What Makes A Witch

By Brittany | Published: May 20, 2013

“Hello, darling Hansel,” says a Witch (Sierra) in a monologue based on a statue she created this week.  “We have some yummy work to do.”

Well!  Witches sound pretty menacing.  But what does a witch look like? Sound like? Move like?

How can you tell if someone is a witch?

Our actors warn of a few signs to watch out for: scary cackle, white hair pulled back in a bun, bad breath, skin as tough as bark… these are only a few signs that children walking alone in the woods should watch out for, according to our recent playmaking brainstorm sessions.

Hansel and Gretel had better be careful.

Though the woman may at first appear harmless, she soon locks up Hansel, and orders poor Gretel to help fatten him up for roasting.  Our actors wrote scenes and songs, and created still images and dances to tell of the scary things happening inside that tempting candy house.

“Why dance?” you may ask.  Aren’t we writing a script?

Well, as they say, a picture may be worth a thousand words… if this is true, dances speak volumes.  In a silent dance, we see nothing but raw emotion. We see the Witch’s hunger, Hansel’s despair, Gretel’s dilemma; all of these are key to setting the right scene for the story we want to tell.

We are able to see how Hansel moves, how Gretel frets… and just what does a witch look like again?

Sam and Aiden help to transform Sierra into a Witch statue.

Actors help each other embody the characters in still image montages.  This week, we saw frozen scenes of the Witch taking Hansel to his cage, and dances to get the playmakers moving and looking like hungry witches and frightened (yet resourceful) children.

We know that Gretel will soon save the day, but that part remains yet to be written!  Now that we have an idea of what our witch looks like, thinks like, sounds and smells like, we can figure out exactly what Gretel and her brother must do to outwit her!

One more week of playmaking to go – let’s see that script start to take shape!

Brittany Cook has been working with the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine since 2011. She has served as Musical Director, scoring and playing the original music for our mainstage productions, and she has worn many other hats as well! Brittany will direct our fall production of Hansel & Gretel.

Read more of Brittany’s posts about the playmaking process here.

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Follow That Singing Bird!

By Brittany | Published: May 13, 2013

Charlie backs up Sam as he sings a reggae tune with lyrics written by Chloe, Aiden, and Erica

Hansel and Gretel aren’t the only ones in the forest looking for a meal… those breadcrumbs on the path are looking pretty delicious to the birds.

“Perfect!” crows a rooster (Erica).

“I wonder what they taste like,” a hummingbird (Mackenzie) wonders.

A little sparrow (Chloe) chirps out simply, “Foooood!”

We saw birds of all kinds on the breadcrumb trail this week in playmaking, where actors moved about the space as birds of all kinds: a finch, a robin, even a penguin… we never know what we’ll see in this forest!

Every bird moves differently, and every bird sings differently. Actors got in touch with their inner birds as we worked out Hansel and Gretel’s greatest plight: the breadcrumbs have been eaten, and they’ve lost their way.  But one helpful bird, according to the original Brothers Grimm story, sings to them a song that coaxes them onward.

But they never said what kind of song it was.  Luckily, we’ve got some great songwriters in the group (and I mean everyone)!

Is it a song of warning?  Don’t go in the forest any further?  Turn back?  Or is it a song to guide them to the sweet but treacherous candy house lying a few more paces down the path?

Playmakers broke off into three groups. Each group devised lyrics to a possible song that the bird could sing to the wandering siblings.  Then, we switched it up: groups passed their songs onto the next group over, and the second group were the ones to write the melody, based on a song style we assigned them.

We saw some lyric heavy metal birds, choreographed R&B birds, even reggae birds, all trying to entice Hansel and Gretel to come with them into the forest, where they came upon the candy house.

With all those different kinds of bird songs, I know I might be inclined to follow.  We’ll see what Hansel and Gretel decide to do soon!

Brittany Cook has been working with the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine since 2011. She has served as Musical Director, scoring and playing the original music for our mainstage productions, and she has worn many other hats as well! Brittany will direct our fall production of Hansel & Gretel.

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Hansel and Gretel vs The World

By Brittany | Published: May 6, 2013

Hansel and Gretel are to be taken into the forest… and left there.

Mackenzie and Aiden read from a six-line script they wrote together.

Everyone knows the story.  But how is that going to happen in our version?  We don’t know yet, so we’re coming up with as many possibilities as we can.

