If I recall correctly, it was the winter of 2011, or maybe even the fall of 2010 when I started following my friend and colleague Jason "The JPod" Marlett around as he did the Recycling Adds Up program in third grade classrooms all over the city. Honestly, I was petrified. Not of performing, and not of teaching, but of behavior management. Third graders are harder to win over than grown ups, and they can misbehave while I'm trying to impress them! ;-) Now, I can act, teach and manage behavior at the same time. "Tina," my puppet and I, have done 200 or so shows. Michael and Jason did about 700, so the total run for "Recycling Adds Up" signs off at around 900 shows. I've visited over 40 elementary schools in the Austin, Eanes and Round Rock school districts. Many of them twice. Jason visited them over and over throughout the course of six years or more. You know, it's just like any other job. Except it's not.
But things are changing once again. Tina and I retired the show today. I don't know if Tina is done with her sassy behavior or slightly argumentative attitude. As much as she had started to ask third grade boys if she could kiss them, none of them agreed. Good thing. She's just not mature enough for that yet.
At Zilker Elementary, all the portables are painted in the eclectic colors that reflect its culture. They were the only school I recall making an announcement about how cool it was that the third graders were gonna get to do the Recycling Adds Up program. I'm sure the principal there, who I didn't meet, is a hippie, just from his style with the announcements. The Dell Jewish Academy gets the prize for the best art, and bonus points for using plastic bottles to make some of it, instead of throwing them away. The best third grade team is at Cedar Creek, where my friend Sandy Crump made sure she was the first to book this year. The gorgeous principal there, who fished her own keys out and gave them to me, a complete stranger, just after daybreak, so I could prep for classes is terrific. Bridge Point has some of the most beautiful teachers in the city, so if you're up for girl watching, you could stalk the staff at lunch time. They're also very kind and enthusiastic, so you'll be rejected with grace for your advances. Lee Elementary is the hippest elementary school in town despite it's globetrotting third graders - and the best story comes from its third grade lead teacher:
Student: Well Ms. S-, you know how when you get off the plane in Paris?
Ms. S-: No. No I don't know.
I've done the show on the fringes in far southeast and far northeast Austin - and I'm just sayin' - some of the kids don't understand what "how many more" means as they approach fourth grade. On the other end of town - I can't ask them complicated enough questions as they begin their third grade year. I'm just being honest, but I
learned so much about how this "diverse" city of ours is not so
diverse - it's gentrified. Only thirty years ago near Mathews Elementary, African American and Hispanic mothers and grandmothers (mostly single) struggled to raise their kids in that "rough neighborhood." Today, the median price for a home in that area is $500K. I'm a little sad about it. I already feel - well - snobbish
about the gentrification going on in my hometown, I don't like it - and
it really does move the less affluent further and further to the
geographical edges. Austin isn't weird anymore, it's just suburban -
unless you know where to go. The Sahara Lounge is groovy, Alamo
Drafthouse South is still the best movie theater in town, I love the
Blue Dahlia, Genuine Joe's is a great place for coffee and when I travel northwest, it's not the same, and doesn't
feel as authentic. But I digress.
But what has this program done for me? Given me the chance to do over 200 shows. Yes, you can phone it in and still look good, and once you've done a show ten, twenty, fifty times, it's pretty easy to get the job done AND think of your grocery list at the same time. It has instilled in me a different kind of confidence than I ever had before - that I could actually live my dream to get paid to act and be a photographer at the same time. But now it's time to do something different.
By the way, that behavior management thing - I feel fairly confident about that, too. Just yesterday, I may have crossed a teacher's boundaries, but I had a chat with one of her students after hearing him call someone gay in a derogatory fashion. I concluded with telling him that Tina has gay friends, because she does.
I
have loved being engaged and employed as an actor who has done over 200
shows over the course of a year and a half. I love being able to say I
am a professional actor. And I didn't even need to leave town to do
it. I've had a lot of jobs since I squeaked my way out of high school,
and this has been among the best.
Wonder what's next? We'll find out next school year.
Here's a shot of the last Recycling Adds Up class, Canyon Creek Elementary, Ms. Christie's class.
