Erika: As we whiz across Arkansas in “the Raven,” through small and even smaller towns, winding our way around the Ozarks, passing  what I consider to be the most beautiful landscape in the country, I think to myself how lucky I am to have such a great job. I am a professional actor and teaching artist. I get to perform in a terrifically silly and cool play about Edgar Allan Poe and co-teach workshops after each show. I travel from community to community with own little community, my ensemble, my little show family—my pack of pals known as “The Poe Show.”

After each town, we inevitably use the commute to check in with each other the about the most recent shows and workshops.  We’re be brimming with observations, so the conversations are pretty exciting. None of us have done anything quite like this. We are all pretty far removed from the culture of high school, so we feel slightly scientific about the experience!

First of all, I am pretty certain that high school students are the toughest audiences to win over. No matter what town or region they come from, teenagers are an audience whose trust and respect you have to gain immediately, or they will eat you for lunch, right there in the cafetorium.

Teens are a tough crowd. I know this from substitute-teaching a high school drama class for two months. I learned from that experience that I had to give so much energy and attention to the quality of my lessons. There was no way I could “phone it in” because if I didn’t keep them engaged in an activity, exercise, or discussion, I would lose them to that sleepy state of apathy the darlings are famous for. So I had to be “on” all the time. I kept thinking to myself during that time that teaching is like acting in the way that you must always stay present and receptive to the information you are getting from the room. I’d come into the class working off a script, my prepared lesson, but I’d have to adjust how I was teaching based on their body language and level of enthusiasm. I’d have to make a quick assessment and shift gears in the moment if I didn’t want to lose them. I learned a lot from my temporary high school teaching gig.

Another truth I was reminded of by the Poe Show audiences—we have to love it if we want them to love it. And we LOVE this show. The script is hysterical, the boys are so cool and funny, and the show is SUPERFUN.  We make this offering of SUPERFUN, and if they laugh their faces off (which they do, I get to watch the audience from the stage), then they are certain to trust us enough to give us their attention. I can brag that all the school audiences were into it. And in the midst of all that SUPERFUN, we snuck in the stories and life of Edgar Allan Poe. By the time we got to the workshops, we saw very little reluctance to engage in the program that was designed to expand their understanding of Poe. As a matter of fact, that was a consistent trend with the workshops. The kids participated. They were free from the shackles of teen cynicism for this brief window of time, and they PLAYED! Because they played, they learned even more about Edgar Allan Poe! And I’d bet you cold hard cash that many of those kids were excited enough about Poe to seek him out on their own.

The Poe Show is designed to be a teaching tool, but it is just part of the learning experience. Since teachers in Arkansas don’t necessarily teach the same authors, prior to hitting the road, Morgan sent out study guides that the teachers could use to prepare the kids. We included all sorts of exercises, projects, and resources in the guide, dividing the lessons into pre-show and post-show activities.  Between the guide, the play, the workshops, I think we showed them a thing or two about Poe. The workshop gave us a chance to assess their understanding of Poe in their reinterpretations of his work through tableau, chilling when done well.  The students’ tableaus were awesome and demonstrated and their understanding of an Edgar Allan Poe poem. A Poe(m), if you will. And I usually got goose bumps watching!

So that was my job for the last few weeks. Yes, please, I’ll have more of that, thank you.

Caden: While on stage, especially in this show, it’s difficult to ignore an audience.  Several hundred eyes staring at you tend to leave a strong impression.  Since we interact and speak directly to the audience for much of the show, the way they react to each show is often a topic of conversation in "the Raven" (the gray Chrysler Town and Country we're driving while on tour).  Here are some thoughts on the audiences we’ve come across:

The schools that were prepped on Poe beforehand tended to understand more of the humor in the show.  Aside from the big physical numbers (the interpretive dance and the Rasputin-like murder scene in “The Tell-Tale Heart”), our one-liners and creative license we’ve taken with some stories resound much more in the Poe-prepped schools.  As one whom values instant gratification, laughter is very important to me—especially in a comedy. 

The unprepared (un-Poe-pared?  That’s not funny.) schools, then, seemed as if they weren’t into the show or didn’t get the humor, and I—needing validation right then and there—felt that I wasn’t doing enough or that the show somehow wasn’t working.  Morgan, our director, reassured us though: the high schoolers were hunched forward in their seats, chins propped on their hands, actively listening and responding to the latter half of the show (the more educational portion of “The Poe Show”).  She may have said this to preserve our sometimes swelling egos but hearing the students repeat lines from the show (especially from the second half) after curtain call helps me sleep better at night.

Benton County School of the Arts was a blessing halfway through this week, because they were (a) prepped on Poe and enjoyed his work and (b) art and theatre students;  it was like playing to the theater crowd at the university, who always are more vocal and energetic, which always fuels a performer.  I believe all of the jokes landed, even ones that we had thought were funny that hadn’t landed on any other audience.  Nothing invigorates me more than when an audience is completely in sync with the show.

