How Social Distancing Saved My Class
By Jennifer Lale I
looked at my computer screen, and the five faces staring back were eager for class. Today we would be working on ideas for their educational puppet shows. I assigned the project the week before spring break—it was to be a col- laboration and, we would use class time for puppet construc- tion—but everything had changed since then. When I began my job at Indiana University in the fall, I was excited to be back in academia, even more so when my supervisor asked if I would be okay offering a puppetry class in spring. Okay? I couldn’t believe my luck! I had taught puppetry at the college level before but never over a whole semester and never in a course devoted to the art form. So, I was thrilled to offer up THTR-483: The History and Practice of Puppetry.
Then I saw my course
enrollment.In a class that was capped at 25, I had five students. I normally teach two “Introduction to Theater” courses with an enrollment of 75 undergraduates each, with waitlisted students knocking at my door. What was I going to do with only five students? I felt like Andre the Giant’s Fezzik in The Princess Bride when he said, “You use different moves when you're fighting half a dozen people, than when you only have to be worried about one.” I don’t consider my teaching to be hand- to-hand combat, but the idea was the same.
And they were a handful of students who varied from passionate- ly interested to mildly distracted, and one had missed about five classes along the way. Even with the best-planned classes, missing
one fifth of the population on any given day takes the wind out of your sails. How could I energize this small group of juniors and seniors to bring their all to the class when I sometimes fell short? My syllabus had frontloaded the class with history and literature, laying the groundwork for the latter half of the semester and the performance and construction projects. With the university’s (and world’s) requirement for social distancing, the things that would prove easy to do with that large intro class—lectures and read- ings—were already completed for my puppetry class. What were we going to do for the rest of the semester—that five-week span that felt like 40 years? Prior to COVID-19, there had been guest lectures from Ameri-
can dalang Dr. Jennifer Goodlander and UConn graduate and props master Dan Tracey, both of whom work at the university. The students were quite receptive to them in person, but once we had our classes via Zoom, our visitors were like guest stars on a talk show. PofA president and Center for Puppetry Arts educa- tion director Aretta Baumgartner generously gave her time and expertise to my class, teaching them about storyboarding and re- minding them that the history of theater begins with an activated object—the Greek mask. Kenneth Roberson, a departmental colleague in musical theater, talked about his choreography for the Broadway production of Avenue Q. His message was clear: The puppetry skills the students were learning have opened them up to so many media, and they were wise to take the opportunity to be in the class.
This new teaching environment allowed my students to be deeply invested, particularly as I was one of the few instruc- tors who were meeting with them live twice a week. Our classes now included conversations about their general well-being and asking them what had filled their day. The educational shows they planned focused on their real concerns about the impact of social media on mental health, isolation, and understanding, as well as the devastation of the planet’s resources and the impact of dementia on families. They were telling real stories and being more genuine and vulnerable than I had seen in the weeks before spring break. I was returning this sincerity, talking about what I too was facing.
Puppet class on Zoom. Photo: courtesy of Jennifer Lale
And we had fun! I made an assignment for them to find and share a funny puppet video. There was a lip sync challenge day where they had to act out a song with the things they had at home. I created honorifics for them based on their accomplish- ments and interests, such as the “humanity,” “focus,” and “con- nection” award and gave them the name of an artist who they should investigate further. They presented their final performanc- es and, don’t mistake me, some of them were highly mediocre, but the students were aware of it and had ideas about what they would do better when (not if) they had the chance. We were able to talk, one on one, and they gave me ideas about what they liked from the course and what I could do better if (not when) I have the chance. I hope I do have the chance, because it was a unique teaching experience, and I learned volumes from it.
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