Transformative Change in a Teen Performing Arts Class

Young People Create a Dramatic Comedy Podcast

“Overcome the idea that you cannot do a thing by simply starting to do it.”
- Paramahansa Yogananda

“In the Spring of 2020, I was sheltering in place in NYC, when during a meditation, an idea popped into my head: create a scripted, fictional podcast series with high school students,” writer, director and educator Rachel Schroeder told me.

“Hmm… oh, wow. That’s pretty crazy,” I said.

“Not such a crazy idea since schools had gone virtual and making a podcast was totally feasible online. I was already co-producing a non-fiction podcast, and I write plays and screenplays. The only catch was that I was between teaching gigs and had no students to teach.”

“A bit of a stumbling block,” I said, shaking my head.

“Given that I had been training in the EFL approach to teaching and was one course shy of certification which required teaching a course under supervision, I proposed the idea to Nitai Deranja, director of the Ananda Living Wisdom High School in Nevada City, California,” Rachel said.

“Nitai? And what is ‘EFL?’” I asked.

“Nitai is the director of Education For Life International, and my mentor. Unbeknownst to me, Nitai had been looking for a Performing Arts class to round out the school’s curriculum, so he green-lighted the collaborative podcast-making endeavor and we were off to the races!”

The onset of the global Coronavirus pandemic challenged drama classes everywhere to find new ways to learn and collaborate.

But for this dynamic class of three seniors, two juniors and four freshmen, their Nevada City high school was already online before the global pandemic.

From her home in Manhattan, their newly minted performing arts teacher shared her brainstorm as a big assignment: create a podcast.

The Living Wisdom High School is international with students hailing from three continents, spanning from India to Iran to Italy to home base in California.

“Tell me more about Education for Life, Rachel,” I asked.

“The approach is rooted in the principles taught by educator and yoga master, Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi. The mission of Living Wisdom Schools ‘is to provide students with a balanced education of the body, feelings, will, and intellect in preparation for using life’s diverse challenges to discover ever-deeper levels of purpose and happiness.’

“Teachers meet students where they are in their development and offer personalized learning experiences to help them on the journey of self-discovery and maturity. To that end, there’s a strong focus on raising students’ levels of awareness and consciousness.”

I learned that in 2017 some Living Wisdom students were unable to obtain U.S. visas, banned because of their country of origin. So at that point, the high school made the move to offer remote learning.

“Coming into the 2020–2021 academic year, we were unusually blessed with three seniors who were generous and expansive, so Nitai suggested giving them leadership roles in the podcast collaboration. They became its showrunners — which now meant that I was teaching two courses in one: podcast creation, performance and production AND leadership — something I had never done before. Lucky for me, these three exceptional women made it easy and fun. I really enjoyed getting to know them and watching them step into adulthood more and more confidently, while supporting and inspiring their peers to do their best work and become better versions of themselves.”

“They didn’t have senioritis?” I joked. Rachel smiled.

“Each of these young women is uniquely intelligent and multi-talented: Mahnoush is a Tai Chi champion and professional dancer in Iran; Varsha is a published author in India; and in Italy, Carlotta is an accomplished competitive sailor.

They are quite different in personality which made them complementary as leaders,” Rachel responded.

In a video call, I had the privilege to speak to the student showrunners. Laid back and grinning Carlotta based in Italy, focused Mahnoush in Iran and vibrant Varsha who resides in India, her hair sporting fun red highlights.

Even though they were familiar with remote learning, they told me this assignment triggered fear and trepidation that they may not be able to overcome the obstacles, and they worried they wouldn’t be able to pull it off. They had no idea how to create an online radio show!

Each student shouldered multiple production roles. Creating a podcast for wide public release requires choosing the subject, writing the scripts, recording the voice performances, sound editing and even composing music and creating original artwork — all brand new territory demanding new skills.

The showrunners laid the groundwork, starting pre-production while still on summer break. When school kicked off in September 2020 they dove into scheduling production around mealtimes, classes, and time zone hurdles. One video call meeting could span the world, with peppy or bleary performing arts students munching on breakfast while others on the same call were nearing midnight.

They chose to write and record in English, a second language for nearly all the teens, who speak fluently and have slight accents.

The first step was dreaming up what kind of audio show to create. At first they considered a non-fiction, informative podcast genre.

“We started thinking it could be educational, short episodes. We thought maybe one could be about different greetings, or one focused on food, another episode could be about women in our different cultures,” Varsha said.

But then they spontaneously hit on the idea of inventing a dramatic script spiked with wit and humor.

“I think we naturally jumped to the decision of this being a fictional dramedy,” Carlotta said. “Because we are teenagers we wanted to address people of our age in a more engaging way. We wanted to create something that people would relate to.”

The theme of cultural misunderstandings came to Varsha and they began to consider a fictional journey from misunderstanding to understanding. They wanted the tone to be both not too heavy and not too light.

