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Show roirssBiJDs H (V If .' fy ( i; " - ' V .' ill! "7 k i , - -:v7. V-.J) PERFORMING A SCENE from "Harry and the Terrible Whatzit" . Windham as Harry. Dr. Black directs the actors at the right of are (L to R) Alice Hall, Chris Dye, the Whatzit made up of Charlie the stage. Stefani; and Sharon Pittman, and Kay Sharp supporting Vonda Readers theater adds new dimensions and challenges By MrU Young (vi $r !Aio One of the oldest forms of dramatic art, readers theater, has gone through a sort of metamorphosis since its early beginnings In Greece. One can almost imagine the Creek actors unrolling their papyrus scrolls and capturing their audience as their voices droned out the tales of adventure adven-ture and drama. As most of the audience au-dience were illiterate, the respect for an actor was magnified because he had ki!l In reading. Strutting on the marble floors of the p.il.ice in his string sandals and drap-d with a white toga, the reader rntcrtainrd the noMrs, The lilt and Inflection of the actors voice altmg with on occasional gture and change in expression rre Hie rcnce ti tha Mary and the rr!rnUiion, A children, nothing was more delightful than to be gathered up by a friend or loved one and be read of told a story. Children have little ln hibition and readily tm,it:ir,e color, set!"! and rhararters. Mos,t adult e.e-.j itroef iimu1a and nwre ex-I ex-I '.nit !nry hnn to carry them along W their mind? sometimes wander. This u what the art rf rraden IKeief it aimed trard. t!al!y cab thifg nd kef ; irg the stirtfinn r4 the e,).;.r!x e liradrfl ll es'ef is bA-jenirg irt (h fihfah tlasm thanks li the skill rf tr? hr.i Carhn rf t'tah Sf4i tT,ivrf?;!v td'iratinft Crr.'rf iv.r j!rf Aria v j jtur.r!.! and t)f. tarrell I-a k fd stj's tesrt cam- .,' h ve ntksK-' p and leatbej (Utte h-rp l r. c'i he t li ta'ftl:dnca;ientr.;ff. