What a way end the semester... with a trial! A Trial By Jury - The Gilbert & Sullivan one act operetta, that is!
On December 7 & 8 the Chicago Opera Theater for Teens group
performed at The Chicago Temple. The students did a great job and Marta
and I were very pleased. We had not attempted doing an entire opera,
and this was a perfect fit. The one act opera lasts about 35 minutes
and there is no dialogue - ALL MUSIC. We didn't have to cut a thing.
The show provided wonderful opportunities for some of the students to
really shine with individual roles. We double cast the show to give as
many solo opportunities as possible.
The cast of characters included:
The Plaintiff (Angelina), a lovely soprano role sung by Genna Simon and Morgan Holmes
The Defendant (Edwin), a scoundrel of a tenor role sung by Marcellus Burt and Torin Brown
The Judge, a comic baritone role perfect for Sakhary Prayer and Brando Crawford
The Counsel, an empathetic tenor role sung by Xxavier Jenkins and Andre Cardine
The Usher, a bass role split between Marc Morey and adapted to fit a mezzo Ruth Odukoya
Both casts did an excellent job!
This term went rather smoothly. The show being a little shorter
then we have attempted in the past seemed to let us all breath a little
and allowed everyone to really feel comfortable in their parts. We
decided to let the students have a huge part in the costuming. We all
batted around a couple of ideas on how we could dress. The
possibilities were endless, but ultimately we decided to let every
individual come up with a kind of 'iconic' societal character - i.e. we
had a cowboy, a monk, a hippie, a ballerina, a volleyball player, a
karate student, and so on and so on.... The students really took to
mostly coming up with their own ideas and I think that gave them a sense
that this whole was really about them! As we delved into the staging
we reminded the students of the character choice and guided them to
react to the situations with appropriate body language for their
particular character. If you weren't able to come to one of the
performances you missed some hilarious moments!
I think every single student grew from this experience. Marta and I
could hear the strides the students made vocally and certainly their
acting and self awareness abounded. We are proud of them all!!!
What a whirl-a-wind of a week! As the special guest lyricist, I visited
almost all our program sites, working with 14 different classes on their
songwriting skills. It was a TON of fun to see where all my fellow
teaching artists are facilitating as well as meet all their
fantastically talented students!
So, let's talk about
method. My background in lyric writing stems from creating songs that
originate from narrative writing and scriptwriting: to put in it simpler
terms, I normally write the story and/or script first, and allow that
material to inspire my songs. In the case of Opera for All, we are
primarily working with outlines and budding ideas of story lines which
poses a different challenge: write a song and form the majority of the
script around it.
My partner teaching artists
were all very helpful in getting as much material prepared for my
workshop as possible. My goal was to address each class with a
personalized songwriting workshop, generating a song that would fit in
with the main idea of their opera. Additionally, since many of the
workshops were in the beginning stages of developing story lines, I
wanted to help flush out the plot and characters. This way, the
resulting song would either introduce the main conflict, help it move
forward or resolve it. Having a structured and specific approach to
songwriting is the key to a more fun and effective workshop for the
students!
The first site I visited was the St.
Vincent de Paul Center (SVDP) with teaching artists Justin and Bryna. Their two
classes were focused on creating a song about Makin' Magic Happen. Since
their students were a variety of ages, I decided playing an active game
called Magician would help get them thinking about Magic on the same
level. After the game, we split into small groups and wrote verses
responding to questions about Magic and how the characters in their
opera might feel about Magic. The workshop at SVDP was the most
challenging in that we didn't necessarily have a story line to work
with, but through working on the song, the students started to
brainstorm ideas they wanted to have in their performance.
Next
up was Marillac, another after-school program with TA's Lisa and
Justin. Lisa and Justin face a similar situation as SVDP in that their
group had the seed of an idea for their opera; their classes were
inspired by a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey. They invented a
situation about a girl who travels through a black hole to get away from
her parents. I decided to modify my workshop plan as I had heard
Marillac's students loved playing an improvisational song game, and were
quite good at coming up with lyrics on the spot. We used this game as a
starting point for singing about/discussing the opera's plot, as well
as having the students freestyle about traveling through a black hole
from the viewpoint of the girl.
