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Fancy Valentine's Day Dinner and Dance

2/20/2020

For several years now, my daughter's family has been hosting a fancy Valentine's Dinner. It has been a time to set the table with elegant place settings, eat dinner in several courses, and practice "best table manners." Occasionally, they have invited guests to dine with them, but not always. There are already eight children in this family. This year's menu included French delicacies deftly made by mom Kathryn and oldest daughter Makayla. A delectable time was enjoyed by all.
And the desserts are usually the very best part of the evening!

But, perhaps the most fun activity this year was the dance party in the basement. After dinner, they all went down to the playroom where the toys had been pushed up against the walls or cleared away. They were instructed to form two lines. Kathryn had been planning this secretly for weeks. She wanted her family to learn a dance, but didn't know what to do because she knew she had far more girls than boys. Her sister Carolyn suggested teaching the Virginia Reel because everybody just dances with everybody.

So, as they were learning "forward and back," bow to your partner," "do si do," and "swing your partner," 5-year-old youngest son Thomas said, "I know this dance. We learned it in Music Class." From then on, Thomas led the way and they all had fun dancing the Virginia Reel. A perfect ending to their fancy Valentine's Day Dinner.

The Virginia Reel folk dance is easy to teach and learn. The Country Mice dance it in "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse" musical. What a fun activity for beginning dancers.

Love Songs and Show Tunes

2/11/2020

Last night I went with members of my family to entertain the residents at a group home for the elderly. Our aunt works there and asks us to come several times a year as a favor to her. Since this week is Valentine's Day, we decided to sing a program of Love Songs and Show Tunes.

Choosing the songs was a group effort. We decided that collectively, we as a family of singers, know many, many songs. Because of that fact, we realized that we were not the best judge of which songs would be considered "common knowledge" and would work well in a sing-along. We needed songs that the residents would remember and have a connection to.

We decided to choose songs that would have been popular or at least written in the 1950's and early 1960's when these elderly people would have been young adults. We started looking through collections of popular songs during those years. The love songs we gravitated towards turned out to be mostly show tunes from Broadway Musicals that had been made into movies like Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma," and "State Fair." We also opted for pop songs made famous by entertainers such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. And, we included a few perennial favorites that were just plain fun to sing like "A" You're Adorable," "You Are My Sunshine," and "Let Me Call You Sweetheart."

As the piano player, my job was to figure out SINGABLE KEYS so that most people could join in comfortably. As a singing family, we don't really care what key the melody range falls into because we can all sing harmony. But, most people just sing the MELODY. (What a strange concept!)

I am always astonished that so many songs published in these Song Collections are written in UN-SINGABLE KEYS and have really uninspiring piano accompaniments! The pianists out there must appreciate playing in the keys of C, D, G, B flat or F with few sharps or flats, but really? What may be easier for the pianist can be so uncomfortable for the singers. The TESSITURA of these songs lays just too high or too low for a normal singer. Since I was in no mood to have to transpose the entire program of songs, I made the final cuts. I culled 10 songs from our longer list, using those that had the most moderate ranges, then transposed a few of the simpler ones into better keys.

Another astonishing aspect of the evening was comparing the melody as written in the "published" version to the melody sung according to the group's collective memory. Sometimes a melody polished "by committee" is much better. It was a revelation!

Our evening of Love Songs and Show Tunes went very well. The residents seemed to enjoy singing with us some of the love songs they remembered from their youth.

Being a Team Player

2/10/2020

Night Patrol martial arts routine from "A Successor to the Throne"

Being an author, composer and director of a Children's Musical automatically sets you up for looking like a control freak. And it is easy to get into that mind-set of wanting to put your vision and JUST your vision into play. However, if you are wise, you will welcome other helpers and be open to their contributions. You need to be aware, though, that those helpers will come with their own ways of doing things that may be very different from what you envisioned.

