How Did You Like Our Musical?

Over 1,000 people saw Courage To Fly at Sheppard School.  So, what did people think?

We invite students, teachers, parents, family and friends to share their responses with us.  How did you like our musical?  What really stands out?  What did you learn?  What do you wonder?

Responding is easy.  Just click where it says how many replies there have already been at the bottom of this post, and let us know what you thought.  You will be asked to give your name and an e-mail address.  The address will not be published with your comment.

We look forward to hearing from you.

We Did It!

Our hearts are full!   Snippets of song and dance and dialogue keep overflowing into our classrooms, hallways and playgrounds.  Reverberating between joy and emptiness, some of us can’t help but mutter, “We did it!”

Together, we brought something beautiful and true into the world.   Courage To Fly was wonderful.  The script rocked.  Creative flourishes and powerful performances from actors, singers, dancers, classes, planners and designers helped to nudge this musical from the safety of the page-nest into a new world of wonder.  Our audience was entranced, moving back and forth between tears and laughter, marveling at both the beauty and the audacity of what we have launched.

Just as important as the end product was the process.  We worked together.  Together included staff members, students, and many people in our school community.  The spirit in which we worked was exemplary.  There was some tension and dissent; these elements, I believe, are essential to creative depth.  Notably absent, however, were the eruptions that often mar elaborate projects ~ the public meltdowns and private sniping over time and turf ~ that leach so much goodness from the world.

As we edge back towards normalcy at Sheppard School, we will never be quite the same. Our worlds have shifted because of Courage To Fly.  Many of us ~ students, teachers, parents ~  have been pushed from nests of reserve, limitation and doubt, to find new wind beneath our wings.

We can be very proud of what we have done together, all because we had the courage to fly!

Ready To Fly

It’s here, the week towards which we have been working for almost a year!  The last laboured cranks of the roller coaster have taken us, finally, to the top.  It’s scary-wonderful-downhill-from-here-hands-in-the-air-time!

Last night someone reminded me that much of what is good in a project like this has already happened.  As a school community ~ staff, students, parents ~ we have learned so much, grown in surprising ways, and fully supported each other in an audacious undertaking.  Everything that happens from here is gravy.

The cast has done a wonderful job of learning their lines and helping to thread this story into a dramatic weave on stage.  Thanks to those kids and their tireless directors for all the work they have done.  This past weekend we got a good start on mastering the technical aspects of sound and lighting.  The Sheppard crew has gained competence, and we have some good support from Eastwood. The choir and band are ready to give us that voice of enthusiasm and child-like commitment upon which our spirits can dance.  All the other background dimensions of set, costumes, makeup and logistics are in place.

Classes ~ you already look great!  The dances, dramas and sounds that you provide are like sparkling jewels, the twinkling silver fish that will ignite the imagination and wonder of our audience.

Courage To Fly is perched on the edge, ready to fly from the nest, into the big wide world of our community.  We truly have a chance to bring something beautiful into the world!  Let’s fly!

Signs Of Spring

Let’s bring something beautiful into the world!  This was one of our big goals, when we first decided to create our own musical last spring.  There have been many hints and rumours of beauty all along the way since then, like brave crocuses in the snow, to keep our hope alive.

But now, something new is happening.  As the days lengthen, and the sun melts the last vestiges of winter’s ice, hints and rumours have been replaced by something more tangible ~ eruptions of glory.

Everywhere we look, sleeping words on the page of our script are bursting into new life! Actors have memorized their lines.  But now, in after-school rehearsals, they are beginning to own them, sing them, dance them, be them.  If you arrive at school early in the morning you might see colourful painted panels leaning up against the wall, drying out from last night’s set design party.  During the day, snippets of music may leak out from beneath doors and floors will shake rhythmically, as classes work with choreographers to learn the steps for one of the seven dances in Courage to Fly. On the weekend or in the evening, the hammer and drill of Stu Carnohan might be heard in the gym.  He could be filling in the Bermuda Triangle on our newly erected stage.  We don’t want to lose any actors during the show.  And, of course, there are the mystical costume designers, who might burst in unannounced at any moment to fit the latest costume for a snake, raccoon or possum.

