to use the materials so that we can keep track of the success of the program and offer you any assistance, props, or materials!
For more information about the program, please do not hesitate to contact Epilepsy Ontario at 1-800-463-1119.
