Grade 10s Share their Feelings Through Play

June 5, 2020

Academics

GNS

The Grade 10 IB Drama class has used their creativity to share stories of their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The students started with a monologue assignment, where they were tasked to record their feelings and reactions during the pandemic every day, and then put their writing into a monologue format. The students enjoyed the monologue assignment so much, they decided to create a short play.

“I am very proud of these students,” said their teacher, Mr. Alan Penty. “They were honest and open, which isn’t easy when you are a teen. I love several lines from this play and I like that it represents more of the general population and not just ‘theatre kids.’”

In their play, the Grade 10s were able to articulate their reflections and communicate their thoughts and feelings in a very eloquent way.

“I thought that this was an interesting and unique way to express our feelings and struggles with COVID-19,” explained Mackenzie Heaney. “It was a good opportunity to share our thoughts and when sharing as a class I realized that no one is finding this isolation easy and we truly are all in this together.”

Devan Duquette felt there were many similarities between her feelings and experiences and those of her classmates. It strengthened the idea that they were going through this together, which made it comforting.

“Throughout everything that we have been through with COVID-19, my experience has been pretty similar to everyone else’s,” she said. “When I found out that school had closed, it was when I started to realize that things had gotten a lot worse in a short period. It was scary, but at the same time, it felt very surreal. I am glad that I have had this drama class and many other classes as an outlet and was able to see that we are all going through the same thing. It was a relief to be able to create a piece of art out of it, and I hope that others enjoy watching our take on this situation as much as we enjoyed creating it.”

Calla Roberts said the assignment allowed her to not only have a creative outlet to talk about her experiences, but it also gave her the opportunity to check in on her friends, and see how they were dealing with everything.

“I didn’t know if what I was feeling was normal,” she said. “It was nice to hear everyone’s feelings and be reassured that everyone is going through the same thing. There was a lot of overlap in all of our feelings mostly with what we missed and how difficult school was.”

Thank you to the Grade 10 drama students for using your creativity to share your experiences in a wonderful play!