After an intensive week of rehearsals, Little Red's Most Unusual Day got on it's feet in front of a audience other than Washington High School's orchestra room wall, and I'll say that the K-5 kids at Arthur Elementary were MUCH more receptive! The show went fantastically despite all of us feeling a little frazzled by having to figure out how the puzzle pieces of our set went together, delaying our start time by 5 minutes. The magical thing about outreach is that no matter how perfectly you rehearse it, the show will inevitably change and come to life when in front of the audience. The kids were extremely engaged, and our performance was definitely heightened by their enthusiasm. Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely) enough, I thought that EVERYONE sang better than they ever have in rehearsals, fed by the non-judgemental presence of the kids who really just wanted to have a good time. So a good time was had... by ALL of us, audience and performers alike.
Interesting observations... at this age, kids can tell if you are having a good time and feed off of that, so it's a great lesson in performing. And audience can sense whether or not you're really into it... kids are just more vocal about it. The beginning of my "aria" is introducing the fact that "Granny" is a "cougar" and really loves MEN, but the text is somewhat convoluted:
I am a little Granny in my little garden with my pretty little watering can.
I'll take this little seed and plant it in the ground and watch it turn into a little man.
Then he will be my lovely little lovey dovey cutie pie and cootchie coo.
Then I will be his little bride and love him. Well, at least I will a year or two....
So I don't think the kids got it at first, but then when I started talking about wanting a boyfriend of my own and kissing my watering can which I mime and being a man I dance with, they get it and react. Their favorite moments were when my fabulous tenor friend Chaz Ali-Williams, who plays forest ranger Dudley, the object of Granny's affections, holds out a long high Bb (??), which they apparently think is hysterical. I think they are also just fascinated by it, and it also feeds into the humorous stereotype of "opera singers". But when you ask them afterwards whether or not they like opera, they answer definitively "YES!", which means we have succeeded.
This has been my observation with all outreach shows I've done. Kids are much more accepting and able to enjoy and understand opera than most people would guess. It goes to show that opera really is just musical theater and meant to entertain, and if you do your job and touch the audience, they'll dig it.
Above are pictures of my trees that I painted for the set as well as me as "Granny"...
So far it has been a real joy being back in Cedar Rapids with great friends from this summer, and making new friends as well.
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