When your child arrives at the Glitter & Razz PlaySpace on a Tuesday or Wednesday at 4:00, they will be welcomed and invited to play.  They’ll see the wide-open, carpeted floor and stage.  They’ll notice colorful artwork that other kids have made decorates pale blue walls.  And each week, they’ll see something new-something enticing-waiting for them in the middle of the floor.  These materials (refrigerator box, balloons, hula hoops, costumes, scarves, etc.) will be different every week and will invite open-ended creative play. Inspired by Stanley Greenspan’s Floortime Model of child-led play, this 15-20 min. of each class will help kids enter at their own pace, practice coming up with spontaneous play ideas and experience the joy that happens while connecting with friends.  I’ll notice what kind of support each child needs to engage.  I’ll help “expert players” reach out to kids who need an invitation to play and reinforce the joyful, relaxed vibe in the room.  We be laughing, making friends and creating stories before we know it.

At 4:15 or so, I’ll grab my drum and sing a welcome song that transitions us into clean up and circle time.  There’s nothing like rhythm and ritual to help kids know what’s expected.  We’ll each get a chance to say our name, play the drum and answer the question of the day.  Kids can say “no thanks” to pass on their turn and I’ll say “no problem,” encouraging them to share at the own pace.  Each week, kids will get a new turn to try- by the end of session, even our shyest kids tend to look forward to this time.  This question of the day is how I gather the thoughts, interests and creative ideas of the group.  And since the Fall Session is all about “The Adventures of Friendship”, kids will explore questions like…

• What’s your favorite thing to play with a friend?
• What are good ways to show a friend you like them?
• What can you do if you don’t like what a friend is doing?
• What question can you ask to learn more about someone new?
• Tell about a time you and a friend had an adventure…(real or make believe)

I’ll take the answers to these questions and have the whole class dance them using scarves.  They’ll work in partners to act out scenes using the ideas and in small groups to create artwork.  We’ll play name games and drama games.  We’ll sing songs, paint and use glitter.  We’ll practice Kid Power Techniques of throwing mean words in the trashcan instead of taking them into our hearts. We’ll go to the Glitter & Razz Peace Place to talk out any conflicts. And as the weeks go on, we’ll begin devising our very own play that takes the audience on an adventure through friendship.  Your children will choose their own never-before-seen-on-tv  characters and make-up a story with a beginning, middle and end.  There will be conflicts to solve, dances, facepaint and costumes.  They will rehearse lines (prompted by my narration, as needed!) and theatrical blocking.  They will practice taking center stage, sharing loud voices and knowing when it is their turn to shine.  On the last day of class, they will share their performance as a gift to the audience and celebrate the friendships they’ve made through creative collaboration.  The skills and confidence they build can be carried with them to school, home and every other situation.

ABOUT ALLISON

In Co-Founding Glitter & Razz with my partner, Lynn in 2003, I had the chance to develop the programs of my dreams…literally.  Designing these Itty Bitty Theater Workshops for young children has been one of the main joys in my life, along with teaching the teachers who love them.  In the past 2 years, I’ve taken a break from leading our programs on site to design and lead trainings for preschool teachers all over the Bay Area.  Leading staff teams through my “Dramatic Play in the Preschool Classroom” series and “Relax and Play Awhile: Stress Management for Children and Grown Ups” framework has been a fabulous extension of this work.  I’ve also had the chance to work with Dr. Ilene Lee of Floortime Services, Inc. as a social facilitator for young children on the Autism Spectrum.  Floortime Play Therapy is a perfect extension of the work we do at Glitter & Razz.  It’s child led, open-ended, honors feelings and strives for optimal experiences of joy.  I can’t wait to work with your children in our Glitter & Razz PlaySpace sometime this year!

Here’s a sneak peek of Allison in action…

What's Goin' On Campers at Frog Park

Week 2 feels different than Week 1.  We are all closer than we were last week at this time.  With that closeness comes more trust, more kind words, more comfort sharing our voices, our art, our stories.

The closeness also brings more giggles when we teachers may not think they are totally appropriate, more arguments over who gets to sit next to whom, and generally more distractions that make it a little more challenging to prepare for the big show.

But, it all comes with the territory.  And, for better or for worse, we have kicked into a higher gear as we rehearse, refine, and put ourselves in the same position that every other type of artist does when they are doing the hard work of making the best possible art for an audience.

FROM KELLY:

African dance is such a beautiful expression of humanity! I love to watch Masankho work with the students, teaching them about weight exchange, expression, intention and how we honor our ancestors through the dance.

