Theatre for Kids

On Stage, Everyone! On With the Show! — Julie’s Greenroom

Ad-Lib Mondays, Coming Attractions, Creativity, Emma Walton Hamilton, Empowerment, In The Spotlight, Music for Kids, Theatre for Kids / By

The curtain is about to open on an exciting new offering from Julie Andrews, Emma Walton Hamilton, Lisa Henson and a whole host of others, including brand new Henson puppets! It’s a wonderful opportunity for kids (and not-kids) to learn stagecraft and to experience all that the arts has to offer in a person’s life. Julie’s Greenroom is a new Netflix series (13-parts for this debut season) ostensibly for preschoolers, but I think all ages of kids — and even teens and adults — will enjoy, benefit from, and learn from the series and the many guest stars who will be teaching various elements of stagecraft. The premise is that Miss Julie (the fictional character played by Julie Andrews) and her assistant Gus (played by Giullian Yao Gioiello) run a center for the performing arts. They interact with a group of kids (and a duck) collectively called Greenies (played by Henson puppets). In each episode there is a guest star who teaches some aspect of the craft, such as Alec Baldwin teaching about acting, Joshua Bell teaching about orchestras, and so on. The kids (and the duck) are, as I mentioned, Henson puppets and were created specifically for this series. I have seen the puppets in clips on television spots that Ms. Andrews and Emma have done, and they are absolutely delightful. It is also delightful to see Ms. Andrews interact with the puppets as if they were really kids. (And I can hardly wait to see the duck in action!) The series debuts on Netflix on Friday, March 17, and will be on Netflix International so those of us not in the United States don’t need to worry about being left out. You can see the official trailer here. Read an excellent article in the New Yorker based on an interview with Emma Walton Hamilton and Lisa Henson here. See the press release from the Jim Henson Company here. And here’s a review (why yes, I *did* choose it because it mentions the duck). O this week stands for On stage, On with the show, Offering, Opportunity, and the Ovation I suspect viewers will want to give after they watch the Opening episode. Oh — it also stands for Ornithological wonders (that’s the only way I could think of to get O to stand for Duck. 😉 )

A Mousical Master Class in Theatre Basics

3 Comments / Theatre for Kids, Waiting in the Wings Wednesdays / By

I’m continuing my series about the upcoming stage musical The Great American Mousical today with a look at the book the musical is based on, and how much one can learn about theatre simply by reading (and re-reading!) the book by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton, also entitled The Great American Mousical. As Julie said in my interview with her and Emma last week, “We wrote the book as an affectionate tribute to the world we know and love – but we also hoped to provide young readers with some incidental arts appreciation.” I think they did a very good job of both. The Great American Mousical is a middle grade novel published by HarperCollins in 2006 as part of the Julie Andrews Collection of books that seek to instill the JAC tenets of “Words, Wisdom, Wonder” in young readers. It is about a troupe of theatre mice who work in a miniature theatre in the depths of the basement below a Broadway theatre, the Sovereign. The mice are readying themselves for their annual benefit revue to be staged on New Year’s Eve when calamity strikes — they learn that the Sovereign is under threat of demolition. Then the star of the show, the diva Adelaide, goes missing! The show goes on, as shows must — but much has to happen before a happy ending can be possible. Let’s take a look at what I’ve dubbed the “Mousical Master Class in Theatre Basics” — click the magic words…

Singing and Acting — Lessons for Life (and for Writing)

18 Comments / Monday Musings, Music for Kids, Theatre for Kids / By

This post could be subtitled “Words of Wisdom from Bruce Coville (with embellishments by Beth).” I first encountered Bruce Coville, author of middle grade fantasy novels and other such wondrous things, at the Summer 2011 conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators in Los Angeles, SCBWI LA ’11. Not only did he give a wonderful keynote address to begin the conference, but I also took a three-hour intensive course on writing fantasy novels from him, and it was definitely one of the high notes of the conference for me. One thing I particularly remember from that intensive was the way he shared the first two chapters of his fantasy novel Into the Land of the Unicorns. He didn’t merely stand in front of us and read to us from the book. He performed the two chapters as a dramatic monologue. The action came alive. We felt, heard, almost saw what was happening, through Bruce’s animated recitation. About a week ago, I read a post on the blog “Stories are Good Medicine” about a recent speech Bruce gave at a writer’s conference. In the speech, Bruce suggested 13 top things a writer should do. I heard him give a similar listing in his keynote address at SCBWI LA ’11. Two of the items on his list might surprise many people. #2: Take Acting or Storytelling Lessons and #3: Take Singing or Voice Lessons. Those are the two items that stood out for me in his speech in August 2011, and they resonated with me again when I read that blog post. These suggestions can benefit writers in many ways. They can also be very beneficial to non-writers. Have you ever had to speak in front of a group, whether in a meeting, in front of a crowd such as in church, or at a school visit? Have you felt that you’d rather do practically anything rather than that? Click the magic words to find out how singing or acting could help with that…

Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton on The Great American Mousical — Interview

49 Comments / Emma Walton Hamilton, In The Spotlight, Interviews, Music for Kids, Theatre for Kids, Waiting in the Wings Wednesdays / By

