Location: Brennemann (Joseph) Elementary School
Date: Saturday, December 15, 2012; 10:00 am-12:00 pm
December 14th 2012 was
one of the darkest days, not just in my lifetime, but for many others as
well. As the world woke up trying to
comprehend what had happened in Newtown, Connecticut; I was headed to Brennemann
Elementary School to participate in 'Uptown
Students On Stage' program. We were
going to be working with children, participating in acting and improv games.
Initially apprehensive since I have no
experience with acting, I found that this was just the therapy that was needed.
Cafeteria wall |
The first game we played was ‘Holiday Party Name Game’. We all stood in a circle and introduced
ourselves as if attending a holiday party and were bringing one item that
started with the first letter of our name.
Furthermore, we were supposed to mime that object and the next person in
the circle - besides their own name and thing - repeated all other names and the
things they were getting. This was a
brilliant way for the children to remember everyone’s name. When my turn came, I said that the thing I
was getting to the party was a rose and then took a deep breath, smelling an imaginary rose. Through this I game I found out that the 3
children were Adam, Yasmin and Serena and the volunteers were Sydney,
Rebecca, Sara and Katherine. Adam is a very shy boy who participates readily, but needs to be coaxed to speak
up. Yasmin is a sweet girl who was
enjoying this whereas Serena was very active and seemed in her element.
Sydney led the next game and was
brilliant at it. She seemed like a
natural and I later learned that not only did she have some theater training,
but she was also a teacher at a school and thus very comfortable with
kids. The game was ‘Greetings’ and we were to walk around the room and when we
encountered someone else, were to introduce ourselves as different characters,
ranging from Santa Claus, to an Elf, to a Video game character. We also were to show different emotions such
as happy or angry to see them, and also meet them as long lost friends or as if
we were walking in heavy snow. Sydney
really did a very good job keeping us motivated and herself was quite exuberant
in her role-play.
Next we played ‘Mime Telephone’, where we stood in a
line and the person at the head of the line mimed something. Without saying a word, the next person mimed
what they interpreted and we continued all the way till the last person guessed
what the thing was. Sticking with the
holiday theme, the mimes were for Christmas
tree decoration and Santa Claus
and for most parts, everyone got it.
Following this game was ‘The Scream’. For this we stood around in a circle, looking
at the ground. Then we would all lift our heads up
at the same time and then look either straight or sideways. If two people’s eyes met, both are supposed
to scream loudly and ‘drop dead’. This
is supposed to continue till only one or two are left. I was not looking forward to this one,
especially with the screaming. Whether
by design or luck, I never had to scream and was the last person
standing…twice.
Next up was ‘Fortunately, Unfortunately’ where we once again stood in a
circle. One person starts a story
and the next one continues it by saying ‘Fortunately’. The next one then proceeds with an unfortunate
occurrence and so and so forth. Since
there were nine of us, we each alternated between something fortunate and
unfortunate as we went around the circle.
This was one of my favorites since we were doing something creative and
was a great way for the kids to come up with innovative ideas.
Then was game which was popular
with the kids, ‘Emotion Party’. In this, the three children went out of the room with
a volunteer and made up some emotion or a character that they wanted to play. Then they would come in the room and act that
out while the rest of the volunteers guessed who they were. I was amazed at how much the kids liked
performing and in fact, they tried to do as many characters and emotions as they could.
Finally, we sat down to play the
lengthiest game of the day, ‘Skit
Creation’. This was something the
kids enjoyed doing as well. The idea was
to write a short story, including characters and dialogues; assign roles and
then perform. This was going to be one
of those 24-hour workshops where people try to make a film from scratch in a
day. In our case we had 20 minutes.
The story we came up with was a
Christmas party where two children break a vase while playing. This happens because the Christmas tree
topples over onto the vase. Fearing
their mother, they run outside and encounter Santa. He asks them what they want for Christmas and
instead of presents for themselves, they ask for a replacement vase. I suggested that we end the story with Santa
being impressed by their selflessness and giving them not only the vase, but
also plenty of presents. People liked
that and so we went about assigning the cast.
Adam and Yasmin were the children, Rebecca was the mom, Sara,
Katherine and Serena were the party guests, Sydney with a flair for the
dramatic was going to play the tree – including the topple - and I, the
only adult male, would play Santa. Tara
was going to be filming and Serena would also be responsible for on-the-fly set
changes.
We started by selecting the props
and as Santa, instead of a sack on my shoulder; I got to carry some long
stuffed animal toy. Plus, we couldn't find a Santa’s hat and so they gave me reindeer cap, which looked totally
ridiculous. This was then replaced by a
very colorful Oriental hat. We then did
a couple of practice runs and poor Sydney had to fall down in all of them. Finally, we
were ready to film and our practice helped us a lot. We all applauded the effort and then it was
time to go.
We said goodbye to the children
and before leaving I made a pitch to the volunteers to support the Macy’s
Believe Campaign – nothing like a little cross promotion. I walked to the train station chatting with
Sydney and she was off to another assignment where she was going to be tutoring
some kids. The opportunity description
for this on Chicago Cares website had concluded by saying “Students build confidence and abilities, and you may just learn
something as well”. I certainly
had. I had learned that sometimes
tragedies such as one which happened yesterday are almost impossible to avoid and its
natural to get angry. But we can take
comfort in each other and in children who look up to us for guidance. Today was exactly what was required. I went to see ‘The Hobbit’ later that day and there is a dialogue where Gandalf talks about how Saruman is wrong about people. In context of what had happened, I couldn't have said it better.
“Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check,
but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of
ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay... small acts of kindness and love”.
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
Keep keeping that darkness at bay.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of people doing that Jen.
ReplyDelete