Each of our playmaking meetings is equal parts writing and moving around.  Sometimes the moving around is to warm up, sometimes it’s composing a short dance routine, sometimes it’s acting out a six-line scene our actors have crafted.

Writing is a warm-up, too, and a very important part of the process.  It begins with writing prompts.

“I love going on trips, but I don’t really like getting there.”

This is only one actor’s response to this past Tuesday’s prompt: four sentences about a trip you didn’t want to take.  After a brief greeting and check-in, the actors dive into the prompt, which fires up brains and gets everyone on the same page for one day’s chapter of our playmaking journey.

These prompts draw from real life events—actors shared stories of not wanting to drive all the way to Florida, of being afraid of plane rides, even of not wanting to audition for a play—that could potentially help us create the fantasy world of Hansel and Gretel.

After all, those two are about to embark on a trip they really don’t want to take.

Thursday’s writing prompt: write five sentences about a time when it was you against the world.  Doesn’t that sound like two children against all odds, left alone in a forest?

It did to our playmakers!  All of our playmakers’ experiences could easily be

the same kinds of hardships that Hansel and Gretel have to face.  So, time to get writing! Here’s a peek into the process….

Actors pair up and create stories armed with wit, multicolored markers, and knowledge of the part of the story Reba has just read to them. They get down to work, furiously writing through different scenarios: all the ways Hansel and Gretel’s parents could rudely awaken them for their trip to the forest; eight lines to that justify the parents’ decision to leave the kids alone in the forest; things Hansel could do or say to comfort his sister while they are on their own against the world. Ultimately, we’ll sort through all the resulting script pages, group brainstorm sheets, tiny scrap papers of dialogue to mine for playmaking gold.

At the end of each rehearsal, we get to see the finished products the actors worked on throughout the meeting.  We see short scenes, dances and tableaux (or frozen images, like statues telling a story); we hear scared Gretels and brave Gretels, wicked stepmothers and worried stepmothers… so many different directions our story could go!

We’re tackling the play one small segment at a time, and haven’t even seen that delightful house made of candy yet!  But we still have a month to go in our playmaking process, and plenty of writing and acting ahead.

I wonder how our Hansel and Gretel will brave their journey and face the world.  Only time will tell, so let’s keep writing!

Brittany Cook has been working with the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine since 2011. She has served as Musical Director, scoring and playing the original music for our mainstage productions, and she has worn many other hats as well! Brittany will direct our fall production of Hansel & Gretel.

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Let the Playmaking Begin!

By Brittany | Published: April 26, 2013

When you think of the story of Hansel and Gretel, what comes to mind?

A big candy house?  A trail of breadcrumbs?  I bet you can think of all sorts of things right off the top of your head.

Now just think: any of those elements of the story could be the building blocks for a brand new script, for a brand new play.

Theatre Artistic Director Reba Short and I have both written some material for a few of the recent takes on fairy tales that have been performed here at the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine, but this spring, we’re doing something different.

We’ve begun meeting twice a week with a group of nine Children’s Theatre actors in a unique setting: the kids aren’t rehearsing, they’re writing, and acting out (or simply freeze-framing) their own material.  That’s right, this time, kids are writing the script!

This is playmaking.

Drawing from the original Brothers Grimm story, some real life stories from the actors in the form of writing prompts, and lots of improvisation, we’re gathering material to create our fall production of Hansel and Gretel.

“Hansel, I’m scared.  I’m scared of what’s out there.  In the forest.”

These words, written by playmaker and theatre veteran Zara Boss, were spoken during our Thursday meeting this week, and who knows?—Gretel might end up saying them in the final version of the script.

But right now, we just don’t know.  And that’s what makes playmaking so much fun.

I love this process, because anything is fair game… I never thought that the breadcrumbs on the path or the spices in the witch’s kitchen might be characters themselves, but ask any of these actors, and they’ll tell you exactly what spices and breadcrumbs are thinking about:

Actors freeze as breadcrumbs during a warm-up.

“If only I was as popular as that paprika!” laments Aiden Davenport as a spice, while Edyson Pines mopes as a breadcrumb, “Those good-for-nothing kids, they left me behind!”  Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, breadcrumb MacKenzie Jones cries out, “There are birds here!”

I’ll be blogging about our process and progress each week as we continue to discover the world of Hansel and Gretel to create our original take on the tale.  I, for one, can’t wait to see what this group comes up with next!

