Yesterday, students journeyed to the Theatre Passe Muraille to see Prisoner of Tehran. It was one of those eye-opening days, I think, for many of the students participating. The play, and the workshop in the morning, led them to a place where they realized that their lives as young people are exceptional when compared to others around the world. I think the fact that Nemat was captured, tortured and forced to marry her interrogator, all when she was 16 years old, shifted their perspectives on their own problems. We had the awesome opportunity to watch the faces of our students during the talkback after the show, with Marina Nemat herself, the author of this autobiographical story, and actors from the play on stage, answering our students’ questions. They were riveted, rapt in the moment, and I was reminded that while students may forget my English vocabulary words next week, and the plot of Macbeth once the test is written, sometimes it is times we create experiences for our students outside the classroom that lasting memories are created, and maybe lives are changed. – Chris Jull
Students enthralled by “Prisoner of Tehran”