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| JUNK IN THE ATTIC written by Jody Terio dramaturged by Allen Merovitz Originally this play was written to showcase the work of
Shel Silverstein in whose poetry I found a voice that spoke like "social
commentary" for children. I drew out many of my favourite poems The reciting of poetry for kids is an awesome task mainly because of kid's limited vocabulary and grasp of language. The biggest challenge is to translate poetry into dialogue so that our audience is not aware that they are listening to poetry until they are already engaged in the heart of the text. In the play, the poetry is delivered through a variety of different mediums to give you
the feeling that you are listening to dialogue. As poetry has rhythm, sometimes it can
also become repetitive
Divide class into small groups. Each group picks a poem from one of Shel Silverstein's books and together they present a poem to the class. Some ideas 1. Discover the range of voices available in our own pallets! Everyone has a very high voice and a very low voice....but we also have our voice when we talk through the nose, or when our noses are blocked......or when we imitate a cartoon character or a famous actor..... If your kids are a little older they may be able to imitate different cultural accents. All of these changes in pitch and tonality create music. POETRY IS MUSIC WITH WORDS 2. After your small groups decide what they want to present, send them home to find things to "recycle". Like "Junk In The Attic" there's lots of stuff around. To consume your class in interest why not have them bring in some old clothing, toys, portable odds and ends to class to incorporate into their poetry recitation!! The Story Poetry is wonderful but 40 minutes of it without a larger context would be boring! When I realized that something had to move the poetry along, I wrote a story about Celeste and Robyn and of course Robyn's friend Victor. Shel Silverstein's poetry deals with conflict and fear as well as humour and because he gives such strong voice to the child's perspective, I wanted the story to reflect that same freedom. We as adults have a standard around which we want our children to model and in order to write an honest dialogue from the mouths of kids, I found it important to override to some extent, what we would like to hear from them.... just to hear the kids say what they really think and feel!! Much of Shel Silverstein's poetry has the quality of "inner voice". As kids we might want to sell our parents like Clarence, or die like Abigail because our parents won't give us a horse, or maybe we want to blow up our sister Lucille. None of these are acceptable forms of activity but they express real feelings and if allowed to be heard and accepted, can release a tremendous amount of energy and freedom. Natural power struggles occur in families. In Robyn and Celeste's house a very typical power stuggle happens because of the short age gap between them (2 years). Often the older child (Robyn) resents the younger one (Celeste), experiencing their arrival into the family as an intrusion and a major interruption in the parent-kid dynamic. Since the interruption happens when Robyn is only 2 years old, the reason for the resentment is unconscious. But the dynamic continues to recycle! The scenario is that Robyn tyrannizes Celeste and the parents feel obligated to protect her. Once she discovers that she will get protection, she now uses it to balance the power and will set up situations where Robyn will be blamed for all conflicts that occur between them. This of course leads to more resentment and frustration on Robyn's part so he tyrranizes her even more and the circle continues. When I wrote about this story, I was not satisfied with the way that Robyn and Celeste were trying to resolve these problems. It is unnatural for kids to openly talk about their difficulties as they are struggling to develop ego and are often very uncomfortable with vulnerability. Robyn and Celeste need each other but because they cannot trust each other, they cannot get their needs met. .At the time of the second draft I was exposed to some conflict resolution skills and saw them in practice with kids. I realized that it was important to offer some structure for resolving problems. It fit beautifully into the play and gave Robyn and Celeste a platform for working out the problems they were facing. CONFLICT RESOLUTION - "PEACEMAKING" The conflict resolution skills that we incorporate into the production of "Junk In The Attic" were drawn from Peacemaking skills. The "PEACEMAKING" process was introduced by the parents and teachers of Downtown Alternative School (DAS) in Toronto and named by the children who use the process. This all happened about eight years ago and is now a tool used by all of the students of the school. The children teach each other and learn by watching others do the peacemaking, thereby becoming familiar with how it's done. This way they become good mediators. When I spoke to teachers at DAS they told me that what they found was that they themselves also had to make some changes in their belief systems in order to encourage the kids to use the process. Just a few of these.... 1. Problems can be solved. By watching their kids doing the peacemaking they also learned that it wasn't always necesssary for there to be a solution to the problem. Just being able to say what they needed to say and be heard was enough!!! THE RULES !! (They do not have to be in any specific order) 1. Everyone gets to say what they want with no interrupting * Try this with your class!! Divide your class into groups of four. Invent a problem and assign two kids in each group to have the problem and two to be the peacemakers. Let them practice with the rules of the process. When they have resolved the problem let them show the class how they have worked through the problem. It's good for kids to know that there are can be many different solutions to the same problem. NOTE: What I have learned in doing drama with young children is that their limited vocabulary and articulation can make the "show and tell" process so slow that other kids get restless watching. As teacher you can "fill in the blanks" by moving the drama along as storyteller. You can help the child by finding the words they need to express themselves. Once the structure of peacemaking is in place in your classroom, insist that is used at all times to establish A NEW WAY of resolving problems. It can be done!! But it is not the easy way and kids will lapse right back into old patterns if the new way is not firmly established. AND THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.................. I was actively involved in the use of these techniques with both kids and adults and I noticed that certain problems kept occurring, even within hours of a resolution. I saw that even though a structure was built for the kids to work out their problems, unless something else was introduced, the problems would only be worked out at a superficial level. The resolution of the clown costume in the play "Junk In The Attic" did not solve the inherent problem of Robyn and Celeste's relationship. It only temporarily relieved the tension. The conclusion I came to was that if the problem being solved was quite minor, the techniques were quite successful, however if one or both of the kids had deeper problems (high tension in the home environment or bullying in the school yard) then often the problem kept occurring with slight variations in the scenario. What I craved as the writer and creator of this drama was to go deeper into the issues that were driving Robyn and Celeste into conflict. And I discovered safe space ............ SAFE SPACE In the play we created safe space in a few ways. 1. Victor showed Robyn and Celeste how to do a peacemaking process in order to establish the pattern of listening without interrupting. 2. Celeste initiated a positive change in direction by offering a solution to their problem that they could both agree on. 3. Robyn got to vent his anger. He was able to do it with his friend who allowed him to express himself without interfering with or judging Robyn's process. In this case Celeste was not there in the room which helped Robyn to be angry without the threat of hurting Celeste more than he had already done. * This process is called "containment". Should Celeste have been there, she might have wanted to defend herself which is natural when you feel attacked but doesn't always support theangry person to simply release their angry feelings. 4. Robyn sincerely apologized to Celeste which created a safe space for both of them to drop their defences. 5. Robyn initiated a resolution (he would try not to call her names, imitate her and play rough) and as the more threatening presence, he created a feeling of safety for Celeste to also provide some resolutions (not to keep telling on him). 6. Most importantly they listened without interrupting each other and that simple rule allows the energy to release without escalating into anger and the "locking of horns". Safe space provides kids with an opportunity to look at core issues in their lives.
Since these core issues may be about things that are not even on the table so to speak,
for a child to expose them does require A SENSE OF COMMITMENT AND SECURITY FROM OTHER KIDS Our wish at LITTLE RED THEATRE is that your kids enjoy our production of "Junk In The Attic" and............ * make poetry fun and easy to listen to! * recycle their old JUNK creatively! * practice the Peacemaking skills! * create Safe Space for other kids! GOOD LUCK! Jody Terio |
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