I’m still here?

It occurred to Pooh and Piglet that they hadn’t heard from Eeyore for several days, so they put on their hats and coats and trotted across the Hundred Acre Wood to Eeyore’s stick house. Inside the house was Eeyore.

“Hello Eeyore,” said Pooh.

“Hello Pooh. Hello Piglet,” said Eeyore, in a Glum Sounding Voice.

“We just thought we’d check in on you,” said Piglet, “because we hadn’t heard from you, and so we wanted to know if you were okay.”

Eeyore was silent for a moment. “Am I okay?” he asked, eventually. “Well, I don’t know, to be honest. Are any of us really okay? That’s what I ask myself. All I can tell you, Pooh and Piglet, is that right now I feel really rather Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. Which is why I haven’t bothered you. Because you wouldn’t want to waste your time hanging out with someone who is Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All, would you now.”

Pooh looked and Piglet, and Piglet looked at Pooh, and they both sat down, one on either side of Eeyore in his stick house.

Eeyore looked at them in surprise. “What are you doing?”

“We’re sitting here with you,” said Pooh, “because we are your friends. And true friends don’t care if someone is feeling Sad, or Alone, or Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. True friends are there for you anyway. And so here we are.”

“Oh,” said Eeyore. “Oh.” And the three of them sat there in silence, and while Pooh and Piglet said nothing at all; somehow, almost imperceptibly, Eeyore started to feel a very tiny little bit better.

Because Pooh and Piglet were There. No more; no less.

Basically, you get kids, and especially teenagers, who get cast into funny roles, or loud roles. They need to be funny, or flirty, maybe mean, scary, annoying, but most of all loud.

And these kids are so afraid. And they’re embarrassed to admit why they’re afraid, but I know. They’re afraid their flirting will look pathetic, or that if they’re mean on-stage people will think they’re really mean, or they’ve just never been loud in their lives and the idea is terrifying.

So I come in for a one hour workshop, and the solution is simple.

We just make as much noise as possible. We start out in a group, moving our body in ridiculous ways, we make obnoxious noises. We scream as loud as we can and jump as high as we can and wave our arms and say stupid things.

And then we take turns doing it individually. We yell something “embarrassing” about ourselves while doing a weird dance in front of everyone else.

We just make noise louder and louder until it’s not scary anymore.

We take up all the space our bodies can until we’re not afraid of being in the way anymore.

And it Always works. Every time. I’ve had kids cry, and get scared, but they always get through it by the end.

Humans are supposed to take up space, and do silly stuff, and make noise. Practice it until you’re happy to take up space and hear yourself.

Me, knowing fully well how much it sucks to have your passions invalidated and how cool it is to rant about something you love:

Westley: do I know anything about this area? Any danger?

DM: roll a history check

Westley: 15

DM: you know of rumors of giant rats in the swamps, as well as quick sand

Westley: what do I know about the giant rats?

DM: roll nature

Westley: [nat 1] …… rodents of unusual size? I don’t think they exist

The Fire Nation, modeled after Japan.

The Earth Kingdom, modeled after China

The Air Nomads, modeled after Tibetian monks.

The Water Tribe, modeled after North American Natives.