Betsy's Blog on Children's Theater | BaileyKidsMusicals.com - BaileyKidsMusicals.com

Second Go Around

9/15/2015

Here we go again!

Twenty seven 2nd Graders from Provost Elementary School are signed up to participate in an enrichment drama class culminating in a performance of "Momotaro - a Tale of Bravery." I met them for the first time on Monday. The trouble is that I only get to work with them for 30 minutes four times a week for the next couple of months.

The first order of business is to get acquainted with them. I need to learn their names and faces very quickly and see what they can do. Usually I start by teaching songs from the show and do some acting games and movement exercises to determine how to cast the parts. It takes a little while to accomplish that, and the children are impatient to know their parts right away. Hopefully I can finesse my way around that hurdle and keep them interested while I make some assessments. It just does not work to simply look at the names on the roll and try to cast all of the parts! (Although I did try that this afternoon.)

The students were introduced to two songs today. So far so good. They seem to be willing to sing. They are not yet readers, so handing out song sheets is not a very good idea. But they seem to be quick aural learners. With just a few times through the songs, they were singing the tunes and doing some of the actions. Words will come along better the more they get used to singing them.

This process is quite interesting for me. I get to see the play I imagined come to life in a completely new way with each production. These children will add a new dimension to the story and fill out the characters with their own inventions. This will be the 4th time I have been privileged to direct and produce "Momotaro - A Tale of Bravery." The first time was when my youngest son was just 6 years old. Now he's all grown up. My how time flies! With each new production, the children surprise me with their unique interpretations. It is simply amazing.

Have I mentioned how much I love live theater?

Inventing Backstories

9/24/2014

This update on the progress of their show was sent in by the director of a Children's Theater Group in Alabama. She encouraged all of the children to invent backstories for their particular characters. Here's how they are doing:

"Things are coming along so well.

The kids have come up with some great backstories...Iris is Galatia's Great granddaughter. She has a baby that Galatia cares for during the dances. Galatia is 99 ( I know so old but I let them do this, and tried not to micromanage TOO much). She has a big thick walking stick.

The whole village, especially the women rely on the wool from the sheep to spin, weave and sew. SO, when the sheep are gone it means so much more than just the loss of the sheep, it is an economic loss for the whole village.

The wolf sneaks out and watches the sheep while they are dancing, he realizes that Galatia is no longer caring for the sheep, so he is always watching for his chance. It is so cute watching him slink around. We had to talk about how they CAN'T notice him, no matter what he does. He even mimes, (as he is mostly hidden behind some rocks) them a bit as they are doing the "Thieving Wolf Ballet". It was great in rehearsal, so I hope it will work!

Anyway, here are the images that a recent High School Graduate did for us. I sent the color poster, and the T-shirt image.

Thank you so much for writing these shows!"

These designs for their posters and T-shirts are wonderful! They were created by an 18 year old girl studying to be a graphic artist. I think she has a very bright future!

I just love what their promoters said on their Facebook invite:

"Sophie and I are so proud to be working behind the scenes on this fantastic production! The cast is extremely talented (already gotten goosebumps) and they happen to be adorable as well. So far, I can honestly say that the dancing sheep alone are worth the price of admission. Consider taking a night out and come enjoy the show! Live theatre for less than the price of a movie ticket....hard to beat an opportunity like this for family entertainment!!!"

It's like I have always maintained, the little dancing sheep in the production of Never Cry Wolf are the real stars of the show! You just can't argue with cute factor!

Mounting a Mini-Musical

8/29/2014

In the theater world, we call the preparation, casting, rehearsing, and doing all things related to producing a musical play MOUNTING a production. To put on a full-scale production or even a scaled-back production involves many elements and takes time and energy.

So, how much time should I allow to do all it takes to MOUNT a production?

That will depend on a few things: Schedule, Budget, Helpers, and the Stage, well actually, the availability of rehearsal and performance spaces.

Lambs with off-stage helper at the ready

Schedule - My rule of thumb for doing a 20-30 minute children’s theater production is to plan 20 to 25+ hours of rehearsal time. For a longer, more complicated show plan 30-35+ hours at a bare minimum. Now, MOUNTING a smaller in-class mini-musical with fewer complications may only take 6-10 hours of dedicated rehearsal/teaching time depending on how many extra teaching activities you want to include. Plan the schedule very carefully to work the children in short segments. Vary the activities every 10-15 minutes so that they stay invigorated through singing, movement, doing worksheets, thinking/memorizing/lecture time, and acting segments and still be able to get much accomplished in each session.

