Everybody Act Blog Feedhttp://www.everybodyact.com/index.phpGet the latest news on what's happening at Everybody Act!enKevin RayEverybody Act LLC2013-08-18T22:11:31-04:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Sun, 18 Aug 2013 23:02:52 -0400Days 8, 9 and 10Kevin RayNewtown Creek Celebration2013-08-18T22:11:31-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_2013_days_8_9_and_10.html#unique-entry-id-18http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_2013_days_8_9_and_10.html#unique-entry-id-18by Sherry Teitelbaum and Kevin Ray

Day 8: Putting It Together


Day 8 saw intense, focused work as we sequenced our original material to tell our story. Kevin introduced music he had composed for each section. Heather worked frantically to put the final touches on many of the puppets the young people had built, dashing between our workshop construction room and the large cafeteria that was our devising space. The three of us brainstormed on how we could turn some of the 4th and 5th graders’ ideas for community projects (for example, an eco friendly airport) into black and white object puppets for use in a giant human scale which the young people had created with their own bodies. And whenever we were free, we painted, painted, painted. The day’s big discovery: why not try a voice-over edited into the music to tell the story of Part I, “Falling Woman: The Myth of the Creation of Newtown Creek and Greenpoint”? And so Kevin spent the night creating a voiceover track!

Day 9: The Big Show


On the morning of our performance, we went outside to the playground at PS 34 and rehearsed each group one at a time. After lunch we brought all of the groups together for a final run through.

Newtown_Creek_Celebration_2013_22
At 3 p.m. the youth picked up their puppets and began parading from PS 34, through the streets of Greenpoint to McGolrick Park. At the park we performed for an audience of over 125 people including youth from School Settlement’s Day Camp, our young people’s family members, friends, and Greenpoint community residents. At 3:30 pm, we performed a three-part show: Part I was a myth of the creation of Greenpoint; Part II was the gentrification of Greenpoint expressed through a puppet dance between trees, houses and skyscrapers; and Part III was a zany Community Participatory Budget Circus inspired by our youth participants’ observations made during a process drama activity earlier in the workshop. To see more pictures from the show click here.

The performance was a fantastic culmination to our workshop. A guest from the NYC Department of Youth & Community Development (DYCD) told Kasia, the director of the summer camp, that the show was, “Like being in Wonderland!”

Newtown Creek Celebration 2013 Shrimp Puppets

Day 10: Papa Macho


This was our time to get feedback from our young participants and find out what they had enjoyed about the project and what they had found challenging. It was also our opportunity to say goodbye and acknowledge the wonderful work the young people had done. Kevin, Heather and Sherry designed short, interactive evaluation sessions that matched the developmental abilities of the participants, since their ages ranged from kindergarten all the way up to 5th grade. With the youngest participants (grades K, 1 and 2), we used a technique called “turn and talk” in which you turn to a partner, discuss a question together, and then share your answer with the larger group if you so wish. With the older participants (grades 3, 4 and 5) we used a fun approach called “graffiti board” in which you write your answers to questions on large pieces of chart paper taped to the walls. We discovered that many of the older participants were leaving the project with a very different understanding of what a puppet was and how it could be used, as well as with a firm grasp of how to build a puppet from scratch. We also learned that many in the group found paper mâché (which they dubbed “papa macho”) challenging.

But
Newtown_Creek_Celebration_2013_Community Participatory Budget
the most rewarding moment in the day was when the 4th and 5th graders who had participated in a process drama about community participatory budgeting over a week ago demanded to know which community group had been awarded the $1 million which had been at stake. We abandoned our planned session and followed their lead, using a game called “Four Corners” to determine who would receive the funding. The young people decided that the money should go to Greenpoint’s teachers, stating quite clearly that without good teachers, the other interest groups would not even exist!

