The Suspension of Disbelief is an operating principle for all acting and understanding of theater or any work of fiction.  When we present a Children's Musical, we expect the child actors to be able to pretend to be someone or something else for a while and we expect that the audience can believe in what they are presenting.

          Most young children are able to separate the literal from what is pretend.  But some cannot.  Be careful in directing young actors and be mindful that some children have trouble understanding directions in "make-believe."  You may have to do preparatory exercises to help them learn the difference between real and make-believe.  Using costumes and props are important tools to help them separate the times when they are acting from the times when they are not.

          When young children learn to use their imaginations and suspend their disbelief, their enjoyment of stories can be so profound.  Fictional stories can be useful to help them learn lessons for the real world.  Trouble and strife and untold bad things can be experienced in "make-believe" without all the real-life consequences.  What a wonderful gift to be able to learn through thought-provoking stories just by suspending our disbelief for a little while.

          Throughout the Children's Theater world, funny stories become legendary.  Spectacular scenic disasters, flubs of lines that resulted in skipping entire scenes, costume malfunctions, technical difficulties, and so on.  Everyone seems to have their favorites that get told and retold with greater and greater embellishment.  I thought that it might be fun to share some of my own spectacular disasters.

          We were doing a musical in Salinas, California, with a wonderful Children's Theater Company Ariel Theatrical.  This was a two week run in the largest theater in town with seating for several thousand.  Children were bussed in from schools around the county to see the shows as a cultural enrichment opportunity.  We did up to three shows a day for thousands of school children and had a couple of evening performances for the public.  I was the vocal coach and second keyboard player on this production, but also had a small cameo role as the dying mother.  My part was actually shown in film flashbacks with live vocals sung off stage so that I could help play the accompaniment.  Everything went fine one performance until the curtain call when I was supposed to go out on stage for the bows.  There I was in my nightgown and makeup ready to go out, but caught my sleeve on something which dropped something else onto a button on my keyboard that started the very loud demo Rock music.  Not the right music for the moment!  We were so startled and alarmed that we had trouble figuring out what had happened and how to stop it.  I think I finally pulled the plug on the keyboard and tried to regain my dignity enough to walk out on the stage for the bows.  The kids in the cast had a field day with that spectacular disaster!  They would not let me live it down!

          My daughter was directing a little theatrical production on the patio in our backyard.  This was the first time we had tried doing a show at our new house in our new neighborhood.  We had recently moved from Maryland, a very wet and humid place, to the dry, high desert of Utah.  Therefore, we had no fears about weather issues.  We had hung sheets for the "sky" backdrops and set cardboard cutouts to represent mountains in the distance.  Just as the show was starting, the sky darkened and the winds came up.  The drapes began catching the wind as if they were great sails of a ship.  They were knocking over the cardboard mountains.  Quickly, the other backstage moms and I went into action.  We stood on the bottoms of the drapes with our legs spread eagle to keep them from becoming kites and reached through the curtains to grab and stabilize the "mountains."  That was the longest 45 minutes of our lives!  But, thankfully, we averted having a total spectacular disaster!  I can just imagine the comical picture we created had anyone been watching what was going on behind the scenes that evening!
          In live theater, we come to expect the unexpected and learn to deal with whatever comes along.  After awhile we can think back fondly on these embarrassments and be happy that we have some good stories to tell. 
As we say in the theater -- THE SHOW MUST GO ON -- despite the occurrence of occasional spectacular disasters!  Remember, a spectacular disaster is great fodder for a FUNNY STORY later on.

          As a part of our jobs, we as adults often attend inservice training workshops.  We learn all sort of things from best practices in our areas of expertise to how to use the copy machine or where the first aid kit is located in the office.  Sometimes the trainer will set up trust exercises to help build teamwork.  Learning to COOPERATE as a team is as important in small companies as well as in the larger corporate world.

          Working with children to get them to learn how to cooperate and work together can be quite a challenge.  Young children can be impulsive and self centered.  They need to have experiences to help them look beyond themselves to the needs of others.  There are many ways to help children learn to cooperate -- team sports, group projects at school, chores around the house -- and of course, CHILDREN'S THEATER.

          Doing plays and musicals that are engaging and fun can be a wonderful way for children to learn to do their part and work as a team and understand that people are counting on them.  They can learn that when each person says their line, or sings their part, or dances in their place on the stage they are COOPERATING to create a wonderful performance.  Their efforts can delight the audience and bring the satisfaction of a job well done.

          The story of Stone Soup is all about COOPERATION.  When the traveler comes through the town, the villagers at first refuse to offer him a meal.  He goes from house to house getting the same reaction: "Oh, go away! We don't have enough for ourselves. Why would we share with a complete stranger."  But then he comes up with an idea that helps the villagers understand that if they pool their resources they can all be better off. 
And as it says in the song:

                            "Working together helps one and all.
                     It can make the hardest job seem quite small.
                               Cooperation is the key,
                              The key to getting things done."

          

          Blocking children in a scene and making the business look natural can be about as easy as herding cats!  

          First problem: The little dears get distracted very easily and don't remember their positions. Second problem: They try to line up in straight lines (which never occur naturally) and when they realize the line is crooked, they spend the rest of the scene telling each other where to stand to straighten up the line.

          A very wise director used to say that the best way to BLOCK for Children's Theater is to group the young children into "friends" or into lots of little groups of two or three each.  That way they can work together in remembering where they should stand.  Besides, small groups on stage look more natural.  Straight lines never happen in real life.  Just go out and watch random crowds standing about.  They stand there in small groups of twos and threes.

