'Paper to Stage' makes literature fun

Veteran educator Kenny Salmon subscribes to the school of thought that the most effective way to teach is to make learning enjoyable. And so, for the past 22 years, he has been teaching CSEC literature to hundreds of students annually with a two-hour production that dramatises the texts of the syllabus.

The 2018-19 series of the production Paper to Stage was launched recently in one of Kingston's oldest performance spaces - the Coke Methodist Church auditorium on East Parade. It was there, at a Christmas-morning concert 82 years ago, that Excelsior High School student Louise Bennett started her career.

She'd been invited to recite some of her dialect poems by impresario Eric Coverley, and after the performance, he paid her first professional fee of one guinea (21 shillings). He was later to become her husband.

Among the elements that made the Paper to Stage production enjoyable was its variety. Many texts were used, among them the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the plays The Tempest and Ti Jean and His Brothers, the poems 'Ol' Higue' and 'This is the Dark Time My Love', and the short story Emma.

The structure of the presentation comprised of skits, dance, song, a court trial, poetry recitations, question-and-answers sessions (one in a style similar to 'TVJ's Schools' Challenge Quiz', an 'All Angles'-style television panel discussion, audience participation, and straight lecturing. One or more of those presentation modes were used for each of the texts, and the result was a fast-moving, fun-filled show.

The overall production was framed as a literature study session involving seven or eight students in one of the girl's living room. Some dramatic tension came from the fact that the girls' mother forbade her from inviting any boys to the house while she was out.

Ends amicably

Of course, the boys come anyway, and when the mother returns at the end of the study session and sees the boys, she is quite annoyed. However, the youngsters, with the help of the audience, persuade her that they were indeed studying, and all ends amicably.

In a chat with Salmon after the show, he told me that over the years, he has received positive feedback from teachers and students, which was evident from the packed auditorium with an audience coming from four of five high schools.

With a mixture of both pride and consternation, Salmon notes that one student has confessed going into her exam without reading all the texts, relying solely on notes taken at a production to answer some of the questions. She got a grade two, to which Salmon retorted, "Suppose you had read the books?"

As the producer and director of the production, Salmon said that he had to have confidence in the interpretation of the texts being given by the actors - and he did, as the actors were themselves teachers of the course. At the same time, the preparation process assists them to not only have an even greater understanding of the material but to clarify their own values and attitudes to the social and psychological issues brought up in the texts.

Looking to the future, he said the presentations will resume this month and continue until April, and for the first time, the production will be taken to every parish - probably beginning in St James. Previously, he'd done mainly regional presentations, doing parishes in clusters.

Early in the year, he also plans to have a workshop with teachers on the new literature (English B) syllabus scheduled for the new school year in September. There's a new set of books every three years, and he reformats his production to suit them.