Budget – Most shows can be MOUNTED with any amount of budget depending on how creative the Director is. Sets and Costumes can be very expensive especially when multiplied by the size of the cast. Some productions do not absolutely require elaborate sets and costumes. Find shows that have suggestions for alternate ways to MOUNT them. Decide what you can afford and design the production accordingly.

Helpers – In order to do a musical, the main “helpers” are the Director, Assistant Director (or producer), musical director or vocal coach, stage manager, choreographer, costumer, and scenic designer, and they may even want helpers to help them. If you do not have people to do these jobs, the few helpers available must do all of the jobs. Depending on the size of the cast, try to use the 10:1 rule. For every 8-10 children have at least one adult helper. That way, the jobs can be equally divided and the children’s varied activities can be more easily managed.

Stage – “It’s all about the stage” or lack thereof. In the theater world, this is a common mantra. Creating the illusion of the world in the story is literally a function of the stage and its limitations. Sometimes a show must be MOUNTED in a portion of a classroom with none of the conventional perks (lights, sound, curtains, backstage prep area, space, space, and more space). Sometimes a show will be MOUNTED in a gym with a stage, but the stage still has few of the conventional perks. So, once again, the production has to be designed within the confines of the space available. In order to be successful, Directors must be creative! Sometimes the show won’t move to the stage until the last couple of rehearsals. In order to effectively rehearse, the rehearsal space must closely match the stage dimensions. Be sure to measure and set up barriers as necessary to make the practice space resemble closely the feeling of the actual stage.

So get out there and start MOUNTING one of the Musicals or Mini-Musicals on this site! Break a leg!

Endowing Characters with Unique Traits

5/7/2014

One of the most enjoyable parts of expanding and retelling a story through Musical Theater is endowing the characters with fun and unique traits. As I was thinking about how to expand the cast for my new show "The Tale of Chicken Licken," I pondered how to add length and meaningful parts for a larger cast, say 20 to 30 children. The story itself only calls for six characters: Chicken Licken, Henny Penny, Loosey Goosey, Ducky Lucky, Turkey Lurkey and Foxy Loxy. (I decided not to use Cocky Locky because I had something else in mind for Mr. Rooster.) In order to get a performance out of young children, they really need to have their characters brushed with broad strokes. That is to say that any drama or comedy has to be easily understood and modeled from some performance they would have acquaintance with. It helps to be able to relate their actions, vocal inflections, and attitudes to characters they already know or are familiar with. Then you can help them dig deeper to bring out even more through their own gifts. I decided to give each of these main characters alter egos from classic movies and TV characters - Lucy (Lucille Ball known for her physical comedy), Mae West (wise-cracking blonde bomb shell), Maverick (Western movie character), the Scarlet Pimpernel (English literary character), Sam Spade (savvy detective) and the Keystone Cops (hilarious physical comedians). Many of the mannerisms of these characters are much imitated in cartoons, and thus familiar when modeled for the children. The children would not know these characters by name, but the director should and thus have a starting point upon which to base the coaching.

The other difficulty with children's theater is creating a flexible cast with many parts that could fit either gender. Often, the girls outnumber the boys by a ratio of at least 2 to 1. But occasionally, the boys will not only outnumber the girls, but outshine them, too, in talent and ability. Since you never know exactly what the make-up of the cast will be for any given show, it is best to have a certain portion of characters that could be played by any age or either gender. So, I decided that the population of this cast would consist of the common fowl found in the typical English barnyard - chickens, ducks and geese with their chicks, ducklings and goslings. By using families of parents and children, that sets up familiar situation comedy to tap into.

In the youngest age group there will always be the children who want to be in a show because they love to sing and dance, but do not necessarily understand how frightening it can be to be up in front of an audience. Before actually casting a show for this population, I like to spend time doing acting games. Through observation of the childrens' improvisation, movement and interaction with each other I can usually tell which children will ultimately be too shy to actually perform and which ones are good candidates to actually come through with a performance. Then I can cast with confidence the main characters and put others into groups where they can feel more secure.

I think my favorite new characters for this show are The Bluebirds - Dotty, Betty and Patty - loosely based on the trio singers of the 1940's such as the Andrews Sisters. They have the songs that move the story along and provide the narration for the story within the story. They always stand wing to wing. They move together, sway together, sing together and finish each other's sentences. They are jazzy and sophisticated and besides they are my favorite color.

