My daughter was the director. She and her team had just one week to help the students learn their lines, songs and dances, to make their costumes and fantasy masks, to paint the scenery and to make their props. The kids gave a very nice performance and sang, danced and acted their hearts out. This program is an example of how to do a Theater Camp show in a very minimalistic treatment. Each student had a human character and a fantasy character. They used old shirts to create "kimonos" for their human character costume. They made masks for their fantasy characters such as the Animals, Oni Monsters, and Spirits. They even made a fantasy dancing forest using twigs with tissue paper leaves. The students obviously had a lot of pride in ownership of this show. Good job, campers!
Momotaro a Tale of Bravery was performed at the Red Butte Gardens Summer Camps last week. This play is adapted from a very famous Japanese folktale about a boy who is delivered to a childless old couple inside a peach. It is an adventure story about how this boy grows up to become the hero of the village. Without the use of weapons, with just his courage bright, he fought the Oni Monsters to rid his village from their evil powers. As he goes off on his Quest, he meets a monkey, a dog and a pheasant who are brave enough to help him battle the Oni. In the end, they return victorious to a grateful village. My daughter was the director. She and her team had just one week to help the students learn their lines, songs and dances, to make their costumes and fantasy masks, to paint the scenery and to make their props. The kids gave a very nice performance and sang, danced and acted their hearts out. This program is an example of how to do a Theater Camp show in a very minimalistic treatment. Each student had a human character and a fantasy character. They used old shirts to create "kimonos" for their human character costume. They made masks for their fantasy characters such as the Animals, Oni Monsters, and Spirits. They even made a fantasy dancing forest using twigs with tissue paper leaves. The students obviously had a lot of pride in ownership of this show. Good job, campers! The backdrop of the amphitheater at Red Butte Gardens was beautiful. Unfortunately, the direction of the sun did not allow for very good pictures.
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The photo below is a cast photo of the Sego Lily Elementary production of Momotaro, a Tale of Bravery. You may notice a few things about the stage. There is a proscenium curtain and a few stage lights, but no other curtains or drapes to shield the lovely avant guard artwork of pipes and lights on the ceiling. And what you cannot know is that I had my son hang sheet drapes to provide a backdrop to hide the storage container, cubbies, P.E. mats and games, many odd boxes, a piano, and lots of other clutter that had to remain on the stage. This stage has three options for getting performers onto it: the front risers, a side door leading out to an odd hallway on Stage Left, and a long winding ramp on Stage Right leading to the front of the stage. In other words, because all of these options for getting onto the stage are in full view of the audience, it is clear that once the actors come onto the stage, they must remain on the stage for the entire show.
When I inquired about removing some of the junk from the stage so that we would have some room to corral the kids during the show, and have room for costumes and props, I was told, "Sure, we can get some of that stuff moved for you." And while it was true, that some of the bigger items were moved, the space was still rather tight backstage with 40 kids and all of their costumes and props. The only comment I got from the overworked and rather put out custodian was that this was not an upscale Junior High or High School with a well appointed theater, it was just an over-crowded elementary school with every room doing double and triple duty! Well, I do understand that. I have gone to several productions at this school and found that the sound system was dismal. So, thanks to my generous son, I was able to bring in a P.A. system to boost the success of the house system. Sadly, due to illness, I was not able to really finish painting the sets with the detail I had envisioned. But, the show must go on... Fortunately, the show did go on to great success. The comments from the guests and the school principal were along this order: "This was the best performance we have ever seen at this school!" "The kids were great and we could actually hear them!" "The dancing was so beautiful!" "Loved the story and the music!" "Everything looked so professional!" So, in spite of all of the extra effort it took to create a workable stage, having wonderful comments at the end makes it all worth it! For the past three months, I have been doing another play at an elementary school. This opportunity came out of the blue, and I wasn't sure how the school population would take it. Turns out that the parents were wonderful. They responded to my requests for help and came as volunteers to every rehearsal and now for the performances. Very few of the 2nd-4th graders had had any previous experience. Some have been taking dance lessons, a few have had experiences singing solos before, but most had no idea about learning lines, songs, dances and how to take directions and follow their cues. They have been learning how to take care of their props, set pieces, and costumes. They have also been learning how much they have to depend on each other. All in all, this group has been a joy to work with. They have been eager to learn. Some have even been eager to help get things set up and ready. I have surely appreciated the help from those early birds. It has been very obvious to me, that some good parenting has been taking place here. To have a group of young kids who are quite well behaved and will take directions means that they have had good training in the home. They come to school and rehearsals clean (aside from the bedraggled state of having been at school all day) and ready to work. How refreshing! We have had very few problems with kids rough-housing with each other, and even fewer problems with kids saying mean things or being cliquish. The Play we produced was "Momotaro, a Tale of Bravery." In my mind, we had a lot of heroes in this production!
