Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

---

The first week I was there I looked at my Thursdays and sighed a breath of relief only two classes, a breeze. No no, not possible. Thursday morning I get approached and asked if I would like to coach Drama club. At the end of the year they are putting on a play. After agreeing I have a moment of panic.

“What kind of play,” I ask. The response is ambiguous. “Oh, do not worry… any play it can be 5 minutes or 1 hour whatever you want…”

So I show up to a class of 44 students expected to put on a play in 1 month with 45 minutes once a week to practice. After the first class we pick ideas for a play and I get brainstormed topics such as Harry Potter, Superman and a number of other topics which I see as extremely difficult to execute. The next week of course, this is all changed. By the following week we are told the theme has been changed to a Christmas theme. By this point, I’ve recruited my co-teacher Angel to help in this endeavor and I tell him that the kids no longer get a choice. We are picking for them, and writing a script by the next class. So we sit writing a simplified version until late at night. I considered it a success that they had scripts in their hands. Unfortunately, when you ask for volunteers you suddenly hear crickets and blank stares. These children are 11 and 12 years old and though they are the higher level kids, their English is still very basic.

“Do you know Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, class?”… More blank stares. So we start singing, my voice cracking trying to sing loudly, and I get … silence. Finally, they tentatively raise their hands and we see that some of them do know it and one kid has the movie in Thai. Wohoo, victory! I asked if they would come in on a Saturday and strangely no one seemed to mind. They all came in this weekend and we finally nailed out who was playing what role. Now with the roles taken care of we need to work on set design, costumes and getting them to actually learn their lines. I can pull this off in a cumulative of 2 hrs and 15 minutes right? 3 weeks left people!

---