Whenever I discussed with my friends the possibility to work as a teacher I always said I would love to work with either children or as a university professor, but never in a high school.
I am glad I got over that fear because it lead to one of the most amazing experiences ever. I think high school is always a tough time for most, in one way or another. During my adolescence, one of my biggest joys was theatre. Any bad week got better when I had rehearsals. It felt freeing.
Any transitional period, a grey area where you never really know where you are standing is a hard moment. Not a child anymore and not yet an adult, a confusing mix of hormones, drama and vague plans for the future. I have always felt like a fish out of water, but it was during puberty when I felt like I was drowning.
Connecting with other people that felt the same was one of the silver linings of feeling out of place. My friend group was a safe space where being weird or different did not matter, it was so comforting to feel understood, less alone. The other pillar for my happiness during adolescence was art. Either reading, writing poems, drawing or painting. But my longest and most special creative relation was always theatre.
One of the best aspects about theatre, in my humble opinion, is that it is a collective work of art. It is like a mosaic done by so many hands. Much like a football team, one superstar footballer won’t make a team good – it is when all of them move like clockwork through the grass. It is not about one good actor or actress, but about coming together on the stage and moving like waves, a constant witty dialogue, reactions that stick together and make this moving, breathing and living work of art.
I am really glad that I hopefully managed to translate this passion for theatre and for creative and artistic expression to the amazing team we have built during the production of the play Familiar Strangers. After the curtain closed on the opening night, we all burst into a unison roar of excitement. The work of months finally paid off, in this conjoined euphoria that almost moved me to tears.
This night was the culmination not only of my main project but also this whole experience in Krakow and the accomplishment of the main goal I had when coming here. Building a community for all the artistic, creative and talented souls that felt the calling of theatre. In many ways, the cast of Familiar Strangers turned into an almost a found family (pardon the pun).
As an original play, not only did I try to fit in all the incredible and funny ideas from the students, but I found inspiration from my own life and specifically my life in Krakow. Some people I met this year were written onto the narrative or specific situations or conversations found their way onto the script. It was hard but at the same time cathartic seeing these people and ideas come to live and still be alive through the play even if they were not in my life anymore.
This play also included hard topics, such as loneliness, mental health issues, addiction struggles, toxic cycles or dysfunctional families. These topics are not unfamiliar to adolescents, I doubt they ever were. Does not matter if you are a young adult, a full-on adult or even an old retired person, these topics do not cease to be hard.
An open space to discuss them, shine a light at the end of the tunnel and have hope as a guiding star is one way to make them a bit less hard. Looking away from the ugly parts of life do not make them disappear, sometimes it makes them even more powerful. Behind the dark jokes, constant arguments and laughter, this play is about love and about people – about the importance of hope during dark times and to be able to laugh even in a funeral.
Thank you to everyone who made this possible and especially to this amazing group of students who made my experience in Kraków unforgettable – those who believed both in me and in this project. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and although it’s hard to encapsulate joy and passion, like lightning in a bottle, these photos come close:
