The Teacher or A Shadow on the Writing Board

First production : At Spa, the 5th of August, 1994, by the Spa Festival, with Alexandre Von Sivers, directed by Pierre Fox, followed by tours of France, Morocco and Canade.
Literature Prize of the Council of the French Speaking Community of Belgium, 1994
The first monologue of the trilogy completed by Family Photos (Photos de famille) (1997) and The Young Film Debutante (La jeune première) (2001)
The current version of this play is entitled Hey! Teacher! (Prof !) (2002)

1996	Anvers, De leraar of Een schaduw op het bord by the RaamTeater, a Dutch version translated by Bart Vonck
1999	Nancy, first production in France by the Compagnie d'Urgence au Théâtre Rencontre
2002	Sofia, first production of a Bulgarian version translated by Svetlana Pantcheva at the Théâtre Varna
2003	Madrid, El maestro first production of a Castilian version translated by Fernando Gomez Grande at the Teatro Mostoles by the Geografias Teatro, followed by a tour of Mexico
2008	Torelló, El Profe first production of a Catalan version translated by Josep M. Diéguez, at the Theatre Cirvianum by the Teatre eSsela

Translations
German: Eckart Pastor ; Bulgarian: Svetlana Pantcheva ; Spanish (Castilian): Fernando Gomez Grande ; Italian: Antonella Questa ; Romanian : Anca Lavegna Rotescu ; Dutch: Bart Vonck

Synopsis
« Children are like animals: they act not out of intelligence but by instinct! » That's what he tells us, out of spite, anger and experience, this idealist shattered by the violence of the school environment.
Today, condemned by the law for having committed an act from which there is no going back, The Teacher disturbs, with cynicism and tenderness, our schoolday memories in order to scare us, to make us cry, and to make us laugh and reflect.
Much more than a settling of accounts with school and the theatre, this monologue is an appeal for a more humane society.

Extract
As soon as I entered I understood. I saw their jeans and their trainers. I saw their buttocks precariously placed on the edge of their seats. I saw their slumped torsos. And their chewing gum. Their empty eyes and their dead looks. A terminal class ! The same as every year, I asked them the question : What does it mean to be a literature teacher'? When I began my career, very young, I didn't ask myself the question. I never considered that it could be asked. But paradoxically, I had the answer. On growing older, I asked myself the question and had no response. 'In any case', said a pupil one day, there are more important things'.

Press
« This out of the ordinary character is a figure entirely apart in theatre, whom it is not easy to circumnavigate, and whose mystery is entirely maintained throughout. » Jacques De Decker, Le Soir

« Alexandre Von Siver is witty and pathetic in an intelligent text, marked by a devastating cynicism, which reveals to us an author from our own country and who should be played throughout the land and abroad. » Jacques Hislaire, La Libre Belgique

« Pure narrative, the text does its job: Dopagne has built in enough developments for the narration to remain captivating throughout its hundred minutes. » De Morgen