Choreography for Dancers in "Never Cry Wolf"

While there is a recognized and respected hierarchy of jobs in the Theater, sometimes small community or school groups have to do their best with whatever they get. The Director oversees choosing the show, recruiting helpers, auditioning, casting, and overseeing all decisions related to what happens onstage and even backstage. The Producer sees that the needs of the Director are met -- finds the performance venue, rehearsal venues, oversees budgets, resources, and manages financial and personnel matters. Musical Director - teaches songs, may accompany the show or direct a group of musicians, or manage recorded tracks. The Choreographer plans The choreography and teaches dances, may oversee some Dance Captains. The Costumer oversees all aspects of costuming from designing to making, fitting and repairing costumes, also manages sewing committee. Stage Manager is responsible for planning movement of scenery, pulling drapes, lighting, stage crew, and entrances and exits of actors. Other helpers may include Scenic Designer, Lighting Designer, Sound Engineer, Hair and Make-Up Designers and crews of folks who work for these people. In Children's Theater, it is helpful to have Group Leaders assigned to 5-6 children to help them manage their costumes and changes, learn their lines and dances, and otherwise help them be where they are supposed to be, doing what they are supposed to do.

Most small Children's Theater shows are produced by a few people doing all of these jobs. The larger the cast, the more difficult the work loads of these few people. My advice is to either limit the size of the cast or recruit more helpers!,

Actors against cute set from "The Adventures of Dick Whittington"

Over the years, I have learned to be accommodating of other "ideas" as I have learned to work with the helpers who came and volunteered for combat duty. Sometimes, these helpers took my little ideas and developed them in beautiful and exciting ways. (I was humbled, astonished and overwhelmed by the amazing results!) Sometimes, our ideas were polar opposites, but we figured out compromises that ultimately worked. In any case, the focus should be on the kids and what they should get out of their experience in a Children's Theater show. All adult ego's should be checked at the door. We need to be TEAM PLAYERS!

Being Aware of the Ensemble

1/27/2020

Waiting backstage for entrance

Everybody appreciates getting validation for their hard work. At the end of a production, I enjoy reading thank you notes and emails. A simple sincere note carries a lot of weight for me. The following are examples of thank you notes that let me know that my efforts at writing Musical Theater Shows for Children have accomplished one goal in particular. That goal was to disguise the fact of an obvious STAR, or a role that the entire show revolves around. I intended to create many featured roles and create an ensemble of supporting characters that was busy throughout the entire show. I needed the vehicles to showcase the emerging talents of many kids, sometimes 50+. How wonderful that this was apparent to many in the audiences.

Same kids, same show, different characters.

"I loved that each child had their moment to shine...there wasn't one obvious star. They were really singing, instead of karaoke to a prerecorded audio. And it taught a great moral."

"I enjoyed this show because so many different children got featured parts. It was so professional!"

"We heard about the recent musical at our children's school. Our children had not been cast, so we did not see it. But we heard that it had a very small cast because the script did not have enough parts. We really appreciate how your shows are so right for kids this age. There are meaningful parts for so many kids and everyone is busy for the entire show. No one can tell if there is a main starring role because there are so many featured parts. Our family loves being part of such wonderful productions!"

When I was in High School, the Drama and Music Departments presented "My Fair Lady." The music in that show is fantastic! I actually enjoyed bantering daily with my Biology teacher who loved that show and knew that I was in the cast. He couldn't resist quoting the songs during class. He wasn't much of a singer (but then, neither was Rex Harrison), so he felt perfectly at ease "singing" his version of "I'm an Ordinary Man" in class. (I digress, let me get back on track.) This show is great --- except for one thing: It really is a cast for a few LEAD characters. The Ensemble (those singer/dancer/actors in lesser roles) really only appears for a few numbers during that extremely LONG show. Most of the time, we played card games and ate snacks back stage. It was a test of endurance for us --- for staying engaged because we were SO BORED! All in all, "My Fair Lady" was not a good choice for our High School. It would have been nice to be in a show that gave everybody more to do.

This was a pivotal moment in my education. I vowed if I ever was in a position to choose a show for my school, I would be aware of what the cast at large would be doing for the duration. I vowed to choose vehicles that kept everyone engaged and busy throughout.

