Ok so we went last week on our first full week of theater classes. I was going to go with her till she figured out where the suburbans were and what times they ran. Our first week was one class of the little little ones and a class of the little bit older ones. The first preschool class was 5 kids 2 girls and 3 boys not too bad. She normally does an story drama around a books theme, this week was I want to be a lion. Not too scary but after about 5 minutes the 2 little girls got scared about the lion and ran back into the classroom. Ok so we only have 3 little boys still not bad but we had not even gotten to my parts. I was going to be 3 lions that were going to try and help her become a lion since she could not figure out how to do certain liony things. They made it though the first sleepy lion who tried to teach her how to roar but right after that one of the kids dad came by and he had to go. So down to 2 little boys and on to the next lion. This one was a lion who was going to show her how to prowl well half way though showing them how to the oldest little boy decided he wanted to play hide and seek. Of course no one was the seeker so he was just hiding. As soon as the she started to try and do the prowling the last little boy wanted to so back inside and did. The funnest point was when she turned to me and said “Yep we lost them.” She did salvage it by getting the 2 boys back after some coaxing to finish up the story very quickly before we lost them again. She talked to the teacher and they decided to cancel the class for the rest of the week. We were kind of depressed after that thinking that the other class was going to be the same.
The next teacher seemed very laid back so we were worried a bit. We had run though the 3 characters she wanted for this one. An Eskimo, a polar bear and a penguin who all lived in a rain drop that I had frozen. This group was a little shy at first but the warmed up very quick and got the idea of the story we were constructing. It was fun, at first she took them outside and talked to them not sure what about. I was to start crying sitting in a corner, she brought them in and formed a circle and started talking to them. After like 30 seconds she sent them over to find out what happened, all I did was look over to her after they finished talking and see which way she nodded. After like 4 guesses she came over and I whispered into her ear and she acted it out like she wanted to direct the story. She then brought me over to the circle and the story got started. They went to a scientist to figure out how to get into the rain drop, that was fun playing him. When she asked for something I just gave them anything and they made up what it was. It was amazing to see how fast the kid starting just throwing out ideas of what it was and how it worked. At least thats what it seemed like since I was not able to understand them. Once they got the thing to go into the raindrop they called Ken back and wanted me to go with them but I was scared of what they were building. She sat me back on the bench and there happened to be plastic bat so she gave me it for protection. Once they got into the drop I switched to the Eskimo with a red scarf for a hood, it was like 100 deg’s under that scarf but after a little gibberish I showed them something. It would be needed for the final character she would play. After that was the polar bear and it was so cool cause when I started to growl one of the little boys came up to me and started to growl like he understood me. He went back to her and told her in spanish what I said, that was totally cool watching them start to form their own story. I taught them how to swim like a polar bear and sent them on their way. O the costume was a green hat she had at home. Finally it was the penguins turn and he had to show them how to waddle like a penguin. Of course by this time the whole class had caught on that they could direct the story by talking penguin to me and telling her what I told them. It was pretty cool all the times she had them change into what I was in order to get to the next part of the story. Finally they got to the final person and she required them, before she unfroze the raindrop, to be an expert Eskimo, polar bear and penguin. Once they showed her that she did a little bebop and unfroze the raindrop. They headed back to the scientist to change them back to their normal size and call back Ken to the circle. That was pretty much how each day went different characters each day. The really fun part she was saying was half way though the second day they were creating ideas that made the story even better. They even moved the story in the direction she wanted without her even telling them. This group would be one she would use as a model demonstration group. It was an amazing week watching these kid develop out of shyness into idea making machines that could create an airplane helicopter bus bird out of thin air. These kids don’t grow up with much they live in an area that most of the money comes from either farming or renting out fields to graze. Most everyone has a plot of land that came from the splitting up of a large haseninda from the revolution some of them farm it some don’t. Its is pretty much just enough to subside on nothing too big. So even though they don’t have much they still came with such live and energy that it amazed me.
Now for the older kids this was a trimming down week, we started out with 45 last week at the first day. This week it seems to have slimed down to about 15 real kids that want to do this. Its very fun to watch some of the very shy kids come out of their shell, even just over a few days you can tell the difference. She’s been doing some movement exercises this week that um I don’t really know what they are for but that they are fun. Some bubble passing the sound and movement from one person to another, lots of different little exercises that help develop the imagination. Its really cool to see what they do and think of when all they have is a blank slate. Already there have been some serious out of the box thinking.
