In the Zolile High School Number One Classroom, learning is No. 1.
The lessons of Athol Fugard’s anti-apartheid-centered play My Children! My Africa! are hard, even tortuous. For its actors in East Tennessee State University’s production which opens Thursday, Feb. 7, the learning process is much more enjoyable.
ETSU theatre majors Matthew Paessler and Rebekah Shibao and assistant stage managers Dina Williams and Daniel Potts are learning much more than lines, cues, setting props and blocking. They are learning “the business” from two OldCastle Theatre Co. professionals, as well as professional actor and ETSU theatre faculty member Herbert Mark Parker, who is on stage with them as the teacher Mr. M.
“What’s great about it is I really believe it is an educational tool,” says Eric Peterson, founding member and producing artistic director of OldCastle Co. in Vermont. “What the Equity actors ‘get’ is the students have this unbelievable enthusiasm. You get a little bit jaded and stale. To see that enthusiasm and excitement is great. Then for them to learn how to comport themselves, how professional actors work, that’s just invaluable-a wonderful thing to do.”
There are plenty of teaching moments. “Stay with me. Stay with me,” says Parker, waggling his fingers at Paessler, who has become so mesmerized by Parker’s performance that he missed his cue as budding activist Thami Mbikwana.
“It’s very educational,” says Shibao, who portrays fellow debate whiz Isabel Dyson, as Thami and Mr. M argue behind her on stage. “It’s actually challenged me . I’ve definitely had to do a ton of research to understand apartheid. It started a long time ago but it’s still going on.”
Both Shibao, whose parents live in the Caribbean, and Paessler, who is from East Tennessee, had to do their “homework” on apartheid and the boycotts of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.
Paessler, whose Thami shares many emotionally charged moments with Parker’s Mr. M, is keeping his eyes open. “Herb is very talented,” says Johnson City native and theatre major Paessler. “It’s nice to see how a professional actor rehearses, because we’ve all seen them on stage or on TV but we never see them in rehearsal. I’ve kind of picked up on how he memorizes lines and blocking.”
ETSU students regularly learn from professionals, who are their teachers and often their fellow cast members, but the opportunity to co-produce with the OldCastle team of Peterson as director and Diane Healy as stage manager, was irresistible, says Parker, who first performed at OldCastle himself about 10 years ago in Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes.
The learning experience and the time toward their union cards won’t end in Johnson City on Feb. 10, however. It will continue in Bennington, Vt., OldCastle’s home. The show will remount, almost a month later during ETSU’s spring break, Parker says, on the OldCastle stage.
“We didn’t plan this so I could get a great part,” Parker says. “It was so students could experience working in a professional theater company and have the experience of changing theater spaces, picking up a performance after having set it aside for several weeks. This happens a lot in the professional world.”
Shibao and Paessler, as well as the students who are assistant stage managers, will be earning points and weeks toward their professional Equity union cards, Parker says, although the student stage managers will not get to make the trip to Vermont.
“It’s exciting,” says Shibao, who started her ETSU acting career in fall 2007 as Anya in The Cherry Orchard. “I actually like to brag about it. ‘I’m going to Vermont.’ It’s my first Equity play, so I’m sort of tiptoeing around to be sure I’m doing things professionally. I’m really happy about this opportunity.”
In My Children!, Thami gives up on education in exchange for a taste of freedom. Whether on the ETSU campus or in pastoral Vermont, Paessler and Shibao realize their learning is just beginning. And they are not going to miss a moment of it.
“I’ve learned more in the last two weeks than I have in my whole theater career,” Paessler says. “I’ve been working toward a professional career in theatre all my life, so this is scary for me. It’s also exciting but it’s also terrifying.”
The production, presented by the ETSU Division of Theatre and the OldCastle Theatre Co. of Bennington, Vt., is co-sponsored by the ETSU Black Faculty and Staff Association, President’s Council on Cultural Diversity, Office of Multicultural Affairs, and African and African American Studies Program.
Regular performances will be held Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday (Feb. 10) at 2 p.m. in the Bud Frank Theatre on the ground floor of Gilbreath Hall. Tickets are $15 for adults and $7 for students with ID and are available from the ETSU Division of Theatre office, located in room 201 of the Old College of Medicine Building. Reservations will be taken for all public showings and tickets will be held until 15 minutes prior to the production, when they will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Individuals who believe they may arrive later than 15 minutes prior to the show should pick up their tickets earlier in the Division of Theatre office.
For regular performance tickets, more information, or special assistance for those with disabilities, call the ETSU Division of Theatre at (423) 439-6511 or 439-7576.
A free performance for ETSU students is scheduled for Friday at noon. In addition, a special 5 p.m. performance will be held Saturday, Feb. 9, in conjunction with the annual ETSU Black Faculty and Staff Association Awards Banquet.

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