The best part
So, It's no secret that this show is outside of the norm. Not only is it an unusual script for school productions (most schools stick to musicals), but the audience experience is different, there's food, and the students are doing all the work.
I am all for providing real-world experiences to students. I "hire" high school students to work as student directors. I ask art students to help paint the set. I get business-savvy students to handle the budget and house management. This year I went to the extreme.
The set was designed by a 9th grader, built by my middle school drama class, and painted by both my class and the same 9th grader. The kitchen is managed by an outdoor caterer (in accordance with state Health Department guidelines) but completely run by 7th graders. All the servers are 8th graders. My house manager who handles all ticket reservations and ushers is a 7th grader. My tech crew is made up of two 8th graders who had never touched a sound console before. Bottom line, this show is young, very young.
The best thing in the world happened last night. The show was 10 minutes from starting and I had nothing to do. The actors were all in costume and make-up doing warm-up exercises in the green room. The front of house was running smooth. When I checked in with my box office he was able to give me a quick run-down of our sales for the night and our projected total income. So I swung by the kitchen to check the progress there. Nope, not needed. The servers were in a really good groove and were expediting orders professionally and quickly. So I check with my "head chef" (a 7th grader) and she had just finished taking the food temperatures and was recording them in the temp log. I wander over to check on my tech crew. Nope, done. Everything is set and good to go.
The best part of the evening was my cashier for the kitchen. See, the ticket price comes with soup and a roll, but patrons can purchase additional sides (such as a salad or dessert). In order to keep track of the finances we have one student in charge of collecting all payments for the additionals. She is a very quiet and shy little 7th grader who is very good at what she knows how to do. The only catch is it may take her a little longer to learn something new. As a result, she is used to people "just doing it" for her. Well, this job is complex and we don't want to train multiple people to do it. She's in it, and she's in it for good. And you know what? SHE IS KILLING IT! She's amazing.
Aside from one flat not getting painted, I think this is the most successful student production in the history of our school. It may not be the most heart wrenching. It may not have the best music (or any music for that matter) but these kids have learned a lot. The spirit of the arts is alive and well. Even aside from that, at the age of 12, these little darlings are learning about business, how to treat people/clients, how to properly represent yourself, they are learning about finances (income-expenses= profit) etc.We're building entrepreneurs; something I've never accomplished with a play before.
MAGIC!
I am all for providing real-world experiences to students. I "hire" high school students to work as student directors. I ask art students to help paint the set. I get business-savvy students to handle the budget and house management. This year I went to the extreme.
The set was designed by a 9th grader, built by my middle school drama class, and painted by both my class and the same 9th grader. The kitchen is managed by an outdoor caterer (in accordance with state Health Department guidelines) but completely run by 7th graders. All the servers are 8th graders. My house manager who handles all ticket reservations and ushers is a 7th grader. My tech crew is made up of two 8th graders who had never touched a sound console before. Bottom line, this show is young, very young.
The best thing in the world happened last night. The show was 10 minutes from starting and I had nothing to do. The actors were all in costume and make-up doing warm-up exercises in the green room. The front of house was running smooth. When I checked in with my box office he was able to give me a quick run-down of our sales for the night and our projected total income. So I swung by the kitchen to check the progress there. Nope, not needed. The servers were in a really good groove and were expediting orders professionally and quickly. So I check with my "head chef" (a 7th grader) and she had just finished taking the food temperatures and was recording them in the temp log. I wander over to check on my tech crew. Nope, done. Everything is set and good to go.
The best part of the evening was my cashier for the kitchen. See, the ticket price comes with soup and a roll, but patrons can purchase additional sides (such as a salad or dessert). In order to keep track of the finances we have one student in charge of collecting all payments for the additionals. She is a very quiet and shy little 7th grader who is very good at what she knows how to do. The only catch is it may take her a little longer to learn something new. As a result, she is used to people "just doing it" for her. Well, this job is complex and we don't want to train multiple people to do it. She's in it, and she's in it for good. And you know what? SHE IS KILLING IT! She's amazing.
Aside from one flat not getting painted, I think this is the most successful student production in the history of our school. It may not be the most heart wrenching. It may not have the best music (or any music for that matter) but these kids have learned a lot. The spirit of the arts is alive and well. Even aside from that, at the age of 12, these little darlings are learning about business, how to treat people/clients, how to properly represent yourself, they are learning about finances (income-expenses= profit) etc.We're building entrepreneurs; something I've never accomplished with a play before.
MAGIC!
Hear hear! It's an awesome show and every kid involved is doing GREAT!!! :)
ReplyDeleteI second that!!! This show is the best there will ever be ;)
ReplyDelete