Brittany Cook has been working with the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine since 2011. She has served as Musical Director, scoring and playing the original music for our mainstage productions, and she has worn many other hats as well! Brittany will direct our fall production of Hansel & Gretel.

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Inspired by pal and puppet, Bridget created Visual Impairment Awareness Day

By Reba | Published: April 25, 2013

Bridget (second from right, with Reynaldo) and her fellow Kids on the Block puppeteers.

Bridget Fehrs, an 8th grader at Lincoln Middle School, has been a puppeteer with Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine’s Kids on the Block puppet troupe for nearly three years. (If you come to our theatre productions, you’ve probably seen her on stage there, too – she’s been acting with us for years, and just appeared as Country Mouse in our latest show.) The Kids on the Block puppets each live with a different disability or special need, and the young puppeteers who bring them to life are responsible for learning all about each puppet’s disability and being able to answer questions from the audience. Bridget is one of several puppeteers who got to know Reynaldo, a puppet who is visually impaired; she learned how to operate the puppet’s cane and answered dozens of questions from children curious about blindness.

Actors/volunteers Hannah and Jane received a sighted guide training from The Iris Network.

Inspired both by Reynaldo and by a friend who is blind, Bridget approached us with a thoughtful proposal for a Visual Impairment Awareness Day, an event to help kids “better understand what children who are blind encounter in their day to day activities.” To organize the event, Bridget and I worked in collaboration with The Iris Network, a Maine non-profit serving the visually impaired. With financial support from Unum (a longtime sponsor of the Kids on the Block puppet troupe), the event will take place on Saturday, April 27th here at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine.

Events will include Sighted Guide Tours, during which visitors can put on blindfolds and be guided by Kids on the Block puppeteers (trained by The Iris Network), a Braille scavenger hunt, and a Q&A with Cammy, who works for The Iris Network assisting the visually impaired.

Events will take place from 11am-4pm. Get all the details on our calendar of events. All the Visual Impairment Awareness events are free with admission!

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I’m Rosanne. Be one of my campers!

By Rosanne | Published: April 19, 2013

Meet Rosanne!About Rosanne:

BA Biology, Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH)
Having joined the Children’s Museum & Theatre as an intern in the garden, Rosanne imbues a sense of curiosity and respect for the natural world into all of her teaching. Her previous work in education has taken her from Ohio to Central America and, most recently, to Vermont as a garden-based educator. Rosanne loves the creativity and imagination of the museum visitors and sees her work as an opportunity to inspire young people to be inventors, growers and makers.

Here’s what Rosanne has to say about her 2013 summer camps:

I’m excited to spend the summer telling stories, digging in the dirt and building amazing inventions! Our campers have such wonderful curiosity and imagination, perfect for understanding and appreciating the science that makes our world work. At these camps, we will be exploring the world of science with storytelling, imagination, and lots of excellent messes.

• Young Inventors 7/22-7/26  •

At Young Inventors camp, we’ll be choosing our own adventures! This camp is all about fostering curiosity and inventiveness and building problem solving skills. Together, we will be devising creative solutions to whimsical challenges, drawing on the museum’s exhibits for inspiration (we have whozits and whatzits galore!). We will learn basic principles of science, explore the beauty of simple machines and learn to embraces challenges as an opportunity to be more creative. For example, from a given set of supplies, we’ll tackle a whole bunch of challenges: create something to keep a secret in! Create new instruments for your band and sing us a song! Create a flying machine to safely carry a family of jelly beans! This camp is designed for 6-8 year olds. Come to Young Inventors camp and dream up your own incredible invention!

• Dinos Rock! (8/12-8/16) •

Later in the summer, we’ll be traveling back to the Age of Reptiles- to the time of the dinosaurs. This camp is all about exploring prehistoric dinosaur life and the earth’s landscape 180 million years ago, a time when the Museum’s special collection of artifacts was being made! Learning from life-size replicas of dinosaur fossils and real plant and animal fossils, we’ll make casts of animal tracks, play rousing games of fossil charades and dance in a dinosaur disco. Campers will play archeologist and search the garden for fossils, carefully uncovering its hidden treasure. What ancient species will they uncover? How did it live? What did it eat? Dino Rock! camp is developmentally appropriate for 4-6 year olds and, if you child loves dinos and digging and dressing up, this is the camp for them!

