Glitter & Razz Blog

Whew.  30 girls.  Ages 6-10.  7 hours.  And, it’s still going.  The few girls who are left in Aftercare right now are keeping themselves busy by playing Party Quirks.  And, with the help of the teenage youth interns and the popularity of Glee, they are singing songs from my youth at the top of their lungs.  The laughter and energy is totally infectious.

This is how the whole day has been.  Full of laughter and joy.  At the same time, it was the first day of camp so we also did a lot of sitting and talking.  It’s just how the first day is.  We have to set the structure and the tone of the camp.  “Here’s what we do here at Go Girls! Camp and here’s why we do it.”  You know, that kind of thing.

We started the day with our Community Circle and Expressive Arts class led by Allison.  “What does Expressive Arts mean?”  “It means that we can express our feelings.”  Bingo.  And that’s what the girls will do each day to set the tone of the day…express their thoughts and feelings surrounding the strengths and challenges of living as a girl in the world.  It began with our Way of Joy Chi Gung warm up.  Then, they crafted, through the art of collage, the journals that they will use throughout the camp.

Our Drama (taught by me, Lynn) and Art (taught by Martin) classes also introduced the idea that we are all unique individuals contributing our ideas and gifts to the group.  In Drama, we talked about the fact that we are a “collaborative ensemble” and how hard it can be to create one piece of art together.  Through games and some discussion, we practiced sharing one at a time, being noticed, and noticing what others are doing so that we can connect our ideas with theirs.  In Art,  the girls again shared their individuality through name paintings where they drew their names with white crayon and then painted around them with watercolors while they watched their names appear amidst the colors.  Like magic.  On Day One, we must always do activities where we give the girls a chance to show up and say, “This is me.  This is who I am and what I like, ” so that on Day Two, we can really dig into the process of sharing that individuality with the greater community.

The other major highlight of today was our Kidpower Workshop.  Erika Leonard from Kidpower has been so generous to share a mini-Kidpower with us 2 years in a row.  Today, like last year, she packed that hour with tons of useful skills for the girls about using strong and aware body language and words to set boundaries and stand up for themselves.  She taught the girls ways to honor their feelings while also being powerful in their interactions with others.

Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower International’s exceptional “People Safety” curriculum in an essential part of our Go Girls! Curriculum and we are very thankful for their permission to incorporate their language into our shows and videos. For over twenty years, Kidpower has been a nonprofit leader in empowering people of all ages and abilities to learn personal safety skills and build self-confidence. Visit www.kidpower.org or call 1-800-467-6997 Ext. 1# for information on their positive and practical workshops and educational resources.

Kidpower’s gift of their copyrighted curriculum, like all of Kidpower’s services, is a gift from those who came before. We at Glitter and Razz are proud to have joined Kidpower’s 1,000 Donors Campaign, and we encourage you to do the same. Whether you can give a few dollars or a lot, your gift counts! Donate by going to:https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=2854 or call the Kidpower office.

Finally, the girls learned their first song with our music director, Brendan.  It’s Martha and the Vandella’s Dancing in the Streets.  Brendan told them it was a song that was made in the 60’s and someone asked, “So, is it a hippy song?”  We all busted out laughing.  But, it wasn’t as funny as when we got to the lyric, “they’ll be swingin’, swayin’, records playin’” someone said, “oh yeah, a record is a black round thingy with a hole in the middle” and someone else yelled out, very enthusiastically, “My dad has one of those!!!”

Let’s pay a little tribute to Martha and the Vandellas:

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.

Spring Session of our Go Girls! Afterschool Club ended last Thursday with their performance of their play that explored the concept of every action having consequences.

We often think of consequences as a negative word.  But, it’s really just about cause and effect, right?  When you do something, something else happens.  If that’s the case, can the word not also have positive connotations.

Like, for example, I really noticed this week that, when you do your work from a place of love, that love comes back to you in spades.  I absolutely LOVE all of the girls I have worked with this past year during Go Girls!  I even love the girls – in advance – who are getting ready to come to our 3rd Go Girls! Summer Theater Camp.  Even thought I haven’t met half of the girls in our sold-out camp, I love that I have the opportunity work and play with them; to help them shape their own ideas into a work of art; to explore with them what it means to be a strong and powerful girl (or woman) in the world.

