Glitter & Razz Blog

The first week of school is around the corner.  Maybe your little one is headed to a new school or classroom.  Maybe she’s starting kindergarten and is worried about leaving her preschool friends behind.  Maybe he’s shy, makes friends easily or has quirky behaviors that sometimes keep other kids at a distance.  All of these are good reasons to bring your kids to an Itty Bitty Theater Workshop afterschool this fall.  My life’s work is to help kids build social and emotional confidence through creative collaboration.  Here’s how…

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…

Even though Summer Camps just began, we are already announcing our Fall 2010 Programs!  We will be back in September with some popular favorites as well as some new programming.  And, because we REALLY want you to join us, we are offering 10% OFF camps and classes when you register before August 31st!* Some of the classes are open for registration right now and others will be open by Monday.  There is a lot to put on the website so your patience is much appreciated!

Go Girls! Afterschool Club is back on Thursday afternoons and better than ever.  The class has been increased from 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours per week.  Each girl will get snack each day, as well as her own t-shirt and journal.  Wanna know more about the Go Girls! Afterschool Clubs?  Maybe even find out how to bring a Club to your school or community? Check out the premiere of our Go Girls! video created by filmmaker, Angie Tures, and starring our very own Go Girls!, Ajna Singh and Sara Silverstein:

Itty Bitty Theater Workshops are back on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and will be taught by none other than Glitter & Razz co-founder, Allison Kenny. Allison, who is an expert in expressive arts and dramatic play for young children, has been on a hiatus from Glitter & Razz this year where she was focused on her work as a play therapist in the Floor Time method, working with children in the autism spectrum. She also started, grew, and managed a full program for children, youth, and families at a progressive church here in Oakland. I am so glad that she is back, I can hardly tell you.

Play in a Day Camps start up again with the first one of October 8 (followed by Oct 11 and Nov 11).  In Play in a Day Camps, kids ages 4-10 create, practice, and perform their very own play in just 1 day!

School Break Camps: When you just can’t the days off of work, send your children to us for creative learning and social/emotional exploration.  Our 2-Day Thanksgiving Gratitude Camp is Nov 22-33.  There will also be 2 sessions of Winter Holiday Camps – December 20-23 and December 27-30.

And the Fall is not just for kids!  This fall, we are hosting Family Workshops as well as workshops just for adults!

Family Workshops:

• Saturday, October 2 | 10:00am – 12:30pm | What’s Goin’ On Family Camp with Kelly Takunda Orphan Martinez | Spend time with your kids learning songs and dances from around the world.  Don’t tell me you don’t want to bang on a drum or 2.
• Saturday, November 6 | 10:00am – 12:30pm | Go Girls! For All with Lynn and Allison | You begged us to do it again and we are…gladly!  This Mother/Daughter event gives you the opportunity to play and create together as you explore the magic and power of being girls (and women).
• Saturday, October 23 | 10:00am – 6:00pm | BRAND NEW | Play in a Day for Adults and Kids | Have you ever wanted to be in a play but didn’t think you had the time?  Well, this in-depth theatrical experience, directed by me (co-founder, Lynn Johnson), is a rigorous and lovingly full day where we will explore an area of content, create an entire play from scratch, rehearse it, and then perform it that evening for a full audience.  We will be joined by professional actors and other artists to help us create our masterpiece.  The evening will include food, fun, and discussion and will change the way you think of “community theater.”

Adult Workshops:

• Make a Play. Change the World: A Professional Development Series for Education & Youth Work Professionals - 2 Sessions, Saturday August 21 and Saturday September 18 – Learn more about how to use theater and the arts to enhance students learning, build peaceful classroom, and make positive change in your communities and beyond.*The 10% Off Summer Sale does not apply to this Series.  However, the price is very right.  Just $6o for each 3 hour session or $100 when you register for both.
• Acting Class for the Wayward Revolutionary – 6 week session begins September 22 – You know you have an itch that needs to be scratched.  You are feeling less than creative.  Less than connected.  It’s time to take an Acting Class and learn the skills to change yourself and the world.  Yes, I am teaching it!

Dinner & A Show: A Parent’s Night Out | For those times when you just want a Saturday nigh (for once) to have a romantic dinner or drinks with friends.  Drop your kids off with us!  We’ll stuff ‘em full of Zachary’s Pizza and make up a play that we will perform for you when you come back to pick them up (please, don’t forget to come back and pick them up).  The second Saturday of the month beginning September 11.

