Welcome Center: Why Are You In Failureland?

• What does failure mean to you and why do you think people fear it so much? Why do you think failure is often seen as negative, even though it can lead to personal growth?
• Why is it important to forgive yourself after a failure and how can this help you move forward? How does reflecting on failure help build resilience and problem-solving skills?
• How can sharing your failures with others (friends, family, or mentors) change your perspective on those experiences?

• Why did Tori feel like she was a failure? Had she actually done anything to justify feeling like a failure?
• What are the choices that you know you should make that you’re afraid to take? What’s holding you back?
• Tori is aided by famous historical figures and contemporary celebrities. Who do you have in your life to help you move past your fears of the future? 

Feel free to explore these additional resources on your own to supplement your knowledge for these lessons or share and discuss these sources with your classrooms.

• Failure, A Prerequisite for Success (Scientific American)
  • The recipe for succeeding in any given field is hardly a mystery: good ideas, hard work, discipline, imagination, perseverance and maybe a little luck. Oh, and don’t forget failure.
• The Right Kind of Wrong (Big Think)
  • Does success require avoiding failure altogether? Or perhaps failing is a natural part of the path forward.
• The Science of Compassion (National Public Radio)
  • People talk about “paying it forward”. Read more about what happens when you put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and how it can profoundly change the relationship you have with them.
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (TED)
  • There’s more than one thing that separates those that succeed and those that don’t. Explore the theory of “grit” as a predictor of success in this video.

Download PDF of this Exercise

Subject(s): Theatre

Goals: Students will be able to:

• Develop ideas individually and collaboratively.
• Apply communication and collaboration skills for theatre experiences.
• Identify communication strategies.
• Identity and discuss effective artistic leadership.
• Create and maintain character traits with body and voice.

Show Connection:
In Failureland the protagonist often feels like she is pulled in multiple directions and is put in situations where she just is unable to succeed, like the deck was stacked against her at the start. While this may be true in moments in the protagonist's life as well as our own lives, she ultimately comes to understand that no matter what directions she is pulled in, successfully or otherwise, things work out. She can make her own success. She may not be where her five-year plan had predicted she’d be but the journey she went on will be one that shaped her and made her all the more interesting and well rounded. Students will gain a greater understand and appreciation for just putting their best foot forward, throwing caution to the wind and embracing the freedom of failure in this exercise.

Set Up:
Clear a section of the classroom space free of desks, tables and other materials to give the room an open area to work.

Description:

Part One

• Have the students form up as an audience on one side of the room.
• “We will be doing an exercise where we slowly create a living breathing environment together as a class. This environment will only be as clear and strong as the people in it so I ask that the choices you make be specific, honest and relevant to the type of environment we are crafting together. I will declare the type of environment we are creating together. For example, a kitchen. The person who starts the round will then, using their body and facial expressions, silently show themselves inhabiting that space or action. So, if I were the first person to go,  maybe you would witness me cooking something at a skillet on a stove top as I adjust the heat and toss items in the skillet. Or chopping items to be cooked on a cutting board. It’s up to the person who initiates. The challenge with this exercise is to show us with your body and whole self what you are doing, and possibly who you are in the space rather than telling us with your voice.”
  • Other possible locations to start creating could include:
    • Day at the Beach
    • Campsite
    • Circus
    • Hospital
    • Mini-Golf
    • Fairground
• “We will let one person begin in the environment and slowly we will call on people that raise their hands who have ideas how they can add on more people and action to the environment. So, if we start with one person cooking in a skillet, maybe then we add another person who helps establish that there is a sink and dish washing station on the other side of the space where they are working on cleaning a fresh load of dishes that came from off stage.” Slowly pepper in more and more students into the space. In an ideal world, every student will have added onto the situation by the time the round is called.
  • Side-Coaching: Let the other people in the space affect you, what you are doing and how you are doing it. Don’t just wash the dishes, wash them with an emotional quality. How do you feel about doing _____ action in this space?
• Do several rounds of this with the students.

