All the world's a stage

Posted on Wed Oct 9th, 2024 @ 18:14 by Claire Cavendish & Penny Gardner

Chapter: Besieged
Location: Drama classroom, Avalon Institute
Timeline: mid-january
1285 words - 2.6 OF Standard Post Measure

There was the sound of Return of the Mack drifting from the supply closet at the back of the Drama classroom. It was accompanied by some off key but very enthusiastic singing. The kind that was entirely un-self conscious. “Retuuurn of the Mack!” A feather boa went flying through the door and a moment later Miss Gardner, serious Drama teacher, came dancing from inside the closet with a tophat on. A leg kicked out and she did a spin which resulted in her turning to face the door.

A soft single person applause greeted her from the doorframe as the head mistress had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. “You might want to keep your eye on a fixed object in the near distance.” Claire offered after seeing that the spin gave her a bit of trouble coming to a standstill. “You asked to see me?”

Penny made a strangled noise and stumbled back into the closet. Her face had flushed a vibrant red, and she slammed her hand down on the boombox, cutting the sound of the radio off. Of all the times for your boss to walk in. Coming back out of the closet she cleared her throat, opened her mouth to speak, then realised she still had ‘her’ very fancy hat on. She took it off and hid it behind her back like a naughty school child. “Ah! Headmistress Cavendish, apologies, I thought I was alone.” She then gestured the woman in, stooping down to grab the discarded feather boa. “Y-yes, I was hoping to check a few of the plays I had been thinking of for the syllabus.”

Claire nodded at that, “I can’t say I’m too familiar with theatre, aside from the occasional dalliance into musical theatre. So you’ll have to pardon my ignorance on the topic.” She made her way more into the classroom and sat herself down on one of the black boxes used to abstract environments during drama exercises. Cameron had created them during the first year of them opening the Institute. The head teacher pulled one leg over the other and placed both her hands on her knee, waiting for Penny to introduce the plays she had in mind.

Having had a moment to gather her thoughts she grabbed a box and tugged it over to sit near Claire. She then pulled out her list, the one she had taken to the library, and offered it to the other woman.

“A lot of the plays are standard, Shakespeare and his contemporaries like Jonson for the farces. But you will see near the bottom… well, not all curriculums would welcome them. There are five plays I would like to teach them. 'Justice' by John Galsworthy, Joan Littlewood's version of Brecht's 'Mother Courage and Her Children', Dario Fo's final version of 'Accidental Death of an Anarchist', 'Faith Healer' by Brian Friel and Frank Macmahon's adaptation of Brendan Behan's 'Borstal Boy'. They are all plays which deal with miscarriage of justice.” Penny stopped herself from waffling any further, and paused looking to see how that had landed with Claire. Her eyes looked for any small hints of what the Headteacher was thinking.

Looking over the list real quick Claire immediately recognised some of the plays on the list, particularly appreciating the inclusion of MacBeth. There was a smirk and a nod. “I’m not familiar with Friel or Behan. And do you feel Anarchist is appropriate for our age groups?” She frowned a bit, remembering how their rendition of Les Mis’ Can you hear the people sing during the Winter’s Crest Festival.

Penny tilted her head and thought for a moment. “Well… when do we teach children about the Second World War? Death of an Anarchist is about the struggles in Mussolini's Italy. I think if handled carefully it is important for the children to consider how art responds to the social context it is created in.” She then gave a shrug. “But maybe it’s something we leave for the older age groups. Last thing I want is to sow the seeds of more fear.”

“Yeah, we might want to trickle these more layered plays into the later years.” Claire agreed, “but I trust you to make the right choices for our students and to provide them with the necessary context for these plays as you introduce them.” She looked up from the list and offered it back to Penny, “It’s why I hired you, after all.”

Penny froze for a moment as she processed what Claire had said. “R-really? I mean don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the trust, and very much hope I will prove worthy of it, but…”. She shook her head, took the list back and clutched it to her chest. Why was she trying to talk Claire out of it? Her grandfather’s voice drifted through her mind: ‘just shut up and say thank you.’ “Well thanks, very much indeed.”

"Unless of course you were trying to find a reason not to." Claire's eyes narrowed as she took in Penny's response to her being granted permission. She realised that sometimes the faculty found it difficult to make these sort of decisions. "I'd be happy to tell you you're not allowed to, if that were the case."

“No!” Penny said with slight panic. The last thing she wanted was for Claire to withdraw her easy acceptance. She then cleared her throat and lowered her voice to a more normal level. “No, pardon me, but definitely not. I am very pleased, I guess I just… you are quite unlike any Headmistress I have worked with before. I was expecting a bit more of a fight. It took me by surprise is all.” As Penny stammered out her explanation her skin started to glow a soft blue. “Oh hell.” She then tugged her sleeves down over the skin trying to hide the reaction.

"I feel like our particular student body could benefit from seeing these types of stories, analyse them to realise what makes them tick. Encourage them to explore these things for themselves." Claire simply remained on topic, after the initial surprised eyebrow quirk, trying to take the focus away from whatever it was that triggered this response from the new drama teacher. "So tell me, which one would you like to start with?"

There was a few beats of silence as Penny considered the plays on her list. “Well… Accidental Death feels like thematically it might help the kids unpack some of what they might be seeing in the world, but in terms of a robust syllabus… I think we should start with Mother Courage. There are few female practitioners which get taught, so Joan Littlewood’s work being introduced at this point would be good. And it would allow us to cover Brechtian theatre in the same breath and that’s something they should definitely be learning sooner rather than later. Since Bertolt Brecht is one of the heavy hitters when it comes to epic theatre.” Penny then paused, still not used to being given quite so much trust in her work. “How does that sound?”

"It sounds like you know exactly what you're doing, Miss Gardner." Claire waved the list she had been handed, "Do you need me to file this with administration so they can check with Miss Bright? Or would you rather take that upon yourself?"

“I can do that myself, thank you Miss Cavendish.” Penny coughed and stood, brushing some of the dust off that had smudged her dark clothes while she had been cleaning out the prop closet. “If you will excuse me, I can, I’ll go and uhm. Thank you again!”