Talk to Rosanne:

Curious about Rosanne’s camps? Contact her at 828-1234 x229 or email her at rosanne@kitetails.org.

Ready to register? You can do it online here or call Shana at 828-1234 x232.

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Show and Tell Gallery showcases biggest collection yet!

By Lucy | Published: April 17, 2013

Louisa creates a sign for the fourth annual Show and Tell Gallery.

More than 40 artists ages 5 to 17 from as far away as Caribou and Limestone submitted work for the 2013 Show and Tell Gallery, a collection of work by youth on the autism spectrum. Each April since 2009, the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine has collected art work by young people with autism spectrum disorder and hangs the show for Autism Awareness Month. The show will be on display in the Museum & Theatre’s Stairwell Gallery through August 2013.

Artist Olivia Frankl created this remarkable reproduction of a Monet.

This year’s gallery includes more than 60 pieces, ranging from fanciful pipe cleaner dragons to striking photographs to a remarkably faithful replica of Monet’s The Boat at Giverny. Many students submitted work with encouragement from art teachers and special education professionals who recognized both their students’ talent and the value of an opportunity to share their creativity.

“Some children on the spectrum struggle with communication and may not speak to peers or

"Worry Not Dolls" by artist Kayla Campbell illustrates the creative use of mixed media you'll see throughout the gallery.

teachers about their achievements,” says Louisa Donelson, the educator at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine who founded the gallery and responsible for its curation. “The Show and Tell Gallery gives them an opportunity to take pride in their work. Their teachers, families and even classmates come to see it. It helps the whole community recognize how much kids on the spectrum are capable of, and how many Maine families are affected by spectrum disorders.”

Support from Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine and Walmart funds both the Show and Tell Gallery and Play Our Way, a series of free,

Louisa (bottom center) accepts Maine Autism Alliance's Step Up! for Autism Award on behalf of the Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine.

private playtimes for children on the autism spectrum and their families. This funding also supports a series of small art workshops led by Donelson for youth on the autism spectrum. (Space is still available in spring workshops; interested families can email louisa@kitetails.org for information.)

Last Wednesday (April 3rd), the Maine Autism Alliance awarded the Museum & Theatre one of its first Step Up for Autism awards, recognizing the Show and Tell Gallery, Donelson’s art workshops, and the Play Our Way Playtimes as vital resources for Maine’s autism community.

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Calling all young artists on the autism spectrum!

By Louisa | Published: March 21, 2013

For me, one of the only things that comes close to making art is viewing art. That’s why I am so excited for the 4th annual Show and Tell Gallery! Through March 27th, we’re accepting art submissions from children and teens on the autism spectrum. We’re eager to see a wide variety of art in all media – including (but not at all limited to) painting, drawing, digital or computer art, photography, and sculpture. If you have artwork but don’t have a mat or frame for it, just let us know – we’re happy to help get your piece gallery-ready!

If you know a child or teen diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder who is 5-18 years old (or in grades K-12), and might like to see their art hanging at the Museum & Theatre, please share this opportunity with him/her! Having curated this gallery for several years, I can tell you that the experience of seeing a child’s artwork on display here at the Museum & Theatre is a special opportunity that has a big impact on the artists and their families. We’ll have a special friends and family reception to open the show, and the work will hang in our front stairwell gallery throughout the spring and summer.  (Don’t worry about handing over your masterpiece – all pieces of art will be returned.)

If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to contact me at Louisa@kitetails.org or 207-828-1234 x227.

For detailed guidelines and the official submission form, click here.

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I’m Reba. Be one of my campers!

By Reba | Published: February 6, 2013

About Reba:

BA Theatre Arts, Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, MA)
MA Theatre Education, Emerson College (Boston, MA) (expected 2013)
Reba spent two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, where she facilitated a clowning troupe and helped them teach theatre workshops for youth all over the south-west region of the country. Aside from directing five mainstage productions per year at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine, Reba is an active member of Portland’s thriving theatre community. Reba uses theatre to teach anything and anything to teach theatre, loves making art with young actors, and loves watching young people find their spark!

Here’s what Reba has to say about her 2013 summer camps:

Parents approach me all the time asking what opportunities we have for younger actors. Our theatre productions are for ages eight and up, and they have seven-year-olds, six-year-olds, even four-year-olds chomping at the bit to act on our stage. Aside from Teensy Weensy Acting classes for three- to five-year-olds, we offer theatre camps for ages four to eight.