Part Two

• Pivoting to a new exercise. Begin by dividing students into four groups of roughly equal numbers.
• “Alright, I’m going to name a noun of some kind. And you and your group must physically create a version of that noun. Think creating a statue. Maybe in later rounds, we’ll let them move and make sound. One statue per group involving everyone in the group. Work fast, collaborate and make choices quickly. The group that creates their noun in a clearly distinct and correct visual way first is the winner.
• Compete in multiple rounds of this, encouraging students to embrace creating as much detail as possible.
  • Couch, Car, House, Pinball Table
  • During these first few rounds be encouraging and positive, offering praise to solid work you see and people working together whether they are succeeding or failing.
• Now start throwing the groups different criteria that are bound to make them struggle and it harder to become these things. Bounce between different types of criteria quickly - the pace should border on breakneck. This exercise should feel like a mental and physical workout of successes and failures for these students.
  • Shift the group size numbers around so that some are very large groups and some are very small and yet the group must create very detailed and complex objects just as quickly and effectively with luck!
    • Spider, Vending Machine, Piano, Frog
  • Groups may only use their hands or have their eyes closed for these rounds.
    • Playground, Bulldozer, Headphones
  • Set a timer for much shorter rounds. The groups only have ____ amount of time to make their noun as a group. (20 Seconds, 10 Seconds, 5 Seconds)
    • Umbrella, Tank, Telephone
  • Rounds where each student is now in a group all by themself and they are the only resource they have to become the noun.
    • Chair, Octopus, Ball of Yarn

Discussion: 

• If you were to teach these games to someone else, what would your tips for success be? What does success look like in these games?
• Did you feel like you had time between rounds to really reflect on what worked well or didn’t? How did it feel? Did you feel as if you were set up to fail in these rounds and exercises?
• “Group [whatever], you were struggling. Your group failed more than a few times. How’s that feel? Will it matter tomorrow at all? Or even five minutes from now?”

Download PDF of this Exercise

Subject(s): English and Theatre

Goals: Students will be able to:

• Use newly learned words and phrases in multiple contexts, including students’ discussions and speaking and writing activities.
• Explain the point of view and distinguish between what is implied or intended because of the use of hyperbole, irony, sarcasm and understatement.
• Using background knowledge to expand ideas and add depth, utilizing reference materials when necessary.
• Apply a variety of strategies to listen actively and speak purposefully and respectfully.
• Set guidelines for group presentations and discussions.
• Incorporate all group members in the development of new understandings, making decisions, and solving problems.
• Create design elements that demonstrate personal voice and vision.
• Identify how theatre design elements elicit an emotional and/or intellectual response from the audience.

Show Connection:
Failureland! centers on a young woman who fears that what colleges accept or don’t accept her will be her most important identifier for the rest of her life. But, as she finds out, no one experience or identifier can define a person. Through this exercise, students will better appreciate the various components of their lives and come to a deeper appreciation of the multifaceted experiences of their classmates. Each of us, collectively and individually, are made up of thousands of successes and failures and none of them on their own can define us.

Materials: 

• One large sheet of paper (at least 2 ft x 2 ft) for each student. Each paper is subdivided into four squares. Each square is labeled with one of the following. No two sheets should have the same four labels.
  • My Brain, My Brand, My Being, My Hopes, My Woes, My Dreams, My Motives, My Fears, My Joys, My Burdens, My Best of All Possible World, My Pride, My Perspective, My Obsession, My Daydream, My Anxiety, My Success, My Failings, My Bright Future, My Dark Future, My Restraints, Etc.
• Arts and Craft Supplies
• Tape and Glue

Set Up: 

• Spread the arts and craft supplies as well as the large sheets of paper around the room on desks, floors and other working surfaces you are comfortable having the students work on.
• Clear a section of the wall of your classroom as an eventual creation space for students to piece their work together on. If you do not have sufficient wallspace to display the finished piece, explore other creative ways to view it.