Last week, I told the kids about my own personal experience with African Dancing and Drumming:

I moved to Zimbabwe in 1994 to study ethnomusicology at the University of Zimbabwe. I wanted to study drumming, and my professor took me to the home of Irene Chigamba, one of the few professional female drummers, who also had her own dance company in Zimbabwe.  I told her I wanted to study drumming. She replied, “Great, but I want you to dance before you play the drum.”

“Dance? I am dyslexic, I am chubby, I don’t want to study dance,” I thought to myself.

I replied, “I am not a dancer. I am a musician.” She said, “NO! You are an artist. In Zimbabwe, the Shona word “kutamba” means to drum, dance and sing.” There is no separation; these are the art forms we have been given at birth.

For sixth months, I did nothing but dance and sing. I didn’t drum for a long time. She would train me fairly aggressively (throwing sticks towards my direction if I failed-and that happened often!); I would end up in tears and want to give up. Often, the local women of the village knew the “Murungu” (white woman) was coming to learn dance, and they would often bring their knitting, and watch me and laugh! It was one of the most humbling, but one of the most healing experiences of my life.

Now I am still a bit shy dancing, but I know that it changed my life (I’m not nearly as dyslexic in my dancing!), and I learned the drumming for those Zimbabwean dances in just a few days, because I already had the rhythm inside my body!

With the inspiration of KUTAMBA, we asked our students to choose which song they will drum, dance and sing. We have three African dances and songs they will perform. All the students are dancing, drumming and singing. It’s inspiring to see them move, then drum and sing! I am looking forward to the concert this Friday!

On Friday of last week, we all had the opportunity to meet with muralist and Glitter & Razz teaching artist, Martin Brecht, to start creating our altar.  Inspired by the song, Ancestor’s Breath, he gave each kid a long strip of paper and asked them to think about the people, animals, and places that came before them.  They used pencil, crayon, oil pastel, paint, even glue and collage to represent a variety of images.  The kids have been working on it all week so far and it is going to be beautiful when it’s done.

This week, our staff gained Tacuma King, who is back again at What’s Goin’ On.  He is definitely a camp favorite as he teaches kids drumming with rigor, enthusiasm, and lots and lots of humor.  I haven’t gotten a video of his class yet, but I will, I promise.

Here are some more pics from our trip to Frog Park last week…

Kelly Takunda Orphan Martinez

Here is what that means.  Kelly, who is a good friend of mine and Allison’s founded the camp 9 years ago and has been running it ever since.  When we met her a few years ago, we bonded about how difficult it is for an artist, who is a creative genius when it comes to making art with kids, to be an administrative genius in running her own camp.  Because Kelly is not in the camp business full time – she also leads her own band and teaches at Park Day School during the school year – she was often challenged by how to hold all of the pieces herself.  Fortunately, she had the best skill of all – enlisting the help of incredible parent and youth volunteers to help her make it all flourish.  She and her team built an amazing camp with an amazing following.  There are some youth interns working with the camp this summer who started as very young campers right from the very first year.

So, once we learned that our camps shared the same values around peace and community, it seemed like a slam dunk for Glitter & Razz to, first play host, and then ultimately take full responsibility for the administration of the camp.

And I do not regret it at all.  Today was proof that What’s Goin’ On is the perfect camp to kick off the 2010 season.  We are sold out at 30 kids ages 6-10.  The kids learned today that they will be exploring the theme of ancestors through music, dance, drama, and expressive arts.  Kelly led them in games, activities, and discussions about how we are more than just our physical presence, right here and right now.  We are also our mothers and fathers and grandparents and animals in nature…that we are connected to all beings, living and past.  It’s a pretty magical experience to witness a group of young children go from a game of Connect Four to a discussion about the interconnectedness of life.  I love my job.

To me, a quote from today that illustrates what interconnectedness means to a young child comes from Leah, age 10.  After the Kids Choice time of day, we cleaned up and were getting ready to go on our neighborhood walk.  We asked the kids if they had any celebrations (appreciations) for anyone who might have helped them during the clean up time.  Leah said:

“I don’t know everybody’s names but I just want to thank everyone who cleaned up because I don’t think I cleaned up as well as I should have and I appreciate how much everyone else helped out.”

Here’s a little glimpse of the super positive, connected energy from today.  This is a short video of the group coming back from their neighborhood walk.