And then we come to the rowdy crowds.  Now this isn’t the kind of show where one of us will pull a Patti LuPone on a lone wisecracker: again, we often interact with the audience directly, going so far as bringing a student onstage.  Because of the way the show is written, winning over the audience becomes, at times, the game of the scene we’re performing.  The louder and more raucous they are, the bigger responses we receive from them when they take our side (or not).  This (for me, at least) fuels the performance, and dealing with hecklers or superfans always keeps the show fresh and exciting.  I think some of our best performances came from these high schools because we had to work so hard to win them over.  They may not have understood all the jokes, but they were rolling during the big numbers, and if they learned something from the show, that’s pretty cool too.

Another reason I’ve enjoyed the rowdy crowds is my entrance.  I don’t know who’s idea it was (between Morgan, Jordan Haynes, and Kris Stoker), but my entrance as Poe is the best I’ve had on stage.  Sitting in the back of the theater, I stand up in a huff and disrupt the proceedings onstage.  The rowdy kids (most of the kids actually) simultaneously gasp, and a few have even stopped us for an ovation after my first line.  With an entrance like that, I don’t have to work too hard.

Thomas: I’ve been having a lot of fun traveling around the state with The Poe Show. We’ve traveled all over Arkansas and seen twenty schools so far. A few consistencies: all the schools seem to really like the show, most start out fairly raucous, and somebody in the audience always thinks Justin looks like Turk from "Scrubs."

I’m from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, which is consistently ranked among the roughest and most crime-ridden cities in the nation. That’s right, the nation…look it up. We never had the “luxury” of an experience like The Poe Show because large assembled groups of students at our school, to put it mildly, had trouble behaving. But I think sometimes that our behavior was a self-fulfilling prophecy -- some of our teachers and administrators didn't believe we could handle new experiences, and we perceived that and reacted.

The teachers and administrators that have invited us into their schools this month have made a good-faith gesture to their students. They may not expect the kids to behave, but at least they're giving them a chance. Sure, not every kid in the room is on board -- but not every adult is, either. It means a lot that these students are being given the opportunity at all.

One lesson I learned in high school: if you treat kids like criminals, they'll behave that way. Don’t expect them to fail. Give them responsibility and new opportunities and hope for the best. The students we visit may start off raucus, but eventually it's clear that they love The Poe Show and learn from it -- even in the Pine Bluffs of the state. We're grateful that enough teachers out there believe that live theatre isn't a "luxury" -- it's a way to learn social skills, responsibility, and collaboration and have fun in the process.

There's so much to be done to give students across the state more comparable educational opportunities. We're grateful to the strong-willed teachers who have brought us in and shown their kids they have higher expectations. For many of these students, this is their first theatrical experience -- which means, in a small but meaningful way, it's a great first step.

Erika: Ah, the Arkansas Delta! I write this from our AWESOME digs in Augusta, Arkansas. We are staying in the ArCare guest house—a beautifully renovated Victorian home, restored to its original beauty but enhanced with modern amenities. We feel spoiled!

I am returning to this region as a teaching artist after a Shakespeare program I taught last spring. The program was an initiative through ArCare (an organization that was created to stimulate community growth in this region) and through a collaboration with the University of Arkansas and Trike Theatre for Youth. I return this time with TheatreSquared ‘s “The Poe Show,” and our friends at ArCare hooked us up with this beautiful home to stay in while we perform for the area schools—Augusta, McCrory, Newport, and Bald Knob. We can thank our friend Joy Lynn Bowen (education director for ArCare) for working so hard to help us book “The Poe Show” at these schools. She understands the value of arts in education and is the driving force behind these new programs and literacy initiatives here.

But “The Poe Show” is only the beginning of our time in the Arkansas Delta. We have so much planned for the schools here! Morgan and I will be returning for Word/Play, a playwriting residency that is a curriculum collaboration with high school teachers and designed to use playwriting as an access point to literacy. We will be returning throughout the school year to work with the teachers and their students in a series of workshops and site visits. We are so stoked—especially after meeting and working with the kids from McCrory and Newport in the post-show workshops today.

After each show, Morgan and I lead a “Poe Show” workshop. We use the tool of “tableau,” or frozen pictures, to retell Edgar Allan Poe stories and poems.  We teach the students how to create a tableau, and they, in turn, use that skill to adapt the poem Annabel Lee. After the students created the tableaus, we have a group discussion about the poem.  So far, it seems like the groups have a pretty strong grasp of the literature after recreating pieces of the poems through tableau. Each workshop has been sublime!

Today at McCrory and Newport, I was reminded why I love teaching in this area. These kids want this work! They are ready for new ways of learning!  And from our WordPlay meetings with the teachers and principals, I understand that literacy is weak in these parts. There is a need for an “out-of-the-box” approach to learning content. I sympathize with the pressure of testing standards, but I believe that if they made more time for creative exploration of the content the students must learn, their assessments would show an increase in literacy.

