Expanding on the drama
By Jennifer Huberdeau, North Adams Transcript
Saturday, March 8
NORTH ADAMS -- Sitting cross-legged on the floor of Brayton Elementary School's cafeteria, about 30 students -- all members of the fledgling Elementary School Drama Team -- bent over copies of a play, poring over the words as they prepared to read aloud Thursday afternoon.
Brows furrowed across some of the faces, as others chatted with the children next to them about who they wanted to portray.
"Remember, these parts are not carved in stone," Lisa Tanner, facilitator of the Elementary School Drama Team, said to the group. "I want to hear your voice. I want you to read it like you really want the part. Think of this as an audition."
She offered further encouragement, saying, "Kaycee did a really good job with the part of the donkey -- she brayed when she was reading it, and now she has the part."
The group fell silent as Tanner started handing out parts for three plays.
"I've already cast one of the four plays we'll be doing," she said. "We're doing four mini-plays that have been adapted from 'Grimm's Fairy Tales.' We're having one performance on May 30."
The drama team, made up of pupils attending Brayton, Greylock and Sullivan elementary schools, is still in its infancy as the North Adams Public Schools debuts its first district-wide drama program.
The program, which originated with a drama team and courses at Drury High School, was expanded this year to be open to students in every grade.
Superintendent James E. Monte-pare told the North Adams School Committee during its meeting last week that the program has been well received by students in every school.
"As you know, last year we put money into the budget for the drama program and hired Dr. Len Radin, who has volunteered with the (Drury) drama team for over 20 years, as the district drama coordinator," Montepare said. "This year, we have already had one production at the high school ("The Wizard of Oz") that had over 150 students involved with it in some way."
Radin said that for the last 20 years, the theater department has pretty much existed only at Drury with annual performances and courses taught throughout the year.
"All that changed in September," he told the committee. "I was asked to create or find a teaching curriculum for all grade levels. I did this by compiling information from three sources -- art standards set in the Massachusetts Curriculum Frame-works, information gleaned from educational theater programs and my own experience of what has worked over the last 20 years."
Radin said coordinators for the elementary and middle school programs were also recruited.
"We have hired Lisa Tanner for the elementary position," he said. "She has a degree in theater from MCLA. At the middle school, we've hired Melissa Quirk, a seventh-grade teacher with extensive theater experience."
Quirk and her students will produce an abridged version of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" in May.
Radin said no other school in the [northern] Berkshires offers a drama program like the one created for the city.
"No school district had a better arts program," he said. "As far as I know, there are no other theater departments. Oh sure, there are drama clubs, but no one else offers theater classes."
He stressed the importance of the arts in schools, pointing out that America's largest import is intellectual properties -- books, movies, plays.
"Eighty-nine percent of the American population believes that, in this time of international creativity and innovation, art is vital," Radin said. "Theater is the most inclusive of all the arts -- it uses vocals, dance, visual arts, carpentry, costuming, make-up and more."
At Brayton, the children weren't aware of the impact the drama team was having on their education or character building. For them, it's an outlet -- a place to hone their skills or just to have fun.
"I was in the play "Honk" with a local group," Lauren Cornell, a fourth-grader at Brayton, said. "I was waiting for another group to work with. I'm excited that I could join the drama team."
Rosalyn Lincoln, 9, a third-grader from Greylock, said she joined the program, which meets after school two days a week because acting is her favorite thing to do.
"I was in 'The Wizard of Oz' in November," she said. "It was so much fun -- and scary."
Bella Phaneuf, 10, a fifth-grader at Sullivan, said she didn't know at first if she would like the program.
"I've never done anything like this before," she said. "I decided to try it and see if I liked it. Now, I'm really excited that I'm going to be in a play."
Camron Lapine, 10, a fifth-grader at Greylock, said he sees the elementary school program as a kind of "warm-up" for the drama team at the middle school.
"This is what I'm going to do for a job," he said, a smile lighting up his face. "I'm going to be on Broadway."
He isn't the only one dreaming big. Kaycee Smith, 9, a third-grader from Sullivan (who will play the donkey in the adaptation of "Breman Town Musicians,") has several careers in mind.
"I'm going to act on television," she said. "I'm going to be in a band, too. This is great practice. I can't wait to do our play."
The Elementary Drama Team is the theatre program of all three elementary schools of the North Adams Public School System. It is the younger sibling to the Conte Drama Team and the Drury Drama Team.
James Montepare, Superintendant
Lisa Tanner, Elementary Drama Team Facilitator
Melissa Quirk, Conte Drama Team Facilitator
Noella Carlow, Program Coordinator 21st Century After School Program
Anna, from the Drury Drama Team helping out the Elementary Drama Team.
Cody, of the Drury Drama Team with members of the Elementary Drama Team
Dr. Len Radin Noella Carlow
