This song is a good jumping off point for a discussion about asking questions to get information using the words "who, what, where, when and why."
Who says learning can't be fun?
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One of the ELA (English Language Arts) objectives for 1st-3rd grades is to retell a story or fable with a moral. What better way to meet this objective than to present a class play? In the Mini-Musical "The Tale of the Musicians of Bremen," the moral has to do with Age and Change. Children may not recognize how difficult it is for people to grow old and feel useless. Older people often stubbornly resist change. The old farmer and his wife in the story have to face Age and Change in themselves and for their animals. This story shows the animals taking a proactive step to avoid their certain fate (death). The animals are likable and do silly things, but also allow for a discussion about important life lessons, particularly Age and Change. In the story of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse they each discover that both of their homes have pros and cons. The Country Mouse visits the city with her cousin and is terrified at the noise and hustle-bustle, and all of the hidden dangers there. She decides that the "cons" far outweigh the "pros" to life in the city. She races home to the Country where she already knows what to expect. For the class, "The Tale of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse" musical begins a discussion about Comparisons such as Likes and Dislikes. Through explorations in acting and singing, the students can draw examples from the story and their own experiences to become better at determining their own preferences. And if the songs reinforce the concepts of the moral plus other Language Arts ideas, that is all for the better. For example, the opening song in "The Tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff," contains an idiom that is introduced along with many other puzzlements, "Why is Grass Always Greener on the Other Side?" This song is a good jumping off point for a discussion about asking questions to get information using the words "who, what, where, when and why." Retelling a story or fable with a moral is what these Mini-Musicals are all about. According to the advice of my teacher friends, I have included ideas and worksheets to help meet some of the Common Core Objectives for ELA. The best accolade I ever got from mounting one of these shows came from two little boys. The confided to their dad that they did not know why I kept telling them how proud I was of their hard work. They did not feel like it was work at all. They were having so much fun! Who says learning can't be fun?
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Such a happy day! I sold another complete Musical show package! "The Tale of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse" is such a fun show. It can be done in either a short version (mini-musical 15 minutes) or a more filled out version (30 minutes). The mini-package includes a script, vocal/piano score, lesson plans, and accompaniment mp3s. It is fairly uncomplicated to mount, even in a classroom or club situation, because it only has 2 production numbers that everyone sings together. This version is best for younger actors (5-9 year olds). "I Love the City Life" 2-Part is begun by the City Mouse who tries to convince her cousin the Country Mouse about how wonderful life in the city can be. "A Country Mouse" begins when the Country Mouse decides that being back home in the country is best. As is the case with a lot of performing situations, the girls usually outnumber the boys. This mini-musical is great for cases like this. Both lead characters are girls! The expanded version "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse" has more songs, more characters, and more for them to do. Once I had a small club group of 10-12 year olds --- mostly girls. I reworked this show to showcase the special talents of my actresses. So, some new songs were added that quickly became favorites, as well as some incidental and chase music. "What is It Like?" - for the Country Mouse and her family "As the French Say" - for the City Mouse, her French Maid, and the Country Mouse (and City neighbors) "You Can Learn a Lot" - Opener and Finale Such a fun show. I am so glad it will be performed in the near future. If there is a universal truth in doing Children's Theater, it is that Directors must be ready at all times to be FLEXIBLE. You never know the make up and abilities of a cast until the children show up. And even then, you do not know if these young children will grow and demonstrate untapped talents or retreat into stage fright. Often, you must choose a piece to perform before you see the children. This play must do the job of advertising and enticing the children (or parents) to want to sign up. And yet, you cannot be certain if you will have the actors with the right qualities to mount the production. You cannot know even the ratio of boys to girls that will ultimately be involved. So, your best course is to find a piece with parts that can be played by either boys or girls, with or with out much developed talent. Being FLEXIBLE is key! A few years ago I was asked to provide an after school Drama Club at an Elementary School. Adding a Drama Club was new to the after school club options. So, we did not know how many children to expect. I was told only that there could be between 10-20 1st-4th graders signing up. I also needed to pick a play that could be FLEXIBLE enough to work for a group of that size and be mounted in just 10 hours of rehearsal time (including a performance) over the space of 10 weeks. Obviously, I needed a small show since I would need to teach other rudimentary skills to these few children. I decided to try out one of my Mini-Musicals. I chose "The Tale of the Musicians of Bremen" because it could be done with a FLEXIBLE cast. That turned out to be a good decision because we ended up with just 3 boys and 8 girls all in the 2nd to 4th grade age-range. Having three boys was just enough to cast the Farmer, the Rooster, and one of the Robbers who were definitely Male characters. The other characters could be either gender. Most of these children were very young with no experience in acting, singing or dancing. So, everything was new for them. They worked very hard to learn their show in just a few weeks. The biggest problem was that they could only practice once a week, so they had six days to forget all they worked on in the last rehearsal. When they finally got to use props and wear costumes, that really helped. And when they got on stage in front of an audience, they performed like pros. What a fun and FLEXIBLE tale from the Brothers Grimm! And what fun to write with a German Polka flavor! "Back when the world was very young" was the phrase my father used to begin his stories. Sort of like "once upon a time" but specific to his stories about his own youth. He got so that he didn't care if the kids thought he was a contemporary to Noah! Anyway, I find myself thinking that phrase when I am asked to tell stories about my own youth.
