"I'm the judge."
"Julie is my favorite."
"Miss April, I love you."

--Just a taste of what I heard on my first visit to Allison Thompson's first grade class at Eastside Elementary in Cabot, AR.  I will make two more visits in preparation for writing a Pre-K-1st grade *Choosing Sides*--a series of interactive, age-specific plays that explore bullying.  This project is an on-going collaboration between Pulaski Technical College and SafePlaces with funding through the Arkansas Arts Council.  Even with only one visit, I see that issues around bullying at the pre-K level are both different and very much the same from issues around bullying at the middle school level.

On my initial visit, I spent about 15 minutes observing the students.  They were free-drawing on individual eraser boards.  I heard multiple students repeating:  "I'm the judge."  When I asked Ms. Thompson about this, she said the students were referring to the judge of their artistic works.  "Did they come up with this on their own?, " I asked.  She nodded yes and explained they are very competitive.  

I also noticed the idea of favor at play--being in each other's favor and in the authority figure's favor.  One student drew a picture declaring her favoritism for another student...who just happened to be the designated "judge."  And, of course, there were a few students who drew pictures for me.  At an earlier time in my career, I would have been flattered.  Now, I feel more concerned that we may inadvertently train our children to create their idea of what WE want to see as opposed to using their free drawing time to create their own story on the canvas.

I then facilitated the students in a conversation about bullying--What is a bully?  What is a friend?  What can your friend say to make you really happy?  What can a friend say to make you really sad?  I forget how hurtful children this age can be--how they sometimes wield the aforementioned idea of favor to achieve power.  I was also struck by their idea of what a bully looks like in the role-on-the-wall exercise.  In role-on-the wall, you draw an outline of the character--in this case a bully.  Then you ask the students what the character looks like and write that on the outside; what they feel like and write that on the inside.  Admittedly, the students had a hard time with this rather abstract exercise.  However, it was interesting to hear that the bully wears black and has lots of skulls on his/her clothing...especially after their discussion of how their own friends can hurt them.  They don't seem to realize that their friends can also be bullies because bullying is about behavior.

This initial visit definitely reminded me of my work in Ms. Bell's class at Horace Mann Middle School in Little Rock.  Middle school students also wield favor for power.  Of course, in middle school, you begin to see the seeds of dating violence.  At the first grade level, it is truly about friendship.  I return to Cabot today with a drawing exercise in which students will draw a picture of a time when they have been bullied.  I will then look for similarities to identify common ways of bullying to include in Choosing Sides.

Kassie Misiewicz, artistic director of Trike Theatre, asked me to lead a "Create-A-Play" residency over spring break.  I was thrilled at the prospect of spending a week in beautiful Northwest Arkansas and working with Trike.  Trike Theatre is a professional children's theatre in Bentonville (Wal-Mart headquarters for all you out-of-staters).      Kassie and Trike asked me to do a three day (4 hrs. each day) residency in which I would facilitate 3rd-5th graders in devising a play based on tabloid headlines and a 3 hour professional development workshop on devising for Trike teaching artists.  The limited time and my limited experience in devising with this age group gave me a sense of freedom to experiment and trust the process.  

I began the process by researching those crazy supermarket headlines (not celebrity gossip-zines like *The Enquirer* mind you--think of true tabloid journalism like *The World*).  I quickly discovered that many stories involved aliens from Planet Zeeba.  I really felt like I should make the somewhat abstract process of devising more concrete for this age group.  Creating a planet seemed like a hook they could hang their hats on.  Here are pictures from Planet Zeeba:

I truly struggle with the process vs. product conundrum.  Our limited time, however, required concentrating on the process which began immediately upon entering on the first day with their vision of an "alien" planet:

Then we took a walk in Bentonville's truly quaint town square with an eye on color, unifying elements, specific locales, etc.  Back in the classroom, we used visual dramaturgy to create envision Planet Zeeba's town square:

We focused on creating the environment of Planet Zeeba that entire first day.  Again, I felt the campers could use that concrete idea of place to then imagine inhabitants the second day.  Toward the end of the second day, we used frozen images and improvisation to create scenes based on the tabloid headlines about Planet Zeeba.  We ended camp by taking parents and guests on a trip to Planet Zeeba where they experienced the perils of a broken spaceship, a rock star abduction, and an appearance by Michael Jackson who nows claims Zeeba as home.  I truly had a blast playing and creating with the campers.

As always, I learned valuable lessons.  I start every devising process scared out of my mind even though I count devising as one of my specialties.  This project really forced me to trust the process in ways I haven't before.  I facilitated more visual art work than I ever have, and that facilitation reinforced my belief in using limits to inspire creativity.  I gave the campers no limits on their houses or the town itself.  The town really didn't need limitations.  The housed did.  The campers outlined crazy-shaped windows and doors that proved extremely difficult to cut out of cardboard.  I think I will limit campers to three windows and two colors of paint.  Finally, I felt the campers felt slightly intimidated at the sharing.  Their investment was so high in the creation phase that I felt a little sad when I saw walls arise under the gaze of siblings and peers.  Part of me thinks I should have only talked about our process and what we created instead of taking guests on a trip to Planet Zeeba with us.  The other part of me thinks its really important for people to regain their sense of play...especially play WITH their kids.  I definitely want to consider the intimidation factor more in future process-oriented work.

Oh....and the devising workshop...what a pleasure!!!!  I got to talk devising techniques with folks who speak theatre--fun stuff!


A big thanks to all the great folks at Trike Theatre and especially Kassie for inviting me up.  Let's do it again!