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<\/a><\/p>\nThat is only part of the drama for a cast of characters in \u201cOnce Upon a Time: Reporting Live,\u201d one of two original plays performed at elementary schools throughout the spring by seniors in the Visual and Performing Arts Academy (VPAA) at Salem High School.<\/p>\n
The second production, \u201cDon\u2019t Judge a Monster by its Tentacles,\u201d has its own share of drama when the main character has a nightmare before her first day at a new school, filling her dreams and the stage with monsters.<\/p>\n
Sharon Byrd, VPAA lead theatre teacher, established the Academy Children\u2019s Theater Company (ACTC) four years ago as a culminating project for her senior theatre students. Students in the VPAA visual arts strand also lend their talents to the ACTC by helping create set pieces and costumes.<\/p>\n The high school performers travel with their own sets, props and costumes, setting up the stage in 10-15 minutes and making quick costume changes before the school cafeteria fills with students.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the release of or transfer of responsibility,\u201d explained Byrd. \u201cThey spent four years learning all of these elements. This is that final moment when they get to process everything they\u2019ve learned into a performance \u2013 a performance assessment, if you will. You have to write it; you have to direct it; you have to develop it; and then tour with it. It makes it theirs. They own their art.\u201d<\/p>\n Also owning the art are third-graders at Old Donation School (ODS) who collaborated with the VPAA seniors in the ACTC to create and develop the two plays.<\/p>\n In a series of workshops this winter, VPAA seniors met with students in two third-grade classes at ODS to create the works that focus on the hero\u2019s journey, which is part of the third-grade curriculum.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went in with an idea,\u201d said Jenna Hasher, who played a standoffish character named Triz in \u201cDon\u2019t Judge a Monster by its Tentacles.\u201d \u201cLike, we knew we wanted to do monsters and they knew they wanted to do fairy tales. Then we went to the classroom and we started asking them: What do you want to learn; what do you think is important to learn? We went back [to Salem], came up with a script and went back to ODS to start creating more of the characters. They were a big part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Kaylah Bridges, who played Little Red Riding Hood in \u201cOnce Upon a Time: Reporting Live,\u201d added, \u201cWe collaborated with them on what the characters might look like, what they might act like, how they might move around.\u201d<\/p>\n When it was decided that the Three Little Pigs in \u201cOnce Upon a Time: Reporting Live\u201d would give up their house construction business and start touring with a band, the characters needed music to perform.<\/p>\n \u201cWe asked the kids to make up a song that the Three Little Pigs might do, and it\u2019s supposed to be a horrible song on purpose,\u201d said Bridges.<\/p>\n As scripted, the pigs sang horribly. And each audience laughed and laughed.<\/p>\n It was one of many funny moments that kept students entertained during each play, including a dancing teddy bear and Humpty Dumpty, who doesn\u2019t want to have another great fall from a wall.<\/p>\n While the performers kept audiences laughing, they hoped the moral of each story would be the most memorable.<\/p>\n \u201cOur biggest takeaway from \u2018Don\u2019t Judge a Monster by its Tentacles\u2019 is to be true to yourself,\u201d said Hasher. \u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to make friends at a new school or anywhere really, never try to be something you\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd at the end,\u201d continued Hasher, \u201c[Mimi] realizes that while the monsters are outwardly scary, inwardly they\u2019re not as bad as they seem at first.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t judge,\u201d Bridges added to the moral of Hasher\u2019s play. \u201cIt\u2019s basically, don\u2019t judge anybody before you meet them. Get to know somebody and then make that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n Of the play she performed in, Bridges said, \u201cThe moral of \u2018Once Upon a Time\u2019 is do what you love. Don\u2019t do something just to get by or just because other people are doing it. Do what you want to do because you like to do it. That kind of applies to us as theatre students.\u201d<\/p>\n The question-and-answer session after a performance of \u201cOnce Upon a Time: Reporting Live\u201d was proof that audience members did receive the messages the high school performers hoped to deliver.<\/p>\n \u201cDid anybody learn anything?\u201d asked one student actor sitting on the edge of the stage.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n