This past week I’ve been in Saginaw, MI for the American College Theatre Festival (ACTF), region 3 (ie the Midwest states, and also the largest of the 5 ACTF regions across the US). Here I was competing as a scene partner with two peers from UM-Flint. As such, my week has been absorbed by plays, rehearsals, workshops, and networking.
BUT! Recently I was graced with the opportunity to perform a production of a children’s play I wrote, a staged version of my favorite children’s story, Stone Soup, for my son’s school (his name is Delan and he is 4!)
Myself and 3 other actors performed the 8-character show using the half-masks of the Commedia dell’Arte (look it up, it’s a comedic style of improvisational theatre). The school loved the show, grades pre-K through 8th, and have asked us to come back in the spring for another production (what exactly that may be has yet to be determined). Being the artistic guy I am, I made the show posters myself:
Suffice to say, we all had a blast, and I can’t wait to do more fun things like this for the kids. Delan really enjoyed it (and thought it was so cool Daddy was acting for all his classmates), and seeing his smile was all I needed. There was a moment towards the end when the antagonistic character (the village elder) entered to confront the hero (the vagabond), and one of the kids exclaimed ‘Oh no! Look! It’s the old man!’
The honest reactions of a kid audience are some of the best you ever encounter in the arts!
Children’s exposure to artistic mediums, at any age (but especially young) is crucial in their intellectual development because it makes the brain work in ways it may not normally with daily routines, science classes, math exercises, etc.
ok, I’m off my soapbox. Here’s another picture I did for the actors, where I made them a storyboard of the actions of the show. Enjoy! More comic stuff coming as soon as tomorrow and Sunday at the latest!
jeminar
Jeminar 