Theater Arts- An Oxymoron?

Marian often teaches after-school classes. Many times the students take home fliers and, with their parents, decide on what class to take. It never fails that at least one chld within the first three days asks, “When are we going to paint?” After a brief explanation about what “theater arts” means, Marian continues teaching projection and stage areas. Within a couple more class days, Marian usually has to explain again why the paints won’t be coming out, then it’s off to imaginative play and improvisation. Weeks go by with more theater games and skill building. The children are having fun and have given up the hope of painting. The final day is going to be an opportunity for the children to enjoy the theater games they’ve liked best. As the children are raising their hands and excitedly calling out what they want to do, one young girl raises her hand and asks, “Are we going to paint?”

“I Want to See the Stove”

Chris and Marian perform their interactive adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk. Since Chris plays both Jack and the Giant, the two characters can’t be seen at the same time. The Giant’s wife sends Jack offstage to hide in the stove when she “hears” the Giant coming. After one particular performance, a group of little girls asked if they could see behind the curtain. When they were told “yes,” the first little girl said, “I want to see the stove where Jack hid.”

He Found His Voice

Chris and Marian were performing for a group of Head Start children and their parrents. It was an interactive Jack and the Beanstalk play and Chris, as Jack, needed a “doorknocker” from the audience. He selected a little boy, costumed him in a gold tunic, and gave him the instructions: “When I go like this...” Chris pretended to knock on a door “...you say, ’knock, knock, knock.’” And that’s what the little boy did. Nothing spectacular, or so Chris and Marian thought. A week later, the Head Start director told Chris the boy he had selected never spoke in class before the performance. Now that the boy had been the doorknocker, he’d “found his voice.”

Thar Be Sharks, Cap’n

Arr, me matey. We be performin’ Captain Bobella of the Beast, a frighten’ pirate tale. A lad from them a’watchin’ got picked to play one of the lookouts. And lookout he did. Twere no more than 15 seconds and he were brave enough to tell the fearsome Captain Bobella that thar were sharks ahead. Tweren’t in the script, so the Captain had to tell the persistant lad that thar weren’t sharks right then. Perhaps next time thar will be.

©2008 Cwerks, Inc.