August 6, 2003

Playin' Around acts up

Grassroots children's theater company stages first play

By Gretchen Murray
Special to the Herald

When Traverse City students sit down next month to write the inevitable "What I Did on My Summer Vacation" essay, some will write about their skateboarding prowess while some will talk about their team's victories. However, the 16 students in the new Playin' Around Productions theater group will tell about how they learned about stage presence, voice projection and improv.
The group grew from an idea of Jenn Miles of Traverse City, who has been involved in local theater production for many years. She is assisted by Dale George, the mother of one of the children in the group.

Herald photo by Garret Leiva
Roslyn Lambert, Carley Price and Emilee Geiger get a final glob of green makeup befroe going on stage as "Slimes" in the Playin' Around Theater production of "Emma Lou and the Big Ragout."

The children have been meeting twice a week for the last eight weeks, their efforts culminating in their production, "Emma Lou and the Big Ragout," a take-off on "The Wizard of Oz." The play was staged last Saturday at the Grand Traverse Heritage Center.
Miles started the group this summer in order to provide elementary school children ages 8 to 12 years old a chance to get away from the TV and computer games and to broaden their creativity while being involved in theater production. Participation spread mostly by word-of-mouth.
"This is not just a show," Miles noted. "It's a production, which means that each child had a hand in making the costumes, props and working on the set in addition to playing his part."
Each child started with a T-shirt and a sheet and was required to develop his own vision of the character he would play.
"If you point children in the right direction, and give them some leeway, they can figure out what they need to do," Miles said.
Miles, who has been stage manager and director of numerous Old Town Playhouse productions as well as plays at each of the area high schools, has spent the summer teaching her students most aspects of the theater. She also made sure they understood how powerful it is to be able to assume a whole new character when they walked on stage. Both Miles and George found that's not always an easy lesson to get across.
"Some kids naturally have strong personalities," George said. "Some take on a character and say 'I'm going to make this mine.' Others started out by letting them know they only wanted to be involved backstage, but not in the play," George said.
But any initial anxieties were quickly dispelled. "We encouraged them by telling them, 'Maybe you don't know this character now, but take the role anyway.' We coached them and let them work into the character on their own," George said.
By the time Miles explained the ins and outs of auditioning she had improved the children's comfort level so much that any child who at first had been hesitant in taking on a role had reconsidered. The group even went so far as to rehearse at the outdoor amphitheater at the Civic Center so the children could learn about volume and how their voices carry.
The experience has proved to be a confidence builder for the kids. "These kids couldn't talk to each other six weeks ago and now they're getting along great," Miles said.
Miles acknowledged that her company has stiff competition from the various other theater groups in the area, such as Stage Door Theater Company and the Traverse City Children's Theater at Old Town Playhouse which are offering new acting classes this summer. However, Miles noted that many of those opportunities either fill up fast or are cost restrictive.
She was able to hold the cost to $30 per child for the summer session - a cost many parents were happy to budget in order to stimulate their child's creativity and self esteem.
In playing the Big Ragout, one of the leads, Aaron Madison, 11, a sixth grader at Central Grade School, feels she has come a long way this summer.
"I learned a lot of theater lingo, the areas of the stage, and all the different jobs there are in the theater," she said. "At first I was nervous, but it came easily."
Madison thinks she would like to continue to study theater. So does Roslyn Lambert, 10, a student at Long Lake Elementary, who is already weighing the realities of acting along with other career selections.
"I want to be a star because a waitress doesn't get very much in tips," Lambert said. "But waitressing will be my backup job."
Whether or not any of the children intend to continue to pursue acting as a career, George considers the experience they've gained to be invaluable.
"This experience will help them in real-life situations whether they have to give a speech or are involved in training people, or just have more poise during a college interview. This opportunity allows them to be comfortable in their own skin and that is a great asset," she said.
For more information about Playin' Around Productions, call 933-0284.