PictureBook Plays

Ever on the hunt for picture books about theatre, I discovered a dandy last week!

George Hogglesberry is an alien.  The book is not about terror of aliens, or riding in space crafts, it’s about finding your place in a new home.  And fitting in.  The first sentance of the book makes that clear: “Before George Hogglesberry went into his new class, he put a nose on his face.”

Poor George thinks no one likes him because his feet sometimes float away and he regularly turns into random objects like tomatoes and light fixtures when, in fact, everyone likes him very much.  When it’s time to create the school play, everyone is concerned about his ability to perform without turning into something else accidentally.

In the end, George creates his own role that suits him perfectly.  And, at the moment of performance when he feels a little nervous, it’s not another child that tells him what to say, or a teacher that gives him a pep-talk, it’s George taking a deep breath and being brave.  I particularly love this book for this simple message: only you can do it.

Most books about theatre for children hold messages of stage fright, missing out on the part you think you should have had, or impressing friends and family.  But the true spirit of theatre is about accepting the people around you, working together to tell a story in the best way you can, and having confidence in yourself.

On Thursday, as promised, we presented a small portion of our pedagogy at naeyc.  A very small portion.  With only an hour and with so much potential material, it was really hard to figure out what to include.  We ended up focusing on the actual creation of the picturebook play and using it as a way to introduce many other aspects of the technique.  We discovered this had both its advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage being that we set out with a goal and met it: we focused on “saying yes” (as the title of the workshop promised) along with guiding/coaching and trusting oneself.  These all came up on their own as part of the creative process.

The disadvantage being that we discovered what we forgot to include…the purpose of doing PictureBook Plays.  We were so focused on sharing the practical portions that we neglected the theory.  All it needed was a few sentences and we could have at least covered the basic theory to really drive the importance of process-oriented theatre home.

So, for those of you who have been following this blog, or, better yet, were at our presentation, here’s a late-night primer for you.

Process-Oriented Theatre is an essential art form in the early childhood classroom because:

• Given the chance to make their own choices and decisions about all aspects of a story (character, blocking, words, sounds, physical engagement,props,etc.) children are given power over their own worlds and begin to understand that they also have power over the real world.
• With the self-confidence of empowerment comes the ability to make new and challenging choices in life.
• Students learn to communicate with their peers and teachers as collaborators and creators.
• As an audience member (and scene partner) we develop the ability to generously appreciate the artistry of others.
• Students develop empathy.
• Making sense of a story translates very easily into making sense of the world.
• Children deserve to have their artistic decisions and creations treated with respect as essential works of art.  As children who are respected by others, they grow into people who respect others.

Trust me, this is all written somewhat haphazardly late at night after playing hooky so we could take our very patient three-year old assistant to the white house, monuments and museums.  We’ve said it much better in our book.  But it’s enough, for now, because we share this pedagogy not simply to give you pro-active ways to include theatre in your curriculum but because we believe theatrical opportunities are essential for the development of whole children.

On Thursday, we are presenting a workshop called “Saying ‘yes!’ to physical and vocal expression with your preschoolers.”  No one told us we’d be practicing saying “yes” to all our mistakes before we even got there.

• SerahRose left the cord to her laptop at home.  Don’t worry, she has the mouse.
• Sharon forgot paper. Just to write on. Plain old paper.
• We have a handful of prospecti (we’re going to pretend that’s the plural for prospectus) for the book “Preschool Players” but we neglected to print out one very important inclusion…our CVs.
• SerahRose only has about 20 biz cards in her purse.
• Sharon forgot her vitamins.
• Neither one of us remembered to go to AAA for a tour guide book, or even a map, so we are at the hands of the concierge.

But we’re still smiling, and letting go, which is the essence of saying “yes.”

Ah, and the wee-one is fast asleep in bed already so we’ll all wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after all is said and done.

Just in case you forgot, we’re presenting at naeyc this year: 2009 Annual Conference & Expo in Washington, D.C.

And, I (SerahRose) have to admit that although I’m really excited to share PictureBook Plays with new folks, I think I may be more excited to bring my daughter along for some sight-seeing.  I love to travel (so does Sharon so I guess it’s in the genes!) and I love having mommy/daughter time in new places.

The last time I went to D.C. was with my mom as a young girl.  It was a mommy/daughter vacation and although I don’t remember much, I do remember loving it.  So, this city holds fond memories for me and I hope to create some new ones with all three of us.

We fly on Tuesday!

We’ll keep you posted on the conference.  It’s huge…20,000 people huge so there will be a lot to see, do, and report on.

In the world of early childhood, science is presented to children as both process and content.*  Process skills are seen as how children learn, while content is what children learn.  Through experiences presented via a process methodology, children learn concrete information.  Remember, for example, the celery stalk in the glass of red food coloring experiment?  PictureBook Plays is no different.  It presents drama through a process methodology, giving children a reinforcement of or introduction to concrete information.

