Glitter & Razz Blog

The Boldest, Bravest Play Ever!

As the week goes on, these young artists have shaped their ideas for characters, setting, conflicts and solutions for their play.  Play director, Cassie Powell, leads the kids to think about…”What challenge or obstacle does your character face?  What are they afraid of? How do they overcome their fears?” These deep questions are explored playfully- through a game show hosted by a puppet too scared to perform herself.  Each actor becomes a guest on the puppet’s game show, giving her advice about overcoming fears. Kids love nothing more than being the experts and this week at camp is giving them plenty of opportunities to do so.

After days of exploring, playing, discussing and creating- a script has been compiled that features the best of our ensemble work together. It’s exciting and sometimes nerve-wrecking for the actors to receive their script.  Some kids are desperate to count the number of lines they have received.  Others are horrified that they might have to say even one line out loud in front of an audience.  Our youngest actors are not quite sure what a script is, how to read it or whether or not this is the real play.  They are thinking about facepaint.  All of this is an opportunity.  We remind them that theater gives everyone a part in a play. The play is a gift to the audience and every single part of the play is necessary for the gift to be complete. We remind them that if they want more lines, they can work hard to learn the ones they already have, sharing them in a loud and proud voice.  More lines could be added for them next week.  Kids that feel overwhelmed or are unable to learn the lines they have can share some with a friend or turn some of the words into movement.  The kids get to see a typed-up, “professional” play based on the ideas in their imagination and be directed to bring it to life.  Along the way, we are coaching them to ask for what they need, take risks and ultimately, feel successful and proud of themselves.

big, bold energy in Kids Choice

It’s clear that our bold, brave campers are feeling safe enough to bring more of themselves to camp.  While yesterday, it seemed that everyone was on their best behavior, wanting to make a good impression- today they are comfortable enough to test our group agreements, show their silly sides and practice navigating conflicts with their new friends.  All of this is good news.  It means that we can begin the real work of camp…exploring how to be our boldest, bravest selves while working together as an artistic community.  A couple kids were supported to use “I” statements in the “Peace Place” to express their feelings.  Others practiced quietly moving to another part of the room if they were being distracted by the person next to them.  As teachers, we saw more vulnerability today and had a chance to be firm and flexible- doing our best to blend clear boundaries with the nurturing that these young artists need.

our ensemble

We also began to go into our theme and the children reflected on what brave means to them.  Jasper offered that being brave is “being brave when you go into the darkness.”  “Bravery means that you are going to a scary place by yourself and you’re not afraid, ” said Ivy.  Each day, these answers from community circle questions are typed up and posted in the room.  They will turn into lines for the play and shape the lessons and projects we plan throughout camp.

Bold, Brave Camp is off to a great start!  Our group of 10 artists arrived- some eager, some taking things a little slower.  Teachers Cassie, Sophia and our part-time intern Alaysia helped everybody feel at home.  In Move & Groove, kids warmed up their bodies with yoga poses, then moved across the floor, played freeze dance and practiced freezing in neutral position. (Part of being bold and brave is learning self control!) Drama class was full of improv games, ensemble building and learning how actors move on stage. (ask your kids where downstage left is) By this afternoon, kid bios were being typed up on the computer and self portraits were ripped from construction paper and collaged.  All of these activities were meant to introduce these artists to the art forms, to each other and to camp in general.

It must have worked because during each Kids Choice period, a spontaneous announcement would be made by one child or another “I am putting on a puppet show!  Anyone can come and watch!” or “We are making up a play on stage!Come be any character you want!” Some put together the sets on stage.  Some tried on 12 different costumes before deciding.  Some wanted to watch the show.  Others were right in the middle of the action- on stage. However the kids chose to enter into the play, they had a great time doing it!

During the afternoon rehearsal, kids shared about people who are brave- in their families, in books, in history.  This list lead to a brainstorm of characters they want to be in our play.  They were encouraged to develop these characters from their imagination- nothing they’ve already seen on tv- and will spend the week exploring how these characters overcome their fears and become the heroes of their own stories.

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.

This is why we do what we do…

“Emphasizing the need to build a safe and happy environment, he said money has become extremely important these days. “Building a robust economy is vital for growth but germinating the seeds of human values within ourselves is equally important. Money can give you all kinds of facilities, it can fetch you the luxuries but can it give you peace of mind? We must, therefore, pay more attention to our values.”

Compassion, he said, is a prerequisite for building a happy individual, a happy society.” READ MORE>>>

Our mission statement is based on the Dalai Lama’s call for a more compassionate planet.  I believe with all of my heart and soul that theater has the tools to help us all practice being with each other in the most value-rich ways possible.

And, this is why we do Go Girls!: “Advocating strongly the need for women to play an active role in the society [the Dalai Lama] said that biologically women had greater proclivities towards compassion. ‘In my case also, the seeds for compassion were sown by my mother.’”

