My good friend Anna was running crew for this short, one weekend, production at The Columbus Children’s Theatre. It was geared for ages 0-6, and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to learn how children learn.
Fitting In Show Summary
“Three siblings find themselves in a room full of possibilities and one not so simple task- to put things in their proper place. However, they soon discover that throwing this and that into a box is not the same as finding where it fits in.
Through clowning, movement, and original music, three performers will transform everyday objects into something extraordinary. Is a blanket a blanket? Or is it the sail of a boat setting off on an epic voyage? Together, we can find the magic buried in the bottom of every box, and hidden inside the world around us!” (Columbus Children’s Theatre, 2024).
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I walked into Columbus Children’s Theatre and I sat in the back row of chairs. The children sat on little bright colored carpet circles right in front of the actors on stage. Before the show started, a crew member came to the front of the stage to do introductions. She asked the crowd to raise their hand if it was “your first ever play?” Almost every little hand went up in the room. Next she gave some instructions. She told the crowd that when they really like something they should clap, and then they practiced clapping. Then she said if they think something is funny, they should laugh, and then they practiced laughing. She left the stage and the performance began.
There were a few differences between “adult” plays and this play designed for a very young audience. First, there was no speaking, just miming and “clowning.” Despite this, noises were extremely important throughout the play, with sound effects, footsteps, and even the sound of placing objects, all being used to tell the story.
Another interesting facet was the props they used to tell the story. They used common items and gave them personality and life to make them different objects. For example, and oven mitt became a fish, a blanket became the waves of the sea, and a glove became a tea cup. These objects could be combined to give further life, as a character was created using a scarf, spoons, a closed umbrella and a construction hat. It was magical how they were able to personify these objects so fast with movement and miming.
Animating objects was not all they did. They also used exaggerated facial expressions and movements to story tell. They incorporated the audience into the interactions, having them hide objects from other characters, or clapping along. One really cool example of this was when they started playing clapping games. They had the children clap in a way that it made it sound like rain hitting the ceiling and thunder claps. It was very impressive.
At the end of the show, the children and parents were both happy, taking pictures, and talking about their favorite moments in the play. It only had a 30 minute run-time which kept the audience engaged the entire time.
REVIEW
My favorite part of this play was the introduction bit where they explained clapping and laughing. I thought this was awesome because they were not telling the children what not to do, things like talking, walking around, etc. Rather, they explicitly told the children what they could do: clap and laugh. By giving them things to do during the play, they successfully created a more welcoming atmosphere by explaining what positive interactions the children could engage in during the play. This gave agency to the children. This agency is something I want to keep in mind throughout, and I mention it in quite a few lit reviews. I do not want to stray away from the child being able to do things themselves, and I do not want to over explain things either. I loved the way imagination was enhanced and explored in the play, and I loved how they could make common items seem fun. This is also something I can incorporate especially considering my budget and time.
REFERENCES
Columbus Children’s Theatre. (2024, September 4). CCT Sandbox Series. Columbus Children’s Theatre. https://columbuschildrenstheatre.org/shows/