Tableau is an amazing way to assess a student’s comprehension of a subject matter. The teachers seem to all say the same thing: “I can’t believe those were my students!” But I can. 

I expect every group to have a breakthrough because, in my experience, every group has had one in some form or another. Whether I am getting the shyest student to perform with her peers or discussing a metaphor with a challenged reader, I am never surprised that theatre—or any art form—enhances a student’s understanding of the world, both in literary and life lessons.   That’s what we expect…because that’s why we’re here. 

Morgan: Driving through the state of Arkansas is remarkable…for so many reasons.  First off, Arkansas is arguably the most beautiful state in America.   My eyes are drunk with the beauty of the fall foliage.   Everywhere you look there is a scenic view even more stunning than the last.  We’re unbelievably lucky to call Arkansas our home.  

I also feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to bring my passion for theatre and literature to students directly.   TheatreSquared’s education outreach mission allows us to build partnerships with teachers throughout the state.  This tour (which will hit 22 different schools in 11 days) has a wide geographic reach.We'll travel as far north as Mountain Home and Valley Springs, as far south as El Dorado, as far East as Helena and as far west as Lavaca.  Some of towns have large populations and some are tiny.  Some have been sheltered from current economic conditions, and some are in areas that are deeply economically depressed.

We are truly seeing the educational conditions of the state “up close and personal."

So far, we've had a great reception from each of the schools we’ve visited.  The students are thrilled to be getting out of the traditional classroom for an hour, but beyond that, they seem truly excited by the fact that some “outsiders” are interested enough to come to them where they live.   One thing that does not come as a surprise—but that is being proven over and over again—is that the students are just as receptive to new experiences as their teachers and administrators are.  There are some schools that welcome a non-traditional approach.  The students are primed for our creative style of learning and will carry an extraordinary amount away from the experience.  There are other schools that have invited us in but think that our visit is somewhat dangerous.  They feel that the students are not ready to process information presented in a unique way.  They feel that classroom time is so precious that any deviation from the normal schedule should be guarded carefully.  I appreciate their concerns because teachers are held accountable for test scores, and it must be difficult to think outside the box under that kind of constant pressure.

It is amazing, though, how one teacher’s attitude (either positive or negative) can truly influence the attitude of an entire school.  When there is a teacher who is engaged with the students and truly invested in their education (rather than just the benchmarks of their education), the classroom becomes a magical place where learning is exciting.  Students explore their imaginations and creativity….and it is exciting to be near.  We are inspired by what we are seeing in the schools.  Some are thriving under the leadership of visionaries.  Some need more work than we could have ever suspected.  This tour is less than a week old—and what we are learning is almost overwhelming.  I’m so thrilled to be on this ride.  I know that the journey is providing vital information that will aid us as we continue to shape TheatreSquared educational programs. 

 From the Valley Springs Teacher’s Pledge, on the wall in the cafeteria.

Caden: The gray Chrysler Town and Country (which we have cleverly dubbed “The Raven” because that’s not an obvious joke) pulled into the Valley Springs school complex, and the first thing I saw pasted on the windows was a series of Edgar Allen Poe posters—or “Poe-sters” if you’re into wordplay (though I’m sure everyone else blogging here will make the same joke).  What struck me was not so much that the students had made them for our arrival, but that each one was detailed and intricate and had a definite theme that the student presented intelligently: the theme was “Poe Knows…” and each would end with another word, such as “Love” or “Necromancy” or “Death.”  Each poster was designed with that theme in mind: Love had hearts over Poe’s eyes; Haunted had several Poe portraits with the head or eyes missing from them.  Chilling, funny stuff.  My favorite combination.  

     

The mere fact that these high school students showed so much interest in this show and the works of Edgar Allen Poe conveys to me that these students are not only interested in and hungry for more knowledge but that they also know how to have fun with it.  This always seemed a mark of high intelligence to me.  It is apparent that the Valley Springs student body has teachers that not only care but are also willing to deviate from (what are in my experience) typical high school teaching methods in order to get kids interested in the subject matter and encourage them to form an original outlook on it.   The English teacher, Wes Whitaker, was not only insanely helpful with setup (including solving a last-minute technical problem) and urging his students to ask questions and participate in the workshops, but after seeing his classroom and having a few words with him, I realized he was also a teacher who would open student’s minds and encourage them to pursue interests that lie outside the norm.  I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today if it weren’t for a similar high school English teacher (looking at you, Thomas MacQueeney), who gave such assignments as writing  short stories, short plays, and short films, on top of all the reading we had to do.  I think the educational system works much better when teachers eliminate fear (of failure, of displeasing your elders) from the classroom and instead foster interest in whatever topics captivate the students.  More Wes Whitakers in the school system would lead to more wonderful students like the ones we performed for in Valley Springs.