"Child Labour" Readers' Theater Runners-Up

     


In June, 2016, Sheng Kang publishers asked me to help Guang-Jhweng Middle School in Dali, Tai-chung to produce a Readers' Theater troupe. Instead, I helped the students adapt their own script called "Child Labour."
https://e-e-o.blogspot.tw/2016/09/child-labour-readers-theater-workshops.html

 After the summer and rehearsals, I was asked to return to see how they had done. I worked with the children in the Readers Theater troupe for three hours on October 7, 2016. They had memorized their parts so well! There were two new players; one, a short young man, who would play the boss that Sunny, their EFL teacher, created from the role of the boss’s wife. Sunny also modified the script by removing the chief who goes to the house with the teacher's friend at his behest to get the girl back to school; he will speak with the misguided principal who, though it is unwritten, is responsible for having the girl removed for lack of tuition and uniform fees.  Sunny will let the narrator serve a double role as the chief. I was scheduled to go back Oct. 16 to see the progress they had made.

      A week later, the publisher sent a car to bring me to a middle school on the Westside of Taichung that had a student who had won a place in the national speech contest the year before; I had advised and rewritten sections of her essay. I was told that the principal wanted to meet and thank me. I wanted to meet the student who had won and hear all about her experience. 

It was strange that I was asked to bring my ARC card to be thanked by the principal; usually I am asked to bring it to get compensated for my work. It became evident that I was there to hear this year’s Readers’ Theater entry from the school and critique their performance. The principal nor the student who won last year’s contest was there. 
The skit at the Westside school was too easy for the children' level though they acted well; I told them that they would probably win. My “Child Labour” troupe, I feared, would not win, no matter how good they were, because Taiwan public education rewards conformity. Readers' Theater is a cosmetic here. But the children in the "Child Labour" skit have already won by participating, choreographing, and learning about oppressive child labor. Sunny is a winning teacher. 

On October 18, I returned to the middle school doing "Child Labour" in Readers' Theater for a final time. We cut one small dialogue to ensure the skit is under six minutes.The Child Labour troupe was still making adjustments to their performance; I was there  to advise them on their final preparations. It could come together at the contest on Tues., Oct. 25, or it could fall apart. It would be a miracle if they won because of the conformity to simplicity in Taiwan schools. 

On October 28th, I learned that the "Child Labour" troupe had won honorable mention, 4^th place in their district of 17 schools! They should be proud of themselves. They took on a serious theme and made something of it, unlike the school on the Westside that won their district with the script they had me preview; the Taiwanese judges tolerated their under-achievement. But it was clear that a script with social comment was respected by the judges, too. Perhaps Readers Theater in Taiwan will one day become more a showcase for social awareness and less a trophy for principals to put in their showcases.  
Watch the "Child Labour" Readers' Theater Presentation here:

https://www.facebook.com/david.b.temple/videos/10213179995713940/