Troupe members happily greeting each other with their puppets.
Dear Friends,
I hope everyone is having a wonderful month and staying healthy!
Alauna shows class the costume details on her Homer Zuckerman puppet.
It has been so much fun visiting the Wednesday Troupe this semester. I have enjoyed seeing how they are creating their May production, Charlotte’s Web. The students are learning how to work with their puppets, concentrating on how to make them move while acting out their scenes. I was also watching Elijah, he is so excited about being in theater! It was fun seeing how he moved his puppet.
Delyla greets her new theater friends.
I was watching Delyla move her puppet. She did it with ease and grace. Delyla is new to the class, however she seems so comfortable. It is fun watching her because she handles her puppet so easily.
The students danced to the slow winter music. It was very calming and then they did the photographer dance which was very lively.
This is so cool! One student wasn’t sure how to move her body in one scene. She didn’t know how to make her puppet move to show emotions. A teacher coached her. Then she tried to do it again and this time, she was amazing. Everyone cheered her!
The Wednesday Troupe warms up with movement and breath
It was time for the students to go to breakout rooms to work on their puppets for Charlotte’s Web. I saw some pretty cool puppets. Brian held up a picture that he drew of Charlotte. He was so proud.
Microphone-time happens at the end of each class. This is when students take turns performing singing and dancing. They look forward to microphone- time. One student has blossomed so much. She just recently sang for microphone-time and while she was singing she was quite expressive with her arms fluidly moving to the music.
The students are starting to rehearse their lines while moving their puppets. It’s a lot of work but they are learning. Elijah was performing with his character puppet. He was full of smiles while he used his iPad to help him deliver his lines.
In the Thursday Troupe we are excited to be bringing our puppets to life for our show, Daydreaming! We’re learning how to move our new friends within our windows, how to breathe with them. It might sound silly to breathe with our puppets, but when I see what Sher means, it makes sense! I had never worked with puppets and I thought that it was easy making them move, but it isn’t at all.
We wrote stories about the relationship between our puppets and ourselves. So many different stories! These stories get right to the heart and are pretty cool. Evan read his story right away as Bob the Director. He was very excited. When we went into breakout rooms, we had to connect with our new puppet-friends by talking and interacting.
Jenny and Cheryl have great fun together
I was literally in tears as I was listening to my wonderful friend, Jenny, talking to Cheryl, her puppet. It really was hysterical when they were arguing back and forth about who talks more. I absolutely think that Jenny is an amazing actor, she’s so funny and really gets into her character. If I had my way, I could listen to them go at it for a long time.
Allie and her puppet character Ashley
Allie, our new student, just joined our class and we found out that she has a wonderful voice.
Allie will be singing a solo in Daydreaming.
I don’t know if you know it or not, but in March and the first week in April, we have rehearsals twice a week, Thursday and Friday mornings. We are already there, hard to believe! It feels like this semester is flying right by. I would like to invite you to come to one of our amazing online performances:
Daydreaming
April 14th and 15th at 10:30 am and April 16th at 7:00 pm.
Please write me anytime if you have any questions about Theatre Adventure, I am always available to you! (squiresmelody90@gmail.com) I really hope to hear from you.
Stay healthy!
Melody Squires
Theatre Adventure Student, Board Member, Summer Painting Teacher