Sunny Chen from
Guang-Zhen JHS had contacted me asking that I go see her students’ new
production of “Peddler Polly and the Story Stealer” on May 24, 2018. “Now the students can only recite the scripts," she wrote, “but they
still don't have facial expression, suitable gestures, and their performance is
still not tight enough.”
I
had met Sunny a few years before when she needed assistance from Kang Hsien Publisher’s agent who supplied her school with EFL textbooks and support. Since
then, she has come to me often for her students’ English Essay Recitation and Readers’ Theater.
“You're
always an Idea King. We really need your
good fresh ideas to do magic on our play.
Moreover, our scripts still need to be cut by 20 seconds.” She attached
the script, by Aaron Shepard: “The storytellers of Taletown
are mysteriously losing their stories, while a stranger sells 'storyboxes' in
the town square.” The theme of the humorous fable is electronic entertainment; how it siphons books into pixels that can disappear from a
child’s memory. The script was free on-line and could be copied, shared, or
performed. In fact, I had seen it performed by other middle schools in
Central Taiwan on a panel of judges at Readers’ Theater contests.
When
I arrived at the school, seven children were lined up to read their scripts
with another four ‘under-studies’ sitting on the side. A young cameraman was filming the session for them to review later. Cindy, the young lady who
was the subject of “The Winner who Lost in Taiwan” (Read "A Winner Lost in Taiwan" here.) was Narrator
#1. I finally had the opportunity to congratulate her in person for the fine job she did in the essay recitation contest. Meanwhile, the young man who played the villain boss in “Child Labour” (Read "Child Labour Readers Theater" here.) and the bad pig
in “Three Little Wolves” was Spellbinder in this skit. (Read "The Big Bad Readers' Theater" here.)
The children all needed advice with intonation
and body language, and that is what I gave them. In addition, the script had to be trimmed to under six minutes, as per the rules of whoever
decided at the Taiwan Department of Education, so I cut non-essential lines leaving the players time for better enunciation and emphasis.
During
the first read-through, I noticed that one of the girls kept
mispronouncing words with long ‘e’, saying ‘min’ instead of ‘mean’, ‘piss’
instead of ‘piece.’ I modeled the sound but she repeated the mispronunciation. Finally, she got so frustrated she ran out of the room in
tears. I felt terrible; perhaps I was too harsh, but Sunny assured me the girl
was too sensitive and motioned for an understudy to replace her, a young lady
who turned out to be much better. For the children that had difficulty with the compound stresses and adjective-noun combinations, I suggested a
mnemonic device: noun–noun up-down, adjective-noun down-up.
I also introduced the concept of word-linkage; the art of connecting words when one ends in a vowel and the next
begins with a consonant, or vice versa.
I also introduced the concept of word-linkage; the art of connecting words when one ends in a vowel and the next
begins with a consonant, or vice versa.
Before
I left, I gave the students words of encouragement. “Remember, “how
you go there is as important as where you are going. Have fun and the audience will
feel it, too.” Sunny knew exactly what I meant and passed it on.
On
July 2nd, I returned to Guang-Zhen to see how the
Readers’ Theater troupe was doing. I was amazed to see and hear how much
progress they had made. Many of my theatrical suggestions were incorporated into
their routine and much of the pronunciation and intonation sounded more
natural. I told them how proud I was of them and assured them that, no matter
what happens at the competition, they had already won for the great attitudes
they had. After a few minor adjustments, such as having the troupe point to the
same imaginary sign, they were all set. With a little more practice, they would nail it.
Thanks to Sunny Chen, Guang-Zhen Middle School students have the opportunity to use their English language skills in projects that can motivate gifted individuals. So long as a similar approach is used in each and every EFL classroom, for every student, a stage is not necessary to be a star. It takes a school-wide effort to bring English from proficiency tests into the culture of performing arts. I am happy that I can be of assistance.
Copyright © 2018 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved.
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