Within their own class, some awkward incidents meant they’d begun to wake up to the fact they made wrong assumptions or inadvertently offended a friend due to pre-conceived notions of countries, families or religions.

“Rachel suggested sharing our own stories. So I thought of how I viewed Iran at the time. I had always thought ‘Iran is war-torn’ which I learned wasn’t accurate. I wanted to explore clearing up my misconceptions. That’s how we began to explore the theme of cultural misunderstandings,” the India-based Varsha said.

The whole class brainstormed on the story concept and expanded on the idea of cultural misunderstandings, but the showrunners made the final decisions.

The next step was creating the script. Rachel taught the class professional script-writing techniques. They learned outlining, how to craft a logline, and were governed by structural concepts including creating a short synopsis for the overall story arc, as well as each of the three episodes.

Carlotta said, “Each of the showrunners would work solo writing each episode, and then we would exchange them and revise many drafts. Then I did a writing pass on all three scripts to give a sense of continuity.”

“We liked the theme of cultural misunderstandings because it affected our lives, and was pertinent to our international high school,” Carlotta said. “But we weren’t always able to convey what we wanted to communicate.”

“Dramatizing a fictional work is a real skill. Writing drama through action isn’t so easy. The scripts had to show, not tell,” said Rachel.

“All we heard was ‘action, action, action,’” Carlotta said.

“The characters need to be doing something, not just talking,” Varsha added.

“My episode nearly killed me! Episode Two. I couldn’t get my characters to show not tell, I wasn’t able to plant the set-ups I needed, it was so hard,” laughed Mahnoush.

Varsha agreed, “I took on Episode Two after Mahnoush and it was so hard. I could see why she was having such a hard time with it.”

After extensive revisions the scripts were finalized, and Varsha stepped up to the daunting task of scheduling and recording the performances. Due to the scattered geography between Italy, India, California, New York and Iran, this was a demanding phase. She told me she was concerned she would fail.

The audio was recorded over Zoom as well as on their personal phones or laptops. The highest quality audio was chosen and edited by Varsha. Students composed and performed music, and sound effects were woven in to create the main character’s world.

The podcast story follows Kai, a naive, aspiring, American filmmaker who plans to pitch his documentary to producers at a prestigious Italian Film Festival. But his successful filmmaker “friends” set him up for failure and leave him broke and alone in Rome with nothing but the phone number of a mysterious game show. To save face, fund his film and prove his worth, Kai competes on the game show and is forced to confront his blind spots, reevaluate his friendships and his beliefs.

The podcast is titled “Metanoia Won’t Destroy Ya!”

“What does ‘metanoia’ mean?” I asked.

“The etymology of the word, metanoia, that we chose for the title, well — our podcast is like a journey from prejudice and misunderstanding to acceptance and understanding — so while we were looking for a title, this Greek word popped into my mind. I studied ancient Greek. This word means ‘a transformative change’ and especially a transformative change of self, mind, basically changing on every level. That seemed to fit our podcast and summarized it up pretty well, so we chose that for our title,” Carlotta said.

“We each bloomed. In the process we showed our talents and also realized what we were talented in — I remember one classmate saying she really didn’t know if she could play guitar and compose the podcast music, but she did it! So we revealed our talents, and had an inner realization that we can trust ourselves and work with the team,” said Mahnoush.

“This has been a huge project for me and has given me more confidence in myself. I’ve learned that I can do it, and be successful,” Varsha shared.

Carlotta added, “The most meaningful thing I learned being a showrunner of this project was to truly trust my intuition.”

There was some friction among the classmates, pressure to meet deadlines, and steep learning curves with the range of tasks needed to produce and launch a podcast. Due to the challenges of the pandemic, students struggled to find time and space to create, produce and perform a podcast.

For teen leaders working with their peers, inner strength and grit was key to completing the production. If one classmate dropped the ball, the showrunners had to encourage and support them to continue, as it could have doomed the entire project. Each student experienced their own version of metanoia.

“This was a success,” Rachel said. “These three women are deeply committed, brave and keenly sensitive to others’ needs and realities. So not surprisingly, they were a dream team.”

The podcast launched on May 12, 2021. The finished production, “Metanoia Won’t Destroy Ya!” is available on Apple podcasts and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Take a listen! And stay tuned for this year’s Performing Arts class production, a coming of age, fantasy audio play entitled, “Follow the Ripple,” launching May 12, 2022…

I’m reminded of a quote from Paramahansa Yogananda:

“Whether from physical, mental or spiritual causes, failure starts with the avowal, ‘I can’t do it.’ Such is the force of the mind and the vibratory power of words. When you say to yourself ‘I can’t do it,’ no one else in the whole world can change that decree. You must destroy the paralyzing enemy: ‘I can’t.’

There is an antidote for ‘can’t consciousness’: the affirmation ‘I can!” Create that antidote with your mind and administer it with your will.”

Share the “Metanoia Won’t Destroy Ya!” podcast with a teen!