The day ended as young people streamed out of PS 34’s playground, joyfully carrying their puppets home.]]>Days 6 and 7: Building a Movement Vocabulary in a BasementKevin RayNewtown Creek Celebration2013-08-14T08:14:03-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_2013_days_6_and_7.html#unique-entry-id-17http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_2013_days_6_and_7.html#unique-entry-id-17
By Sherry Teitelbaum

Days 6 and 7 consisted of two days of intense, creative devising as the young people experimented with the puppets they had constructed and painted in the first week. Kindergarten, first and second graders discovered all the movements they could make with their shrimp hand puppets, buck-toothed beavers, hot pink and orange fish, laughing gull rod puppets and a supple piece of striped blue cloth representing Newtown Creek. Third graders explored how to make their trees, houses and skyscrapers dance, transforming an open playing space into a crowded cityscape. Fourth and fifth graders continued to find movements and poses that expressed their four community interest groups: artists, teachers, business people and military. Then they explored how to build a giant human scale with their bodies that could weigh competing community needs. Normally we devise outside in the school’s playground, but rain drove us into a large basement cafeteria space for these sessions (the very space we will use for the public performance in case of rain on Thursday afternoon, August 15!). Creative cacophony reigned as small groups worked simultaneously with Kevin, Sherry and Heather in different parts of the room, then joined together to share what they had crafted. At one point in Day 7, the cafeteria reverberated with the voices of the three facilitators and the camp counselors coaching their groups, gleeful giggles, a chorus of “tick tocks” and “happy dance,” and circus music which Kevin played on his smart phone to inspire silly walks and an accelerated tempo. By the end of the two days we had established a movement vocabulary and tried out some preliminary sequencing. The challenge for tomorrow: how can we tell a strong, clear story in each of the three parts of Tides of Change?]]>Day 5: Young People Strut Their Stuff at Intergenerational WorkshopKevin RayNewtown Creek Celebration2013-08-11T20:12:20-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_2013_day_5.html#unique-entry-id-16http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_2013_day_5.html#unique-entry-id-16
By Sherry Teitelbaum
A highpoint of the Newtown Creek Celebration each summer is our intergenerational workshop where the 4th and 5th graders participating in the project visit North Brooklyn Development Corp.’s Dupont Senior Housing unit. They work side by side with the older adults that reside there to create puppets, costumes or props for use in the outdoo
Green Sashes Created at Intergenerational Workshop
r performance at McGolrick Park. This year Heather and Kevin brought over bags stuffed with recycled fabric from Materials for the Arts. Young people and older adults worked together to trace, cut, iron, stuff and drape costume elements which suggested the four neighborhood groups that the young people will be playing in Part 3 of the performance: bright scarves for the artists; bow-ties and ribbon bows for the teachers; oversized ties for the business people; and sashes and medals for the military. Then Kevin
IMG_2198
led a session of instantaneous playbuilding as young people created an impromptu fashion show to showcase the new costumes. Kevin narrated the story of balancing competing neighborhood interests as Camp Director Kasia Selwesiuk-Swietochowski translated into Polish. The thirteen older adults laughed and applauded as the young people strutted their stuff and struck tableau poses which were characteristic of each interest group. The fashion show was not only fun, but gave us a leg up on devising, which starts in earnest on Monday.]]>Day 4: Adding Up The Puppet PiecesKevin RayNewtown Creek Celebration2013-08-07T21:02:00-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_2013_day_4.html#unique-entry-id-15http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_2013_day_4.html#unique-entry-id-15by Kevin Ray

At the end of our third day making pieces that will be assembled into puppets for our final performance, teaching artist Heather Nielsen counted all of the paper mâché components that we have amassed with our youth participants. In total our 80 young people have used recycled cardboard, used paper bags, and cornstarch paper mâché paste to build 120 puppet pieces. The following is Heather's tally:

  • Laughing Gull Puppet Pieces
    Beaver Head Piece 19
  • Beaver Tails 10
  • Laughing Gull Puppet Bodies 10
  • Laughing Gull Puppet Wings 20
  • Laughing Gull Puppet Tails 12
  • Fish Puppet Bodies 5
  • House Puppets 7
  • High Rise Puppets 3
  • Tree Puppets 4
  • Tree Tops 4
  • Tree Leaves 2
  • Dollar Signs 5
  • Coins 5
  • Hamburgers 5
  • Wind Turbine Blades 4
  • Airplane Body 1
  • Airplane Wings 1
  • Frames 3