Come to find out, during my years of working in Children's Theater companies and teaching school, I found very few vehicles that fit the bill that also fit my non-existent budget. That's when I started writing shows. It is gratifying to know that my efforts have been appreciated.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The photos above are from the Summer Theater Camp production of The Adventures of Dick Whittington. These children played many characters including Village Children and the sneaky Mice and the marvelous Cat.

Voice Actors' Characterizations

1/7/2020

The other night I did something very silly. Instead of allowing myself to fall asleep to the audio book I was listening to, I stayed up until 3:00 am actively listening until it was finished. I knew the story from watching different movie versions, so I thought I knew when to expect the ending. Little did I know just how verbose this 19th century author really was.

What fascinated me and kept me awake though, was not really the story as much as it was the changes in the voice actor's characterizations. Her characters began changing from how she first interpreted them. One female character in particular developed from a very haughty, highbrow, "full of self-importance" sort of woman, to pick up a completely different, coarse accent from a lower strata of English society. I don't pretend to be an expert on British accents, but I have watched enough BBC mini series to acquire an opinion.

In all fairness, this voice actor was phenomenal in her ability to create so many different characters and keep them straight for such a sustained project. Her characterizations worked well through the majority of the book. They didn't show big changes until towards the last few chapters. I kept wondering if she had some inspiration that made her change the tone and inflection and accent of her characters? Or was she just plain tired of the project? Didn't her sound engineer give her feedback? Or did the dialogue suddenly resemble a character from a different book that she just fell into the traits of that character by accident --- unknowingly?

Personally, I think the character's dialogue just started sounding like another character from a different book. (It sounded familiar that way to me!) Sometimes authors run out of inspiration and "borrow" snippets from here or there, even from their own previous work. So, the fault of the change in interpretation was probably not all on the shoulders of the Voice Actor. She may not even be aware that she had strayed so much.

In directing Children's Theater, I encourage children to experiment with voice inflections, modulations, dialects, and other ways to create a character. It is difficult for them to develop sufficiently to sustain an entire show using unique voice acting characteristics. But we try for consistency.

For those of you who read stories to the grandkids and try to act out the different characters using different "voices," good for you. I promise that I won't come to your house to listen and criticize.

Annual Family Christmas Nativity Pageant

12/26/2019

Iris and Camilla preparing for their roles as Mary and Baby Jesus

Over the years, our family has had a tradition of gathering together on Christmas Eve and reenacting the Nativity complete with costumes for everyone. No one is exempt from joining in -- including guests who happen to just find themselves there visiting. The adults are usually the Narrators, Shepherds, Angel chorus, and the Wise Men. The youngest children are the sheep and donkey, the Angel/Star (holder) and of course, Mary and Joseph. Sometimes we have a newborn to play the role of the Baby Jesus. This was one of those years. Baby Camilla was born just a few days before Christmas, so she got the job, without even an audition! We knew she could tackle the role and do it perfectly.

Alas, one of the other actors was not so prepared for her assignment. Our little sheep, 2 year old Avery, did not agree that her role should require wearing a costume. And she much preferred doing her own interpretive dance to the Christmas carols, instead of silently and sedately "lowing in the field."

Five year olds Zak and Iris and 7 year old Ethan, however, took their roles as the donkey and Mary and Joseph very seriously. They stayed in character the entire time. And Iris was a beautiful Mary and insisted (with the ever watchful care of the actual mother) on holding the baby Jesus throughout the songs and narrations. And our Angel/Star (holder) Isabelle (age 8) was perfectly cast to lend sparkle to the production.

We even had a few surprise Oscar-worthy performances. The Wise Men this year were played by Great Uncle David, Uncle Michael and cousin Grace. They sang their verses of "We Three Kings" with style and expertise.

And Special Guest artist Great Uncle Steve gave a polished performance as the Roman Prefect who announced that "all the world should be taxed." All of the older adults (family and guests) read the Narrations and joined in the singing. They kept in character and also gave stellar performances.

This has become quite a tradition in our family. In the olden days, Great Grandpa Tom would read from the Bible and Book of Mormon and any combination of his children and grandchildren would act out the roles. As the family grew bigger and older, the different families continued to carry on the tradition in their smaller groups in their own homes. This year, because our child actors were so young, I decided to write an actual Christmas Nativity Script (a much abridged script) including the words to the songs, with enough copies for everyone to have one to hold.

