The Plays...

People are always a little amused when they interview at the Garden School when we say we put on two fully costumed and fully acted plays every school year. I tell them that it's important to the children, and they nod and smile...

The truth is, the play is one of the most important things we do at the Garden School. First, it fulfills many of the kindergarten standards, secondly, it allows children to step outside themselves and become someone else in public...and that's fun, but it's also a kind of creativity that begins on the inside of a person and continues all the way out and into an audience.

My theory on Kindergarten is that is most kindergarten curricula should be a project for four year olds because that's when they want it. By five, a child is into his first formative imagination where he directs his mind to explore, experience and dream about what ifs. If a child has the reading and writing skills AT five, he is more likely to be more creative and therefore brighter and therefore more aware...and that train follows right into old age.

Plays encourage the arts, social skills, imagination skills, and group activity. It's not MY play, it's not YOUR play, it's OUR play, and my line is important in the story to get to your line which moves to other lines until we have told our story, made people laugh and had a splendid good learning experience.

Plays are not things one will generally find in most schools because they are hard to do. Enterprising teacher, who think things through, will know that when you produce a play, it generally fulfills a lot of state standards.

But where do you get plays? I write mine, but that's something children can do, many parents would love to do, and even the Internet has plays.

A good play needs to be the length the children can handle. Our first play is about fifteen minutes long. Our Spring play has been a half hour. This is long enough. A play needs to tell a story and have enough dialogue that every child has at least one line. Some children will not deliver a line in public. One year, my grandson held up a sign that said his line because he was terrified. He didn't mind standing on stage, he just didn't want to say anything. By the time he was graduated from the GS, he was a top star.

Don't be afraid of changing lines mid practice. It's good for the kids and it's good for the play. Children should always be comfortable reciting their lines, and they should not fear getting a chuckle from the audience.

We invite parents and grandparents to our plays. It's always a grand time. Children always grow so big during play practice and especially on the performance day.

Plays also bring children together and make the group bonded as no other thing can bond them.

This year, Miss Amy is directing our play. She is doing a fantastic job and the kids are loving it. Can't wait for the end product... November 18 at 2:00!