Now that we have our pieces we move on to the next step tomorrow: painting!
]]>Day 3: For Today, It’s OK!Kevin RayNewtown Creek Celebration2013-08-06T22:09:17-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_2013_day_3.html#unique-entry-id-14http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_2013_day_3.html#unique-entry-id-14By Sherry Teitelbaum

Day 3 was four sessions of paper mâché! Inspired by Kevin’s new mantra, “For today, it’s OK, to be gloppy and gross, all day,” almost eighty young people dipped their fingers into Heather’s special cornstarch and warm water mix and stroked, stroked, stroked until their pieces of torn paper bags adhered smoothly to the cardboard bases of their puppets. Young people were delighted to greet old cardboard friends that they recognized from yesterday’s puppet shows (beaver faces, beaver paddle tails, gull wings, gull bodies, houses) as well as to meet new cardboard pieces that were inspired by the work that the 4th and 5th graders did at yesterday’s Town Budget Meeting (hamburgers, dollar signs, nickels and dimes, wind turbines, trees). High points of the paper mâché sessions were when one girl taught Sherry a call and response song as they worked together on a puppet and the spontaneous creation of a “paper factory” so that children who were bored or needed a change from the gloppy texture could keep the group puppet-making machine going by shredding paper bags at a fast, crisp tempo. Before we moved to the paper mâché work tables, we started each session seated in a circle on the floor so that Kevin could check in with each group to find out what they remembered from Day 2. I was quite moved when one child talked about “a tree that couldn’t breathe any longer and had started to lose its leaves.”
Popsicle Stick Tree Losing Leaves
The challenge for this year’s project is to find active, visual ways to explore and represent neighborhood change – as well as how to balance competing agendas for change. Yesterday’s stick puppet show – which showed a neighborhood in flux growing more and more crowded – clearly started third graders thinking about these issues.
]]>Day 2: Before the Paper Mâché Comes the StoryKevin RayNewtown Creek Celebration2013-08-06T07:56:31-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_2013_day_two.html#unique-entry-id-13http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_2013_day_two.html#unique-entry-id-13by Heather Nielsen

"When are we going to start making the puppets?" was the eager question we were greeted with multiple times before the clock had even struck 9 on Monday morning. The sight of piles of cardboard, paper bags, and paper mâché paste reminded the returning young people of our puppet making process last year and piqued the interest of new campers as they wondered what creatures we would be creating!

Before we started to rip paper and get our hands gloopy with paper mâché, we introduced each group of young people to their section of our 2013 theme: The Tides of Change. Through interactive storytelling, stick puppetry, and process drama, we presented puppets that the youth will be making over the coming days to give them a tangible sense of what their role in this puppet show will be. ]]>Session One Revised: One Year LaterKevin RayNewtown Creek Celebration2013-08-02T23:50:55-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/session_one_revised.html#unique-entry-id-12http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/session_one_revised.html#unique-entry-id-12by Kevin Ray

Repeating a community based arts project one year later offers a wonderful opportunity: a chance to do things differently the second time around! After reflecting on our 2012 session plans for Newtown Creek Celebration: Puppet Parade and Pageant, teaching artists Heather Nielsen, Sherry Teitelbaum and I realized that we overlooked an important element: we did not incorporate basic puppetry concepts into our session designs. We never asked the youth questions like: “What is a puppet?”, “Who uses puppets and what do they use them for?” and “As puppeteers, how do we bring inanimate object to life?” We didn’t facilitate hands on activities to develop the youth’s basic puppetry skills. Instead, we jumped right into building puppets and creating a show. Although our 2012 culminating event was very successful, we wished we had built the youths’ puppeteering skills before we began creating the show. So when we received two grants from Brooklyn Arts Council to reprise the project in 2013, we were determined to take a different approach, starting on day one.]]>Setting Up Shop: From Civil War Hospital to Puppet LabKevin RayNewtown Creek Celebration2013-07-31T16:36:15-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/setting_up_shop.html#unique-entry-id-11http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/setting_up_shop.html#unique-entry-id-11

