The Elves Are Still Busy

Since October, the St. Margaret’s Players of St. Margaret’s School in Buzzards Bay have been working on an original version of the the beloved folk tale, The Elves and the Shoemaker. Due to overscheduling before Christmas, the production date has been moved to the upcoming weekend of January 10 &11, 2015. Rehearsals are continuing at the school during vacation, with four elves and all characters working hard to perfect their performance.

Janice Rodgers of Buzzards Play Productions and Lee Drescher of the Treasure Time Story Book Theatre are working with sixteen children who range in age from eight to twelve. They will perform a children’s musical  which will last about an hour, including the intermission. With the encouragement of Rodgers, this is Drescher’s first attempt to write a children’s show of longer duration than the short skits  which she usually creates in conjunction with her live story hour.

The first performance will take place at St, Margaret’s School on Saturday January 10 at 2PM, and the second performance will be at Buzzards Play Productions In Wareham, on the Cranberry Highway on Sunday January 11 at 2PM. The play is suitable for children ages three and up, and all are invited to attend. Admission is $5.00.

We are preparing for our production of The Spirit of Giving, which is based on the beloved folk tale, The Shoemaker and The Elves. This original children's musical, written by Lee Drescher, will be performed by St. Margaret's School in Buzzards Bay, Friday December 12 at the school, and on Saturday December 13 at 11AM, at Buzzards Play Productions. The performance will be about 45 minutes long.

On November 16, Lee Drescher will also be making a Christmas TV program for the town of Falmouth. The featured book will be The Give-Away, a Native American folk tale by Ray Buckley. Children will hold puppet animals created by Ramona Pinho, and recite lines about the state of our Earth, and how to make it better, each by giving something away.

We are now looking forward to our August Workshop at Buzzards Play Productions in Wareham. Our class is filling up with a nice mix of ages, including a substantial crew aged 10-12, including a good number of boys. The play we are doing is based on Dory Story, which is about the ocean food chain.  There will be plenty of opportunities for killer whales, sharks, seals and big whales to interact on stage, and to improvise with the plot. Class participants will be required to do some scientific research on their marine character, and they will help with their own costumes, props, and background scenery. One of the props is a dingy, which will be built out of cardboard. There will also be at least three songs to learn along with simple hand motions and dance moves.

The class is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, 10AM to 12 PM for two weeks, starting August 4 and ending with a performance on August 13 at noon. Call Lee Drescher at 508 548-0155 to sign up, or email mrstreas@comcast.net.

Treasure Time Story Book Theatre Program for Young Actors, ages 6 & up.

Take part in a spontaneous play at Buzzards Play Productions, 3065 Cranberry Highway, East Wareham on Saturday, March 22 at 2PM. Limited to 30 children, $20 each.  Call  508 548-0155 or email  mrstreas@comcast.net for reservations.

The children who attend this workshop will act out a scripted, musical play which is based on Giraffe's Can't Dance, a popular book about bullying, published by Scholastic. After hearing the story, they will all have a chance to be on stage for part of the play as they take turns volunteering for different roles. They will be encouraged to improvise or a line will be dictated to them. Music and a song will be played when each animal comes to the dance, so each young actor will be urged to dance when he performs. If there's time and kids want to try, they can come up and sing some of the songs at the end of the show.

This will be an experiment in children's theatre. Through practice, I have discovered that this is the format which works best. We also hope that this live story hour will lead to future performances. In an intergenerational, interactive story hour, big kids will give back to the community while they put on a play and sing songs for pre schoolers and younger kids.

 

It will also be a family literacy program which encourages communication, makes brain connections and encourages having fun at artistic play.

Christmas 2013

The Treasure Time Story Book Theatre produced The Elves & The Shoemaker on FCTV and also performed the play again at the West Falmouth Library on December 14.

Fall 2013 & Winter 2014

During the Fall, Mrs. Treasure was busy working at the Tierney Center in South Boston, doing weekly Reading Adventure Hours for Head Start and neighborhood children. In 2014 she will be doing monthly story hours for all of the Head Start classrooms in South Boston. She will also visit Julie's Learning Center, The Tierney, and Boston Catholic Academy.