You Know the Moves

1. Teacher enters space. She wears a nametag labeling her as the “Teacher.” She sits as a desk facing away from the audience at the upstage end of the space and puts on a pair of headphones. She listens. We hear a voice say, “Please be aware that someone might be watching you from a hidden camera, so you must be on your best behavior at all times.” The Teacher nods. “Please turn on the television.” The Teacher nods again and turns on the television in front of her quickly and precisely. The television is hooked to a video camera that is trained on a table filled with glasses behind the Teacher. “Please call the Learner in and flip the switch. If she does not comply with the rules stated beforehand, please press the first button in front of you. The Teacher nods again, calls out, “Go!” and flips a switch.
2. The Waitress/Learner hurriedly enters with a tray piled with ticking egg timers in her left hand and a pitcher filled with water in her right. She is also wearing a nametag, but it says, “Learner.” She reaches the table and begins to fill the furthest glass with water when the Teacher presses a buzzer.
3. The Learner flinches, pulling the pitcher back and dropping the tray full of egg timers. Without turning, the Teacher says, “You didn’t say ‘Mother, may I fill the glasses with water?”
4. The Learner tries to hold the full pitcher of water in her lap while picking up the egg timers and replacing them on the tray (as though the pitcher can never be placed on the floor or the table). Water has spilled on the Learner’s dress. She stands up carefully with the pitcher back in her right hand and the tray of egg timers (no longer ticking) in her left. She walks to where the Teacher is sitting, holding the pitcher and tray in front of her. She stops and stands very formally with the water spill on her dress. She bends down, looks the Teacher in the eye and says, “Mother, may I fill the glasses with water?”
5. The Teacher drops her gaze, motions to the headphones and some distant indeterminate space, and whispers, “I’m really sorry. The researcher told me I had to do it. If she were here I could argue with her, but I don’t think she can even hear me. I feel really guilty, I mean, I could have been you in this experiment. If you want to switch places … but I think we have to stay in theses roles. You know the moves. Enter the room, stop, say Mother may I fill the glasses with water, proceed after confirmation, and fill glasses C, M, O, T, H, D, R, K, W, V, Q, A, L, E, and P, in that order. You know the moves.” The Teacher looks around nervously. "I don't think we really should be talking. Not that I don't want to talk to you. But I think in the rules it states that there should be no contact between us. I'm sorry."