by Sherry Teitelbaum

Kevin, Heather and I had a very exciting day on Monday: we visited PS 34 in Greenpoint, where the puppet building, movement and improvisational workshops for Newtown Creek Celebration 2013 will take place during the next two weeks. PS 34 is one of the oldest public schools in Brooklyn.
It was originally used as a hospital in the Civil War. Behind its brick façade is a rabbit’s warren of irregularly shaped classrooms, sans hallways, arranged railroad flat style. We spent several productive planning hours meeting with our biggest fan, the hard-working, high-energy Kasia Selwesiuk-Swietochowski, Director of the North Brooklyn Development Corporation Summer Camp. After the four of us nailed down the daily schedule and reviewed some preliminary story boards, Kasia showed us the two rooms where we will set up shop. We also greeted the approximately 80 young people who will be participating in the project this summer, as they filed past us in their bright yellow T-shirts on their way to a neighborhood field trip. About half the youth are repeat participants from Newtown Creek Celebration 2012, and they treated us to huge smiles of recognition and enthusiastic hand-waving. We’re all set to co-lead our first workshops in our new digs on Thursday. We will be blogging our progress throughout the project so stay tuned for our next blog entry!
]]>Newtown Creek Celebration Needs Your SupportKevin RayNewtown Creek Celebration2013-07-22T18:47:40-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_needs_your_support.html#unique-entry-id-10http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/newtown_creek_celebration_needs_your_support.html#unique-entry-id-10Newtown Creek Celebration Creek Spirit and Fish Puppets

Newtown Creek Celebration is back for 2013 and needs your support.


Above is an image from the 2012 culminating event. The project was so successful that we’ve been invited to return! We look forward to two weeks this August full of sparked curiosity, paper mache, movement, story and music, followed by a joyous outdoor celebration in McGolrick Park on August 15th that will captivate neighbors, start conversations between parents and youth, and inspire environmental action!

While we are delighted to have received modest funding from the city and state of New York to create Newtown Creek Celebration: 2013, we are still $4,500 shy of the funds we need to start the second year of this free summer program on August 1st.

Can you help us? Please click here to view our fundraising video on Indiegogo.
]]>5 Discoveries About Presenting Applied Theater Work At An Academic Conference Kevin RayNewtown Creek Celebration2013-03-23T16:02:44-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/presenting_applied_theater_work_at_academic_conference.html#unique-entry-id-9http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/presenting_applied_theater_work_at_academic_conference.html#unique-entry-id-9

Written by Heather Nielsen, Kevin Ray, and Sherry Teitelbaum

On March 17th, Everybody Act! teaching artists Heather Nielsen, Kevin Ray, and Sherry Teitelbaum returned to our alma mater, The CUNY School of Professional Studies, to make a presentation at the Masters in Applied Theatre program’s inaugural Applied Theatre Lab Conference. Our presentation, Community Celebration, Pollution and Puppets: Developing and Implementing an Applied Theater Project, was a case study of the 2012 planning and implementation of Newtown Creek Celebration: Puppet Parade and Pageant. The presentation touched on every phase of the project, from pitching it to potential community partners, to identifying potential funding sources and securing grant support, to balancing our creative vision with the dynamics that our youth participants brought to the table. In this blog post, we share discoveries we made as we overcame some of the challenges we encountered in presenting our applied theater work.]]>Words, Words, Words: 2012 In Review Via Word CloudKevin RayFrom The Director's Desk2012-12-31T14:02:20-05:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/2012_year_in_review.html#unique-entry-id-8http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/2012_year_in_review.html#unique-entry-id-8blogEntryTopperby Kevin Ray
Kevin Ray at Newtown Creek Celebration Puppet Parade and Pageant

Writing A Useful Year in Review


As 2012 comes to a close, I decided to write a year in review for Everybody Act! I thought it would be a great way give everyone an inside look at the arts-in-education projects and the community-based projects that happened in 2012. I also thought it would be an opportunity to reflect on the work that was done this year and, if structured well, might be useful in revealing areas of growth for the work and the blog in 2013.
]]>After The Storm, LGBTQ Theater Project Goes On With The ShowKevin RayBridging the Gap2012-11-29T19:10:19-05:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/after_the_storm_lgbtq_theater_project_goes_on_with_the_show.html#unique-entry-id-7http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/after_the_storm_lgbtq_theater_project_goes_on_with_the_show.html#unique-entry-id-7blogEntryTopperby Kevin Ray