Monday is our first Play in a Day Camp in honor of the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  I decided that the theme of the day will be peace and freedom.  We haven’t done this particular theme yet so I am up this morning doing some research.  I, of course, first went to the Teaching Tolerance website.  Their stuff is an amazing resource to teachers and us teaching artists.  They are high quality teaching materials that they provide mostly for free.  Any of you who are exploring issues of diversity with your work will definitely want the get connected to these folks.

So, I am definitely inspired.  Here is an activity I am looking at called Freedom Flag.  What I like about it is that it uses multiple art forms – music, words, and collage.  The purpose of the activity is to engage kids in a discussion of freedom to get to heart of what it actually means.  I was challenged by figuring out how to do this so this is is good start.  However, I will have to adapt the activity…here’s why…

“Using red, white and blue construction paper, create a class “Freedom Flag,” by writing the key words for freedom on strips of red and white paper…”

Using red, white and blue construction paper?!?  How are kids supposed to learn about freedom if we tell them they can only use 3 colors in their flag?  Actually, limiting it to 3 colors is not the problem.  That’s actually a nice parameter.  The problem is that we are telling them which 3 colors they can use.  I understand that these are the colors of the US flag as it currently exists but the purpose of teaching kids art is teaching them how to notice things that exist and comment on it in their own way.

To me, freedom is being able to be and create your true self without anyone else imposing on you what they think that is.  I might say to the group, “we are going to create our own flag that represents our own freedom here in Oakland at Glitter & Razz.  Our flag should have 3 colors.  What 3 colors should we use to create this flag.  What 3 colors would represent us?”  And then take them through a process of voting as a group.  Now, the activity is teaching democracy in action through a creative process.  It is also helping them build their identity as part of a community.  It even provides a fertile ground to discuss dissent (”yuck, I don’t like pink!”) and how important it is to freedom.

I will run it by Martin, our art teacher, and see what he says.  And I will keep researching to figure out how to take this same idea into our creative movement and drama classes.  Either way, I am very excited about this.

Oh, another little criticism about Teaching Tolerance…they do not seem too friendly to those of us who work for ourselves…their free materials go to classroom teachers, administrators, church leaders, and employees of non-profits.  You even need a signature from some boss.  Maybe I will contact them and let them know about us small business artists who are doing important work with kids too.

Maybe we’ll see you Monday.

On the first day, I told them that we were going to create a play about something important.  Through a variety of games and exercises, we explored which problems in the world were most important to them.  The big three were friendship problems (like friends getting other friends in trouble or not being allowed to play), natural disasters (like floods and tsunamis) and violence (war, guns, car crashes, robberies).  After a great, and quite reflective conversation, the group determined that it was most interested in using our play to help reduce violence.

I thought, “Okay…the best way to reduce violence is to make and spread peace.” So, one of the first things we did was a journal activity where they had to write or draw what peace looked, sounded, smelled, tasted, and felt like.  Then, they were asked to create solo performance pieces based on their journal entries.  Remember, these girls are 7-10 years old.  Incredible.  Here are 2 from a couple of the Glitter & Razz All Stars.

Sarah, age 9, did hers as a poem.  In case it’s difficult to hear, the transcript is below:

Peace looks like a friendship just beginning
Peace sounds like silence in a dark room
Peace tastes sweet like ice cream
Peace smells like roses fresh off a rose bush
Peace feels soft like a lamb’s ear

And here’s a different interpretation on what Peace looks, sounds, and feels like as created by Lucy, age 8.  A whole different take on the exercise.

I’ll clarify.  Clearly, you can see why the under use is a problem.  Some people go through life with little regard for the fact that they are sharing the planet with others.  They cut people off.  They say mean things.  They generally disregard others as human.  And, because they are not seeing the other people as people, they feel no need to be remorseful.  No need to stand up and take responsibility for the fact that they have hurt another human.  So, they don’t say sorry.

Then, there are people like me.  People who say sorry a lot.  I say sorry usually because I have not returned a phone call in timely manner or I told someone I was going to do something for them by a certain date and I “just wasn’t able to get to it.” (Anyone else out there guilty of this?)  As an overuser, I see that this is not a good thing because, by relying on “I’m sorry” to get me out of trouble (again), I can avoid the hard work of taking responsibilty for me words and actions and changing my behavior.

