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

Safe Singing for Children's Voices

11/11/2025

For several weeks my granddaughter Roxy and I have been practicing her solo for her Ward Primary Presentation last Sunday. The song she sang was in Spanish. I really don't speak Spanish, but I know enough about languages and singing technique that I could help her develop. When the time came for her to sing, she had the song memorized and she looked up and sang confidently and beautifully.

Now, Roxy has natural talent, but she also demonstrated the desire to work on that talent. The song had a lot of words and the melody spanned about an octave and a fifth. Most children's songs are pitched within one octave from Middle C to Treble C. She really stretched to be able to sing all of those pitches without straining.

She is fortunate because she has opportunities to help her develop her talents. At school, the Elementary School Chorus teacher is very good and believes in choosing music that is pitched properly for young voices. Roxy has also been involved in my Summer Theater Camps where we spend a lot of time focusing on good and safe singing for young children. Plus, when she came to me with this special request to work with her privately, how could I refuse?

The other children in the Primary sang with lots of heart. Most tried to sing the words, but there were many who did not know how to match pitches. There were also many who just blurted out the words at the top of their lungs with no effort to sing in tune. The song leader had good intentions, but obviously not much experience in teaching singing to children. They did have a sweet spirit as they sang, though.

The safest way to promote good singing for young voices is to help them find their head voices first. When they can use their light high voices on the notes around Treble C, they can harness the ability to match pitches. After they learn to match pitches beyond their speaking range, it opens up so many more possibilities.

After they learn to safely match pitches, you can help them strengthen their posture and breathing to project their sound. When they simply work on singing loudly, they tend to strain their voices or shout in monotone. Unfortunately, if that happens, matching pitches throughout even an octave range becomes impossible.

Children singing together in tune can be so beautiful. I wish more children had the opportunities to learn to sing properly!

Pantomime for the Christmas Season

11/8/2025

Old English Pantomime is a style of musical theater that I was not acquainted with until recently. And yet it has been in existence for more than 400 years! Stock players (the Everyman boy, the Love Interest girl, Comedy Duo, the Dame, the Henchman, the Do-Gooders), funny animals, slapstick comedy, sing-alongs, audience participation -- these are all part and parcel for this type of production. Until I did some research, I had no idea how fun this style of musical can be.

Some years back, I had been asked to write a few songs for some books to help teach English to children in Asia. The publisher wanted to use authentic stories from English literature like "Chicken Licken," "The Little Red Hen," and a few others. One story was completely unfamiliar to me, "Dick Whittington and His Cat." The one little piece of information I had was that it was extremely popular at Christmas in England. In fact, it has been performed in London since 1605, at least.

After doing some research, I found out that Dick Whittington was a real person who had been elected Lord Mayor of London two different times and that he may or may not have actually had a cat. However, the story (in various forms) was turned into a "panto" that has enjoyed popularity for more than 400 years.

But why has "Whittington" been popular at Christmas all these years? Well, it is because Pantomime as a genre has been popular at Christmas for a family theatrical activity. Many different stories have been produced as pantomime since that time. The story of Dick Whittington has been a fun family-friendly favorite story and part of each season since 1605.

"The Adventures of Dick Whittington" was premiered at Provost Elementary School and was hailed as an audience favorite show! The audience even sat on the edge of their seats ready to sing along when prompted. I think they really liked this experiment in Old English Pantomime. It even has an over-arching theme: LET KINDNESS BEGIN WITH ME.

Comments from first audience:

"This production was amazing! I have never seen a show at the Elementary School level done so well!"

"We loved the show! The kids were super! It was great!"

"I remember doing musicals 'way back when I was in Elementary school, but they were never anything like this! The show was so fun! I really liked it!"

"I used to read that story to my children all the time. I just loved seeing it come to life for the students. It was colorful and delightful and I loved the songs!"

Halloween Stories and Songs

10/31/2025

When we made a quick trip to visit our old hometown a few years ago, my son and I got to take a Ghost Tour of Uptown Whittier. We met an old friend who had only decided to start giving these tours a couple of months before. He started with just one spooky story, but now has quite a repertoire of stories to tell. He explained that every time he takes a group out for the tour, someone shares another story with him.

