“This was absolutely great!” Board of Education members Gary Leonard and David Hamm were enthusiastic after sitting with Bennett School students and teachers to watch actor and playwright Mike Wiley’s solo performance of “One Noble Journey.” The play’s narrative brought to life the remarkable journey of Henry “Box” Brown, a courageous slave who shipped himself to freedom in a wooden crate.
An Historic Start: The Performance, “One Noble Journey: A Box Marked Freedom.”
A masterful storyteller, Mike enchanted students, teachers, and visitors alike at Bennett and Bonlee Schools with the riveting tale full of audience participation during the first day of his Artists-in-Schools residency.
Mike’s solo performance proved to be engaging for everyone in attendance, seamlessly integrating both social studies and language arts curricula.
After the show, students had a barrage of questions for the seasoned actor, ranging from his debut in acting to the extensive distances he’s traveled for his craft. (The farthest he’s traveled for his work? South Africa.)
The students also displayed keen interest in Mike’s personal life–especially after learning that he lives in Chatham County, just like they do: “Do you have a wife? What about kids?” Even his answers to those questions had the auditorium erupting in laughter.
Dr. Carla Neal, principal of Bennett School, noted the impact for kids in her care. “Geographic separation from opportunities to engage with the arts outside of school is a challenge our community faces, and I appreciate that this allowed our school to have professionals who are dedicated to elevating diverse stories throughout history through [Artists-in-Schools].”
Teachers Take a Turn: The Teacher Workshop with Mike
After performing “One Noble Journey” at both schools, Mike led a joint teacher workshop for Bonlee and Bennett teachers, where they got to experience a taste of what their students would be working on all week–writing, acting, and laughing.
Mike treated teachers to his interpretation of Shel Silverstein’s “The Unicorn,” in a character he created as a seventh-grader and based on the pastor of his church. It was one of his first stage experiences, and it led teachers and family to see him in a new way. “That avenue felt like home to me,” he said. “I don’t know if I would have waded into acting if it had not been for a teacher encouraging me.”
Mike wasn’t the only one acting at that teacher workshop. He performed snippets as various characters from his play ‘Tired Souls”–15-year-old Claudette Colvin, a 1955 bus driver, and other riders on that bus. And then, he called one teacher up to step into the role of Rosa Parks–and another to play the police officer who arrests her.
Why? In the words of one teacher after the workshop: Because “drama can help students learn empathy through role play.”
While Mike teaches history through performance, he first deeply learns that history through his playwriting–so he led the teachers in some writing, too. Since they didn’t have the research time Mike requires for his historical characters, teachers wrote short monologues from the perspective of random kitchen items. We heard moving and hilarious commentary from lazy can openers, loving butter knives, and an insane microwave.
One Bonlee teacher was excited to apply this writing exercise in her math classroom: “Students can write from the perspective of shapes in order to understand and explain their properties!”
Board of Education member Del Turner (pictured above) spent the afternoon at Bonlee, checking out the performance and then writing alongside the teachers in workshop. She was all smiles: “This is just wonderful.”
Tackling Emotions Through Text: Day 1 of Student Workshops with Mike Wiley and Howard Craft
For the rest of the week, Mike and fellow playwright Howard Craft led individual classroom workshops centered around “writing in persona” with the fifth- and seventh-graders at each school.
Mike kicked off student workshops with physical warm-ups–sending energy to different parts of the body.
Next came vocal warm-ups with strongly pronounced consonants, fluttering lips, and wiggling chins. “Theater people do weird warm ups,” laughed a Bennett seventh-grader.
Howard took over to delve into writing: “What writers write about is their reaction to their human experience…which involves five basic relationships: self, other, nature, society, and the unseen—these link us together as humans.” He asked students to talk about a time they were misjudged and the feelings they felt. “As writers, we want to take these adjectives and really make the audience feel, and we do that through figurative language and the five senses to create an image.”
They started with anger–talking about the senses to describe that feeling. “Anger tastes like a lemon,” one student shared.
After anger, they moved on to happiness, then fear, then courage–and finally excitement. And since this was mid-December, all the excitement was focused on winter break. According to one student’s writing, winter break “tastes like the most delicious cake!”
The Day 1 writing session continued with students sharing their work, incorporating figurative language to convey emotions vividly.
“Be loud!” Mike Wiley reminded students as they shared their writing in front of the class.
“Several students commented that they liked writing about emotions because it helps them better understand how they are feeling,” shared Ms. Beck, a seventh-grade teacher at Bonlee School.
Students Share the Stage: Student Workshops, Day 2
Day 2 included a short glimpse into Mike’s play about Jackie Robinson, eliciting excitement from students familiar with the historical figure.
“I liked that he made us feel included in the play by letting us act with him,” said a Bonlee seventh-grader.
Plenty of giggles rippled out as students and teachers joined Mike on stage.
Day 2 included writing, too, and Howard began the day’s writing work by reading an example of writing in persona by fellow Aritsts-in-Schools teaching artist Phillip Shabazz.
In the writing exercise that followed, students combined emotions with winter objects, imagining characters with pairings like “jealous hot chocolate” and “lazy snowman.”
Students’ final creations ranged from the tale of a hungry Christmas tree in Taylor Swift’s bedroom to the musings of an insane cannibal cookie.
What They Had to Say About It
Students, teachers, and artists had a lot to say about this week together. Here’s a little of what we heard:
“[It] pulled on my heart strings to witness…a student with attention issues enjoying himself as he practiced writing for Mr. Wiley. He could not wait to share his piece with his peers and laughed outwardly while producing and sharing the piece,” said Ms. Upchurch, Bennett’s librarian.
“Students expressed to me how different teaching techniques and the exposure helped them as individuals to find their voice. All this feedback strengthened me as a facilitator of the arts,” noted Ms. Price, the music teacher at Bennett School.
“I like that we were involved…[I’d like] more time with [Mike Wiley],” remarked a Bonlee seventh-grader.
And the feeling was mutual: Mike and Howard both praised the Bennett and Bonlee students for their engagement and for the way they embraced the work. This one was a real joy.
The residency at Bennett School was sponsored by Miki Adams. The residency at Bonlee School was sponsored by David and Meadow Christ. Both residencies are part of the Chatham Arts Council’s Artists-in-Schools Initiative.
Arts for Resilient Kids programming is made possible by partnerships with Chatham County Schools, Chatham County, the North Carolina Arts Council, and many individual, foundation, and business donors. If you feel inspired to help us educate kids through the arts, click here to donate.
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