Description: 

• Give each student one of the prepared pieces of paper. Each student should find their own place to work with their prepared piece. Give them a moment to look over and ponder the four labels on their sheet.
• They are to select only one of the four sections and paint / color / draw / create their own visual response to the section on the piece of paper they’d like to respond to.
  • Note: Hammer home that they’re only to respond to one section. We learned the hard way that there will be go-getters who want to respond to all of it and that enthusiasm makes a mess of later parts of the lesson.
• Using as much color and personalization for the chosen section as possible, students should paint and fill in the chosen quarter. They should not be given an overabundance of time to complete this. Working fast, working off of instinct and impulse, is the name of the game. Encourage them to use color and specificity for the section of “self” they choose to ensure it really pops and represents their sense of self. Work fast, clear and with specificity.
  • Encourage the students to get abstract with these. No need to write lists or draw literal representations of their _____ on these pieces of paper. Show us colors, shapes and the like. What do these “My _____” look like, feel like, taste like, smell like? Go for visual rather than literary on these.
  • It may be helpful for the students' sake for the instructor to create an example of one of the sections of the large sheet filled out ahead of time for them to look at.
  • Have some music playing to fill the space and help motivate the students to create as they work on their sections of the paper.
• Once the allotted time has elapsed, students have to quickly find another piece of paper other than the one they were just working on. They now have another limited amount of time to choose one of the three remaining sections on this new piece of paper to visually respond to.
• Now, do another, third round of creation on a different paper than the one they were working on in the round prior. They now have another limited amount of time to choose one of the two remaining sections on this new piece of paper to visually respond to.
• Now, do one final, fourth round of creation on a different paper than the one they were working on in the round prior. They now have another limited amount of time to fill in the one remaining section on this new piece of paper to visually respond to.
• Now, invite the students to do a museum style walk around the space to explore all that was created on the various sheets of paper. After they have walked, discuss some of these concepts briefly:
  • Where are your / our failings? Individually or collectively? What does success look like to you / us? What are the successes you hope for that you’re unsure of/anxious about?
  • What trends are we noticing in one another’s successes and failures?
  • What visually is similar / different?
  • How do we feel / find the other elements of us are linked or not linked to failure and successes? (bodies, brains, obsessions, etc.) How are your _____ related to your successes? How does putting more or less focus on _______  help or harm you when it comes to failure and success?
  • What does success look like to you? Look at the art everyone else has created. What are the trends, the commonalities, you see between these depictions of success and failure?
• And now, what it’s all been leading to.
• Hand the class tape and glue and point at the designated wall, or floor space they will soon use.
• Their task as a whole class is to create one unified piece of art that depicts what you, as a newly formed ensemble, feel like success and/or failure look like. You’re going to work together as one massive team to do this
• Rules:
  • Every piece of paper/every piece of art must be used in creating this piece. A collective image is going to be formed from the work you’ve already done on these papers. However, no painting/drawing can be used in its original form. Students need to tear these pieces of art up and then, work together, to create something wholly new. Scissors are not allowed. Tear the pieces up with your hands, teeth, whatever. But no objects are allowed to be used for the tearing.
  • Once students have torn it all up, work together to create a collage in the shape of something that you as a group agrees embodies healthy growth or progress. (Maybe it’s in the shape of a person, an object, a symbol, a place.) Decide together. Once it’s completed, it’ll live “right there.” (On the wall or on the floor.)
• Encourage the class to decide on the shape you want first and then tear. It may alter how the class tears things / what full images versus colors you want to keep.
  • Nobody can tear up their own art. You’ll get too precious about it. Everybody go stand by somebody else’s and start tearing!
  • It can feel scary to turn the room over to the students but it’s going to create the best work. Do your best to let them take the lead. You’re just there to make sure nothing/no one gets hurt and to encourage.

Discussion: 

• Why this shape? What does that shape and the piece you’ve created say about our classes’ view on failure?
• What was it like working together to create one unified piece of art? Do you feel that you succeeded or failed in this endeavor? Do you feel that you personally, succeeded or failed in this part of the project?
• You painted responses to four different parts of yourself. Is any one of those parts your primary identifier? Are we ever tempted to let any of them become our identity? How do you resist making any one aspect how you identify someone else?
• Who is your biggest critic? Is it yourself? What are you hard on yourself for? Why might you do that to yourself and what worth does it bring to your life by doing that to yourself?

Download PDF of this Exercise

Subject(s): English and Theatre

Goals: Students will be able to:

• Use background knowledge to expand ideas and add depth, utilizing reference materials when necessary.
• Use reflection to evaluate one’s own role and the process in paired or small-group activities.
• Report orally on a topic or text or present an opinion.
• Describe a personal response to a theatrical experience using theatre arts vocabulary.
• Describe how personal experience, culture, and current events shape responses to theatre performances.
• Create and maintain character traits with body and voice.