Recently, I had the opportunity to watch a drama teacher work with five year olds in an after school drama class.  They took a picture book, Caps for Sale, and assigned each student a part.  I double checked: the teacher had chosen the children based on how well she judged their ability to remember lines, speak loudly, and follow her (the adult’s) directions.  The “extra” children, who now knew they weren’t capable of these skills, were assigned activities such as making hats, painting the tree and caring for other props.

Now, before you say, “What’s wrong with this scenario?” consider what PictureBook Plays presents as process:

• After you read and become familiar with a particular story, children are asked what parts would they like to try out, what props will they use?
• When they “act out” the story, they take charge of the story.  Perhaps there are three peddlers – perhaps a child is even a tree or a hat – the difference is in the choice.
• Children take charge of the process and in that process gain content.

And the content?  Self-assuredness, learning how to make a choice, and maybe even discovering how to take the “risk” of speaking loudly enough to be proud of being a peddler.  All this packaged up nicely becomes a child saying, “I am capable.”

Now go back and look at the process I observed in the after school program and decide for yourself what sort of content is the result of that particular teacher-led dramatic programming.

*Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2000. Creative curriculum for early childhood:  connecting content, teaching and learning. (3^rd ed). Washington, DC: Teaching Strategies.

My three year old daughter’s ability to create a dramatic story has just taken an exciting leap.  I wanted to share what can happen when a child’s innate creative spirit is guided along.

The scene went something like this:

Black Cat: Meow.

Mama: Oh, hello kitty.

Black Cat: I’m a kitten in the water.  Meow.

Mama: Oh, little kitten.  What are you doing in the water?

Black Cat: Meow.  I’m floating in a box in the river.  You go fishing.

Mama: Okay. Here, I’ll tie this ribbon to this wand and it can be my fishing pole.  Tralala, I like fishing. Oh, I didn’t catch a fish.  I’ll try again.

Black Cat: Now I grab onto it and you rescue me.

Mama: Oh, little kitten.  You don’t belong in the river.  Grab onto my fishing line and I’ll pull you to shore!

Black Cat grabs on and together we pretend to pull her ashore.  She snuggles into my arms.

Black Cat: Meow.

Mama: I’m so glad I rescued you.  You don’t belong in the water.

Black Cat: You always wanted a black kitten to love.

Mama: I always wanted a black kitten to love and here you are.

We repeated this scene several times, each time initiated by my daughter.  And each time, we incorporated the things we discovered in previous tellings, adding elements of character, story and place.  This allowed the story to evolve, create deeper meaning, and gave Avi the opportunity to create a character with a story attached.

For example, the second time around, I already understood that the reason I was fishing was not to catch a fish but to rescue the kitten so I could incorporate this into the dialogue, “Oh, Black Kitten!  You don’t belong in the water; I need to rescue you.  Here, I have a fishing pole.  Grab onto the line!”  I also understood that I was searching for a black kitten because I wanted someone to love.

As her guide, I helped Avi achieve the following moments of understanding:

• Characters in stories have feelings that effect what they doy.
• Stories can be changed and developed over time.
• Her input is important and I value it.
• Stories have endings.
• Characters are specific.  Her kitty wasn’t just any kitty, it was black, young (a kitten), lost, and searching for love.  I wasn’t just any mama, I was looking for someone to love.

As her mama (and primary teacher) I was reminded that my daughter isn’t always playing a generic kitty or puppy.  She may have a greater purpose and if I take the time to act out this purpose with her, it will strengthen her being as a strong, creative, emotional, perceptive person.

What does Halloween have to do with children’s play, and PictureBook Plays?   As adults “take over” the American version of a holiday with origins in pagan rites and religious observances, how do we make sense of it for young children?  Mildren Parton, in 1932, gave the early childhood field one of the first definitions of play.  She categorized social play into six stages.  In the second stage, roughly set during the same stage as Piaget’s preoperational stage of development (two to seven years), we observe children transfer objects into symbols, things that begin to represent something else.  For example, a block becomes a telephone, a stick becomes a sword and actions and pantomime props exist to create a richer play base.   This begins to coincide with the separation of fantasy and reality.

The concept that is difficult for adults to understand, and remember since we did it once, is that when that block becomes a phone, it is no longer a block!  It is a phone.   When children see others dressed as something else for Halloween, when we ask them to dress up, or they volunteer to “be” a superhero, a ladybug, a bus; what adults need to understand is that the child “IS” that thing.   The line between real and pretend is blurred during these years; and can cause children inner confusion and stress (sometimes what we think is sugar overload may just be “I’m tired of being a bus – a real bus”!)

Dramatic play work in the classroom can give young children the opportunity to try out “BE-ing” other things.  Depending upon the picture book chosen, a child can try being an animal, an adult, or even a tree or a hat.  But, they know it’s contained, with the likelihood of being joyful, because PictureBook Plays is temporary, it’s voluntary, and it’s safe.

The New York Times just published a really interesting article about Sesame Street in Israel and Palestine.  It’s predominantly a story of first attempting to create a joint show where Israeli and Palestinian Muppets interact regularly but finally producing separate shows due to the realization that the cultures just aren’t ready to promote to their children what they don’t want for themselves.