Whittier, California has been inhabited by indigenous tribes, then Mexicans, then Quakers, then the rest of us. In the late 1800's, when the Quakers bought the land, they wanted to name it after the famous New England poet John Greenleaf Whittier in hopes that would entice more Quakers to move from the east coast, and perhaps Mr. Whittier himself, to the settlement. He never came, but the Quakers did set up a beautiful little community.

One way the settlers chose to build their houses was with the help of the Sears Roebuck catalog. In those days, the family would order a "Kit House" from the catalog, have it shipped by train to California, then they would convince their neighbors to bring their wagons and horses, and their tools and skills to help them put it together.

Some homes in Whittier featured in the movie "Hocus Pocus"

Most of the houses are situated around a central park and built in the late Victorian style or early Craftsman period style. Many are well loved and kept up, but some of them have interesting stories to tell about spirits that may or may not want to leave the premises. And some of the houses and streets were even featured in the Disney movie "Hocus Pocus." (Our tour guide had actually happened by during the filming of the movie and told us how so much of the area was completely covered up with black drapes during the shoot.)

It seems like every neighborhood has that one house that looks haunted -- perhaps through neglect or just bad decorating choices -- but everybody knows that house. And then there are those people who go all out decorating their houses and yards for Halloween. This year in my neighborhood there are some fantastic light displays. I am sure they will have a lot of little trick-or-treaters tonight.

The spooky parts of Halloween are not my favorites. But I love the Harvest celebration stuff. I remember many fun school, church and community events where we held Fall Carnivals with all sorts of entertainment booths, a Chili Cook-Off, dancing, pumpkin carving contests, bake sales, and Halloween Sing-Alongs. I loved doing the Music Booth where I taught the kids fun tunes including these:
We Are Out to Scare You - Halloween vocal warm-up
For This Is Halloween - finger play with fun musical additions

Years ago (back in the olden days), when I was just beginning to go out Trick-or-Treating, I actually thought that everybody had to show their best trick before they got their candy treat. So, figuring that singing was my best trick, I always sang a song. Whenever possible, my mother would even slide onto piano bench in the people's house to accompany me.

When my kids were getting to the age of being able to go out Trick-or-Treating, I was amazed at our neighbors who enjoyed making special treat bags labeled just for them. How sweet!

Hope I get some Trick-or-Treaters tonight!

Mini-Musical About the Smallest of the Small

10/27/2025

This Fall I have been surprised by the interest in my Mini-Musical, "The Ants and the Grasshopper." This little musical came about in a burst of inspiration brought on by some desperation. One of the Theater Skills classes I began teaching one autumn had eight First and Second Graders. 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 something more.

A simple screen was the Ant Hill

As a teacher, have you ever had that awful realization that what you had planned for your students just wasn't enough?

Well, I went into the project of teaching this After School Drama Club class with lots of ideas about what to do. But then that went out the window when I met the children for the first time.

These kids I did not know. There were seven girls and one boy. 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 Ants are carrying oversized seeds.

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 had a good singing voice and loved to move.

I ended up writing three songs and two dances: "The Ants Working Song," "Summer Loafing'" (for the Grasshopper), "Winter's on the Wind" (dance), "Strummin' 'til Spring" (dance), and the Finale "Pay Now and Play Later."

The Grasshopper entertains the ants all winter in exchange for food and shelter.

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 was a Theater Skills class, we did an in-class Recital for the parents. We use a screen for the Ant Hill. The costumes were very simple. We used black T-shirts and knit pants for the "ants." Little colorful tutus worked well since they were all girls. (They thought it was a ballet recital.) I made "feelers" with black pipe cleaners attached to little headbands.

The Grasshopper wore a green T-shirt with a vest with "tails" and a green fedora hat with attached green pipe-cleaner "feelers." He also fake-played a Ukulele. The Ant Queen wore a skirt of gold fabric with a royal cape and of course, a tiny crown.

Most of the kids went barefoot, but funky shoes would also be fun.

This mini-musical can be produced without much -- hardly any scenery at all, just some suggestions of props, and hints of costumes. It is pretty simple to produce and a lot of fun! I guess that could be the reason for all of the interest...