Show Connection:
Failureland! begins with a relatable moment. A young girl is panicking in the moments before submits her CommonApp application. She’s worried that she hasn’t done enough, hasn’t become enough. What follows is a journey that exposes her to new ideas and people related to success and failure. There may be reasons for difficulties and failures. They may not be things we have to run and hide from.

Materials:

• Paper
• Writing utensils (pen/pencil /marker, etc.)

Set Up:
Clear a section of the classroom space free of desks, tables and other materials to give the room an open area to work.

Description: 

• Invite students to create partnerships and stand somewhere in the room facing their partner. Each partnership should decide who is Partner 1 and who is Partner 2.
• Partner 2 should stand neutrally. Partner 1 will now “sculpt” them into a physical representation of one of the prompts listed below. Partner 2 should not move unless sculpted by Partner 1. Partner 1 uses their hands to mold and shift Partner 2’s body into whatever positions they need to create the sculpture they envision in their head. (Think macro and micro with the adjustments you can make to your sculpture. There’s more than just arms and legs on a sculpture but facial features, fingers, toes, knees, backs, etc. These should be expressive.)
  • A representation of something they were doing last Saturday.
  • A representation of how they feel when they ace a test.
  • A representation of what being yelled at looks like.
  • A representation of eating a large meal when you’re incredibly hungry.
    • If touch and consent are not regular parts of your classroom’s practices and vocabulary, eliminate touch and have them mold the other person from several feet away, manipulating the air as if their partner were inches away from them. What you don’t want is for them to make the statue and to have their partner mimic them.
• Do several rounds of sculpting work as practice, making sure to give each partner an opportunity to work as both the sculptor and sculpture clay.
  • Students can use chairs, desks, other larger scenic type objects if they need to for sitting or height of their statues but they must physically adjust all they want their statue to do. Strive students to “create / show us, don’t tell us. Let the sculpture speak for itself.”
• After a few of these practice rounds, instruct students to find their own spot to sit somewhere in the room. Ask them to pull out a sheet of paper and something to write with.
• Failureland! is, probably not surprisingly, a show about failure. Perceptions and definitions of success and failure vary wildly from person to person, based on factors like past experiences, privilege, family and societal expectations. Generally though, failures can be categorized into at least one of the following failure types:
  • Real Failures: Ones which we learn from.
    • I ran a red light and got a ticket or I ran a red light, got t-boned, survived and learned a lesson.
  • Imagined Failures: Ones we’re afraid of.
    • Why even bother taking my driver’s test? I’m just gonna mess it up and fail.
  • Ignored/Unnoticed Failures: Ones that we don’t recognize as failures. Worse, we often view them as successes.
    • I cut someone off in traffic. Clipped a pedestrian without seeing it.
  • Sought Out Failures/Failure Seeking: Ones where we take big risks with the possibility of failure, not because failure is the goal per say, but because either way we will learn from the experience and push our own creative, artistic, scientific, etc, boundaries in the direction of expansion  
    • Putting self in new situations, a big fish that was in a small pond places itself into a larger pond with new, bigger fish. Playing and working with new and more senior people.
  • Failures Turned Successes: Experiences that are initially thought to be failures, but yield incredible results by accident. Examples: Coca Cola, chocolate chip cookies, fudge, and penicillin.
    • I fail to get into my dream college but instead I get into the right college for me, the one that gets me on the right path for the life I’m meant to live.
• Discuss with the students some of the following questions as they relate to failure in their lives and that they have witnessed:
  • Think of the last time you failed at something. How did you respond to it?
  • Think of the last time you saw someone else fail. Someone in your life, someone in the news. How did you respond to their failure?
• Give students sufficient time on their own to note, draw and think through a moment of failure in their life. All the details surrounding that moment of failure and what it entailed. As they work, keep the following questions visible for them as inspiration for their work:
  • What did the failure look like? Was it visible to the rest of the world? Was it more internal and only you knew about it?
  • How did it feel?
  • Where did it take place?
  • When did it happen?
  • How / what were the circumstances that led up to it happening?
  • What type of failure, of the ones we listed earlier would you identify this one as?
• Once the artistic responses have been completed, move students to groups of 3-4.  Invite students to share their failings within their groups.