On Friday, October 26th, 2012, it never occurred to us that Hurricane Sandy was about to have a significant impact on our grant funded applied theater project, Bridging the Gap. ]]>First Week and an Unexpected OutcomeKevin RayOur Play's the Thing2012-08-05T01:43:56-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/first_week_and_an_unexpected_outcome.html#unique-entry-id-5http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/first_week_and_an_unexpected_outcome.html#unique-entry-id-5by Kevin Ray

I had a great time planning and facilitating the first week of Our Play’s the Thing at Young Israel of Forest Hills Senior League with my collaborator Sherry Teitelbaum. Our Play’s the Thing is a two-week Creative Aging project designed to support seniors in creating and performing an original play. We met with our group members at Young Israel after lunch for two hours each day of the week.]]>Our Play's the Thing Recruitment EventKevin RayOur Play's the Thing2012-07-25T21:23:16-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/our_plays_the_thing_recruitment_event.html#unique-entry-id-4http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/our_plays_the_thing_recruitment_event.html#unique-entry-id-4Kevin Ray

“Welcome home!” That was the first thing Susan Rabinowicz, director of the Young Israel of Forest Hills Senior League, said to us when we arrived for our recruitment event on Tuesday. The center will be our second home starting next Monday as Sherry Teitlebaum and I will be co-facilitating a two-week theater project with older adults, culminating in a free performance at the center on Thursday, August 9th at 1 p.m. The project is called Our Play’s the Thing.

Sherry and I were at the center on Tuesday to personally introduce the project to prospective participants. First, we visited an exercise class to give a short presentation about what the project would entail. We explained that people in the project would be creating and performing an original play inspired by a physical object such as keys, flowers, or shoes. Then we went to the lunch room to speak about the class to other members at the center. Next we showed our crowd funding campaign video to a few small groups of seniors. They smiled and laughed when they saw our interviews with Susan and other members from the center. Finally we sat down and chatted about the programs with individual folks over lunch served by the center: baked tilapia.

I had a wonderful time meeting and talking with older adults from the center. I sat in on a card game, heard a wonderful love song about a rooster, and caught up with some of the women we interviewed for our video.

I am very excited about the start of Our Play’s the Thing. If you want to follow the project, check back to this blog for updates. On with the show!

This project is made possible in part with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by the Queens Council on the Arts. Funded under contract with the New York City Department for the Aging. Additional support provided by Everybody Act! Theater in Education & Communities.


blogEntryTopper]]>The Little Senior Center that Could Kevin RayOur Play's the Thing2012-07-25T18:54:14-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/the_little_senior_center_that_could.html#unique-entry-id-3http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/the_little_senior_center_that_could.html#unique-entry-id-3Sherry Teitelbaum

Susan Rabinowicz has been running the Young Israel of Forest Hills Senior League for twenty-three years. A spunky, down to earth, practical woman with an infectious laugh, she has steered her senior center through the ups and downs of funding crises and managed a major renovation that increased accessibility to its services. She has been there for her constituents as they negotiated the daily challenges of living on a fixed income in a changing neighborhood.

But next week, Susan is embracing a new challenge. She is partnering with Everybody Act! to offer Our Play’s the Thing to Queens’s older adults, age sixty and up, who want to create an original play through storytelling, improvisation and theater games.

Susan has a close relationship of three years’ standing with the Master’s program in Applied Theatre at The CUNY School of Professional Studies. So when CUNY graduates Kevin Ray, founder of Everybody Act!, and Sherry Teitelbaum approached Susan about piloting their theater project at the Senior League, Susan didn’t hesitate a minute: she enthusiastically said, “Yes!” As Susan co-planned the project with Kevin and Sherry, she clearly stated her main goal: “Some of the seniors that come to this center are isolated, without someone to talk to at home. It’s important to give them a voice. And that’s what I hope this project will do.”