When my two brothers and I were very young, my mother made little hand puppets out of felt to reenact the story of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff." On rainy days, she would pull them out and instruct us how to do a puppet show. We even made a puppet theater out of a big cardboard box with red curtains and everything! My brothers often fought over who would get to play the troll and who would be the biggest billy goat who gets to knock the troll off the bridge. This was my inspiration to create the mini musical. Back when I was in college, (there's that phrase again) I got to tour Scandinavia with the BYU A cappella choir. I had previously done some study of Edvard Grieg's music and learned many of his songs and piano pieces. Touring his home in Bergen and traveling up the fjords into the stunning mountains made me feel a connection to his music and to the incredibly beautiful land of Norway. I couldn't resist using quotations from his music as I wrote my take on the "Three Billy Goats Gruff." Along with my talented artistic daughter Katelyn, we created some wonderful visual aids and worksheets to help the elementary school teacher use this 15 minute mini musical in her classroom. So excited that it will be performed this fall in Dallas Texas! These First and Second graders gave a darling premiere performance of "The Ants and the Grasshopper." They donned their little costumes and used their props, sang their songs, danced their dances, and delivered their lines before an appreciative audience of family and friends. Because this was an "in class" recital, we asked the audience to imagine the backgrounds and sets (particularly the Ant Hill that was just a screen). The children did not have to worry about problems that come with using a stage - lights, sound, microphones, or curtains. They just performed to their best abilities. They stole the hearts of their audience. In the end, the Grasshopper recommended to the audience that he had learned his lesson. Instead of always loafing and singing and dancing during the summer, he was going to make time to store up food for the winter. He learned that it truly is better to "Pay now and play later." The Finale song was catchy enough that the whole audience joined in singing the reprise. What a fun show! Kudos to the Kids!
Introducing the newest Mini-Musical from Bailey Kids Musicals. "The Ants and the Grasshopper" now available. This little musical came about in a burst of inspiration brought on by some desperation. One of the Theater Skills classes I began teaching this Fall had eight First and Second Graders - 7 girls and 1 boy. I was planning to just let them learn skills by working with Acting Games, short skits and songs, but it soon became clear that they needed a story that would catch their fancy in oder to develop acting skills. I quickly searched through many materials and decided that I just needed to write them a show. Obviously, I needed to tailor the parts to the personalities I had. The boy had a great voice and could move. It made sense to cast him as the Grasshopper and give him some "Gene Kelly savoir-fare." The girls needed clearly defined traits in order to bring their characters to life. So, I gave each Ant one main emotional character trait such as "Effie, Miss Efficiency," and "Winnie, the Whiner." When working with 6-7 year olds just one hour per week, there are certain things you just plan for. They will not remember directions from week to week, so you drill, drill, drill all of the LINES and BLOCKING. They tend to be shy and speak with small voices. So, you drill, drill, drill about PROJECTING the voice. They like COSTUMES, so you'd better have them! Costumes really help both the children and the audience imagine the characters and bring them to life. CATCHY SONGS are very important to a children's show. The songs are the loudest, brightest, and most unified part of the production. Better make them the best they can be. The songs must carry the setting, emotions, and message of the tale. The audience should be able to go out singing the songs with the kids on the way home. (That's when you know you've done your job as a author and director.) The message of "The Ants and the Grasshopper' is taken from a quote by John Maxwell. He said, "Play now and pay later, or pay now and play later. Either way you'll have to pay." Works perfectly for this wonderful Aesop Fable. Here it is in the Finale song. When choosing a piece for a class to perform, there are basically three options to choose from -- full production with costumes, props and scenery, etc.; Reader's Theater with no costumes, props, or even blocking; or Workshop with limited costumes props and suggestions of scenery as necessary. Depending upon the time constraints, your choice may be simple to make. In my case, the Workshop scenario was the best, and probably ONLY option. I have been working with a group of eight 3rd to 6th graders in an after-school Drama Club "Theater Skills" class. These students have all been in shows before and desperately wanted the class to culminate in a performance before an audience. The problem is that they have very few rehearsals to pull it all together. So, I picked a little 10-minute mini-musical