Keeping Supporting Elements Supporting

10/20/2025

My family members laugh at me when I say that if a movie has music that I find disagreeable within the first couple of scenes, I really can't hang tough to watch the movie all the way through. (That's only partially true.)

But I definitely think that the musical scores for a movie or show or musical are so important to the success of the project. Sometimes the music is just too present, doesn't suit the era, is too heavily orchestrated, or is just distracting from the more important elements (in my estimation).

Last night I rewatched a movie musical from 1976 that should have worked better for me. I remembered seeing it when I was in college and liking it, sort of. It was one of those period dramas that had top-notch dramatic talent (not necessarily singing talent), but came off a bit out of sync with itself.

The story was set against glorious scenery in Austria and England with fancy Baroque costuming and set decorations, but something was off about the filming. (Probably too wide in scope for such a whimsical tale.)

I think that the combination of the setting placed during the Baroque period (1685-1750), songs with 1960s roots, and full over-the-top orchestrations heavily influenced by the Romantic composers (late 1800s), this movie musical clearly had an identify crisis.

Now if the orchestrations been treated with a lighter hand, I think I could have enjoyed the rest of the elements of the movie better. It was like trying to sit through a Wagnerian Opera without the rich voices and heroic quest.

Sometimes the creators of Children's Theater also fall into that trap. They try to pair sophisticated music with unsophisticated, untrained beginner talent. It just doesn't work very well.

Keeping the supporting elements subservient to the children's abilities is so important. We don't want those kids to be overpowered by the sets, costumes or music.

We want them to SHINE!

Here's the cute Opener from "The Frog Prince" hearkening back to European Fairy Tale musical styles. "On a Once Upon a Time."

Structure and Contrast

10/15/2025

We moved to Maryland from California in October 1997, just in time for Halloween. At that time we had kids ages 2 to 18. I had told my husband that he needed to find me a house that did NOT need major renovations and had enough bedrooms for our 7 children. (We had done 3 major house renovations already!)

I couldn't imagine living through another renovation with toddlers and teenagers and WINTER. Our children had never been through a winter with actual ice and snow. Before, with our renovations in California, we lived and played outside year-round. But in Maryland, I knew we not only needed enough bedrooms, but indoor spaces to play during the long months of winter.

We were fortunate to find a former "model" home in a developing neighborhood. It had five bedrooms and a finished, but not fancy basement. That basement had off-white carpet, and white walls, AND was so antiseptic and cold-looking, that my younger kids would not go down there. It was the logical place for a playroom, but not inviting at all.

My quick fix was to hang a "storybook land" wallpaper mural on the wall, mount a little wooden pony swing from the ceiling, and put a colorful, climbing play set down there. After the space became "kid friendly" the little kids would go down and play there. Just having some structures and contrasting colors made such a difference!

Deshi sings "Magnificent Flower" from "A Successor to the Throne"

In almost every area of our lives, Structure and Contrast play an important part. We usually don't like clothes or environments that are bland. Some people like getting more daring with colors and forms than others, but nearly everybody admits that having some structure and contrasts in place makes life better.

It's the same in music, and in Children's Musicals. Even when all of the songs are good on their own, if they all have the same format, tempo, rhythms, instrumentation, and tonality, they can come off as too much of a good thing and may even be boring for an audience. Audiences like VARIETY and that means paying attention to STRUCTURES and CONTRASTS.

Cast of "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse"

Most every good show starts with an upbeat OPENER that introduces the setting, characters, or plot elements of the story. Then there is usually a SOLILOQUY early in the first act - a lyrical song where the audience gets to know the main character's inner thoughts and motivations. The show is then sprinkled with PRODUCTION NUMBERS that include some main characters and many or all ensemble players. Those songs are used to move the plot along. Throughout the storyline, there may also be contrasting songs that provide explanatory information or exist just for COMIC RELIEF. Then, summation comes with REPRISES of important message songs or a big FINALE.

Alec in "Never Cry Wolf"

Each of these songs will be in contrasting styles, time signatures, keys, instrumentations, solo or chorus singing, and so forth. Many shows may also have certain instrumental "colors" that provide cohesion --- such as exotic bells and harp sounds suggesting a Persian setting, or using the Pentatonic scale in a Japanese folk piece.

VARIETY is key and that comes with variations in STRUCTURE and CONTRAST.