I guess they are really based on my mother and her sisters (The Thompson Sisters), and me and my sisters (The Lee Sisters). If there are any characters that I happen to know well, it would be the Bluebirds! It has been a delight writing for them!

A Song for All Seasons

11/6/2013

Ah, the High School Football season is coming to a close. We are now into the play-off's. Last year, my son's team won the State Championship. So far, they are still in the running for this year's championship. I wish them luck!

Years ago, my celebrated aunt Janie Thompson rewrote the lyrics to the chorus to fit Football and I added verses about Football fans as well as Baseball fans. The little boys in my classes liked it a lot. Girls, too, although they were not generally as rabid of fans. We had the kids choose which kind of fans they wanted to portray and divided the class as near to equally as possible. The groups did actions and adopted attitudes to play-up the rivalry, then shook hands at the end to show that both sports are great fun!

That reminds me of an arrangement I have enjoyed using as a warm-up song for the kids in my youngest Musical Theater classes. I took the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and made it

into a rivalry song between Baseball and Football Fans.

On a musical note, this arrangement of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" provides an opportunity to introduce changing meters to the class. The chorus is in triple meter or waltz time with three counts to the measure. The verses, on the other hand, are in duple meter or March time, actually four counts to the measure. So, in the Chorus, I had the kids SWAY from side to side feeling the strong accent on beat 1 of the triple meter. I had the kids MARCH in place or bounce up and down with hands on their knees to feel the 4/4 time. Although this may not be actual dancing, it is a good preparation for it. Kids need many opportunities to experience RHYTHM and burn it into their very souls. Then, later when they do need to learn choreography, it will already be second nature!

The great thing about this song is that it is appropriate for nearly any time of the year. It seems that the Baseball and Football seasons overlap or are only divided briefly by Christmas and a winter hiatus. What I have found is that Baseball Fans, as well as Football Fans, really are enthusiastic about their sports and have no need of a vacation from it! So, that gives this little song great longevity! It's a song for all seasons!

Portraying a Cartoon Character

9/20/2013

My little girls loved to watch Disney movies when they were very young. They loved to dress up in their "spin around dresses and click shoes" to dance to the wonderful music from those Disney shows. When they were older, I determined to put them into ballet and tap classes. The older daughter had the perfect shape for a dancer -- long legs and and thin torso. She could easily do all of the dance steps and keep up in the class. I couldn't wait for the next daughter to get old enough to start dance classes.
Daughter #2 was perfectly suited physically for doing the dance moves, but in class, she just did not follow very well. It turns out that her 4-year-old self thought she was doing everything as directed, but all we saw from the outside was a little girl standing there doing nothing, or coming in with actions and moves that were out of sync with the music and the rest of the class. We thought that she had no sense of rhythm and was uncoordinated or something. Little did we know that her little brain was working overtime. She was deep in her own world in her mind doing the most marvelous steps. I worried so much that she was not ready, or worse, had no talent, that I elected to take her out of dance classes until she showed some promise. We thought dance would just not be her "thing."
Years later, that daughter, developed many talents in singing, art, and drama, but especially in dance. She loved to choreograph. This is where her ability to imagine in her mind the movements of large numbers of people on the stage came in handy. She even decided to make human performance and dance her major in college.
One of the most interesting things she did during her college years was to work a season at Disney World "animating" or bringing the Disney cartoon characters to life. Because of her ability to choreograph and act, she was great at doing movements that were unique to the various characters she portrayed. Each cast member could portray several characters according to their height range and how they fit the costumes. They also had to be able to master signing the autographs of the characters they portrayed. This was a delightful adventure for her.

ANIMATING THROUGH MOVEMENT - On stage, actors need to be able to use their bodies to "animate," or take the identity and use appropriate movements for the characters they portray. During dance warm-ups, a fun activity is to have the children do movements representing ANIMALS or other FANTASY CREATURES. Have the accompanist play music that sets the mood for different movement such as "slow, lumbering" music for large cumbersome animals, "bouncy" music for monkeys, "slithering" music for snakes, "gliding" music for birds, "galloping" music for horses or unicorns, etc. Keep these snippets of music very short and changing after 8 bars or so. Help the children use their entire bodies to give shape and movement to the creatures. Let them make characteristic creature sounds, as well. Remember to also feature FANTASY CHARACTERS, too, such as Robots, or Monsters, or Unicorns, or Fairies.
Keep it fun and SHORT!