And finally, we will soon announce 3 events for the Fall.  Here is the sneak preview:

• Sunday September 26 | Free Glitter & Razz Make a Play Event | Haven’t yet experienced the magic and power of Glitter & Razz? This will be a great time to try us out.
• Sunday October 31 | 3rd Annual Halloween Concert at Glitter & Razz | Artist to be announced.  But, whoever it is, come in costume prepared to dance your buns off!
• Saturday December 11 | The Bay Area Wide Go Girls! Event | The final culmination of the Go Girls! Fall Session where all Bay Area Go Girls! Afterschool Clubs come together to share their original plays with each other and the community.

We are so excited about Go Girls!, we can hardly stand it.  Our upcoming summer camp is totally sold out.  We have 2 Go Girls! Camps on the Road this summer – 1 in Healdsburg, CA with Cosmic Cowgirls and 1 at the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, CA.  And, we are actively working to increase our Go Girls! Afterschool Clubs from 1 to 10 in the Fall of 2010 (and we are half way there).

Plus, we just started collaborating with a videographer who we will collaborate with to make a “microdoc,” a very short documentary about the Go Girls! Project.   In preparation for this and the expansion of this work, I figured it was time that we tell the Go Girls! story…

Go Girls! is a project for elementary school aged girls to use drama, visual arts, creative movement, and music to create and perform their own peaceful and powerful plays.  It is based on the idea that, when women and girls learn how to access our true power of creativity and compassion, stand up for ourselves and others, and put our voices center stage, we will become the leaders we are meant to be.  We will change the world.

Go Girls! is a program of Oakland, CA-based Glitter & Razz Productions, founded in 2003 to celebrate kids and the grown-ups who love them with premium camps, classes, and events that promote compassion, community, and creativity through theater.

We, the founders, Lynn Johnson and Allison Kenny, had been teaching and creating theater with and for communities in different parts of the country for 10 years before we met in 2002. That summer, we met while both teaching drama for a summer program in Marin. In addition to falling in love with each other, we also discovered our shared philosophy of the magic and power or theater for personal development and social change.

We began our Glitter & Razz began life as a once a year summer camp at the Marsh Youth Theater in San Francisco (2003-2006). Then, since we wanted to move to the East Bay, Glitter & Razz had to move with us.  We officially and established ourselves as a business in 2006 and spent 1 year in residency at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts in Berkeley before moving into our current location, the Glitter & Razz Dramatic Play Space, in September of 2007.

During the summer of 2008, we were preparing for our first summer camp season in our new space and something happened that had never happened before.  We had one session where only girls signed up.  It was a shock to us at first.  Having come from the non-profit arts education world, we were all about diversity and inclusion.  It was a little uncomfortable for their not to be any boys participating.

Then, we figured that we had to roll with it.  We remembered the important women and girl spaces that had been important to us in our own development.  Allison grew up in a family of 4 sisters and a single mother and was active in WomenStory, a AZ-based organization that facilitates intergenerational groups of women and girls in spiritual and creative exploration.  Lynn was a Girl Scout for many years and actively found her feminist voice in college when she minored in Women’s Studies and focused on the role of women in mass media and the arts as creators, subjects, and audiences.

That summer, we made “the magic and power of being a girl” the theme of the camp.  We created a play that was about the celebrations and the challenges that young girls experience on a day-to-day basis.  The play took place in, what we called, Lovely Land, where nothing ever went wrong.  Until one day, it did.  The play was about how all of the characters (which ranged from princesses, to fairies, to dogs to rats) learned that, in order to navigate and overcome challenge, we had to learn how to work together.  The original song from the show went like this: “Sometimes it’s hard in Lovely Land / Things can get ugly, out of hand / We chose to be mean but we can change / Let’s choose to be kind, right now, today.”

That was such a successful summer that we asked the girls and their parents if they would sign up for camp again the following year if we repeated the “Go Girls” theme.  The answer was a resounding “Yes!”  Now, in 2010, we are facing a sold-out camp (with a long waitlist) and the Go Girls! Project is a year-long program made up of 3 different components:

• The Go Girls! Camp | A summer creative intensive just for girls
• The Go Girls! Afterschool Club | 10-week sessions where girls connect to their own communities while they explore the greater world around them
• Go Girls! For All | Learning Events for girls and the women and men who love them

The main activity of Go Girls! camps, classes, and workshops is the creation of theater.  But the work goes even deeper than that.  We intentionally integrate social/emotional learning into our Go Girls! curriculum in developmentally appropriate ways that seek to address: the formation and maintenance of positive and healthy friendships; confronting bullying behavior in yourself and others; navigating and regulating our emotions; effectively overcoming challenges; strengthening communication; taking responsibility for and pride in ourselves and what we say and create in the world.