• After a few minutes of sharing, students in each group should decide which of the members of the group they would like to create a group sculpture of. The person whose story is chosen will be the sculptor. The sculpture itself should be a physical representation of the moment of failure.
• Give the student groups 10 minutes to sculpt their failure sculptures. These will now, obviously, be larger pieces than the single person statues made earlier. Encourage them to find ways to physically show relationships and power struggles. Each student should be in the sculpture.
• Once ready, have each group hold their sculpture positions while the rest of the class explores their piece by walking around them and through them, getting a 360 degree view of the instance of failure that was created. Rinse and repeat this process with each group so that each sculpture is observed, appreciated and explored.
• Now, come back together as a class and discuss things you noticed, trends, etc in the sculptures displayed without knowing the more specific context of the failure itself.
• Ask the students if anyone is willing to share what their failure moment was with the rest of the class. Select a student. Before the student storyteller shares with the class, tell them that there is a particular way that the failure should be shared. Select a group of students (we recommend eight) from the class and have them join the sharing student in a part of the room where there is a decent amount of open floor space to work.
• Request that the volunteers lay on the ground or slump themselves over a nearby desk like a ragdoll.
• Instruct the storyteller that these volunteers are now their clay. “Please share your failure with the class through sculpting these eight into an image that shows the moment of failure itself. Every piece of clay must be in this frozen image in some way. As the storytelling sculptor, you are responsible for shaping the clay volunteers. You will sculpt around them with your hands as is deemed appropriate [either by directly touching or from a distance, re: teacher’s instruction.] The main rule is that the storytelling sculptor cannot verbally speak to their clay with instructions or the rest of the class. You just have to create.”
  • While the sculptor is molding, the other students should work on a different assignment or talk with each other. The sculptor will do poorer work if they feel all of their peers are watching them.
• Once the storytelling sculptor is ready to present, seated students rise to explore the statue “museum style” by getting on their feet and walking around the full piece, 360 degrees.
• Once the students have explored the piece and returned to their seats, encourage them to respond and comment on this art. What might the failure be? Who is the oppressed and who is the oppressor in the image?
• The story sculptor is then invited to explain the failure as it happened to them with the class, sharing only what they feel comfortable sharing with everyone (make sure that they know from the beginning that, if they choose to volunteer to be a sculptor, they will be expected to verbally share their story.) Given what they share, consider: What type of failure is this? What would be a productive or beneficial response to this instance of failure for the creator and those that were involved in the failure? (Where do we go from here in a positive direction?) What would it take for the next steps following this failure to be productively positive?
• Now, turn things over to the student audience. On the teacher’s go, a single volunteer student will come up and resculpt the image. The failure must still exist - it’s an essential part of the sculptor’s identity and experience! - but the failure must be responded to in a positive or beneficial way in the long term. There must be a realistic level of empowerment within the image. Maybe it’s the realization that this failure actually enabled later success. Maybe it’s a recognition that life and the world continued after this. What does the positive response to this experience look like? Whatever it is, it must be a version that removes any negative judgment from the initiator or the community around them and replaces it with the possibility of progression.
• But here’s the trick - we must all agree that the image has removed oppression and negative judgment. Once the new sculptor has completed the image, they will sit down, and if anyone in the group feels that it’s still not right, that there’s still oppression or negative judgment, they can get up and resculpt. And then, if it’s still not right to someone in the room, we will continue to resculpt until the full class is in agreement on the image. It can also be resculpted if anyone feels the answer the statue provides is “too easy”. We are consistently amazed by how frequently the “solution” presented in this round is everyone in a circle holding hands, regardless of the situation. Resist genericity!
  • A warning! It can be tempting to remove the perceived failure. Don’t! This is about acceptance and celebration, not about erasure.
• Once the classroom has reached agreement on the updated sculpture,  invite the student audience to soak in the sculpture one more time. Invite the clay students to shake out their muscles and then thank them for their time.

