“Is it over already?” – When students were in a state of panic as the lights came up at the intermission, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre– during the production of The Outsiders, I instantly realized several pertinent points:
1) Students were going to be VERY upset if the rest of The Outsiders was not shown, as they knew it, AND they KNEW there was more- and wanted to see how the end played out in from of them. SCORE!
2) A large number of students had never seen a musical or a production and were unaware that this indeed was an intermission, bringing home vern more why we ad adults need to find every way possible to put students in front of productions of stories they have come to know, the book is not enough – and students learning the ins and outs, the protocols of a production is priceless and valuable in the learning process on COUNTLESS levels.
3) The realization that was just the intermission sparked a back and forth among all the students about characters from The Outsiders we had only interacted with through a book for six weeks and here the students were, asking each other about EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER that I thought they really did not “get” when we were reading – turns out they carried on a conversation among various others in the group, all about these characters now that they were seeing them on the stage and had a comparison to the knowledge they didn’t realize they held. Yet the knowledge about the characters, that they did not even realize they held, came out in a gush when they had a comparison in real life, in front of them. It was MAGICAL.
AN AMAZING companion to what we saw today!
Let’s back up a day – the day before today, I received a text and found out there was one extra ticket to The Outsiders production, and I did not even need to think about it. Having the chance, after 6 weeks of The Outsiders experiences through connections to personality tests comparing characters from the novel to the students reading this, to researching famous icons of the era and television shows that were before the student’s time and them making those connections (Remember Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days, and even West Side Story? How about Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke, James Dean, Judy Garland?). We fleshed them all out, and then we went to the standard chapter by chapter study guides to flesh out important points along the way, using Cornell Notes to flesh out questions we planned to send to the author, and of course, the vocabulary of the period like “You Dig?” – “Heater”, and how Soc’s and Greasers came to be a common term in their vocabulary for 6 weeks?
I set out at 6:30 AM from Seaford, DE, hoped for the best and found myself in Times Square at 11:30 to surprise the students and they turned around and “How did you get here?!” – “Where did you come from!” – it was SO FUN! But this is the best part-
What we shared during that 6 weeks began to slightly touch the topic of feeling like an outsider, how students feel when they want to rise up and yet feel stifled, have little confidence in their ability to be successful when they do not have a large cheerleading fan base.
AND YET- that 2 hour exposure to The Outsiders on stage- changed so much in their minds and eyes. You could feel it when you saw their reactions, could hear their conversations- and you could see what seeing some amazing realizations through what they had taken in for 6 weeks, and now took in for 2 hours, REALLY affected them:
1) “We come from different places” – this spoke to ME and I know spoke to the students as we had so many cultural and geographical elements represented in the 27 students we had around us- and with the brilliant casting representing so many realities of diversity in The Outsiders production than was represented and that existed in the book and when the book was written- this hit home. In a time where so many of our students are hearing things to make them feel bad or feel as if they do not deserve the success they are capable of unless they fit an anticipated expectation of what success looks like in public, this was one of the most important things they could have heard.
It was easy fro them to hear this and tie this into what we had read in an isolated scenario from the book, but now they could apply it to an outside(no pun intended) setting, a real world setting that took on even more meaning.
2) The students were able to see first hand how the characters brought so much meaning with so little on the set and seeing the amazing, creative ways several items served MULTIPLE purposes- it took them awhile to realize how NOT alot on the set could be more than they thought.
3) When the students saw the characters working through the loss of their parents, then the loss of dear friends due to the elements of divisiveness, you could not hear a PIN drop. It hit them heavy and I felt it from the rows around me when I was sitting with them.
4) The students seeing how extra dialogue that they did not come across in the book, but they heard and witness on stage, struck so many emotional chords with them, all specific to what their personal experiences were, but it really struck home. They noticed what was not what they stumbled across in the book yet was presented tp them on stage. They picked up on it immediately, and from the impact of Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” hitting them in the heart, to understanding how Pip from Great Expectations shared something with each of them through the character’s various soliloquies, you could see the students trying to ride these emotional waves and work through them. it was astonishing.
5) Coming into a stage production and thinking it was all about the music, tbut then realizing how the music enhances the emotions they are feeling, reacting to, etc. – it was an education in itself for so many students who had never seen a production of any sort be simply flabbergasted and shocked. All in a good way and it was rewarding to see how this affected them so much.
If you do not understand the Upward Bound Program– understand this- students who do not have the self esteem to think they can go on to do great things, students who never know there were open doors that could launch them into reaching deep down and pulling out the talents they never were given a chance to exhibit, students who have never been exposed to the events that make them truly feel and connect knowledge to the world around them, as well as to themselves- this is what the Upward Bound experience has done for GENERATIONS of students in this tri- leveled program.
When the government questions if this funding and if this program is needed- worth being funded, I can tell you, after 9, NINE years of students seeing transformed with the same type of experience that students witnessed just this ONE night from ONE production, it was no wonder so much from The Outsiders and especially the stage production, grabbed them and opened their eyes up to the connections they might not have realized before. It is vital work to empower future generations and motivate, encourage, stimulate, excite, and instill a sense of possibility when many never realized what they are capable of.
The influential and powerful feel the production of The Outsiders had on these youth, and can have on adults and other youth together – has the chance to bridge the divide between educators, parents, teachers and youth in ways that even I was not realizing after seeing this powerful powerful production.
Never underestimate recognizing the difference that makes us unique, and yet, has the power to light a fire that will change a world. You certainly will see this in this production and I urge you to RUN to see this and walk away with so much direction that needs to be instilled ion so many of our students today.
I certainly cannot find the words to see how these Upward Bound students absorbed this and realized so many aspects of the world around them through the comparison they had of this book and this powerful production, Yet, it affected every single one of them- and we need to continue to find ways to reinforce the possibility, potential, and purpose these youth have. Often, it is a situation of showing students what they are capable of, and what they can do -whether they realize they possesses the power to do great things at first, or no, but to find that path for them to follow, to make this realization.
Very few times I would have said a 3 1/2 hour drive to New York, for the day, to see a show would be worth it. In this case, I have to admit that 3 1/2 hours wasn’t ENOUGH time on the way back for me to absorb how many of these students took what they saw and acted in conversation on it. They had no qualms about hashing out conversations about understanding the plot that did not match the printed book, comments on seeing how each other liked it, and so many other side conversations. The production, countered with the author’s background knowledge, and the elements they did not recognize in the book yet could very well recognize from knowing the ploy, this all just launched what students had learned in 6 weeks, to outside of that classroom, to the world.
Great Expectations. These students and every student deserves a creative way to realize theirs and – whoa! – what they can do when they realize this!
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