Swashbuckling 101 is not exactly normal curriculum for summer school.
But the children in Mack Dugger's summer school drama class at Glendale High School are doing just that. His students learned stage-fighting techniques in the main quad last week.
The week before that it was juggling. Maybe sometime soon the class will cover prat falls, but for now, they're choreographing their own sword fight, Dugger said.
His class of 29 was out in almost full force ? minus a few stragglers playing hooky or out sick ? plus six students who are not enrolled in the class but come to help out anyway.
"I call them my nonstudents," Dugger said.
Glendale High's drama department has grown substantially in the last year, he said. The students range from ninth- to 12th-graders and some are from Clark Magnet High School.
Dugger watched them closely as they faked fighting in the humidity of the morning.
"Amir, don't get too close," he said, projecting to a boy across the quad. "Drop your points. There you go."
All this preparation will culminate at the end of the summer school session when the students perform the play "How I Survived High School."
They'll be graded on their ability and effort, but whether they're good actors is not the point of the class, Dugger said.
"I'm not teaching them to be actors," he said. "I'm teaching them to be confident about themselves. That's where the real joy hits."
Anyone who looked around Dugger's drama room could see their was no lack of confidence. The room was full of pubescent performers.
One boy juggled a Vans slipper and two red balls at the same time, stage right. A group of girls made loud chatter to the left and talked about the inner workings of their scene.
"It's all about the applause," said Amir Lehman, 16, of Glendale. "I like the applause. Everyone in drama is an attention whore."
Students also cite the simple fact of the class being fun as a reason for showing up on time and staying late after school.
"You don't always get homework but when you do you have to take it seriously," said Arleen Tumasin, 14, of Glendale. "I enjoy the homework that we have because it's actually fun."
Dugger echoed Arleen's sentiments regarding the balance of responsibility and recreation and also called the drama room "another home" to the students.
"It's more of a cool-down type of class" said Hillary St. John, 16, of Glendale, one of Dugger's nonstudents. "It's a laid-back type of class. We have work but it's only every other day."