Our main curriculum influences are:

• Kidpower
• Playback Theater and the field of Drama Therapy
• Augusto Boal and Theatre of the Oppressed
• Viola Spolin
• The work of the Greater Good Science Center
• Youth Development
• Powerful Non-Defensive Communication
• Way of Joy Chi Gong

Allison:  “We definitely have a peace agenda.  There is just so much violence in children’s lives.  It seems like everything that they sees flashes, beeps, and screams.  Being a girl means having to encounter attacks from boys and each other.  Not to mention the messages from our culture and the media about that teach us that we are weak and less than.  And on top of that, our feelings are constantly invalidated.  We are told to ‘get over it.’  Telling a child to ‘get over it’ without also teaching them how to name, claim, and regulate their own emotions is like telling someone to become a millionaire without teaching them first how to balance a checkbook.  Go Girls! is designed to give girls the skills and tools to center themselves, to listen to and trust their own emotions and voices, so that they can know it’s okay to feel.  Not only is okay, it’s what makes us strong.  It’s what we bring to the world.”

Lynn: “I believe that the process of creating and rehearsing an original piece of theater is one of the most important learning experiences that anyone can have.  It teaches women and men of all ages to collaborate effectively with others, trust their own creativity, and establish a reflective practice.  These are the world-changing skills that need to be cultivated by all of us.  I am choosing now to focus my effort on women and girls because, as the Dalai Lama says, ‘the seeds of compassion were sown by my mother.’  We are the leaders that the world is desperate for.  It is time for us to step up and teach ourselves the true power of the feminine; the power to stop, to be still, to listen, to collaborate, to reflect, to trust our own inner wisdom, and to act according to that wisdom.   We need to teach it to ourselves so that we can model it for others.

I am incredibly excited about what’s going on in Go Girls.  We are just past the halfway point in our first ever Go Girls Afterschool Club, an afterschool class modeled after the popular summer camp, and I could not be happier.  Many of the girls in the class are returning campers from the summer and a few of the girls have been with Glitter & Razz programs for a long time now.  Our lifers…the Glitter & Razz All-Stars, if you will.  So, this program is definitely Glitter & Raz 2.0.

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.

On the other side of forgiveness is saying “I’m Sorry” -  Taking responsibility for something that you have done that has hurt, upset, or inconvenienced someone else.  Saying sorry is both over and underused, I have noticed.  And both the over and under use of “I’m so sorry” are connected to a person ultimately not being able to take responsibility for her actions.

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.

Gillian Laub from the New York Times

We have met and welcomed back some amazing kids this week as our Fall Afterschool Classes began.  I am very pleased by the way things went this week.  In our Itty Bitty Theater Workshops (for kids 3 1/2 – 5 years old), I showed kids that theater is about “doing stories.”  Not reading them.  Not telling them.  But, DOING them as a gift to other people.  So, we did a lot of, what I consider to be “Doing Games,” “Yes, Let’s” and “What Are You Doing” being 2 classic theater games we love for younger kids as they teach pantomime skills as well as group agreement and ensemble building.

It turns out that theater and dramatic play are also making these kids smarter.  Did you all see the article in the New York Times last week?  This article connects experience with facilitated, structured dramatic play to a young student’s ability to control their emotions, social interactions and cognitive abilities.  Here’s the quote that legitimizes everything we are doing at Glitter & Razz in the world of academe…“that the key to developing self-regulation is play, and lots of it. But not just any play. The necessary ingredient is,,, ‘mature dramatic play’: complex, extended make-believe scenarios, involving multiple children and lasting for hours, even days. If you want to succeed in school and in life…spend hour after hour dressing up in firefighter hats and wedding gowns, cooking make-believe hamburgers and pouring nonexistent tea, doing the hard, serious work of playing pretend.”

We also premiered our first ever Go Girls! Afterschool Club yesterday afternoon.  It was awesome.  7 girls between the ages of 7 and 10 came together to start learning more about themselves, each other, and the magic and power of being a girl.  We created “What Brings Us Joy” solo dances and collaged the outside of the journals we will be using during the 10-week session.  We started to talk a little about the play we will be creating together.  I explained to them that, I didn’t know what our play would be about but that it would be something “important.”

My plan is for the session to be an experience in project-based learning where the girls will create a play in response to a problem that is important to them.  Our brainstorming of problems ranged from friends getting other friends in trouble to tsunamis to smoking and drug use.  Next week, we will determine the focus of our examination and then we will do some research and engage people and resources in the community to actually use our girl power to help towards the solution of our problem.

See how we are helping make your kids smarter and more engaged in their communities?  And you thought we just did plays.