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Take a Look At. . . Oldest Group
Our Oldest Group....by Meg deMoll
Over the years people have asked me how it is that I guide the Oldest Group at The School in Rose Valley to create the many and varied skits that take place just about every time that it is our turn to host assembly. Even with only three days to this first school week this year, we did in fact manage to pull a skit together albeit a wild and zany example.
Much of what I know about creating a skit with kids comes straight out of my experience as a child myself at Rose Valley. When I was little, we actually had a Drama Teacher on staff so plays were plentiful. Then, in my twenties, I had the opportunity to work with someone who had a great deal of experience with acting as well as experience teaching drama to kids. She hails from England and it was with her that I first taught Shakespeare. My interest peaked. I did my Senior Thesis in college on King Lear.
Although the process that I generally employ has changed some over the years as particular kids and situations have influenced it greatly, it remains roughly the same. In my twenty-some odd years of teaching I have seen a wide range of class personalities and, although some classes seem to be able to cooperate more easily right off the bat and therefore take to this process more readily, in my experience it is possible to apply this process to any group of individuals. At the best of times, this process is unwieldy. Usually it is quick and chaotic and produces a piece that is slapstick, certainly humorous and almost always involves—someone want a research project? —stealing.
So here is a glimpse of just how one of these things evolves. Improvisation is at the core of this process. To begin things, I instruct the kids to explore the dress-up box and bring back to the group any outfit or prop that they want. Then one individual or a group is chosen to ‘start things off’ by acting out an idea that they have. Others who have an idea about how to join in with the first group raise their hands and are picked one at a time to come on to the stage. The important rule here is that they act their idea rather than explain it. If someone has been on the stage too long (not that that ever happens!) they can be asked to think of a way to act themselves off. If the plot gets too muddy or the acting too chaotic, all actors are asked to freeze and a discussion of how to proceed is then opened up to the whole group. It is during this kind of discussion that we also try to work out an ending. Sometimes, it is not until moments before ‘curtain’ that one kid comes up with just the right neat twist to end things logically.
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