A wonderful time was had by all and we enjoyed feeling the Spirit of Christmas and celebrating the birth and mission of the Savior of the World together this Christmas 2019.

Audience Vantage Point

12/16/2019

Last Saturday I was invited to what I thought was a 5 year old's Ballet Class Showcase. Turns out that it was a combined Tumbling and Creative Dance showcase. At any rate, I was dismayed at some of the problems that occurred. First off, the building was quite new and beautifully appointed with several large studios, changing rooms, a play area for little siblings, rest rooms, kitchen, offices, large foyer, and ample parking. They even had tubs of costume leotards and tutus in Christmas colors for the little dancers and tumblers to wear for the class showcases. Clearly, this studio was invested in training young people for performances. However, when I walked in to join my daughter's family, I became acutely aware that where we were sitting would afford us absolutely no hope of seeing ANY of my granddaughter's or any of the other children's performances.

Problem No. 1 - The audience chairs were arranged 10 rows deep on the floor of the studio.

Problem No. 2 - The tumbling mat (and dance space) was not six feet from the first row.

Problem No. 3 - These little pre-school tumblers and dancers were no taller than the chairs and much of the time they would be performing on the mat at floor level.

Didn't the Teachers and Staff people see that these would be big RED FLAGS? Surely, they had done shows there before!

Anyway, the performance got underway, and the audience tried the best they could to adjust so they could see, but even standing up in the back offered no solution. Most of us watched the performance through the grace of the 12 raised iPhones held up by arms of the people on the 2nd row.

After the 1/2 hour showcase, I found myself seeking out the director of the studio and making a suggestion. I introduced myself by saying that I had done a lot of professional Children's Theater. I then told her that if she had arranged the chairs in two rows around the perimeter of the studio floor and had the children tumble and dance in the center, the audience members would have all been able to enjoy the performance. Then we left.

Our little dancer's socks had been dropped on the way out of the studio, so my son-in-law dashed back in to retrieve them. When he found us, he said that there were people madly rearranging the chairs in the studio. Well, I am glad that they took the suggestion and I am glad that our group was the first of many Class Showcases that day. Hopefully the follow-on audiences got a much better vantage point!

'Tis the Season...for Christmas...Concerts

12/8/2019

Being a mother and grandmother can be a full-time job at Christmas --- just trying to keep up with attending all of the the school band concerts, Church Choir programs, and even ballet class demonstrations. And that's not counting my own performances. So, I have been to my daughter's school band, chorus and orchestra concert (she was the teacher and I did some accompanying). I took my granddaughter to a semi professional orchestra concert. I went to the BYU Celebration of Christmas (choirs and Philharmonic orchestra), 2 Church choir Christmas presentations, and this week I will go to more school band and choir concerts, plus the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. I love to get to attend such varied concerts and to support my favorite people.

But a funny thing happened today when I visited my daughter's Church Choir presentation. I wanted to go see my daughter sing and play horn in a woodwind quintet. The drive up to Salt Lake City was scary through rain, slush and snow. I was needing time to decompress once I arrived. The choir was still in rehearsal, and I got the benefit of hearing their music more than once today. The pianist was having a difficult time negotiating the page turns for the last song. I saw him struggling and blurted out, "Do you need a page turner?" He looked surprised, but gladly accepted my offer.

The performance went very well. How many small congregations can boast that they have accomplished musicians who can play "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" by J.S. Bach as a woodwind quintet? And then sing a 4-part motet in Latin a cappella as well as other varied and interesting choral pieces. The song I turned pages for was an upbeat and challenging rendition of "The Sussex Carol." My daughter also sang a lovely obligato on one of the songs. (Proud mom moment)

Anyway, back to the funny part. The week before in rehearsal, the pianist had mentioned that he needed a page turner for the last number. My daughter said, "My mom will be here. She can do it." The pianist said that he didn't feel right asking a guest to turn pages. "Oh, she'll just volunteer anyway."