The Duck Family has a very animated dance in "The Tale of Chicken Licken."

They sing and do morning exercises to "Off to the Races." They exercise to be strong and ready to always beat the Goose Family down to the lake to look for worms.

One Word Scenes

9/7/2013

Learning to IMPROVISE with PANTOMIME and/or VOCAL INFLECTION is a skill young actors must practice in order to become proficient. ONE WORD SCENES are an important tool to use for this training in the arsenal of acting games and activities. These scenes are set up as SITUATIONS to be played by two actors. Usually one of the actors tries to convince the other about something, but they are only allowed to use one word, such as YES, NO or MAYBE. Through their use of pantomimed actions or use of simple props and their vocal inflections of the one word, all of the meaning in the scene should be conveyed to the audience.

SITUATIONS - The simplest situations are created from real-life scenarios, such as having one actor be the shopper the other the salesperson. The salesperson tries to convince the shopper to buy something. The shopper takes his time making the decision and needs to be shown many options before committing to the sale. Each situation should have a beginning, a middle (the business to transact), and a conclusion (does not need to end successfully for the salesperson). Each scene should conclude in less than one minute and the actors are allowed just the use of one word. They can say that word many different ways, though - as a question, as an answer, in showing they haven't made up their mind yet and need to be shown something else, and so forth.

The situations and words assignments can be drawn from a hat or made up on the spot and given by the teacher/director.

Male Shopper - 1. Hardware store shopping for power tools 2. Sports store buying golf clubs, fishing poles, baseball bats, football cleats, etc. (Stick to one specific genre per scene) 3. Car dealership buying a fancy sports car
4. Electronics store shopping for the latest hand-held gadget (smart phone, game player, tablet, etc.)

Female shopper - 1. Department store shopping for make-up or hair styling products 2. Jewelry store shopping for rings, earrings, bracelets or necklaces 3. Shoe store looking for the latest fashion high heels 4. Bridal shop buying the perfect wedding veil.

Situations with one simple prop
  1. In a clothing store picking out a SCARF. The shopper may pretend the scarf is any type of clothing item she may like such as a shawl, or tie, or hood, or a scarf for warmth or just decoration. The salesperson may even show her some unique ways of tying or draping the scarf. They can only use the same one word in their exchanges.
2. In a hat shop picking out a HAT or CAP.  The shopper tries on the hat in many different ways and may even pretend that the one hat is actually many hats of different styles. The salesperson may resort to flattery in his gestures and referring to a pretend mirror, anything to make the sale. But each of them are allowed to speak just the one word.
  3. In a fancy French restaurant ordering from a MENU (paper folded to resemble a menu) - definitely demonstrating a language barrier. The waiter resorts to all forms of body language and gestures trying to explain the choices on the menu. The customer tries to make a decision from the choices the waiter tries to explain. Neither of them can use more than the one word they are assigned. (May also use table and chair.)
  4. Door to Door Sales using a HAND BRUSH or BROOM. The salesman knocks at the door and presents the person with offerings from his bag. He must demonstrate the use of the one prop in many different ways to try to get the sale. They are each allowed to say just the one word.

Exploring Emotions

9/3/2013

Several years ago, I worked at a school for students with learning differences. Children came to this school when they had reading difficulties such as Dyslexia or trouble with communication or social skills such as Autism or Asperger's Syndrome. There the children received teaching that matched their particular differences, and also helped them with socialization. Because many of them had been ostracized from associating with other children, this was an important step in helping them grow into maturity and be able to function later as adults.

I thought it was interesting that one of the main tools the teachers used for helping children read body language and understand facial expressions was to have them watch segments of Soap Operas and Situation Comedies. A clip was shown and played without sound, and the children were to watch the actors' body language and facial expressions. They were to explain the actions and emotions the actors portrayed and make predictions of what would happen next. Some of the situations were very basic such as predicting when people were HAPPY or SAD or ANGRY or PLEASED. Other situations were more difficult to predict such as when the actors were portraying CONFUSION in making a decision, or being IRRITATED when someone makes them feel uncomfortable, or being BRAVE in a tough situation, or trying to give COMFORT to someone. Many of these children had trouble understanding how one's own actions affect other people. Watching these video clips really helped the children learn to understand the cause and effect of human EMOTIONS and body language.

