Combining Real World and Play World

This post is from joyous Julianne Harper, aka Emily.

"Gordy...have you been out back? There. See? You got to the summit, Gordy. We both did." -excerpt from Big Shoes How wonderful it is to combine our real life world with our play world while on tour with Open Dream. We are currently working with Saluda Elementary located near the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains. After a delightful day of working with the kids, Cameron, myself, Marrisa, Haydee, and William decided to head out for an adventure. Gordy, Emily, Sheepish, the Nice Woman, and Alexander journeyed to Sliding Rock in Brevard,NC. The 60' natural rock slide with a 8 foot deep pool at the base was a site to see. The challenge was made...who would be brave enough to fare the near freezing cold water? Of course Gordy was the first! Sheepish soon followed, then Emily made her way. The Nice Woman and Alexander provided a great support team with warm towels waiting at the bottom. We weren't ready for the adventure to be over, so we decided to keep traveling upward until we reached the summit...riding in a dry,warm van this time- saving the explorers' way for another time. As you can see, the view was amazing! We are having so much fun, and I can wait to see where our next adventure takes us!

Between Confucius and Cotton Stands the Land of the Teaching Artist

This post is from Open Dream Ensemble's Artistic Producer and General Manager, Rebecca Nussbaum.

As Open Dream Ensemble heads out to its third residency of the season, I am reminded of this quote attributed to Confucius: “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” In the past weeks the Open Dream artists have made the transition from performers to teaching artists. They have entered classrooms and coaxed the students into caves, caverns, and canyons. They have hiked up mountains to experience volcanoes, earthquakes, and landslides. They have explored valleys, ecosystems, and food chains. They have dived into oceans, rivers, lakes, ponds, and more – all through the performing arts. The purpose of integrating the arts into the science standards is to have the students experience what the standards mean through being on, in, at, under, around, between and betwixt the many aspects of natural science they are mandated to learn. Drama and music are used to tell the story of a volcanic eruption preceded by an earthquake and landslide. Vocal techniques are used to examine how various landforms toss sound around. Dancing is used as a tool to better understand how the producer, consumer, and decomposer flow together. And the hope for the learner is, “I do and I understand.” One can read through the blog posts of the Open Dream cast to see that the experience of teaching artistry is one that requires a great deal of thought, preparation, and learning. One of the wonderful attributes of being an Open Dream artist is the desire to continue to improve, learn, experience, and take on challenges. This season’s deeply talented cast of eight are exceptional artists with an incredible array of talents and skills. They are blessed with alacritous minds and generous spirits. But mostly, they have the drive to keep learning, and thus teaching. After all…. "Who dares to teach must never cease to learn." ~John Cotton Dana

Fantastic Learning Experience

This post is from the terrific trombone-toting Cameron MacManus. He is pictured here leading a class at Benton Heights Elementary School of the Arts in exploring what a gaseous volcano would smell like.

It’s funny walking the halls at Diggs-Latham Elementary when almost a week after the latest showing of “Big Shoes” the students are still calling out to me “Hey Gordy!”. In the classroom, I’m “Mr. Cameron”. It’s easy for me to get wrapped up my new role as a teaching artist and forget about Gordy’s world. Another pair of shoes to wear, and this time I’m not supposed to trip! Whether I’m being Gordy or Mr. Cameron it is a privilege to get to work with so many young people. Every day is a new learning experience for me as I slowly venture out from under the wing of my talented teaching partner Haydee Thompson. Am I smarter than a fifth grader? Some days more so than others it seems, but every day has been a fantastic learning experience. Little did I know what magic we control as artists and teachers, where our spells could take students, or what a wonderful feeling it is to know that you’ve made a positive impact on a child’s day that can last a lifetime.

The Art of Teaching Artistry

This post come from the multi-talented Marissa Byers, our Sheepish in Big Shoes. Kids! Our performances of Big Shoes make us celebrities. It's adorable to see the students lined up in the halls or in the cafeteria wave at us with enormous smiles and stare as if they were starstruck. Of course some of it wears off as we become teaching artists in the classroom- and they realize we're there to discuss science, but this is when the real deal begins to happen.

Inside the structure of raised hands, personal space, and eyes, ears, mind and body focus, they are encouraged to speak like an actor, sing like an opera singer, move like a dancer and create soundscapes with percussion instruments. My teaching partner, "Miss" Marine and I have found our groove. We take the students on journeys through the earth's ecosystems, have them become the weathering and erosion process of a mountain becoming a cliff, show them how to be a ferocious consumer monster in our imaginary food chain, and our most recent success- the Rock Opera, which actually isn't rock music, but a song about the formation of a volcano and how magma becomes lava rock. It is set in two parts (melody and accompaniment) to the Habanera from Bizet's Carmen. Thanks to my wife, Jacqui Causey-Byers, we have beautifully written and concise lyrics that the students seem remember effortlessly. It sounds amazing in the classroom with 20+ kids singing! Residency work as a teaching artist is challenging and tiresome, but seeing the intelligence and the imagination of the kids take flight is exciting- and by far some of the most rewarding work I've ever experienced.