          When planting a flower bed, the most natural and elegant design plan is to plant like plants in groups of odd numbers, such as 3, 5, or 7.  Well, 5 can be broken down into a group of 2 plus a group of 3.  And 7 can be divided into two groups of 2 plus one group of 3.  I always try to plan the blocking for large groups of children on the stage to follow this design plan.  Just like planting a flower bed, I will assign actors into groups taking into consideration their heights, their lines, actions, costumes, and access to microphones.  Obviously, I try to put the smallest children where they can be seen, but I don't want to block the taller children by always relegating them to the back row either.  I always try to create movement in the scene or dance that will allow for flow to let more of the actors to be seen.

          In Children's Theater we teach skills by playing acting games.  Some of these exercises are designed to get the children to feel comfortable working on the stage and understanding how to create a good stage picture for the audience.  Then when it comes time for blocking, the director won't feel like she is trying to herd cats!

ACTING EXERCISE:  Have the children spread themselves out across the stage so that there is plenty of space between them.  Then explain that they are going to create a stage picture. Play some music for a few measures and have the children move around the stage with great abandon expressing the mood of the music.  When the music ends, they should freeze and pose themselves creating a good STAGE PICTURE.  The people in the front should make themselves lower (crouch, sit, kneel, hands down). The people in the middle adjust so that they do not block shorter people behind them but remain taller than the people in front of them.  And the people in back pose with arms stretched high, stand on tippy toes, or climb onto a stage block to become as tall as possible.  Repeat several times using a variety of styes of music.  ADDED CHALLENGE: Have the children always stay as close to their assigned "friends" as possible.

          One day my little kindergartener son brought home a book from the school library.  He insisted that I read it to him that night.  It was called Momotaro, a Japanese Folk Tale.  In the story, demons were continually coming to steal the food and trample the fields of the poor villagers.  An old woman prays to have a son to raise who could become the hero to the village.  The River Spirit brings her a son in a peach and she presents him to her husband who later trains him in the martial arts.  The grown-up Momotaro goes off on a quest to fight the Oni monsters.  He is joined along the way by a monkey, a dog and a pheasant who help him in their fashion.  They fight the Oni monsters and return victorious.
          As we were reading the story, I realized that 5 year old boys can readily identify with superheroes.  Momotaro - A Tale of Bravery is really the tale of a Japanese Tom Thumb/Superman/Jackie Chan combined in one.  A pretty potent combination.  So, of course, I had to write a children's Musical for my youngest actors using this unique and interesting folk tale.
          First of all, I needed to fill out the population of the story and decide on how to stage it.  Japanese Kibuki Theater techniques are time honored and fairly easy to stage since they are so stylized.  I decided to employ a few simple Kibuki staging techniques such as a fabric river, character masks, and dancers interpreting a movable forest.  Since I knew that I would have many more girls than boys in my cast, I had to create some memorable female characters.  So, what do little girls like more than playing with baby dolls and dancing anyway?
          Amazingly, this script and score came together very fast.  The music is based on the pentatonic scale and Asian instrumental sounds, but constructed with American Musical Theater sensibilities.  We created a large Dragon Castle set, had the cast members create their own fantasy character masks, use dance props such as Chinese ribbon wands and tree branches, and we were set for our performance.
          I have always been surprised that this little-known story was so well accepted by an American audience.  The children, especially the boys, loved learning the Martial Arts slow-motion fight scene.  The girls loved singing and dancing by the rippling fabric river with their baby dolls.  They all got to sport their own creative character masks at one point or another in the show.  And they learned a bit about another culture's most famous folk-tale.  So, if you need an interesting show for your school or Children's Theater group, try Momotaro - A Tale of Bravery.
         There will always be a special place in my heart for little 5-year-old Superheroes!

         When I think of all the little theatrical productions I have done in my life, most have been done on less than a shoestring budget.  All the scavenged cardboard, "oops" paint from Home Depot, bargain sheets from the thrift store, cast off's from the neighbors have been strategically stretched to make the show go on.  It takes some real creativity to take odds and ends and make a magical theatrical world.  Fortunately, along the way I have had some wonderful collaborators.  It has been inspiring to follow the process of going from an idea in my head, to a little concept drawing on a scrap of paper, to a beautifully rendered backdrop on cardboard or sheets.  The sets may have been held together by little more than duct tape and straight pins, but they looked awesome!

          Once I had the crazy idea of doing a show in our Church building with 45 children from our congregation.  I knew we had a lot of talented kids, but I had no idea we had so many wonderfully talented parents who were glad to offer their abilities to support the cause.  Artists and seamstresses, and choreographers and hairdressers all offered to be part of our summer theater camp. A group of homeschool moms were thrilled with this cultural opportunity for their children and offered to teach enrichment lessons as part of the camp.  One Mom took her lunch break from work everyday for 30 minutes just to supervise the children for recess and brought outdoor toys and games and even popsicles for the kids.

          The most amazing part of this particular event, though, was how we created the stage.  This building had no real stage, no curtains, no lighting, and not much in the way of a sound system.  A couple of the dads with construction capability said, "We have the technology to build a stage, so why don't we just do it."  And they did.  They created many 8' by 4' platforms with adjustable legs.  The only problem was that they were incredibly noisy when the kids danced on them.  So, in a flash of genius, I suggested that we use the the stage to raise the audience.  Thus, we created stadium seating for the audience with nary a bad seat in the house!  We hung the painted backdrops on riggings made of electrical conduit pipe.  We used halogen lights provided by our construction crew.  We borrowed a PA system from one of our Homeschool Choral teacher friends and went on with the show.

          The Summer Theater Camp was a great success.  The show went on without a hitch.  The kids delivered their lines, danced and sang their hearts out, and the audience was delighted.  I will always remember the wonderful people who dropped everything to provide support and expertise to make that particular show possible.  Proof again that the ingenuity and creativity of determined people can be legendary -- even if it is only held together by duct tape and straight pins!