Here are a few examples of SOLILOQUY from "A Successor to the Throne," "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse," and "Never Cry Wolf."

Unforgettable Motives

10/6/2025

Some opening lines in a novel or story are so good, they are deemed unforgettable. "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times" (Charles Dickens in "A Tale of Two Cities") or "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" (Jane Austin in "Pride and Prejudice" are two of the most famous in classical literature.

But in music, those opening lines or "motives" are equally important. Nearly everybody recognizes the opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and will be able to sing them to show that they do. "Da da da dah---------, da da da dah ------."

Opening lines in literature and unforgettable motives in music are the marks of great writers and composers. The first line of a story and the opening motive in a melody both serve to entice the reader to "turn the page" so to speak. In music, the HOOK can be the opening line or it can be the opening line of the refrain. It just needs to be placed at the most important juncture in the music so that it can make the biggest impact. In writing a Picture Book, the first line may be the first and only chance to HOOK the reader into wanting to turn the page.

Sometimes us mere mortals can get lucky in creating a good opening line. Here are some examples from my picture books:

"Kathryn came in saying, 'I know, let's play dollies'" from Spin Around Dresses and Click Shoes 2020

"Carolyn, you go sit in the corner and think about what you did!" from Time Out for Carolyn 2021

"My dad once told me that there was a time when my aunt was so famous that she would get letters from all over the world labelled just: Janie, BYU, Utah, USA..." from The Girl from No Where Who Went Everywhere 2023

"Did you really work for NASA Grandpa?" from Johnny in the Moon 2024

Illustrations often do more to provide the "HOOK" than just the words, especially in Picture Books for children. But you get the idea of how important the job of these first few words are to introduce the main character, the conflict, the tone of the story and so on.

Now that I am finishing up my 13th Picture Book, I wonder how the first lines of my stories have held up under the criteria mentioned above. I have been learning more about illustration, too. I have learned that another crucial part of writing a page turner is SURPRISE. Page turns have to be carefully planned so that not all is revealed too soon, especially by the art.

In music, the element of surprise is quite important as well. Yes, it is nice when the melody notes flow seamlessly to the only possible next right notes, but planning surprise elements keeps the audience on the edge of their seats in anticipation.

I am so appreciative of comments from friends such as "Your stories are such page turners" or "Your songs just get stuck in my brain, I can't help singing them!"

Here are a few of my attempts at unforgettable motives in songs. "Over the Briny Sea" from "The Adventures of Dick Whittington," "A Promise Is a Promise" from "The Frog Prince," and "Good Mornin' Sunshine" from "The Tale of Chicken Licken."

A Male or Female Protagonist?

10/2/2025

Writing Children's Theater (for ages 5-12) from classic fairy tales, folk tales or fables AND keeping recognizable characters and plot lines, can be challenging. Many of these traditional tales involve having male protagonists. In other words, the story revolves around a male main character who goes out on a QUEST or a hero's journey, or has bad things happen to him that he must overcome. Some examples are Sinbad, Hercules, Aladdin, Pinocchio, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Some stories are generic enough that a female can be substituted in the protagonist role, but then the title has to change because it carries a male name. Unfortunately, with a name change, the production loses the valuable advantage of NAME RECOGNITION.

When a female is the protagonist in Children's Theater and has famous name recognition --- Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Rapunzel -- as a director, you have a hard time getting boys to join the cast. Young boys usually stay far away from any play that even hints of a love story.

So, what does a writer/director of Children's Theater do?

Well, first I look for stories that have a recognizable title with NO gender name in it --- The Country Mouse and the City Mouse, The Empty Pot, (A Successor to the Throne), The Musicians of Bremen, Stone Soup, The Tale of Chicken Licken, No Time for Monkey Business, and The Ants and the Grasshopper.

These stories are the easiest to reimagine with a FLEXIBLE CAST. That means that the protagonist and other characters do not necessarily need to be a particular gender.

(These are good for the casts that have many more girls than boys, which seems to be the norm in Children's Theater.)

