Two Very Different Dramatic Productions on a Friday...

So, yesterday afternoon my kids' school presented a very funny and wonderful production along with Trickster Theatre Company.  The company works by coming into the school for a week and working in all the classes to prepare a short (2-3 minute) play with the kids.  Each class has a theme or topic and the kids brainstorm and make up little plays.  Mid week, the school calls in parent volunteers to pull costumes from Trickster's "Bins of Costumes" to support the plays (I was there!).  They have tech rehearsals on Thursday and on Friday afternoon parents are invited to come and watch all the plays put together.  It was wonderful.  I laughed so hard due to intense cuteness as well as real funny stuff.  It was fabulous to see all the kids participating.  As a former drama educator I could see the principles applies and as a parent I was so happy to hear my kids come home all week long talking excitedly about what they were doing. I was so glad that the Parent Council at our school committed the funds to bring something like this in.  I hope that it becomes an ongoing thing as I certainly felt it was exceptionally valuable.

Last night I then returned to my old stomping grounds (and hopefully future stomping grounds) to check out the 2nd Year BFAs final year presentation of a new adaptation of The Seagull by Jason Chinn. I have been looking forward to seeing this class onstage all year.  I was in Drama 257 with Kabriel Lilly and Nikki Hulowski last year and directed Kabriel in New Works, so I was very excited for them when they got in the program and was very pleased to see them onstage. It was clear to me that the program has been good for them and it was nice to see how much they have grown over the course of the school year. I also have a fondness for The Seagull. Chinn's script managed to retain the original flavour and tone of the play while striving to bring it up to modern day.  It is one of those plays you constantly have to work at 'getting', but every time i read it or see it, I think I am closer. In any case, I enjoyed the production.  I think there are exciting things with this class and I am interested to watch them grow over the next two years.

It made for a nice afternoon and evening of theatre - even though both events were miles apart in form and content.  Who knows, maybe someday some of those elementary kids will be in a BFA program?

Children are soooooo Cute...

Today was the final presentation for the Boys' Foote Theatre School Drama Classes. Gibson's was at 9:30 A.M. and Oliver's was at 4:00 P.M. so it was a long day. The presentations were very cute. I think the Ziedler was a little too big a space for the little kids as most were inaudible past the first few rows (I don't even know if you could hear them in the 3rd row). But the shows were very cute. I think that if they do the little kids shows in that space they need to incorporate more choral speech or repetition to increase the amount of the show that you could hear. All the 'plays' were well-known fairy tales so that helped and, like I said, the cuteness factor was through the roof. Oliver's class was much easier to hear and I think the space was perfect for them, but I was in the second row this time. I certainly felt the volumes were much more appropriate. I was very pleased with his presentation. Every year I have seen a progression in the quality of the production. To me this is a sign that as the kids move up in age the expectations are also going up and we are seeing a growth. To me this is a sign of a very good program. I feel that the Foote is worth the money (it is on the slightly more expensive side for extracurricular programs) and I think they have some wonderful teachers that work well with a variety of kids. It is always fun for the boys and that is what matter to me.

And they are pretty darn cute on the stage!

First Day of Drama Class...

And I want to buy straight jackets. The classes went fine. Both boys seemed to enjoy their classes and when I only had one of them with me it was all good. It was the hour and a half in between the classes that drove me mad. We are wandering around Edmonton Centre Mall and neither kid can keep his hands to himself. They both were picking at each other and acting like 'those bratty kids' that everyone glares at. I am working on an elaborate plan for next week involving leaving one of them with Mark at the store and my getting the other using the LRT in between the classes. That would work, I think. I don't know. I was just so unimpressed with them. We might also spend the hour and a half at the Library. I could try that. There is enough there to occupy the both of them, as long as I can keep them from picking at each other. Gah!

In good news... Anna, the lovely Annelle from Steel Magnolias, is one of Gibson's teachers and Amy from last year is one of Oliver's teachers. I totally trust both of them and know they do good work. Amy also knows Oliver so she is well aware of his high jinks and has never had trouble keeping him in line. I can relax...

Behaving Myself

I avoided eye-contact and all other contact with the other Mom when picking Oliver up from drama class today. He reported a "good class" and all is well. I tried to arrive as close to pick-up time so as to minimize possible interaction.

My house is a mess. A real big mess. Despite my efforts yesterday, it is a big job. I can just imagine what it will look like when I return from Toronto next Sunday night. I plan to keep my eyes closed until Monday morning. I did tidy up the kitchen a bit and the front entryway was tidied up yesterday but every use serves to undo anything I do.

My teeth hurt. I need to get to the dentist. I need to take Oliver too. I shall have that on my list for a March activity.

Moving On... in more ways than one...

1. My New Theatre project now that Crimes is done - BABY - We had our first "real" rehearsal last night. We already had a read-thru about a month ago but 2 of the 6 leads were missing and at a read-thru you don't really do any concrete work. Last night we started working on the music. I was pleased with the "reassignment" of the singing parts in The Ladies Singing Their Song. I look around the room and know that I am the only one of the chorus who looks remotely old enough to have had 10 children (my bit in the song now). I was also pleased because Magnolia and Becky are in the song too (yay!). I think it will be cool. For the 2 songs we worked on I was on the bottom. I figure I will be for the most part because there are a lot of Sops in this show and being a Mezzo will make me a likely choice for the bottom. He said it will change song to song, but I imagine I will be there most of the time. The sound was good. For a small cast we have a lot of tone and big sound. I like the fact that it will stay small so that the ensemble gets used. A bigger cast doesn't make sense in this show.



2. We (myself and Paul's mother -see previous post) received an email from the theatre school. I was pleased with the email, although partially embarassed but I am shaking that off because I did try to walk away without an incident but was unsuccessful. There are only 5 weeks left and Oliver is away for one of them so hopefully the class can finish without incident. I am totally happy with how the school has dealt with the whole thing and I still think the other mother was out to lunch. I am satisfied that the behaivour of the two boys falls within the realm of "normal child behaviour" or else I would have heard something different from the school. I also liked the fact the e-mail clearly held both boys responsible for "annoying each other" as opposed to it only being Oliver at fault. They also stated that they felt the behaviour from both children was normal for the age group. So I am trying to move on. I have instructed Oliver to stay away from Paul and I wrote back to say that I would endeavour to stay away from Paul's Mother and that I thought it would be pretty easy for me to do this.