This is a rough and enthusiastic kind of beauty that is breaking forth.  In the days to come, fear will take a stronger hold, and we will be driven to temper that which is weak and polish that which is merely cute or pretty.  All because our hearts are set on beauty!

Halfway Up The Mountain!

One of our directors commented in a recent e-mail that the cast has done some great work, but in looking ahead, “It still seems like a mountain!”

True enough.  We have a long way to go.  But let’s try looking back for a minute.

When we began production for Courage To Fly in the beginning of February, we created a data base of about 250 big jobs that needed to be done.  As we move into April, we have completed almost half of those jobs.  This is an amazing amount of work that has been completed.  We are already halfway up the mountain.  And the view from here is sometimes spine-tingling.

If you happened to come by Sheppard after school one day last week you would have seen a whole lot of climbing going on.  In the gym, the cast was practicing “off-book”.  Directors and additional actors were watching carefully and commenting after each scene about issues of blocking and delivery. On the main floor a cluster of teachers, students and parents were painting large backdrop panels for the set. In another room, a couple of teachers were puzzling over how to offer tickets for Courage To Fly in the fairest possible way. Upstairs, in the staff room, some teachers and students were having a workshop with a make-up artist, learning how to create faces for animals and humans in our play. If that wasn’t enough, traces of feathers could still be seen drifting down hallways in the ghost-like wake of Mrs. Lucas, who had spent a considerable portion of her day sewing and fitting osprey costumes.

The vista from this point in the climb is already sparkling with beauty and energy.  Yes, the mountain still looms above us.  But we are well on our way.  With humour, luck, surprise and hard work in equal measure, we will make it to the top.  Roll up your sleeves and pass the oxygen masks.

Problem-Solving

Putting together a play like Courage To Fly requires a lot of problem-solving. In the first place, the whole idea is outrageous! Who ever heard of putting every single student on stage? And why create your own play when there are plenty of musicals out there, just waiting to be produced?

This is, however, the path we have chosen. We have chosen to dream big! With big dreams come big problems. Lots of them:

• How do you get 350 kids on stage without lots of annoying, momentum-crushing delays?

• How do you get 10-year-olds to memorize over 100 lines?

• What do you do when the stage you thought you had booked is no longer available?

• How can we make sure that the audience can hear the words?

• How can musicians play music that is not written down?

• How can we choreograph 7 dances, when the high school you were counting on to create this choreography says, “No thanks, we are too busy”?

• How will we distribute tickets in a fair way?

• What kind of makeup will kids need when they are on stage, and how can we apply makeup to so many actors?

• How can we make the osprey look like osprey, yet look different from each other?

• How will classes find the time to practice their parts on stage?

• Who will supervise classes for the teachers working on the production in the gym?

• How can we keep this play from being longer than two hours?

• What if the power goes off, the audience chokes on stray boa feathers, the sound system from the church next door kicks in, an actor gets sick, etc., etc., etc.?

• How can we solve all of these problems in the next 38 calendar days, or more frighteningly, the next 25 school days?

These problems could easily paralyze us.  They certainly introduce a little fear into our lives.  Yet, fear can mobilize and direct us, it can draw us closer, it can make us rely on each other more.

This is, in fact, happening.  The solutions to our problems are all around us.  They are in people who appear out of nowhere to say, “How can I help?” Solutions are in Eric Richards (who has worked hard to gather together props for our play), in Lucy Pelletier and Diane Kewley (who have volunteered to help with directing and line coaching), in Lisa McEwen (who has found gymnastics ribbons for our birds and arranged for a trainer from the Cambridge Kips to come and teach us how to use the ribbons), in Christine Watson (who is choreographing 3 of our dances), in the Rockway Mennonite Collegiate Institute (who has loaned to us a portable stage and some other props for the cause), in teacher Christian Lemke and a band of Eastwood students (who will oversee the sound and lighting systems for our play), in each and every staff member here at Sheppard (all of whom are working their “day jobs” and contributing to some aspect of this production), in the enthusiasm and creativity of students (who volunteer for all sorts of jobs, like set design or cleaning the stage, and have wonderful problem-solving skills), and in our parents (who encourage their kids, help them learn lines, pick them up when they stay late, and marvel appreciatively at what is happening here).

