One of the most exciting things I have been able to do this year is write a musical for my Show Production students to perform this year for their spring show. Show Productions was started 12 years ago when as a middle school student, I saw something missing in the elementary school. As a student at Sallie Curtis I was always teased and picked on for being smaller and having different interests and hobbies than those of my classmates. I was a performer. I loved ventriloquism and theatre. Not your average interests for a second grader. I found that I could be myself onstage and all those things other kids said about me disappeared. I could be free. In the 6th grade I had the privilege to join the middle school drama club and I found what I was missing. A place to belong where no one judged you or saw you as different. A safe place. I then began my work in getting show productions started at my old elementary school, and by the time I was in 7th grade we had our first crop of students.
In the years since Show Productions started we have taught almost 1000 student, and reached many more. But this year I wanted to create a show that would transform these students point of view and make them look at the world differently. I wanted to attach a subject that isn't usually discussed in elementary school: Bullying.
Gleek is a spin off stage musical of the popular television show Glee. The show deals with issues like tolerance, acceptance and working together. It features a young girl who just lost her mom, a boy who is physically abused by his father and a girl who is so smart but severely misunderstood. Using popular music to weave the story the students come together to create one cohesive team.
What is unique about Gleek, is that the stage show is only part of the experience. When the rehearsal process begins, students usually sit with their group of friends. During Gleek, we challenged that. Instead we put together group of students who normal would never associate with each other and made them work together. Not only did they learn to tolerate and accept, it made the acting part on-stage a lot easier for elementary students to grasp. The students who before would never have talked to one another became families throughout the show and were there for each other. They felt a sense of loyalty to those who were in their rehearsal groups.
Another exercise in the process of this show came when we were working on the "Born this Way" section. We gave each cast member a poster and asked them to write one thing other people in the room didn't know about them or wouldn't understand. We had things like "bird watcher", "Ballerina", and "math wiz". But the one that surprised me the most was a 4th grader who seems to be the most confident and self-secure person in Show Productions. When she showed her sign it said "insecure". At that moment I knew what we were doing was important.
When people ask me why I created Show Productions and how can we spend so much time on something that has no financial reward, all I can tell them is its about the kids. The group of fifth graders that graduated from Show Pro this year was a very special group of kids. Most of them have been with us since the first grade, and let me tell you they have come a LONG way. I didn't realize the impact this program had until Gleek had closed and I was in the dressing room with the remaining kids packing up their stuff. We had kids crying because this program was their identity for so long and that was changing. You could see the impact on their faces. As I was back stage, a little 6 year old first grader comes running up and hugs me as tight as she could. I looked down and this little face was beaming up at me and said "Thanks for starting Show Production!" and goes running off. At that moment I knew it was all worth it. But the one story that absolutely tugs at my heart it the story of a little girl named James. James is in the third grade and one of the most talented kids in our show. She played the lead "nerd" and did a superb job. As the fifth graders were crying and making a big deal about not having show pro next year she quietly packed her things, but had silent tears streaming down her cheeks. None of us could figure out why she was so sad. Come to find out, her dad had been transferred to Houston, and they had just told her that morning. Gleek would be her final show with Show Productions. When we talked to her later she said through tears, "I don't know what I am going to do at my new school without Show Productions. Who will I hang out with? Where will i fit in?" Those tears are the reason I do all of this. Children need a place to feel safe and fit in. It broke my heart that I couldn't give her that at her new school.
Gleek's world premiere was a huge success. We are bringing the show and the experience back for a second run during Show Productions's first ever summer camp in the Summer of 2013.
This show would not have been possible without the dedication and help of the teachers and parents of Show Productions: Ellen Miller: Director/Costumer; Amy Rubin: Co-Director, and Samantha McCarroll: Co-Director.
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