for them which would challenge their acting skills, but would be short enough that they could memorize lines and movement and songs and blocking within their very limited time constraints. The students will also be responsible for their own costumes, except for mouse ears and tails that I will supply. They have just a few more class periods to work. Hope they can learn quickly and work well together. They story was already well-known to them, "The Tale of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse." However, their challenge is to bring it to life with new characters and situations and to master speaking in a "Country" dialect. They are actually having fun experimenting with interpreting the lines with a drawl or a twang. My job is to allow them some free experimentation, gently guiding them to speak with just enough character, while maintaining clear enunciation for the audience's sake. Another aspect of this Workshop presentation is to perform the piece without props or scenery. In fact, they will be performing on just the front risers of the stage. They will be the "warm-up" act for the main production (which incidentally will have the scenery set up already for their show on the stage). Their task is to interpret the story complete with songs and movement on the front risers through their excellent acting abilities. They think they are up to the challenge. They are raring to go. I wish them luck! Have you ever had that realization that what you had planned for your students just wasn't enough? Well, I went into the project of teaching two After School Drama Club classes with lots of ideas about what to do for the different age groups. And then that went out the window when I met the children for the first time. I have two classes. The first is for 1st and 2nd graders. The second is for 3-6th graders. I did not choose the age ranges. The older group are great. Turns out that I knew all of them and they are seasoned performers. We will do many things that will be fun and exciting. The younger group, however, I did not know. There seven girls and one boy in that group. After working two times with them, it became clear that they needed a story to motivate them to learn acting skills. So, I bit the bullet and wrote them a little show. The script came along quickly. I decided to retell the Aesop Fable "The Ants and the Grasshopper." I needed the characters to have equal line loads and a few songs they all could sing together. It made sense to have our boy be the Grasshopper since he is twice the size of any of the little girls. Besides he has a good singing voice and loves to move. So, after a couple of days of writing now, I am to the point of polishing up the three songs. "The Ants Working Song," "Summer Loafing'" (for the Grasshopper), and the Finale "Pay Now and Play Later." I decided to use the John Maxwell quote as the MORAL of the tale: "You can pay now and play later OR you can play now and pay later. Either way you have to pay." Since this is a Theater Skills class, I thought we could do an in-class Recital for the parents. Out in the hall of the school yesterday, I found a large flat card board box. I asked the custodian to snag it for me so that I can use it to create an Ant Hill set for this little show. The costumes will be very simple. I have some black T-shirts and knit pants for the girls to be "ants." I will make "feelers" with black pipe cleaners attached to little headbands. I have a green T-shirt for the Grasshopper and a green fedora hat to which I will attach green pipe-cleaner "feelers." He will also have a Ukulele. I will make a tiny golden crown for the Ant Queen and possibly let her have a cute royal cape. Should be fun! P.S. Been thinking about how the class can perform this show as a Workshop production but put it on a Main Stage. Went to a thrift store Saturday and found a foldable screen that I think will help me tell this tale without much scenery at all, with just suggestions of props, and hints of costumes. Hope it will work! So, the two shows for the Elementary School were performed last Friday evening. We did not know exactly what to expect in terms of audience or back-stage help or even if the lights and sound would function. Turns out that many parents volunteered unexpectedly at the last moment to help dress the actors in their costumes before the shows. Fortunately I had some trained helpers that could guide those parent helpers in just how to help. The janitor had set up 100+ chairs and we figured some of the smaller children could sit on the floor close to the stage. Word must have gotten out, though, because people kept coming and coming. We had to keep scrounging for more and more chairs. Some teachers graciously opened their classrooms and organized volunteers to transport more chairs for the audience. I was impressed by their swift thinking and the volunteering spirit of the parents. They simply stepped in and set up the chairs and afterwards made sure they were quickly put back in their original places. Many hands made light work. They even helped strike the set and pack up the costumes and props while I managed striking the sound equipment. These two shows could be easily paired because they could use the same set.