• Once Upon a Time (7/8-7/12) •

For four- to six-year-olds, we believe that inspiring a love of storytelling and a spark of imagination is key. This year,  Once Upon a Time camp will focus on five different fairy tales: Jack and the Beanstalk; Rapunzel; The Magic Fish; Hansel and Gretel; and the Frog Prince. We’ll be telling tales and creating interdisciplinary opportunities to bring the fairy tales to life.  Young children will have a chance to listen, respond and live each tale. On Friday, we’ll put on a performance for our friends and family – a special presentation of our favorite fairytale moments during the week.

• Story in a Bottle (8/19-8/23) •

Later in the summer, we’ll use our imaginations, theatre improvisation and some basic writing skills to develop a story. In the beginning of camp, we’ll discover a cryptic message that washed up on the shore after a hurricane. As a group, we’ll create the backstory.  This camp is based on the Waldorf principal of writing before reading. We believe that by writing the script, the actors will have more control over the story and have a better understanding of the subtext behind their words. This camp will offer chances for mystery, code-breaking, and interpersonal development as we work together to create the play.

A children’s theatre for kids, by kids requires a special kind of actor. Even in our camps, we’re offering concepts and curricula that will develop future actors for our stage! Actors that have experienced our camps come to auditions familiar with the expectations and confident in themselves as actors.

Talk to Reba:

Curious about Reba’s camps? Contact Reba at 828-1234 x247 or email her at reba@kitetails.org.

Ready to register? You can do it online here or call Shana at 828-1234 x232.

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I’m Jamie. Be one of my campers!

By Jamie | Published: February 5, 2013

About Jamie:

BFA Painting, Maryland Institute, College of Art (Baltimore, MD)
MA Cultural Sustainability, Goucher College (Towson, MD) (expected 2013)
Combining her love of world cultures, art and imagination is one of Jamie’s favorite things about working at the Children’s Museum & Theatre. In her career as an educator, Jamie incorporates the lens of an artist into facilitating creative, play-based learning across disciplines. Previously she has worked as an educator privately and at various organizations, including Interlochen Center for the Arts.

Here’s what Jamie has to say about her 2013 summer camps:

Just as I love planning my summer vegetable garden in the winter, I love spending January afternoons thinking about summer camps. This year I’ve got animals, movies and storytelling on the brain – three things little ones and I both can’t get enough of.

• Act Like an Animal (7/15-7/19) •

We’ll spend the week pretending, playing, and learning about all different kinds of crazy creatures that we share the earth with. We’ll combine storytelling with costume making, creative play with face paint, and learn about some pretty amazing animal adaptations in the process. As we work as a group to create and act out our own animal stories, we’ll also see animal-themed star shows and read stories like Frog and Toad and If You Give a Pig a Pancake. We’ll make sure to spend some time with our resident yellow-bellied slider turtles, honeybee hive, and touch tank full of Casco Bay sea creatures. In this camp, I’m focusing on getting young children excited about and inspired by the many different creatures we share the planet with. We’ll build our literacy skills through group reading, storytelling and dramatic role play; we’ll also practice fine and gross motor skills through costume creation and animal games. And of course, we’ll exercise our imaginations nonstop. This camp is developmentally appropriate for 4- to 6-year-olds. If your child is fascinated by animals and loves playing pretend, stories, and costume-making, this is the camp for them.

• Multimedia Movies (8/5-8/9) •

This camp is also about storytelling, but in a different format – moving pictures! We’ll rediscover the first types of moving images by exploring zoetropes, fancy flip books, thaumatropes, praxinoscopes, shadow puppets, and much more. We’ll also use the museum’s Camera Obscura to learn all about optics, light, and how our eyes process information – and how movies were eventually invented out of this incredible device. Through creative projects like making zoetropes and creating puppet shows, we’ll learn the art of composition, framing, sequencing, and narrative. By learning about the similarities between cameras and our eyes, we’ll explore properties of light and moving images. Teamwork, creative expression and storytelling will all be a part of our final movie, set to premiere on Friday morning at the end of camp. This camp is designed for 6- to 8-year-olds. This is a fantastic camp for any young film enthusiast, storyteller, or artist!

Talk to Jamie:

Curious about Jamie’s camps? Contact Jamie at 828-1234 x241 or email her at jamie@kitetails.org.

Ready to register? You can do it online here or call Shana at 828-1234 x232.

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