But what I found really interesting was one exec’s decision to bring in new, young writers in order to mentor their writing process: to help them learn to communicate ideas to children without using their war torn lives as the backdrop.  How does one talk about a family member disappearing unexpectedly without bringing in soldiers?  And can you have that family member return when, in real life, they never do?

Kuttab, a big, gentle man whose suit pants are perpetually rumpled, told me he specifically wanted to work with untrained writers like Awadallah. He knew that his head writer, Nada Al-Yassir, who was raised in Canada and has produced some short films, could on her own churn out enough Sesame-appropriate scripts, but he was pursuing a bigger goal. Developing an independent television and film industry, he said, was a crucial step in building a Palestinian state, and he told me he thought that if his writers could learn to write hopeful, engaging stories for kids, it would benefit them as much as the viewers.

In other words, learning to express oneself through symbols, allegories, movement, and interactions which can take on greater/universal meaning for an audience is beneficial not just for the audience, but for the creating artist.  Mr. Kuttab is helping to encourage a new generation of artists who can reach beyond reality and into dreams.  So, when they figure out how to tell the story of a missing family member (who may or may not return) in a way that is removed from reality, they begin to dream of possibility.  And that is how one changes the world.  It is only by reaching beyond the starkness of reality into possibility that hopes and dreams are born and someday become a new reality.

I’m not implying that Sesame Street can solve the political unrest in the world, the millions of murdered children and uprooted families.  Or that Mr. Kuttab’s vision alone will forge for him the stabilized Palestinian state he’s reaching for.  But this article is a nice reminder of how important art can be for the well-being of the world, and how nice it is to see art in action from a major corporation for the benefit of both children and artists.

All that being said, I hope that, eventually, Sesame Street will be able to reinvent their original concept of a combined Palestinian-Israeli Street for the children of that region.  By continuing their work within current cultural boundaries, it gives me hope that someday those mentored writers (and their policy makers) will be willing to reach across the walls, dream a little higher, and try again.

There’s a new study out demonstrating that children under three can’t learn new action words by watching television programs unless there is an adult around to “interact with them and support their learning.”

You can read the whole story here.

To be honest, this doesn’t really surprise me.  Children under three are still learning to understand the real world.  To expect a young child to learn from a fake world seems downright unrealistic.  But, the real shocker for me was the sentence at the beginning of the article, “American infants and toddlers watch TV an average of two hours a day.”  I don’t know where this statistic comes from but given what I know from anecdotes I’m sure it’s true.  And I find it very alarming.  Two hours a day of sitting in front of the television is too much for anyone, let alone a young child.  I have a three year old so I know how hard it can feel to fill up the time, or keep them occupied while I’m making dinner but two hours is way too much.  These kids should be running around, coloring, playing pretend, and inventing life.  It’s taken time, patience, and diligence, but I can proudly say that my daughter knows how to occupy herself throughout the day using her imagination and little help from me.  If she really can’t find anything to do while I make dinner, then she’s more than welcome to help me (and she often does).

“Well,” you probably are thinking, “She’s three!  What about as an infant?”  My daughter didn’t watch TV until she was over two.  She had no interest anyways.  When I needed to get something done, or I really needed a break (we all do), I found her something to do near me, or I wore her.  When I cooked, she played on a blanket in the middle of the kitchen.  When I paid the bills, I sat next to her with my laptop and made silly face with her.  My mom (Sharon) likes to tell me about how she would put me in her backpack while she made dinner.  I got to watch everything simmering and rising right over her shoulder.

So, I’d like to put out a challenge to every parent.  A challenge that will seem insurmountable but it can be done.

Cut your child’s TV viewing down to two hours a week.

That’s one movie, or several 20 minute shows.

I’m going to take this challenge too.

What will this do for your child?

• Your child will learn to use creativity and ingenuity to make up games and puzzles.
• More time playing means more time working on life skills like communication, problem-solving and relationship building.
• Your child will run around more, setting him or her up for a lifetime of healthy athletic activity (it’s not just the fries that are making our kids overweight).
• Your child will learn independence.
• And, if you invite your child in to the kitchen while you cook, the yard while you rake, or the office while you pay bills, your child will learn essential life skills that she or he will never learn from the tv.

Let us know how you do

I had the opportunity to do a quickie consult at Boston Children’s Museum last week.  We had a blast and covered a LOT in one very short hour.

The Boston Children’s Museum (where I initially workshopped many of my ideas) has a gorgeous children’s theatre and some of the best plays for children I have ever seen.  They’re kid length(15-30 minutes), interactive, developmentally appropriate, and in a real theatre with real actors.

However, the space is under-utilized in between plays so the Program Director asked me to work with some of the Exhibit Interpreters to give them an introduction to children’s creative theatre play: what to expect, what they can learn, and what to play with.  They were a really enthusiastic bunch that participated fully, and asked wonderful, insightful questions.

Of course, I was too busy to remember to take a picture.  But the Arts Program Manager did send a really nice thank you:

THANK YOU so much! I had a great time, learned lots, and the staff were really energized by your workshop. You accomplished so much in an hour – I really appreciate your Skills!

Hopefully I’ll get to go back in a few months and see what they came up with!