Up to fifteen older adults may register for the free playbuilding program, which runs from July 30 through August 10 at the Young Israel of Forest Hills Senior League, located at 68-07 Burns Street in Forest Hills. Workshops take place from 12:45 to 2:45 PM, Mondays through Thursdays and on Fridays from 12 – 1:30 PM. On Thursday, August 9 at 1:00 PM, the group will perform the short play they created in the Senior League’s multi-purpose common room. The performance is open to the public and free of charge. No reservations are necessary.
With Susan’s strong hand at the engine throttle, the Young Israel of Forest Hills Senior League has become the little senior center that could. It is chug-a-lugging into a future where its constituents will become active creators of culture. For more information or to register, contact Susan Rabinowicz, 718-520-2305, foresthillsseniorctr@nyc.rr.com.

The project is made possible in part with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by the Queens Council on the Arts. Funded under contract with the New York City Department for the Aging. Additional support provided by Everybody Act! Theater in Education & Communities.
blogEntryTopper]]>Support Newtown Creek CelebrationKevin RayNewtown Creek Celebration2012-06-22T23:58:28-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/support_newtown_creek_celebration.html#unique-entry-id-2http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/support_newtown_creek_celebration.html#unique-entry-id-2My collaborators, Sherry Teitelbaum, Heather Nielsen and I dreamed up a way to use puppetry, pageantry and parade elements to engage young people with an environmental problem right in their backyard: polluted Newtown Creek.

Did you know that 17 to 30 million gallons of oil have been spilled into Newton Creek?

Currently, the creek is being cleaned up. But when the cleanup is complete, who do you think will be of voting age to demand public green space? Today’s young people! In a fun and creative way, our arts project will begin to plant the seeds of agency in today’s youth.

But we can’t do the project without your support.
Visit the campaign and make a contribution today by clicking on widget below!

And guess what? We have lots of perks for everyone who contributes! Visit the campaign page to see perks ranging from posters, to photos of the event, even a puppet from the show!

If you can’t contribute to the campaign, there’s other ways you can help make this project happen
  • Visit the campaign and click the share tools right under the video. You can “like” the campaign and send it to Facebook or “tweet” it to send it to your followers.
  • Forward this email to folks you know who might be interested in supporting youth development, environmental, or arts projects
  • Join us at the final event on August 23rd at 3:30 pm in McGolrick Park, Brooklyn. It’s free and open to the public!
Thank you for taking time to read about our project and for visiting our campaign’s website! I look forward to your support and hope to see you in McGolrick park on August 23rd! Send me an email and let me know if you'll be there!

All the Best,

Kevin
blogEntryTopper]]>2011-12 School Year in Review & Discoveries in Practice Kevin RayFrom The Director's Desk2012-06-22T22:06:57-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/school_year_in_review_and_discoveries_in_practice.html#unique-entry-id-1http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/school_year_in_review_and_discoveries_in_practice.html#unique-entry-id-1

PS 34 Oliver H. Perry Elementary School | Brooklyn, NY


Project Description
At PS 34, I worked with second grade students and teachers on a theater program I developed called Character Counts! On Stage and Off. I collaborated with the teachers to develop and facilitate an arts integrated program in Theater, English Language Arts, and Character Education for three classes. The program expanded on the school’s existing “Reader’s Theater” and “Character Counts!” Programs by adapting three books by Brooklyn based children’s author Michelle Knudsen into three short plays. Each of Knudsen’s books highlighted a character education concept: Carl the Complainer – citizenship; Library Lion – responsibility; Argus - respect.

The program was designed to:
  • Increase language acquisition in English language learners
  • Stimulate interest among second grade students in independent reading
  • Reinforce NYS Learning Standards for ELA and the Arts
  • Deepen students’ understanding of character education concepts (e.g. citizenship, respect, responsibility, caring, fairness, trustworthiness) and the ways in which students can employ these concepts in their real lives
    • Increase students’ self-confidence as a result of participating in a successful performance
The program was made possible with funds from the Local Capacity Building Initiative, a regrant program of the Arts in Education Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn and the Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).

