It's All
About the Experience
It’s all about letting kids
explore their imaginations
Maybe you know a kid who shies away from the
experience of performing in a play because or she is afraid of the
responsibility of learning lines, standing up straight and looking
good before an audience. As director you may be primarily
concerned with teaching everyone where to stand, when to come in and
making sure they keep their faces toward the audience.
But at ArtReach we believe that kids need a
chance to perform, act out and pretend. It’s time to use
funny voices, walk like crazy people, scream and laugh and dance like
nobody’s looking. As director you feel you must keep
control of your cast and be concerned with whether or not the
audience can see the action. But since these are kids, just
getting their feet wet, it’s quite all right to let them test
their wings – and fall – if they have to. What if
Captain Hook isn’t the best you’ve ever seen? What if
the audience isn’t exactly thrilled with the performance?
What matters is the child performer has a
chance to experience Captain Hook, try on the clothes, hobble on the
peg leg and enjoy being something they never dreamt of. Give
them roots and wings – the confidence to try something new and a
safe place to land if they don’t exactly fly.
Failure doesn’t need to be pointed out or
even worried about. It just isn’t part of the
experience. Giving kids a chance to have fun and feel free to
explore something outside of the ordinary – that’s what
it’s all about.
Give yourself the freedom to value the process
over product – and you’ll have the time of your life!
Emperors
New Clothes Jazzes it Up with an Orchestra
Add creative fun with percussion instruments
Danny Da Drum, Zella Bella, Horatio Hornblower,
Ting-A-Ling, Tim Whistle and Huey Kazooie. What do these
characters have in common? They are the members of a fun and
silly orchestra for ArtReach’s play THE
EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES.
Raid the music room! Look for kazoos,
triangles, drums, chimes, tambourines, rhythm sticks, slide whistles,
bells, cymbals and anything that makes noise! Bring these to
your first rehearsal and ask the kids to play with them during scenes
to see if they enhance the performance. Show your cast an
example: Peter rams his head against the castle door to open
it. Use the cymbal for the crash and then a slide whistle as
Peter circles his head around, dizzy from the crash. Ask them
to think of similar sounds for other moments throughout the play such
as the Empress’ entrance, Peter’s travels etc. Set
aside a little time each rehearsal session to review ideas for sounds
and decide which will be included in the play.
The script for EMPEROR’S
NEW CLOTHES calls for the storytellers to also be the
music/sound makers, but you may apply this idea to any of the
ArtReach plays. Even if storytellers don’t stay stationary
at the percussion stand, they may carry small instruments in their
pockets or on chains around their necks. You can also eliminate
literal props by having the orchestra make the sounds such as sawing,
creaking hinges, a blacksmith’s tapping etc.
Example: Here’s a trick I used often.
When your Prince Charming hero enters have him smile big. Have
someone "ting” a triangle at just that moment. It
seems to make your hero’s teeth glint in the sunlight. It
never fails to get a laugh and establishes your hero as a super good-guy.
JACK
AND THE BEANSTALK, ALICE
IN WONDERLAND and LEGEND
OF SLEEPY HOLLOW are great scripts for percussion instruments
but the idea may applied to any play with narrators.
Directing Tips: <
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