The first show, "The Musicians of Bremen," was the one I was most worried about. (Note to self, make sure to ALWAYS schedule a dress rehearsal closer to the actual performance, NO MATTER WHAT.) This little cast did not get the benefit of a dress rehearsal the day before the performance, and it showed. The children's timing was a little off because it had just been too many days since they had run their show. But the parts they remembered looked good and they had an appreciative audience. The second show was "The Tale of Chicken Licken." These 2nd graders had had the benefit of rehearsing almost daily for many weeks. The children knew their lines and songs and dances very well. In fact, they knew each others' parts cold and could have easily switched parts or filled in for missing actors. We almost had to do that because a few of the actors had been sick during the week. But they came through like real troupers and the SHOW WENT ON! I was very pleased with the efforts of all of these students. Most of them had never been in a production of any kind ever before. More importantly, they got the real essence of the effort and that was to take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for making this show the best it could be. And I hope they build on that idea of taking personal responsibility in the other parts of their lives from this point on. If there is a universal truth in doing Children's Theater, it is that Directors must be ready at all times to be FLEXIBLE. You never know the make up and abilities of a cast until the children show up. And even then, you do not know if these young children will grow and demonstrate untapped talents or retreat into stage fright. Often, you must choose a piece to perform before you see the children. This play must do the job of advertising and enticing the children (or parents) to want to sign up. And yet, you cannot be certain if you will have the actors with the right qualities to mount the production. You cannot know even the ratio of boys to girls that will ultimately be involved. So, your best course is to find a piece with parts that can be played by either boys or girls, with or with out much developed talent. Being FLEXIBLE is key! My latest project has been an after-school Theater Skills Club at a local Elementary School. This class was a new option offered to kids who usually stay after school because they need a place to stay until their parents come home from work. This school offers many classes for the children to choose from including cooking, art, music lessons on violin or piano, recreational sports, building with Legos, or help with homework. Adding a Drama Class was new to the rotation. So, we did not know how many children to expect. I was told only that there could be between 10-20 1st-4th graders signing up. I also needed to pick a play that could be FLEXIBLE enough to work for a group of that size and be mounted in just 10 hours of rehearsal time (including a performance) over the space of 10 weeks. Obviously, I needed a small show since I would need to teach other rudimentary skills to these few children. I decided to try out one of my new Mini-Musicals. I chose "The Tale of the Musicians of Bremen" because it could be done with a FLEXIBLE cast. That turned out to be a good decision because we ended up with just 3 boys and 8 girls. Having three boys was just enough to cast the Farmer, the Rooster, and one of the Robbers who were definitely Male characters. The other characters could be either gender. Most of these children are very young with no experience in acting, singing or dancing. So, everything was new for them. They have been working hard and will be performing their show in a couple of weeks. The biggest problem has been that they could only practice once a week, so they have had six days to forget all they worked on in the last rehearsal. Excitement is mounting, though. We have tried on the costumes and will soon get to work on the stage with the sets and props and lights and mics. I just hope that they can remember all of their parts without prompting when the performance comes! This little Mini-Musical will be presented as just the first part of an evening of Musical Theater. Twenty-six of the 2nd Graders in the school have been working on a production of their own. They are doing "The Tale of Chicken Licken." Together, these two shows should add up to a fun hour of entertainment for the children's parents and friends. This was another good choice for me, since I could use the same set for both shows. Score another big one for FLEXIBILITY! |
AuthorMy name is Betsy Bailey. I have sung, written and taught music all of my life. I enjoy writing and directing Children's Theater shows. This blog will be directed to topics on creating the magic of Children's Theater. I would love to hear your comments! Archives
May 2024
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