Gushing, Tweaking, and Mandolin-ing

This post is from our mandolin-strumming Marine Madesclaire. She wrote this on Friday at the conclusion of a three-day residency at Benton Heights Elementary School of the Arts.

It's now the final day of our first residency here at Benton Heights Elementary School of the Arts, and I'm gonna miss these kids. Our third graders have the most amazing teacher who participates in every exercise and even jumped up to google images on his smart board while we were talking about caves, canyons and island. Amazing! Even better the 4th and 5th graders are so far ahead of us that they taught me the curriculum! I have to stop gushing... It's embarrassing. :)

Getting the show on the road and claiming it as our own has been an interesting experience. I actually got very sick our first day there, powering through the first day of classes thanks to the children's enthusiasm. My teaching partner Miss Marissa and I got into a wonderful rhythm by the second day tweaking our class curriculum to fit the classes. We even figured out a jig to play the kiddos with the mandolin and the penny whistle.

With these three days done and over I'm excited to see what come up on our next residency.

Glow Stick Moments

This post is from our word-ninja, the marvelous Michaela Morton! She is pictured here, in purple, as Deepish in Big Shoes.

Here's what it is to tour with Open Dream: I head down to the pool at 4PM, after a long day of teaching (three grades and four science classes each), performance (one run of Big Shoes at 7:50 AM), and loading out the set. I expect my cast-mates to be lounging. And while they're gleeful in the afternoon sun, they're certainly no lazybones. Marissa started swimming yesterday, and with a team of coaches has gone from barely making it through the pool crosswise to proudly swimming its length. She has also written a re-vamped "Habanera" from Carmen -- now with volcanoes! -- and is rehearsing on a penny whistle while Julianne sings bass. Ted just remembered the answer to a killer question in 4th grade science ("hydroponic bays!" he shouts, apropos of nothing) and while William tries to puzzle out the source of a burn on his arm -- we agree that with her all-seeing logic, Marine would know -- I lie in the sun. Occasionally I do a crunch, just to keep up my end of the bargain. It seems that it's learning and teaching, 24/7, and the work is indeed play.

In one whirlwind month, Big Shoes has gone from bare bones -- the script -- to in-the-flesh live performance. Now you could say that we're toning the muscles. And while hauling sets is definitely tightening our triceps, the heaviest lifting happens in the classroom.

It'd hard to work simply. I've found that it's difficult to heed my own advice -- to bring a playful spirit to work -- as I often get so boggled by the complexity of classroom dynamics that I forget to have fun. And then William brings out his guitar and I can't help having fun. It all just flows. Haydee's craft in the classroom inspires me with its simplicity, and two days in, Julianne has given me words that will stick: "I always think about tempo. Don't push too fast. Don't get frustrated. Keep an even tempo." (She was talking about swimming, but it works for teaching, too.)

I'll let you in on a secret: in college, people used to ask me whether I was going to be a teacher. It's something about English majors: we get that question, all the time, and I do mean all the time. My answer was usually a definite, emphatic, let's-change-the-subject-now kind of "No." Once or twice I might have said, "Maybe college, maybe when I'm older, maybe someday, but it's not in the cards for now." Given my reluctance, it was almost inevitable that I'd be teaching right out of college. And I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised at how delightful that has been.

Today, we asked a group of 5th graders to unpack a definition of decomposers. Quinn raised his hand and asked if he could explain. He told us that decomposers are like the linking pieces that connect a chain of glow sticks. Without them, you might as well leave the sticks alone. With them, you can turn a flat line into a circle of light.

My new name for moments of magic in the classroom: glow stick moments. And these kids are lighting the way already.

My life in Topsy Turvy

by Boo Beary Crunch translated from Bear by Ted Federle

Ever since I was a cub learning how to fish salmon out of the river I knew that I wanted to be a squirrel. I used to spend hours watching them climb trees and bury nuts (which I like much more than salmon) all the while wishing I could do that too but all the other bears laughed at me and said I’d never be like a squirrel. Undeterred I left home in search of the magical world of Topsy Turvy. After an exhaustive journey I finally found it and met other animals just like me. There is a bird that barks, a fox that hops, an owl that meows and my best friend THE DEAR. In Topsy Turvy I can spend my days climbing and burying nuts but, the other day the most exciting thing happened! We had two visitors, a girl-human named Emily and a boy-human named Gordy. The girl-human wasn’t as peculiar as the Gordy, who had giant feet! My friends and I thought he would be a great addition to our group since he seemed to want to be something called an Alexander but he ran away from us… Boy humans are so strange… but I’m content to climb higher each day in my favorite tree. I think with some more practice I can get all the way to the top and see the world like all the other squirrels do.