Discussion:

• How can we benefit from failure? How might excessive failure be a bad thing?
• Is it possible to be too cavalier or careless with failure to the point that it becomes dangerous or irresponsible? (For instance, it is ok to fail when you build a bridge when it’s a model of a bridge but not when it’s a real thing.)
• Can all people afford to fail? How is being able to fail and move forward a privilege?  Do all people have the luxury to fail? Are certain people in the world allowed or enabled to fail more or more graciously? 

Download PDF of this Exercise

Subject(s): English and Theatre

Goals: Students will be able to:

• Adopt an organizational structure that clarifies relationships among ideas and concepts.
• Establish, supporting and maintaining a central idea with evidence throughout a piece of writing, organizing ideas in a logical sequence to exhibit unity.
• Use background knowledge to expand ideas and add depth, utilizing reference materials when necessary.
• Analyze the effectiveness of one’s presentation, including introduction, central idea, organization, and conclusion.
• Create and write a monologue and/or scene.
• Document inquiry, research, and ideas for theatre.
• Apply communication and collaboration skills for theatre experiences.
• Refine physical and vocal techniques for theatre performance.

Show Connection:
Just like the characters in Failureland! take time to better understand their relationship to failure and success so can students by unpacking, exploring, and sharing a moment from their past where things didn’t quite go the way they planned and how ultimately how they responded to that failure, set them up for an even greater success in the future.

Description: 

• Note: This exercise involves homework. There’s no effective way to do this in one setting - much of the exercise is students preparing presentations at home.
• It is time for the students’ turn to think about what their failures have been and how they have responded to these moments. How did they respond to that instance of failure and how did that response shape their future for the better or worse?
  • Possible Exercise Extension: Have each student pull out a piece of paper and something to write with. Give them ten minutes of time in class to brainstorm a response to the prompt “What is a moment from your life where you feel like you failed? What was your response to that failure? How did your response and the time spent immediately after the failure influence the trajectory of your future with that attempt at success that came up short?”
• We’re holding a Failure Fair! Every student is going to create a “Failure Reflection Booth” (interactive, presentational or otherwise) on a moment of failure from their own life that they would like to express to a portion of the class. (Some examples might include that time I was trying to learn how to ride a bike, learning to juggle, having a hard conversation with a parent or friend, etc. A moment where they failed, had to readjust their expectations, strategies and approach and how things went from there.) These expression booths should feature at least two physical items that are related to or represent that moment of failure from their life. Think of these objects as a springboard into telling and sharing the story of this moment of failure. These booths will be presented when next we all meet together as a class. (If the instructor deems the students will need more time to prepare, shift presentation dates accordingly.)
• As students are presenting their failures to the rest of the class, they should be able to answer the following questions:
  • What is the story and context of the failure? The who, what, when, where, why?
  • What type of failure do you identify this as?
    • Real Failures: Which we learn from.
    • Imagined Failures: Which we’re afraid of.
    • Ignored/Unnoticed Failures: Failures that we don’t recognize as failures, or, even worse, view as successful.
    • Hindsight is 20/20 Failures: Events/Inventions/Etc, that were once seen as successes, but through the years are seen as failures.
    • Sought Out Failures/Failure Seeking: When we take big risks with the possibility of failure, not because failure is the goal per say, but because either way we will learn from the experience and push our own creative, artistic, scientific, etc, boundaries in the direction of expansion  
    • Failures Turned Successes: Experiences that are initially thought to be failures, but yield incredible results by accident.
  • If you did, how did you grow or change following this failure? If you didn’t grow or change following it, why do you think that was?
• Presenting: One half of the class sets up and presents while the other half interact with the exhibits, examining the exhibits and asking questions and learning from the presenters. The groups then swap positions. When presenting booths, highly encourage students to be as invested in their given moment of failure as possible and to be equally invested in asking questions about other people’s booths. If you believe in it and care, so will your audience. Students should show the rest of the class how this instance of failure helped shape them and prepared them for future successes.

Discussion: 

• What booths stood out to you the most? What made them impactful?
• How do you think you could take the presentations you did here and share this information on failures and the process toward success with the wider community and world?
• What new questions are you thinking about, having seen the spectrum of our booths?
• How can you as a person become someone who is more familiar with compassionate failure? How can you let more of it into your life as well as those in your community? How might it be a benefit to you and those that you care about and the successes you hope to eventually accomplish in your life?