This post comes from the witty Bryn Harris. Having completed the Open Dream season, Bryn is now in the process of setting up her life in Washington, DC.
I will remember
One Take Thompson
“Don’t forget your British Accent”
Josh’s step ball-change
The colorful silk fabrics that look like “Dragons”
All the Children’s faces and hilarious questions
Mr. Frank Casstevens
JPL
Rebecca’s blue hat
Marina Del Ray
The beautiful Pacific Ocean immediately followed by hell in an airport.
Ago/Ame
Abeona’s Beat Battle
The Kung Fu Challenge
Peter’s Sense of Humor, no I mean his $2000 bottle of wine ☺
Ian’s BOOMBA
Brandon banging on that effing BOOM DRUM
“Shep”, “No Ship”, “At’s wooh ah sed Shep”, “No SHhhhhhiiiiiihhhhhPP!!”
Alliteration
Bob the Robot
Haydee’s Demeter (it’s all about the hair)
“Get on my banana boat”
Mr. S
Many more unmentionables…
Helping Stevie Nix with her wings before the greatest show on earth
“We’re Fashionistas baby, we just off the bloody jet from London.”
It was definitely harder than I thought to…
A. Awake before daylight
B. Believe a word that came out of Peter’s mouth
C. Create engaging and multi-intelligence exercises
D. Describe how amazing JPL was
E. Eat before I fell asleep for the night by 4:00pm
F. Fight with a staircase running through half the stage
G. Grow deeper rather than expand on choices
H. Hold onto the integrity of the show with screaming kids
I. Inform kids how to create their own informances
J. Jam all the curriculum points into the residencies
K. Keep the show fresh every performance
L. Love little kids after they cough in your mouth
M. Make Breakfast before leaving for work
N. Not cuss or say anything vulgar in front of kids
O. Organize everyone to want to eat at the same restaurant
P. Put on wet clothes the second day
Q. Quarterstaff fight with bending and broken fake bamboo stix
R. Repeat the performance three times in a row
S. Shut the Van door after Peter ran it over with the Ryder truck
T. Tell the difference between little boys and girls in 3rd grade
U. Undo actions after they are taken
V. Visualize happiness sitting in LAX for 4 hours
W. Wave the fabric without kids grabbing hold of the end
X. Xerox the ODE logo on colored paper
Y. Yell over that loud Boom Drum
Z. Zip up Abeona’s unitard
I continue to believe in the arts having verifiable evidence in teaching people how to learn faster and deeper. This experience has confirmed for me how arts can not only be integrated into the curriculum despite the budget, but can in fact help deepen the learning of other fields such as science and math. I look forward to continue my study and appreciate the verifiable data we got from the Benton Heights residency.
I’m moving to D.C. because Josh and Brian talked it up so much and because I met Jon Odom, my soul mate.
As a performer I went into the work with absolute commitment and love for the project, I came out of it only slightly tainted, so that’s a good thing. I don’t know if I would want to perform children’s theater for the rest of my life, but there is something very simple and truthful about the work that makes it easy to go out there everyday and perform. I am really proud of us as a cast because we never once let the commitment drop, even if the show was a little off, we were in the world. There were no pranks or inside jokes that were meant only for us. We really performed every time for the kids and that is why they got so much out of it.
I really enjoyed the story that we were presenting. It focused on lessons in science, merging with art, which is a small important bridge in the world today, and anytime stories are able to encompass both I want to see and be a part of them. The dialogues these performances created with students from all fields of interest can be so valuable for their education, and the statistics helped get us that much closer to proving that the arts can be used for more than entertainment. Working with visual arts, music, dance, drama, and a great variety of materials and manipulatives helped make abstract ideas more easily understandable.
The best part of this whole experience was the kids. The residencies were where I learned the most and was challenged the most everyday. These specific age groups, 2-5th graders were remarkable in how fast they learned and their complete willingness to jump into new and engaging ways of learning. The teachers seemed to really find value in the work and our work sparked them to try new plans in their classroom. The kids as an audience were amazing because they were absolutely honest. If they didn’t like you they expressed it, and I learned so much about my craft as an actor because I was literally able to guide how the ship moved forward.
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