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? Outdoor Summer Theater Camp programs are always a bit risky...even in an arid climate. When we moved from Maryland to Utah a few years ago, I fell in love with a house that had a wide cement patio in the back that I envisioned would be perfect for outdoor theatrical performances. I had been doing Children's Theater for years and had given performances in utilitarian school rooms, church halls, and on the oddest stages imaginable. Here was a house that had a perfect stage area and a nice grassy area for the audience to sit. So, we bought the house. The first show we did was actually produced and directed by my daughter and her friends, "Never Cry Wolf." I helped with costumes and sets. They had pretty good weather...up until showtime in the evening, that is. A big wind came up and started to blow the drapes and set pieces away. Some of us helpers jumped into action and grabbed the drapes and set pieces from behind and held on for dear life! That was a very long 45 minutes, but we kept the show from blowing away! (Lesson #1 - Winds tend to come in by late afternoon.) The next summer, my daughter and her friends produced another show, "A Successor to the Throne." This time the monsoon rains came mid-week and flooded the house and threatened the set pieces and drapes we were starting to hang. But by showtime, the weather cooperated and the performance went smoothly. (Lesson #2 - Beware of monsoon rains in Utah.) The first show I produced in the backyard was "Stone Soup." During the two weeks of rehearsals we could not have asked for better weather. Sunshine and cool in the mornings. What I did not anticipate was how hot the cement patio could be by the evening of a 100 degree day. The children were going barefoot and really had a hard time. The day before had been a perfect 75 degree day! They were real troupers, but it was tough. (Lesson #3 - Evening performances can be brutal in hot weather!) The next production I did in the backyard was "The Tale of Chicken Licken." I figured that I would benefit from lessons learned in the past and have the performance in the cool of the morning. We encountered rain mid-week, but by the showtime on Saturday morning, conditions were good. By all accounts, the audience and performers were not in discomfort during the show. All went well. (Lesson #4 - That was a June performance.) This year, because of Mormon Tabernacle Choir Tour in late June/early July, I elected to schedule the Summer Theater Camp performance for August 8th. I had been told that the monsoon rains usually did not come until late August/early September. Well, this year 2015 has been a very odd weather year. We had a mild winter with barely any snowfall, a wet spring, an incredibly hot and dry June, and monsoon rains in early August. I watched the weather forecasts like a hawk and hoped and prayed for good weather---at least for the show. We had rain storms that pulled our rehearsals inside during the mid-weeks, but fortunately my house could absorb the activity of the 27 kids. But big thunderstorms with lightning, fierce winds and drenching rains were in the forecast for the weekend. As showtime approached, we did not dare put up any of the drapes or set pieces until the danger of the storms had passed. By midnight Friday the forecast changed and predicted sunshine and clear skies by showtime Saturday morning. My husband and I got up at 4:00 am and began arranging the drapes and sets. At 7:00 am my nephew came over and helped set up chairs and shade canopies for the audience. It was a lot of work, but we got everything set up in time for the audience to start coming at 9:00 am. The agreement I stated up front was that we would set up a few chairs but everybody else would need to bring their own or sit on blankets on the grass. It was so wet, though, that we laid out all the tarps we had.
We live in the shadow of the mountain. The sun did not shine over the mountain until 8:49 am. Fortunately it did its work and dried things out on the stage sufficiently by 10:00 am that we could set up the sound system just in the nick of time. The 110+ audience members took their places and the show went on. "Momotaro, A Tale of Bravery" The kids did their parts as if there had been no worries at all. Whew! It was a miracle! Years ago, my youngest son brought home a library book from school. At bedtime, we climbed onto the lower bunkbed and snuggled up to read. As I read, I noticed that the story was having an interesting effect on my boy. He really got into this tale about Momotaro. He kept saying that his was a "superhero" story. Just what a Kindergartener likes.
In the story, the people in the village were regularly having their food stores raided and their fields trampled by the Oni monsters who had taken up residence in the nearby castle. Those monsters even stole all of their weapons. It was clear that the village needed a hero to go to fight those demons. Meanwhile, the old woman had prayed and prayed for a son whom they could raise to become that hero. Her husband could train him in the martial arts and he could go on a quest to save their village. Finally, just as she was about to give up all hope, the River Spirit comes up out of the water and brings the Old Woman a peach. She says that inside is a baby boy, the fulfillment of her desires. The Old Woman rushes home to show her husband, They are deliriously happy and set about to raise their son Momotaro. When Momotaro is old enough, he sets off on his quest. Along the way, he is joined by three animal compatriots -- a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant. They sneak up to the castle and fight the Oni monsters. During the fight, the Kamikaze wind comes and blows away the Oni monsters. Momotaro and the animals return home as heroes. As I was reading, I could see the play come together. The songs formed in my mind and so did the actions -- in Japanese Kabuki style, of course. This became a fun little show to write -- perfect for the 5-7 years olds I was working with in a summer camp that season. A story of bravery, with heroes, monsters, fantasy animals, Spirit dancers, a rippling river of fabric, little girls dancing with baby dolls, a dancing forest, and slow motion martial arts fighting. All I had to say was that this was a Japanese "superhero" tale, and the five year old boys were all over it! So, in a few weeks, I am producing this show again as a Summer Theater Camp. Looks like we will have 27 kids between the ages of 5 and 10. I am gearing up and preparing for the fun. Wish me luck! 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! |
AuthorMy name is Betsy Bailey. I have sung, written and taught music all of my life. I enjoy writing and directing Children's Theater shows. This blog will be directed to topics on creating the magic of Children's Theater. I would love to hear your comments! Archives
July 2024
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