The rehearsal process for the play was pretty much like every rehearsal
period for a "class play," except that since there were only a third of
one class (a ninth of the fourth grade) onstage at a time, we had some
difficulty keeping the boys who were not performing at a given moment engaged.
I tried with some success to solve this problem by recruiting them to help
me watch and critique their peers' performances. The staging was
very simple, with virtually no props and absolutely no scenery, to facilitate
fast changes of locale. I coached them to speak loudly and clearly,
to open up to the audience, to be aware of their spatial arrangement on
stage, etc., but nothing much more sophisticated than that. The boys
rehearsed their lines with the classroom teachers and at home, and each
class had at least two chances to work with me on staging and blocking.
(We had to use time not officially set aside for drama, since we'd run
out of drama periods.) This kind of thing is never easy, but the
boys were much more engaged and serious about learning their lines and
their blocking than is usual at this school. I am certain that was
because of the ownership they felt for the project, and all of the hard
and sometimes frustrating work we put in.