Here’s the Glitter & Razz Logic Model:

1. Many of the world’s problems exist because of a lack of compassion (poverty, abuse, neglect, violence, climate crisis, etc.).
2. If each individual were to practice compassion -get better at it – it would change the world.
3. The best way to practice the elements of compassion is to be in intentional community with other people.
4. One of the best ways to be in intentional community with other people is through creative exploration.
5. Theater is an ideal forum for creative exploration because it incorporates all other art forms and puts creator and audience in the same room at the same time to interact with issues live…working together to solve a problem.
6. Women have “greater proclivities towards compassion.”
7. Women should lead this effort towards changing the world.
8. Women in theater should lead the effort towards changing the world.

This is why I am here.  Thank you Dalai Lama for giving us the call.

A dream is coming true here at Glitter & Razz.  Beginning this month, we are beginning a whole series of programming for adopted and foster care kids and families.  This is something we have thought about doing for quite some time and now we have found the perfect partnership.   Starting Sept 28, we will be offering a 10-week afterschool class for 6-10 year olds called Living Lifebook: Celebrating Adoption through the Power of Theater.  The class is taught by Jill Eickmann, our latest addition to the Glitter & Razz family.

Here’s what happened.  It’s quite serendipitous, actually.  Claire and I took an Advanced Finance Class at the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center back in July.  Our incredible teacher was Melinda Phillips Zumski.  We loved the class.  We learned a lot.  But, the fortunate by-product of taking the class was that Melinda turned out to be a theater person in bookkeepers clothing who, just so happens, is going through the process of adopting a child through the foster care system with the help of the agency, Adopt A Special Kid.  Her social work is Jill Eickmann.  Melinda thought that Glitter & Razz ’s methodolgy would be a perfect match for families like hers.  She hooked us up with Jill and here we are.

Jill is the Artistic Director of Lila Theatre, a San Francisco/Bay Area theatre company committed to truthful, artistic play. Jill performs around the Bay Area in the improv duo, Shades of Grey.  She holds a B.F.A. in acting from the University of Florida and a Masters in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Drama Therapy from California Institute of Integral Studies. She has taught and directed improvisation and children’s theatre with Rising Stars, San Francisco Day School, Kids Take the Stage, and Children’s Fairyland.

Jill has worked for many years within the foster care system and passionately believes in the healing power of theater with this and all populations of people.  We are psyched as this is just the beginning of this series.  We are also talking about offering programs for parents, special events for the whole family, and original performances.  Keep up with us and we’ll make sure you know all about it.

Oh, and many thanks to Melinda!

Augusto Boal

I am so grateful for the life of and saddened by the death of Augusto Boal yesterday.  Boal’s work in bringing theater alive in all the spaces and places where humans live and interact is why I do what I do.

In every one of us there’s an actor – someone who acts – and a spectator, who watches the actor acting. We have the ability to watch ourselves doing things…

But we aren’t content, any of us, to be just actors and spectators of ourselves. We also write our own scripts for every scene we are involved in. We are in charge of the wardrobe of costumes to be worn wherever we are (at home, at work, during time off). We are also the directors who stage our own actions.

So every human being is a miniature theatre.…Please read more from this artist, humanitarian, visionary.

And celebrate the actor in you…your power to make something happen that hasn’t happened before.

I don’t know if you know this yet but I am sitting on top of one of the world’s best kept secrets.  Intrigued?

Theater.  That’s right.  I am not just talking about the Broadway tour of Wicked (which I have to get it together and buy tickets for).  I am talking about theater in it’s broadest, most diverse incarnations.  From games, to learning experiences, to performances, theater, more than any other art/craft/experience I know, has the power to connect people to themselves and each other.

I believe this because it’s true.

And I will continue to make a space on this blog to bring in more and more examples of this.  I will do this because I believe that theater should not be relegated to black boxes where only a select “artsy fartsy types” get to pay $30 a ticket (or much more) and be entertained.  I believe that theater (in all of its incarnations) has a place in schools, in commerce, in corporation America, in government and all the places where humans struggle to understand each other a little bit better in order to bring our society to the next level.

The example I will highlight today is Playback Theater, an original form of improv theater in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot.  Derived from the world of drama therapy, this theater form is done all over the world and has truly changed people’s lives.

Allison, my partner, has been a member of the Living Arts Playback Theatre Ensemble here in Oakland for the past 2 years.  I have seen it change her life, for sure.  As a performer, she is able to connect with so many different types of people through their stories.  She has played Holocaust survivors, Chinese immigrants, homeless mothers…the list goes on and on.  And what’s more important is that her work makes an immediate impact as she gives her performance as a gift to these real people in real time who get to see their stories honored.

As an audience member, I have seen people have major “a ha” moments when they have the opportunity to have the stories of their lives enacted on stage.  They are able to learn more about themselves and the important people in the their lives.  I have also felt the connection to hundreds of people at once as we all watch this true story that contains the universal themes that we can all relate to.

You have to see it for yourself.  Join us at Glitter & Razz next Saturday, May 9, where Allison and her company will be performing the unique stories of your family.  And come prepared with any kind of story: mundane, tragic, silly, ridiculous…it all makes for good theater – outside the (black) box theater that might really help you understand yourself and your family a little better.

And it’s free.  So, you can save that $30 for the nice bottle of champagne for Mother’s Day.