Diligent and Cerebral

This post is from our prized veteran Open Dreamer, Haydee Thompson. Through the years she has guided one dancer and now five musicians in the craft of teaching artistry. She is pictured here working with a group of fourth-graders last season.



This week we were assigned our teaching partners. I was not surprised when told Cameron would be mine. Every year I am paired with a musician and last year my partner was Guy who was also a trombonist. Drama requires using your body as an instrument and completely relies on the physical, whereas a musicians craft tends to be more cerebral in nature. I like working with musicians. So far I have been lucky to see them as diligent in there facts and enjoying the study of science. I often can rely on them to be a great source of knowledge which inspires me to co-create exciting lesson plans. Cameron is doing a great job and I know it will be an absolute pleasure to work with him this season!

Looking Both Backward and Forward

This post is from our fantastic singing/dancing/bassguitarmandolin-playing Cobbler, William vonReichbauer. He is pictured here as a teaching artist during one of our residencies last season.


It seems as though the premiere of Big Shoes was only yesterday and we are already three days into our week of teaching artist training. It has been a very productive week, thus far and it is always a joy working with Rebecca, our fearless leader and guide into the magical world of teaching artistry. I am very excited to be teaching partners with Big Shoes playwright and word-ninja, Michaela.

The premiere of Big Shoes went smashingly. We had an amazing audience and I was deeply moved and humbled by the response we received. However, with the launch of the show, we had to say goodbye to our wonderful Director, Beth, and our amazing Stage Manager, Lindsey, both of whom are deeply missed. Also, goodbye and a very special "thank you" to our gracious hosts at the Steven's Center, where we rehearsed for the past four weeks. But although we have to say goodbye to some, we are looking forward to hitting the road and meeting the thousands of students across North Carolina and Virginia who we will reach through this amazing work.

IT'S BACK TO SCHOOL FOR THE OPEN DREAM ENSEMBLE!

This post is from Open Dream Ensemble artist Julianne Harper. This is Julianne's fourth season in Open Dream and as you can see from the photo, she is a pro at working with children during our residencies!


Our Teaching Artist training began this week, and let me be the first to tell you, I've had a few "Are you Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" moments while brushing up on K-5th grade science curriculum. Relearning information old and discovering information new, has my curiosity and imagination fully engaged! There are so many exciting parallels to the arts and sciences. We are hard at work developing ways to use music, theater and dance to help further the understanding of earth's life cycles, ecosystems and fossilization processes. The hope is that an observer of our class will gain new understanding of creative thought and performance art while solidifying lessons learned in this year's Science curriculum. The student will leave the class with an equally enhanced understanding of each!

Awesome Enterprise

This post is from the beneficent Beth Bostic. All last month, Beth spent most of her waking hours in the Stevens Center basement directing the cast in preparation for the debut of Big Shoes. She is pictured here leading the cast in a movement exercise.

While giving my house a long over-due vacuuming this morning, I finally had a chance to reflect on this Bold Adventure, this Awesome Enterprise that is "The Big Shoes" and the Open Dream Ensemble.

The mission of O.D.E. is, as I understand it to bring a theatrical experience incorporating as many disciplines as possible and of the highest esthetic quality to children in a school setting and to offer a classroom experience with the artists integrating active learning of actual curriculum topics.

Knowing the cast, as I now do, I can't imagine a better ensemble to fulfill this mission.
I have been continually over whelmed with their talent and courage in trying and succeeding beyond the boundaries of their comfort zones. And I have observed that each has a definite gift for teaching. In order to create the show, they have had to teach each other new skills.

We all know the old saw, "those that can do..."etc., but in the Performing Arts it's a little different; those that can also teach. A life in the Performing Arts is continual teaching and learning. It is one of the last bastions of the Master/Apprentice learning mode - to reach excellence there is no other way to learn it.

Directing "Big Shoes" has been such a joy. Working with this extraordinary cast, - I hope you know I love you all madly - and the wonderful folks at the Kenan Institute, has been a true high point in my artistic life. But a special and specially loud shout out has to go to Rebecca Nussbaum whose passion and dedication are remarkable and who holds the vision that is the Open Dream Ensemble.