Discovery In Practice
As part of the program, I worked with teachers and students to develop an ongoing rubric to track the students’ success after each session. Each of the three classes had their own rubric which included assessments based on areas such as “Using Expression”, “Using Kind Words”, and “Fluency”. Both students and teachers created the make up of their own class rubric. At the end of each in-class session, I asked the students to evaluate themselves by a show of hands. I asked them a question like, “As a whole group, how do you think you did today with using expression?” Then they raised their hands for “1: No Expression, 2: Some expression, 3: A good amount of expression, or 4: The best expression we could do.” Each time, I allowed the majority to rule and I wrote up the number in the class chart. By the second session I noticed something interesting. The students where overwhelmingly giving themselves a “4” in each category, which initially disappointed me because it seemed to defeat the purpose of having the students self-evaluate. I thought, “If they’re just going to give themselves a 4 every time, what’s the use of doing this?” However, I began to notice that there was always one or two students who disagreed with the majority of “4” givers. So one day I asked a dissenting student, “Why do you say 3?” Her response was incredibly accurate and truthful. So much so that she swayed the majority into understanding why they all should give themselves a more appropriate evaluation. I continued this practice of calling on the dissenters in each class and found that they were always able to clearly articulate their reasoning. It really showed me the power of truthfulness, bravery and the ability of an individual to influence a group.


PS 144 Col Jeromus Remsen | Forest Hills, NY


Project Description
At PS 144, I worked with first grade students and teachers on a playbuilding program called Insects & Spiders On Stage! While I had initially proposed working on classic fairy tales, the teachers suggested incorporating a science curriculum tie in at our planning meeting. I’m always excited when teachers come to a planning meeting with interesting ideas; and while I had done A LOT of homework to be ready to work on fairy tales, I was more than willing to go in a new direction. To paraphrase director Peter Brook, “you do the preparation to throw it out!”

The first grade students were doing a unit on insects so we decided to use Eric Carle’s books such as The Grouchy Ladybug and The Very Busy Spider as our starting points. Each class of the five first grade classes focused on a different book by Carle and through playbuilding techniques such as tableaux, thought-tracking, and creative sound and movement activities, we devised five original performances, each about five to seven minutes in length. The plays incorporated different music elements. In our adaptation of The Honeybee and the Robber, the students, in role as bees, created a dance to Perez Prado’s Cuban arrangement of “The Flight of the Bumble Bee.” As part of The Very Lonely Firefly, first grade teacher Ms. Devine played guitar and wrote an original firefly song with the students. Finally, our version of The Very Busy Spider incorporated a processional style spider puppet operated by nine students!
The program was made possible by the generosity of the Parents’ Association of PS 144.

Discovery in Practice
As I was watching the students perform for their parents and teachers during the culminating event, I was struck by how tickled the audience was whenever the students used sound and movement to bring their insect and animal characters to life on stage. When six students playing mosquitoes entered the stage making high-pitched noises and flapping their arms as wings, the audience laughed raucously. As part of our improvisation during an in-class session, the students performing The Grouchy Ladybug came up with the idea to have the snake (played by five students joined together with their hands on their shoulders) enter singing and dancing “Conga-Line” style. This also received a great reaction form the audience. These sounds and movements created by the students helped me see that theatricality is just as important as dialogue - for elementary students, maybe even more so because projecting their voices in a cavernous auditorium is very challenging – even for adults! The insect and animal sounds and movements they created were so vividly executed that they told the story in a way that enhanced the dialogue. It made me wonder about using less dialogue in the future and finding more ways for young students to tell stories on stage through sounds and movements.

Conclusion


So that’s the year in review. I hope that it gave you a little insight into the work going on at Everybody Act! I also hope that my discoveries in practice will support you in your own work as you begin to plan for the 2012-13 school year.

Have a great summer!
blogEntryTopper
Kevin
]]>From The Director's DeskKevin RayFrom The Director's Desk2011-09-23T05:17:19-04:00http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/from_the_directors_desk.html#unique-entry-id-0http://www.everybodyact.com/blog_files/from_the_directors_desk.html#unique-entry-id-0Hello!
My name is Kevin Ray and I am the Executive Director and Founder of Everybody Act! Theater in Education & Communities.

I am thrilled to announce that Everybody Act! is a new face on the arts services provider scene and I look forward to developing creative opportunities with new partners. I chose the name Everybody Act! because it perfectly frames the dual purposes of my core beliefs when using theater with youth and community members: I believe that everybody can learn performance skills to act on stage and that everybody can take action in their daily lives in response to what they have created on stage.]]>