Show Time!: Music, Dance, and Drama Activities for Kids
City was the hot spot for American musicals Many songwriters including Irving Berlin and George Gershwin created musicals in these publishing hous es In 1927 musicals began to take on all sorts of themes both comedic and serious Show Boat was the first musical that had songs that actually moved the plot forward a breakthrough for telling stories in musical theater style The term musical was shortened from the term musical comedy but it now refers to dramas as well as comedies In 1960 the first rock and roll musical hit the stage It was called Bye Bye Birdie and told a story similar to what happened when Elvis Presley was drafted It also includes a grown up love story that follows the standard boy gets girl boy loses girl boy gets girl back plot of earlier musical comedies Many rock musicals have since followed Today Andrew Lloyd Webber and others continue to add to the wealth of musical theater Many actors say that live musical theater is where they began and it is still their favorite venue Musicals continue to be a favorite among theatergoers especially young peo
Chorus Game Three or more players n ancient Greece and even in Shakespeare's time the chorus was not a group of people who sing songs together in a play as we use the term today Instead the chorus was one actor who often told the audience what was about to happen in that scene This was because there were few surprise endings in early theater Playwrights wanted the audience to know the story before they watched the performance Since they didn't show very much violence on stage at that time either the chorus would also tell the audience if someone was hurt Another job of the chorus was to announce the passing of time so the audience would know if the next scene happened years or only moments after the previous scene This is an improvisation game that shows the job of the chorus before the invention of musical theater Improvisation also known as improv is a style of act ing where you create without any advance prepara
tion Here the chorus tells the story before the other players act it out but because this is improv the players don't know in advance what the chorus will say Choose one player to be the chorus The other players will be actors The chorus steps out and says what will happen in the first of three scenes Because you are improvising and not using a script the chorus makes up what will happen The actors have to listen carefully After the chorus finishes explaining the scene the actors act it out The chorus then explains scene two and the actors act it out Next the chorus explains scene three and the actors act it out This exercise can be used for playwriting and other creative writing because it teaches the concept of beginning middle and end and lets you see the story you are making up Here is an example of how this game might go Stephanie is the chorus Joe and Charlie are the actors improvising the scenes Here is an example of what they all might say a e o o o o o o o o o o o e e e o e e e o e o o o o e e STEPHANIE Ladies and gentlemen this is the story of a duck and a bunny The duck is very sad and lonely He has lost his quack His bunny friend hops all over trying to find
sal so m JOE becomes the duck I m so sad I've lost my quack Listen HE tries to quack but nothing comes out See HE cries CHARLIE acting as the bunny Don't be sad my duck friend I find your quack HE hops around while saying Has anyone seen a quack No Oh where can it be HE exits STEPHANIE In scene two the bunny comes back to the duck He has found all sorts of sounds but none of them is a quack CHARLIE Duck Duck I think I ve found what you're looking for Here it is opening his mouth wide Mooooo MooGol