Putting together a play like Courage To Fly requires a lot of problem-solving. But, together we are learning that no problem is too big for this community to solve.  On May the 4th and 5th, when Courage To Fly leaves the ground and soars into our collective imagination, we will have so much to celebrate!

 

 

Twins

What’s New

Yesterday I watched a rehearsal in the gym. The birds were practicing a tricky scene from the end of the first Act. They did a wonderful job, many of them working “off-script” now, pouring expression and gesture into their performances. When they got to the end of a scene, a surprising thing happened. The birds sat down in the audience, and a second group rose to stage the scene all over again.

We have a double cast for Courage To Fly.  There is a feeling of camaraderie between the Wednesday and the Thursday cast ~ a sense that we are all in this together, tinged with a little friendly competition that drives actors to live up to, or surpass the standard that has been laid down by their partners.

All over the school we can see partnering like this.  Yesterday, a group of four teachers were giggling and grooving to the sound of the 5th Dimension, as they swished and swirled colourful cloth through the air, imitating the movement of hot air balloons.  Small working groups of teachers and students are springing up here and there to work on aspects of the play ~ one group taking on the challenge of set design, another collating results of a survey we did about how kids at school want to get involved in Courage to Fly.

The beauty of a project like this is not just in the product ~ the finished play.  So much of the value is in the process ~ all the working together, problem-solving, and pitching in that is necessary, behind the scenes, before a musical to really soar “Up, Up and Away”.

 

 

Hatching

What’s New

This week our play hatched! The moment of birth was clear; it happened when the cast met for the first time. Soon 56 kids were wandering around the school with bright pink scripts in hand, and smiles that said, “I think I am going to like this world”, mixed with the odd, “How will I ever learn all those lines and fly?” Directors began rehearsing the cast on Monday, February 28.  They have a vigorous schedule of rehearsals, which can be viewed on the pull down page called “Cast” at the top of this blog.

Behind the scenes, a lot of other things were beginning, too. Classroom teachers met with producers to start fleshing out the on-stage role for their classes. Classes will be singing, dancing, acting, performing in a talent show, and creating soundscapes to usher in the new world of Courage To Fly. Further in the background, working groups began meeting about props, choreography, set design, tickets & publicity, music,  sound and lighting.  As these groups take their first wobbling steps, they will invite students to participate in the work.

Already the tickets & publicity group has announced a campaign to create a logo for Courage To Fly. These logos need to be created on 8.5 x 11 paper, drawn in pencil and outlined in black ink.  A logo will be selected and announced after the March break, and used for tickets, posters, T-shirts and other objects to help us advertise and remember Courage To Fly.  Entries need to be taken to Room 17 by Friday, March 11.

There are lots of ways for kids (and community members) to get involved in this play.  This week the producers will be conducting a survey of students in grades 3 to 6 to see things that they are already doing for the musical, and to gauge interest in working on costuming, makeup, stage crew, choreography, set design, tickets & publicity, sound and lighting.

This place is alive!

Gazing Into The Fire

Watching a school-wide musical take shape is a little like gazing into a campfire.  We are long past the days of careful building, where writing teams and composers labour to lay down combustible materials of the imagination into the sturdy framework for a play. Kindling has been struck, and smokey wisps of interest have now been replaced by hungry flames of desire, as kids rush to deposit their cast applications in the office.  We’ve only just begun!

