Center Stage Youth Theatre

Posts Tagged ‘Silent Films’

The Glenforest elementary school’s Peter and the Wolf production plans passed from the exploration zone – with the children learning to recognize and identify the characters, the instruments that represented the characters and the themes those instruments play to conjure up the characters -  into the actual creating the show zone this week.  We began writing lyrics, and the sweet voices of the children  chimed in happily as they caught on immidiately to what was happening.  So it looks perhaps as if the show is going to be an opera of sorts!

The middle and high schoolers spent the week learning about storyboarding and how that helps the film maker organize his story into the scenes he wishes to shoot.  We were very proud of their work, and of their ability to stand and deliver to the class the process by which they divided up their stories created their storyboards.  They worked hard on these and in the end all took it very seriously which was a treat.  The next step for the kids will be to decide on a theme and divide into groups for the actual creating of the silent movies.  We will be introducing classical pieces of music for them to use in their work for the specific purpose of communicating to the audience the moods as well as the action involved in their production.

We are still a long way from knowing exactly how this is all going to look, but I do know that already the children are taking ownership of the process, and the shows can only benefit from that.  And the benefits to the children?  Well, that is the most important part of all, and the reason we do this.

The middle and high school kids and our music teacher and I have jumped into the study of silent film and how the soundtrack effects us as we watch it with both feet this week.  We have been showing the children different types and genres of silent films and asking them to pay particular attention to what the music is telling them during each scene.

This coming week we will begin work on a storyboarding project, asking the students to storyboard the production of Peter and the Wolf we watched and then – take a deep breath – asking them to come up with the story for their own silent film and to create a storyboard for that one.

Sounds simple?  I am not sure what will happen!  But if I know these guys – and I feel like I am starting to know them -  it will be a fun, quirky and very original project.  And chaotic, of course, at least at first.  But at times like this I always remind myself :

You must carry a chaos inside you to give birth to a dancing star.

OK, future dancing stars, let’s get started…