Our
first class did a super job at this game- they were so good and so
focused that we played throughout the entire class time. The second
group was a bit more to handle, so I switched it up by breaking them up
into 3 small groups. We assigned each group a part of the song to focus
on and for which to write at least 2 verses. I had three girls who were
not only best friends, but amazing lyricists! We tackled the beginning
of the song, before the girl goes into the black hole, and the reasons
why she ran away from her parents. Then all the groups shared with each
other in the end, even adding on blocking for their song! They were
really engaged in the process.
My
final classes of the week was at Hampton with Lisa and Richard. These
classes had done a lot of brainstorming already on the plot and
characters. Beforehand, Lisa and I came up with what song we wanted
each class to write. Since these students are in-school, we were able
to do a little more in terms of teaching the actual structure of a song
and defining lyric-writing concepts such as how verses support the
chorus, what it means to scan you rhythm and how to choose a rhyme
scheme.
Following a general overview of
songwriting, we then mapped out our song from beginning to end. The
students decided on what important details to include in order to help
the audience understand the story. For example, Ms. Ochoa's class wrote a
song about the Sacred Garden on the Planet Zyrdek, sung by the
Beardnuggets, Space Doggies and the Gardeners, all governed by Princess
Roseberry. We decided what would be in the garden, how the characters
felt about their garden, why it was important to them and who they were
tending it for. Small groups each took parts of the song to write a 4
line, rhyming verse containing the information. I loved how creative
they were with the different species of plant that were in the garden-
particularly having a Golden Flower that was in the center of the
garden, and therefore the most important plant.
To
the 6th graders in Mr. McFarland's class I put the biggest challenge.
Their song introduced the characters in Hampton's opera about the Sun
going Supernova, and Earth choosing 8 specialists for a mission to the
Planet Zrydek. Instead of just 4-line verses, I tasked the students with
writing 2, 4-line rhyming verses (8 lines in all) that introduced each
specialist, included information about what they did for a living, how
they felt about the mission and what they hoped to accomplish. I have
to say, I was really impressed with the quality of their work! 8 lines
is a lot to write in 25 minutes, but the students put their heads and
talents together to write some very clever lyrics:
I
still have Clinton to visit as well as leading my own workshops at
Chase and Reilly in a songwriting adventure. I'm excited to keep
experimenting with the songwriting process to get the best results for
every site-- I know the students will continue to be a huge source of
inspiration!
Linden Christ, Manager of Education and Outreach and Founder of Chicago Opera Playhouse
Every year, all of our
schools look forward to seeing an operetta or musical at their school
performed just for the students! It is not just for the Opera for All (OFA) students, but a rare experience that the entire school gets to share. This year, Chicago Opera Playhouse performed the brand new operetta, Knightly
News by Jonathan Stinson. The OFA students worked several
weeks with their teaching artists to practice the finale chorus which
they joined in singing with the professionals at the end of the show.
School pride was bubbling over for the students when they were able to perform in front of the whole school. Their schoolmates were proud of them and equally as enamored by the opera.
Providing students with the opportunity to see an opera in their own school setting is very rewarding. The students are comfortable and enjoy the performance wholly. No one was able to keep quiet the entire time, but were chattering quietly about their favorite part, the storyline, and what they thought was funny. For many of the students, this was their first time to see an opera and will help prepare them to watch their peers in the Opera For All program at their Spring opera performance.
The partnership between Chicago Opera Theater's Opera for All program and Chicago Opera Playhouse is one I hope continues as it enriches the students' and actors' lives equally.
About the Show:
Knightly News is
an operatic news broadcast of the woes of Prince Charming and his
Tri-kingdom state of affairs, including his own search for a princess, a
missing Grandmother, and frighteningly strong winds that are blowing
down houses in the land. This fun-filled show had the entire student
body talking about fairy-tales and humming melodies for weeks to come!
The
students favorite parts included the Wolf playing maracas and
interrupting Prince Charming's solo. Everyone was laughing when the
character broke the 4th wall during the chase scene when the students
had to protect Little Red Riding Hood & Pyg from that Big Bad Wolf.
They survived with a quick swipe of the slipper thanks to the Wolf
that knocked the Prince straight to the floor!
To learn more about Knightly News and to schedule a performance for the children in your life visit: www.chicagooperaplayhouse.com
