Show Time!

Music, Dance, and Drama Activities for Kids

By Lisa Bany-Winters

Chicago Review Press Incorporated

Copyright © 2000 Lisa Bany-Winters
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-55652-361-8

Contents

Acknowledgments,
Introduction,
The History of Musical Theater,
Musical Themes,
Musical Reviews,
A Performer Prepares,
I Got Rhythm,
Gotta Dance,
An Actor's Life for Me,
Show Time!,
Suggested Musicals for Young Actors,
Summaries of Plays Mentioned in the Book,
Bibliography,
About the Author,

CHAPTER 1

The History of Musical Theater

William Shakespeare filled his comedies with music. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, the fairies sing and dance for their fairy queen. French playwright Molière also included songs in his plays. In A Doctor in Spite of Himself, the doctor prescribes "a song with a merry note, and a dance with a lively step" to cure some of his patients. Later Molière worked with composer Jean-Baptiste Lully to create comedy-ballets. These were some of the first known dramas that included music and dance, although they were not quite what we would call musicals today.

Musicals came about as composers began to parody or poke fun at opera. They lightened the mood of the music and changed its style to be similar to popular music of the day. The Pirates of Penzance, which hit Broadway in 1879, was one of the first musicals.

In the 1920s, Tin Pan Alley, a district of composers and publishers of popular music in New York City, was the hot spot for American musicals. Many songwriters, including Irving Berlin and George Gershwin, created musicals in these publishing houses.

In 1927 musicals began to take on all sorts of themes, both comedic and serious. Show Boat was the first musical that had songs that actually moved the plot forward, a breakthrough for telling stories in musical theater style.

The term musical was shortened from the term "musical comedy," but it now refers to dramas as well as comedies.

In 1960 the first rock-and-roll musical hit the stage. It was called Bye Bye Birdie, and told a story similar to what happened when Elvis Presley was drafted. It also includes a grown-up love story that follows the standard "boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl" back plot of earlier musical comedies. Many rock musicals have since followed.

Today Andrew Lloyd Webber and others continue to add to the wealth of musical theater. Many actors say that live musical theater is where they began, and it is still their favorite venue. Musicals continue to be a favorite among theatergoers, especially young people.

Chorus Game

Three or more players

In ancient Greece and even in Shakespeare's time, the chorus was not a group of people who sing songs together in a play as we use the term today. Instead, the chorus was one actor who often told the audience what was about to happen in that scene. This was because there were few surprise endings in early theater. Playwrights wanted the audience to know the story before they watched the performance. Since they didn't show very much violence on stage at that time either, the chorus would also tell the audience if someone was hurt. Another job of the chorus was to announce the passing of time, so the audience would know if the next scene happened years or only moments after the previous scene.

This is an improvisation game that shows the job of the chorus before the invention of musical theater. Improvisation (also known as improv) is a style of acting where you create, without any advance preparation. Here the chorus tells the story before the other players act it out; but, because this is improv, the players don't know in advance what the chorus will say.

Choose one player to be the chorus. The other players will be actors. The chorus steps out and says what will happen in the first of three scenes. Because you are improvising and not using a script, the chorus makes up what will happen. The actors have to listen carefully. After the chorus finishes explaining the scene, the actors act it out. The chorus then explains scene two, and the actors act it out. Next, the chorus explains scene three, and the actors act it out.

This exercise can be used for playwriting and other creative writing because it teaches the concept of beginning, middle, and end, and lets you see the story you are making up.

Here is an example of how this game might go.

Stephanie is the chorus. Joe and Charlie are the actors improvising the scenes. Here is an example of what they all might say.

* * *

STEPHANIE

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the story of a duck and a bunny. The duck is very sad and lonely. He has lost his quack. His bunny friend hops all over trying to find it.

JOE

(becomes the duck)

I'm so sad. I've lost my quack. Listen.

(HE tries to quack, but nothing comes out.) See?

(HE cries.)

CHARLIE

(acting as the bunny)

Don't be sad, my duck friend. I'll find your quack.

(HE hops around while saying)

Has anyone seen a quack? No? Oh, where can it be?

(HE exits.)

STEPHANIE

In scene two the bunny comes back to the duck. He has found all sorts of sounds, but none of them is a quack.

CHARLIE

Duck! Duck! I think I've found what you're looking for. Here it is.

(opening his mouth wide)

Mooooo!

JOE

That's not my quack. That's a moo. That belongs to Mrs. Cow.

CHARLIE

Oh. Well, don't worry. I think I've got it. Is this it?

(opening his mouth wide)

Oink!

JOE

No! That's not my quack either! That belongs to Mr. Pig.

CHARLIE

I've got one more. This has got to be it.

(opening his mouth wide)

Baaaaa!

JOE

That's not it either! That's Señor Sheep's! We'll never find my quack.

STEPHANIE

The bunny went off searching again, determined to find the duck's quack. While he was gone, the duck heard something coming from a raspberry bush. A raspberry was saying "quack." He ate the raspberry and got his quack back. When the bunny returned, exhausted, the duck made him a raspberry pie.

JOE

I hope Bunny finds my quack soon. Wait, I think I hear something. That bush is quacking! It's not the bush, it's this little raspberry.

(HE eats the raspberry.)

That was tasty.

(opening his mouth wide)

Quack! It's my quack!

(opening his mouth wide again)

Quack! I've got it back!

CHARLIE

(entering)

Well Duck, I've looked everywhere, but I could not find your quack.

JOE

(opening his mouth wide)

Quack!

CHARLIE

You've got it! Where did you find it?

JOE

It was in a raspberry. I ate the raspberry and it came back.

CHARLIE

To think I looked all over the forest and it was right here. Speaking of raspberries, I sure am hungry after all that looking.

JOE

You're such a great friend. I'm going to make you a raspberry pie.

STEPHANIE

Curtain

* * *

Musical Theater Terms

Here are some commonly used theater terms and their...