There may be times in the coming months when the roaring fire threatens to consume us; we may need to take a step back, occasionally, to avoid being singed.  But around this fire, magic will happen, stories will be told, songs will be sung, dances will be danced, and community will be built.  On May 6, when this is all over, and we are left staring into the glowing embers of Courage to Fly, we will marvel at the warmth and light and beauty that we have brought into the world.

New Direction For Blog

This entry in our blog marks a shift from creation to production.  In the beginning, we used this space mainly to get ideas.  Now we will use it to share accomplishments, plans and needs.

Each week we will try to highlight the accomplishments of the past week and look forward to the challenges of the coming days, in a section called What’s New?

If you want to know how you can help with the musical, pull down a page from the top of the blog called  How Can I Help?

If you want to find out when things are happening, pull down a page from the top of the blog called Schedule.

What’s New

1. Auditions were held this past week.  Almost 50 students tried out for special roles in Courage To Fly. Students will hear the results of these auditions by Wednesday, February 23.  After this, the cast will begin rehearsing.  Dates and times of rehearsals are still undetermined.

2. Teachers have volunteered to take on a full range of production responsibilities for Courage To Fly.  These responsibilities include producing, directing, music, set design, costumes, make up, sound, lighting, tickets, publicity, photography and choreography.  Teachers were given a detailed timeline for the completion of various tasks and have been encouraged to seek out students to assist with each of these jobs.  It is our philosophy to work alongside of students, wherever possible.

3. Each class has been assigned to an on-stage role for the play.  Next week, each class will receive a detailed timeline for the completion of tasks necessary to fulfill this on-stage role.

4. The musical choir has been practising for several weeks now.  About 75 grade 3 to 6 students have joined this choir, which practises during the first nutrition break every Thursday.

The Osprey Has Landed!

Creating

The Writing Team has finished drafting a script for our school musical.  The play is called Courage To Fly.  We think it is very strong play, with lots of things to think about and feel, great roles for student actors, enough humour to keep us from taking ourselves too seriously, and music (created and borrowed) to touch the heart.

For those who want a sneak preview of our play, we are including the first two scenes below.  These may not be the final versions of these scenes, but they will introduce you to the characters of the play and the challenges that they face.

Act I ~ Scene 1: Strange Egg

Act I ~ Scene 2: The Outsiders Club

Right now the play is being reviewed by some students, teachers and friends of Sheppard, including a number of professional writers.  Outside eyes can often see things that writers can’t.  We plan to make any necessary revisions and publish our play by the end of January so that we can start working with it.

A group of student composers continues to meet with Mrs. Duff and Mr. Martin to refine 4 of the songs that they wrote for Courage To Fly.  Mr. Martin has also written two songs and we have adopted several others.  This play will be a musical treat.

Producing

Now it’s time to start producing Courage To Fly.   Production is work of intense creativity, when words become flesh. The vision of writers and composers is translated into scenes, sets, costumes, props, sights, sounds, songs and dances of a new world.

Already teachers have taken on responsibilities for various aspects of this production.  These jobs include producing, directing actors, leading music, creating the set, making costumes, overseeing sound and lighting, organizing tickets and publicity, gathering props, taking pictures, doing choreography, and putting together a slide show.  Many people in our school community have also volunteered to get involved in this production.  We will be calling on you.  If you have a special interest in some aspect of production, please let us know.

It is our philosophy that, in this production, adults should do everything alongside of students.  In the next several weeks teacher will be recruiting students to participate in all of the aspects of production listed above.  Students need to listen carefully for these opportunities, which will be announced on the PA during opening exercises and listed in this blog.

Every Student On Stage

In addition to all of this, we want every child at Sheppard School to have some on-stage role in Courage To Fly.  Each class will have a special on-stage role.  These roles will be clarified early in February and classes will begin working on their performance soon thereafter.

Introducing The Play To The School

We will have an assembly on Friday, January 28 to introduce Courage To Fly to all the student of the school.  A group of artists has been working to illustrate each scene.  During this assembly we will tell students the story of Courage To Fly and give them some idea about how they might help get this production off the ground and into our imagination.