Did my daughter peg me or what? It happened just as she predicted. Mom's are like that, I guess. They want to make sure their favorite people get the support they need. Besides, musicians feel best when they are involved in the music. I love this season of concert-going --- especially when I can get in on the fun!

Resourcefulness

12/3/2019

My neighbors have a son about the same age as my youngest son. He has been a good friend to my boy from their High School years on. Now they are grown-ups. He doesn't visit his folks very often these days because his work is far away, but when he is here, he keeps himself very busy. For example, he was home for the Thanksgiving holiday working on rebuilding his truck transmission. I was visiting with them the other day and was curious about what he was making. It looked like knitting. When I looked closer, he WAS knitting. He told me that he needed a headband of a certain width and color and weight. So he decided to just make it. He did not have knitting needles, though, that would make the stitches as tight as he envisioned. So he took some tent stakes, ground the ends to points, and started his project. What a resourceful guy!

When working in Children's Theater, RESOURCEFULNESS is one trait you really need. Either you do not have funds to cover costs the way you would like, or the venue you have for performance is awkward in many respects, or you don't have exactly the talent pool you need for the show ... there is always something that is challenging. So, the best thing is to be flexible and very resourceful. Take stock of what you've already got and think creatively. It is amazing how you can adapt props and sets and costumes you already have for a new purpose. And if you think about it long enough, you can usually come up with solutions to how to use the performance space adequately. And so what if you don't have the talent pool, the dream cast, you expected? This gives someone else a chance for a better part and an opportunity for growth.

All of the shows I have ever been part of had limited budgets. We scrounged around for fabric, old paint, furniture parts, old shoes, cast off craft materials, and anything donated that might possibly be turned into something for the show. We used a lot of found objects such as tree branches and cardboard boxes for props and set pieces. The funds we did have needed to be budgeted for the things we actually had to buy. Those things were precious. You just have to pick your battles and allocate your funds to cover costs for the most important things and be creative for the rest.

You may not need to grind down the points of tent stakes to make the knitting needles to knit your costumes, but you may have some other seemingly insurmountable problems. Remember, with creative thought and some elbow grease, you can be RESOURCEFUL and come up with a solution!

Matching Pitches

11/16/2019

My daughter invited me to come hear her children perform in their ward's Primary Presentation. I am always happy to attend performances of my grandchildren. She especially wanted my opinion on a new song the children had learned. For the most part, the 50+ children sang very well. But I learned what my daughter had observed from an earlier rehearsal. When they sang this new song, it was obvious that most of the pitches were much too low for the majority of the children's light, high voices. Where on the other songs, the pitches of the melody had a consensus of matching, in this new song, suddenly all we heard was a monotone croaking.

Sure, there will be adults and some older children who are more comfortable singing in a low alto range. But it is really unfair to insist that young children try to sing out of their natural singing range. Besides that --- and how many times must I rant from my soap box? --- unless children exercise singing in their light, high voices, THEY WON'T LEARN TO MATCH PITCHES very well!

Do you (as a song leader who is responsible for teaching young children) want to have that reality hang over your head? Just because you get some flack from some of the teachers and other adults complaining that the music in Primary is just too high, should you cave? No! A thousand times NO!!!!!

Little children (4-9) need to utilize their "head voice" apparatus. When the vocalization happens in their head and not in their throat or chest, the vibrations activate recognition between their ears and their brains. They learn to MATCH PITCHES. Most music educators agree that a child's first singing range is about 1 octave between Middle C and Treble C with a possible whole step beyond in either direction.

Unfortunately, too many children miss out on this learning opportunity. They don't get it at home. And rarely do they have singing instruction at school anymore. So, if they enjoy singing, where do they get their examples? All they do is listen and sing along with adult performers on the television or radio. That can be very confusing. Some men have extremely high or very low voices that are completely out of the child's pitch matching capabilities. And many professional women have low voices or sing in a very expansive range. It is not unusual for a professional female vocalist to sing from low F (5th below Middle C) to high G (5th above Treble C) or higher. That is a span of more than 3 octaves!

Buck the trend! Be the teacher that helps kids learn to MATCH PITCHES!!!