ABSTRACT
D. Tannen claims that people from different regions have different wait times when it comes to conversational dialogue. Those with longer wait times may perceive those with shorter ones as interrupters, and those with shorter ones may believe that those with longer ones are not engaged. Around the time of Mirror Theatre’s creation, Alberta Education and the Alberta Teachers’ Association collaborated on a program called Safe and Caring Schools. Lawyers, teachers, unemployed people, immigrants, and those on welfare are the groups represented by the characters. Although additional characters could have been used, and genders could have been reversed, these choices represent some of the more widely recognized classes in North American society and the varying attitudes toward them. Imagine if the name of a particular ethnic group were substituted for “teachers’” when a person suggested “throwing pies into teachers’ faces.”