I am honored and delighted to present this interview with both Emma Walton Hamilton and her mother, Julie Andrews. What a gift they have given us all in agreeing to this interview! As those of you who are regular readers of my blog know, my Wednesday focus this fall is the upcoming musical production, The Great American Mousical: A Musical Love Letter to Broadway, at the Norma Terris Theatre in November (full details below). Julie and Emma collaborated on the original book, which was published in 2006. Now, Julie will direct the stage production, and so is hard at work with rehearsals at this very moment. I deeply appreciate them taking the time to answer my questions in such depth. Julie Andrews is known around the world for her stage, screen, and singing career. Rather than mention the movies she usually is linked with in biographical information, I want to highlight my favorites, which are among her lesser-known works, but which I believe deserve equal billing. The Americanization of Emily (1964), That’s Life (1986), Duet for One (1986), and Our Sons (made for television, 1991) are some of her finest work, and I highly recommend them. Julie is also a prolific author, who began writing for children in the early 1970s. Her first two books, Mandy and The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, are still in print, still in demand, which says a great deal about the quality of Julie’s writing. For the past 15 years or so, she has collaborated with her daughter Emma, and together they have written many delightful picture books and middle grade novels. Julie is also a passionate advocate for the arts, and for children’s literacy. For further biographical information, please see the website of the Julie Andrews Collection. Emma Walton Hamilton got her start in theatre, and is now an author, freelance editor, educator (in both the arts and in writing for children), speaker, and advocate for the arts and literacy. With her mother she has written many picture books and middle grade novels. She is also the author of the excellent literacy resource Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment. Emma is the director of the writing program for middle grade and high school students, YAWP (Young American Writers Project); she teaches Children’s Literature at the Stony Brook Southampton University campus; she has developed an online/home study course in picture book writing, Just Write for Kids; she is the founder and driving force behind the fantastic resource and educational online site, The Children’s Book Hub; and Emma and I co-administer the Children’s Book Hub Facebook Group. For further biographical information, please see Emma’s website. And now, let’s find out what Julie and Emma have to say about taking The Great American Mousical from page to stage…

What Do Katherine Anne Porter and The Great American Mousical Have in Common?

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Katherine Anne Porter was an essayist, novelist, social critic, Pulitzer Prize winner, who learned to be a survivor from an early age, and whose writings reflected her understanding that no matter how difficult life gets, one must hold on and go forward. As a brief biography on the PBS website states, “Often concerned with the themes of justice, betrayal, and the unforgiving nature of the human race, Porter’s writings occupied the space where the personal and political meet.” She gave an interview to Barbara Thompson Davis for the Paris Review, in which she spoke of the arts, saying, “Human life itself may be almost pure chaos, but the work of the artist is to take these handfuls of confusion and disparate things, things that seem to be irreconcilable, and put them together in a frame to give them some kind of shape and meaning.” If you look at the upper right hand corner of my blog, you’ll see a list of links to the other pages on my site, under the title “Learn More!” Included in those pages is one devoted to that Paris Review interview, and the quote about the arts in particular. But what does this have to do with The Great American Mousical, which is the topic of all my Wednesday posts this month?

Waiting in the Wings — From Children’s Books to Musicals

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Many successful children’s books have received a new life as stage musicals. Peter Pan has been soaring across stages on Broadway and beyond since Mary Martin first enticed Wendy and her brothers to Never Never Land. Mary Poppins began as a movie musical, written by the Sherman brothers, but has found a happy home on the stage as well. I suspect it will stay on the stage somewhere for a very long time… at least until the wind changes, and then it will be off to grace another stage and other hearts. Anne of Green Gables just closed its 48th season at the Charlottetown Festival, and is a staple on stages across Canada and elsewhere. Even picture books can become stage musicals, as Jennifer Kirkeby told us in this post about Llama, Llama, Red Pajama. There are, of course, many more. Another children’s book is about to join the ranks of these musicals, with opening night on November 8th, 2012. I’ve been teasing you about what it might be during September. Click the magic words to find out what it is…

Encouraging Imaginative Play — Blog Recommendation

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This blog post from the New Victory Theatre just has to be shared! It’s about the best description of and list of tips for encouraging imaginative play in small children that I’ve ever read. The fact that it highlights how a theatre troupe is doing this just makes it all the better. Please click and read! “Play With Preschoolers: Seven Strategies for Exploration” When was the last time you (and your kids if you have ’em) just pretended something for the fun of it?

M is for… Musicals, Mousical, and More!

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It’s probably no surprise at all to readers who know me even slightly through this blog or my previous blog that I love musicals. The Sound of Music. Camelot. My Fair Lady. Annie Get Your Gun. The Music Man. Mame. Fiddler on the Roof. I also love a middle-grade novel called The Great American Mousical, by Julie Andrews Edwards and Emma Walton Hamilton. The idea for Mousical came to Julie one day when she was in her backstage dressing room before a performance. A mouse skittered across the floor, and Julie started thinking about all the mice that must inhabit the lower reaches of an old theatre — and she asked herself, “I wonder if they have a theatre, and put on plays of their own?” The Great American Mousical is how Julie and her daughter Emma answered that question. But wait! There’s more!

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