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IN THE WINGS
Imparting Culture and Communication:
A Conversation with Ira Abrams
The Goodman’s Student Subscription Series (SSS) provides
matinees, post-show discussions and educational resources for
Goodman productions to Chicago Public School teachers and
students free of charge. In return, partner teachers must provide
lesson plans detailing how they use Goodman productions in
the classroom, attend professional development workshops and
previews for each production their students see, and organize
annual school visits with the Goodman’s education department
to ensure their continued participation in the series. Education
Associate Teresa Rende recently spoke with one of the
Goodman’s Student Subscription Series teachers, Ira Abrams,
who has worked with the Goodman to bring theater to his students
at the Chicago Military Academy for over eight years.
Teresa Rende: What inspired you to participate in the SSS?
Ira Abrams: It just seemed obvious to me that if there was this
incredibly generous offer out there that my students should be
able to take advantage of it. Coming to teach in the Chicago
Public Schools, I could see how students often felt alienated by
much of the cultural knowledge we were trying to pass on to
them; the Goodman bridges that gap for students.
From an instructional point of view, the Goodman program has
been the cornerstone of my efforts to help students see what is
possible to do with a text. My students come to the Goodman
having studied the script and struggled with its shape and its
nuances. Then they get to compare their reading with the production.
There’s a light bulb that comes on in this context and I
would be hard-pressed to reproduce that kind of learning by any
other means.
TR: What were you hoping to impart to your students when
they saw Race this January?
IA: Chuck Smith, the director for Race, asked the question,
“Why aren’t the races talking to each other?” It seems to me
that “not talking to each other” is one of the great themes of
our time. In Race, playwright David Mamet looks specifically at
the way manipulating story lines and public images has become
more important than genuine communication. I wanted my students
to do their own writing to explore the difference between
genuine communication and posturing conversation, both public
and private.
Ira’s Chicago Military Academy students participate in a post-show discussion with the
playwright and cast of El Nogalar; April 2011.
TR: What has been your favorite element of the program thus far?
IA: I can think of dozens of students for whom the SSS program
has been either a doorway to a bigger vision of life, or a literal
life-saver. One student in particular stands out for me.
This young woman had virtually dropped out of school by
March, when we began studying The Story. She was very bright
but had always been an inconsistent student, and now her
mother had become ill and was relying on her to work and be
a caregiver. Eventually, she admitted that she was planning to
drop out of school and was only coming to my class because
she wanted the chance to perform and to attend the plays.
I made her a kind of a deal, whereby she had to meet some
basic goals to earn a ticket to the show.
Somehow, after the trip to see Tracey Scott Wilson’s The Story,
she got a burst of energy and started coming to school. I never
did figure out what it was about that play that made such a difference
for her, but for the last months of the school year every
time I saw her in the halls she had her ragged copy of that
script tucked under her arm. She managed to graduate and is
now an accountant, but theater was her double-major in college.
She still acts in her church.
GOODMAN THEATRE WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL
EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT DONORS
FOR THEIR HELP IN MAKING OUR OUTREACH
PROGRAMS POSSIBLE.
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