\u201cRaise your hand if you\u2019ve ever heard of Perseverance Theatre,\u201d Shona Osterhout said to a room of roughly 70 Montessori Borealis first through fourth graders.<\/p>\n
Several hands went up, and even fewer when she asked how many of them have gone to the theater.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that I love about Perseverance Theatre is that today we\u2019re coming to you,\u201d Osterhout said.<\/p>\n
Osterhout is Perseverance Theatre\u2019s director of education. She also teaches a spring production class at the University of Alaska Southeast. For two weeks, Osterhout and three college actors toured all the elementary schools performing \u201cThe Fisherman and His Wife,\u201d adapted from the Brothers Grimm. The play reached 730 students, including every second grader in the Juneau School District.<\/p>\n
The UAS production class usually culminates in a play performed on campus geared for adults and the college community. This year, Osterhout said the class wanted to try something different.<\/p>\n
Theater isn\u2019t often accessible for elementary students, Osterhout said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they get a little older, they can do field trips, but none of the little kids, especially lower primary, is really getting plays,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Osterhout is part of The Kennedy Center\u2019s Any Given Child committee in Juneau, which seeks to provide an equitable arts experience for all students. While this particular production is not part of that initiative, Osterhout said it fits the mission.<\/p>\n
She said bringing theater to young students teaches them how to be good audience members and exposes them to something they maybe haven\u2019t seen before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a play that came to my school when I was in third grade and that\u2019s why I do theater,\u201d Osterhout said. \u201cThe actors completely opened up a whole new world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osterhout said the students also learn life lessons from the play. When a magical talking flounder grants a fisherman and his wife wishes, their simple lifestyle turns complicated and joyless.<\/p>\n
Twenty-one-year-old UAS student Rochelle Smallwood played the flounder and the play\u2019s narrator.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really neat to teach lessons to children through the play,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Smallwood said the class looked through the second grade curriculum on the district website before selecting which play to perform.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things they do is they read folktales in second grade and they learn the moral behind it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The production class chose a play that was interactive with the kids. When Smallwood described the fishing conditions, the audience\u2019s arms became the waves. When UAS actor Maranda Clark, who played the fisherman\u2019s wife, magically got chickens and ducks, the audience made the animal noises. When Richard Ringle, the fisherman, caught a crab on his fishing pole, he pulled one of the second graders out of the audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a fun way to teach,\u201d Smallwood said. \u201cThey were all engaged. And for me, that\u2019s how I would like to learn instead of a textbook or a lecture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montessori Borealis teacher Lynnette McNutt took her first through fourth grade class to the play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved it. I thought it was a very dynamic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
McNutt has been working with her students on how to develop a narrative. After local artist Roblin Davis recently visited her class and did a dramatic narrative, McNutt\u2019s students wrote their own mini stories and dramas that include a beginning, middle and end.<\/p>\n
She said it was great to go from doing that exercise to watching \u201cThe Fisherman and His Wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a teacher perspective it was nice to be able to have a real life, concrete example of something that you\u2019ve been trying to develop in the classroom,\u201d McNutt said.<\/p>\n
She said her class later discussed the play and they\u2019re still acting out their own mini narratives.<\/p>\n
McNutt thanked Osterhout and the UAS actors for performing the play at Montessori Borealis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s nice for them to bring their gifts to us. That way we all can partake really easily versus trying to load everybody up in a bus and getting them down there. We\u2019re grateful,\u201d McNutt said. \u201cTheir level of energy was fantastic. It was just like going to Perseverance itself, so what a treat for the kids to be able to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides participating in the play, it was clear the elementary students also understood what was going on. After the play, when Osterhout asked the audience what the moral was, many hands went up.<\/p>\n
There were several interpretations of, \u201cBe content with what you have.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re usually in the right spot to be perfectly happy,\u201d one student said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe careful with what you wish for,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n
And lastly, \u201cYou get what you get, and don\u2019t throw a fit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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