In the classes I am teaching at elementary schools this fall – Chabot and Cleveland schools in Oakland – I am doing a lot of work with the proper and appropriate use of “I’m sorry.” I am doing my best to coach children as young as kindergarten to notice when they interrupt someone or accidently bump into another kid or use language that might hurt another’s feelings.  This is hard work because I don’t want to turn these kids into under or overusers of “I’m sorry.” So, we also have to stop and practice.  We actually practice talking and listening without interrupting.  We actually practice walking around a small space without bumping into each other (all the while I am sidecoaching, “Notice other people around you.  You are not the only one in this space.) We actually practice asking questions and sharing our ideas and opinions in ways that do not judge or condemn other people.  This is the only way that kids can understand what they are saying sorry for when they make a mistake.

At the same time, I am doing my own practice.  Daily practice of very structured planning and follow-up that allows me to show up on time and keep my commitments – both to myself and others.  And it’s working.  I find myself saying “I’m sorry” much less often these days.

The movie opens this Friday, Oct 16

Is anyone else as excited as I am about the upcoming release of Where the Wild Things Are?  There really isn’t a better storybook for kids, when you think about it.  It’s simple and it’s beautiful and it’s the ultimate adventure story.  It’s the same story as The Wizard of Oz, right?  A kid is growing up and getting sick of the adults who care for him/her.  “They just don’t understand me!”  It’s time for her to strike out on her own.  Explore new lands.  Meet new and interesting characters.  This experience forever changes him.  It is a necessary experience for his development.  And then, she takes all that she has learned from all of the characters she has met and goes back home…

“…to find supper waiting for him.  And it is still hot.”

There really isn’t a better allegory for real life, when you think about it.  And this adventure never stops.  We keep going in a series of these kinds of adventures throughout our lives, taking risk after risk to venture out in the world, expand our visions, learn new ways of being, and bringing all of that home to our families, our community, ourselves.  We are changed and we change the little space of world around us by our example.

Yes, we are playing games and singing songs and making up dances, but this is actually what we are teaching at Glitter & Razz.  We are supporting and celebrating the spirit and the skills that it takes to make this kind of adventure.  To step out from your current “known” into the scary “unknown” and allow yourself to be changed by the interesting characters you encounter there.

This week in our Itty Bitty Theater Workshops, the classes were focused around the story of Where the Wild Things Are.  I am asking kids “Where is your favorite place to go on an adventure?”  I have heard answers such as “Fairyland,” “Green Valley,” “My neighborhood on Halloween,” and “the ice cream shop.”  Then, we are using our bodies and imagination to explore all types of adventurous locations: the desert; the beach; the snowy mountains; the jungle; the city; and the farm.  This exploration will allow us to come up with a location or series of locations that will provide the foundation for the play that we are creating.

We are also reinforcing the idea of neutral bodies.  One of the first skills that young performers have to learn is when to stop and when to go.  They are working on how to keep their body in a focused, relaxed neutral position.  A neutral position establishes that they are “ready for anything.”  From neutral they are asked to run, jump, twirl, climb, move and groove (any action really) and then show that, on cue, they can come back to neutral as quickly as possible.  Thus, being ready for the next thing.

Like the Wild Thing adventure, neutral is home.  Young actors are learning that they can explore scary and exciting lands in safe ways if they start from a relaxed and focused place.  And there is always a time to come back to this place.  Where the food is always hot.

This post is one of the 37 I have challenged myself to post in one week (in celebration of my 37th birthday).  Join me in the challenge.

Yesterday, I got to teach for Niki Selken at our afterschool class at Chabot Elementary School.  Chabot is just a few blocks away from us and I am so glad that we are teaching there this Fall.  There are about a dozen or so kids in the class (grades K-3), mostly girls and 1 amazing boy!

Niki established the custom of having a question of the day in the opening circle, so, given that this is a cool practice, I followed suit.  I asked the kids, “What is one thing you want to do or be when you grow up?”  Here were there answers:

• “An astronaut, a doctor, and an artist” -Chloe
• “An astronaut and an artist” -Leyla
• “A Horse Rider” -Jordan
• “A Police woman” -Imani
• “A princess, an actor, and an artist” -Ashlee
• “A doctor.” -Amara
• “A Zookeeper” -Mira
• “A veterinarian” -Josie
• “A carpenter” -Jackson
• “A doctor for dogs.” -Skylar
• “A veterinarian” -Ruby
• “A singer, an artist, and a dancer” -Nicole

After we were done with the circle, I told them that I hope I know them when they grow up.  They sound like they are going to be “ones to watch.” Until then, they are pretty cool right now, just as they are.

This post is one of the 37 I have challenged myself to post in one week (in celebration of my 37th birthday).  Join me in the challenge.