Since I ALWAYS want to attract boys as well as girls to my shows, I may use a story with a male name in the title, but make sure it has NO LOVE STORY and plenty of good roles for BOTH GENDERS. I have found that creating good female roles for a show that has a male protagonist is easier to sell to boy participants than the other way around --- Momotaro, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Frog Prince, The Adventures of Dick Whittington, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, (Never Cry Wolf)

An exception, has been Parizade's Quest - a tale from the Arabian Nights. This show has a definite female protagonist in the title, but also has four other strong lead roles for girls, as well as many important secondary female roles. (In fact, Parizade is not the actual main female lead.) It also has five strong male lead roles, and many strong secondary roles for boys. It has NO ROMANTIC LOVE STORY but does have a REUNITING of a FAMILY LOVE STORY. (The boys were okay with that.)

I actually wrote this show for a group of kids I knew pretty well at a local elementary school. Of the 45 kids in the cast, we had about equal numbers of boys and girls --- VERY UNUSUAL FOR CHILDREN'S THEATER!

Using Musicals to Retell a Fable with a Moral

9/27/2025

My elementary classroom teacher friends have been kind enough to offer suggestions for Lesson Plans for my Mini-Musicals. In many states, so much of the curriculum is scripted to meet the Common Core Objectives. They find that it is exhausting to add anything beyond the well-stated goals. It is simply too hard to justify "fluff' and "fun." They are too busy trying to keep up with all of the mandated requirements. And many teachers are so overwhelmed, they rely solely on commercially prepared pre-made worksheets and packets.

This is such a shame! As I have read the National Common Core Objectives, there seems to be a lot of room for creativity and fun. For example, one of the ELA 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? 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."

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 older 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.

The City Mouse and the Country Mouse 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 of the City. She decides that the "cons" far outweigh the "pros" of City Life. She races home to the Country where she already knows what to expect. "The Tale of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse" begins Comparisons
of Likes and Dislikes discussion.
Through explorations in acting and singing, the students can draw comparisons from the story and their own experiences to become better at determining their own preferences.

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?

Choreography or Choral-ography

9/14/2025

You have all heard of Choreography, of course. But "Choral"-ography is something a bit different. It is coordinated, but limited, movement for a chorus of singers. Sometimes it t is just a synchronized gesture or turn of the heads, other times actual full-bodied movement. The key is to make the movements fit the words of the song and not be too boisterous as to confuse the singers or hamper their singing.

Many Chorus teachers will use gestures to help teach a song to young students. Teaching a song with hand motions or even modified sign language can be helpful tools. However, when blocking a large Ensemble of children on a stage in a show, doing CHORAL-OGRAPHY is better. The gestures and body positions must "read" from a fair distance, so they need to be large and coordinated to be seen from the last row of the audience

When composing a song for an ensemble of young children, I try to think about it in terms of choral-ography. In other words, I always try to imagine how the children would interpret the song on stage. The words come across best when simple gestures can be used to emphasize the meaning. Words suggesting a direction such as "up" or "down" I make sure have a gesture or body movement to emphasize that. Lyrics about joy or love or happiness might have a gesture of clasping hands at the heart. Lyrics about sadness might use slumped shoulders and frowning faces. Words with abstract meanings are the most difficult to interpret. I usually save the simple generic hand and arm motions for those lyrics --- arm out left, arm out right, both arms up, one arm up in back and one down front with "jazz" hands (fingers wiggling), etc.

First-time actors are generally not trained dancers. So only very simple foot movements can be used. Variations of walking, sliding, or spinning are about the extent of full body motion that can be safely used. Kids usually have trouble with Right and Left and other stage directions, so I try to remember to keep it consistent by always starting on the same foot or turning in the same direction with succeeding passages. It is crucial that when you begin teaching choreography of any kind, you continue practicing what you started. Making a lot of changes just confuses them and they don't know what to remember. Most kids tend to remember the movements you taught them first. So figure it all out before you get started. With enough practice time, it is surprising how proficient kids can get at their movements.

And remember that if you work in front of the group facing them, you must "mirror" their motions. If you use your right hand, expect them to use their left hand. Be prepared to reverse that if you turn around to face the same direction as the group. Using "Choral"-ography is a great way to have your group interpret the songs and give a polished performance!

These pictures come from a performance of "Momotaro" a Tale of Bravery at the Sego Lily Elementary School in Lehi, Utah. A very talented photographer snapped these pics.

Bailey Kids Musicals copyright 2015