Week 4, Entry 2

This week in class our afternoon excursion was replaced by a more active form of learning. We were divided into groups and then asked to act out a particular Samuel Beckett play that was assigned to us. My group was assigned the play "Catastrophe", and I learned a lot about both how to educate people on something so intangible, and the meaning of the play itself.

While talking amongst my group, it was amazing how quickly an inscrutable play opened up to interpretation. Placing ourselves in the characters' roles, speaking their lines, and interacting with the other characters really made it much easier to understand the idea that Samuel Beckett was trying to get across. After reading so many plays, sometimes it is easy to forget that they were meant to be acted out on stage. Although I enjoy reading Shakespeare as well as seeing his plays performed, being able to perform Beckett's plays and see performances of them really opened my eyes toward the meaning of the plays. Simply reading Beckett felt like a meaningless jumble of words; almost as if he wanted to see how much ridiculousness he could cram into one play and get away with it.

After performing Catastrophe, I began to realize that it was not just a bunch of nonsensical phrases and indecipherable actions, it was a comment on a tyrannical government. I couldn't believe how easily the answer seemed to come to me, when while reading it the night before it seemed to be completely stupid and meaningless. This exercise also reaffirmed my ideas about the kind of teacher I want to eventually be. When we were told we had to get up out of our seats and perform a play, I internally groaned along with the rest of my classmates. I had no desire to get up and exert myself, but after we did it I knew it was the best way to study Beckett. I was happy to experience this because I know my future students will be outwardly groaning at the prospect participating in one of my harebrained schemes, but at least I'll be confident that it will be the best thing for them.