And, like I said, this love comes back to me.  In spades.  I received 2 huge bouquets of flowers (gerber daisies and sunflowers, my favorite kinds) from girls and their families thanking me for helping their daughters with confidence, making them feel part of something special.

Also, last weekend, we had a Pre-Camp Celebration – a fun-filled orientation for all interested summer camp families.  And the love was totally flowing in the room.  Our space was full of teaching artists and youth interns, all in our camp t-shirts, so excited for the summer to come.  Parents and kids filled the room. all with wide eyes and great questions.

Then, it really hit home.  One mother came up to me towards the end and said, “Thank you for doing this.  Every staff member I have interacted with, no matter who old they are, has been so welcoming and warm.  I can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that this is where my [4 year old] daughter will be spending the summer.”

You gotta love it.

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.

Allison and I are so excited to announce our recent membership in Cosmic Cowgirls, a woman and girl powered school based in Healdsburg, CA.  Cosmic Cowgirls is a “member owned tribe that teaches and produces educational multi-media events, books and tools that are designed to promote a vision of wellness, compassion and empowerment for women and girls.”

Our journey with Visionary Artist, Shiloh McCloud, the founder of Cosmic Cowgirls, has been one for legend.  Back in 2005, Allison and I took a road trip up the California Coast that ended in our first trip to the magical Mendocino where we stumbled upon an art gallery there and completely fell in love with the spiritual and empowering images of women in the paintings.  We left feeling as inspired by Shiloh’s art as we felt about the misty shore of the coastline.

About a year later, we walked into an Oakland church to find the same paintings gracing their walls.  “Oh my gosh…here is this Shiloh again!  We must be in the right church.”  This time, we were able to meet Shiloh in person as she, at the time, was sharing more than just her paintings with that community.  She also gave guest sermons and led these amazing groups inspiring women to fully embody our visions in the world.

We couldn’t get enough.  We then, in 2007, signed up for her Heart of the Visionary workshop that took place in Healdsburg (it’s now an online course).  This workshop was exactly what we needed at exactly the right time.  She led us through a creative process of turning our visions into business plans.  And the planning wasn’t done with spreadsheets and bar graphs.  It was done with painting and sharing conversation and chocolate cake with other women.  We took this course just a few months before we opened our Glitter & Razz Dramatic Play Space in Oakland and it was key in giving us the confidence and focus to set out on the path of making our dreams come true.

Now, here we are in 2010, 5 years after the first time we experienced the magic of Shiloh for the first time, and it’s come full circle.  We have become members of this innovative cooperative of women and girls from all over the US and Canada who are working together to empower ourselves and other women everywhere.  And, as our first collaborative project with the Cowgirls, we are bringing a week-long Go Girls! Camp up to Cosmic Cowgirls school in Healdsburg in August.

And this still feels like just the beginning.  Stay tuned…

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.

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.

I had a stroke of genius on the final day of our Go Girls! Camp last week and I want to share it with you.  Fridays are the days that we go to the park.  When the girls come back from the park,  we usually give them a “special snack”  Not the regular Cheddar Bunnies or Animal Crackers we always give them.  The week before it had been Otter Pops.

So this, having been the final Friday right before show day, it seemed only natural that they get another “special snack.”  However, just 2 days earlier, it was our music teacher (Brendan’s) birthday and everyone got cupcakes.  They even got to choose whether they wanted chocolate or vanilla.  Because of this Allison explained on Friday morning at our opening community circle that we would be having a normal afternoon snack that day.

Not long after came the “aawws” and “boos” and whines of “I want a special snack.”  Now, we never condone this behavior.  Since we are teaching and reinforcing effective social/emotional behavior, our job is to call that stuff out right away.  So, like the creative genius I am, I said, “I understand that this is a disappointment but whining is not okay.  Whenever I feel disappointed that something didn’t turn out like I wanted it to, I will immediately turn it into a gratitude.  So, instead of ‘we can’t have a special snack today” I will think ‘I am so grateful for the special snack we had the other day.’”

And they totally got it.  They sincerely listened and I could see them take it in.  One girl even said, “oh, it’s like ‘Fortunately/Unfortunately.”  The genius of this comparison is that Fortunately/Unfortunately is a great improv/word game that we had played earlier in camp to help us develop the conflict of our play.  This is always my goal, to have the girls learn important life lessons through the theatrical process.  And it worked!

Stay tuned for more wisdom from the Go Girls! Camp.