In Children's Theater, we work with the kids to help them explore EMOTIONS and how to portray them on stage. Because in live theater, the audience is usually quite far from the stage, the actors need to "play it big." Any facial expression also needs to be accompanied by a large body attitude or gesture to help it "read" better. On film this would look ridiculous, but for stage work, large facial expressions and movements are a must. To be successful on stage, the actor must use his entire body to make EMOTIONS readable for the audience.

EMOTIONS ACTING GAME: The basic human emotions are all forms of LOVE, RAGE or FEAR, but beyond these are many sub categories. Write a selection of emotions or human attitudes onto notecards and have each child take a turn interpreting that emotion or attitude. Possible choices: HAPPY, ANGRY, SAD, CONFUSED, IRRITATED, EXCITED, LONGING, SATISFIED, WORRIED, HUNGRY, FLIRTY, GRUMPY, INTENSE CONCENTRATION, HAUGHTY, KIND, FLAMBOYANT, STRONG, WEAK, NERVOUS, BRAVE, CHEERFUL, EXUBERANT, SICK, GOOFY, NERDY, and the list could go on. In my experience you do not want to give license for kids to be BORED or TIRED or AMBIVALENT, so do not give those as options under any circumstance! If you do, you will be SORRY!

Teaching the Basics Through Acting Games

8/29/2013

   Playing acting games is a great way to teach skills to young actors. Children may not understand the difference between real and make-believe. There are so many skills that can be taught by playing acting games, but start with just a few main types. Experimenting with role playing, working with props, and exploring the stage can really help them learn the basics of acting and to differentiate between real and make-believe.
Role-Playing - The director will explain a situation to two children. It could go something like this: "You and your friend are on the playground playing with a ball. Suddenly the ball goes flat. What would you do?" The children then act out what they would do in that situation. The children can silently act or pantomime the situation, or they can use words and props. This type of acting game is the beginning of learning improvisation.
Working with Props - Learning to handle props can be a coordination nightmare for little children. Best to keep the actions very simple and the rules of use very clear. It can be fun, occasionally, to let the children handle a random prop and imagine an alternate use for it. For example, the director will assemble an array of household items such as a hairbrush, a hand-broom, a ladle, a feather duster, an empty spray bottle, wooden salad forks, a sock, and cinch sack. Put them in a container and let the children take turns pulling out one item and determine how to demonstrate their alternate use for it. Explain that there are no wrong moves and it is all for fun. You may even have the rest of the group guess what the actor is demonstrating. The actor can always set the group straight if they guess unsuccessfully.
Exploring the stage - Young actors need to get familiar with all parts of the stage. They need to know how to get on and off, how the curtains work, where the "line of death" is (the front edge of the stage that they must never go near!), and any other physical particulars. They need to become familiar with stage directions so that the director can easily block their places. They need to learn the rules for negotiating around scenery.

Using simple games can help them learn about these things and more in fun and interesting ways.

STAGE DIRECTIONS GAME: First explain the main stage directions UP, DOWN, CENTER, STAGE LEFT, and STAGE RIGHT. Then have the children line up in small groups. Tell the children that each group will pretend to be a different type of animal as they move "in character" to the area directed. You may ask the butterfly group to flit delicately across the stage to DOWN RIGHT. You may ask the elephants to lumber to UP CENTER. You may ask the monkeys to bounce over to DOWN LEFT. And the snakes should slither to DOWN CENTER. Once they reach their destination, they FREEZE. The director then asks the groups to listen for their next destinations and on the signal they MOVE again. This can be repeated as often as desired. The groups can also change their identities to liven it up. Keep this game SIMPLE and SHORT!!!!
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The picture above is from "Never Cry Wolf" where the Military Academy boys are learning to march. These actors painted their own shields just like the ancient Greek warriors would have done.

Suspension of Disbelief

7/29/2013

Suspension of Disbelief
Meaning - The temporary acceptance as believable of events or characters that would ordinarily be seen as incredible. This is usually to allow an audience to appreciate works of literature or drama that are exploring unusual ideas.

Origin - This term was coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817 with the publication of his Biographia literaria or biographical sketches of my literary life and opinions:

"In this idea originated the plan of the 'Lyrical Ballads'; in which it was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith."

The state is arguably an essential element when experiencing any drama or work of fiction. We may know very well that we are watching an actor or looking at marks on paper, but we wilfully accept them as real in order to fully experience what the artist is attempting to convey.

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. (Notice boy in the picture who decided to wave to the audience instead of staying in character.) 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.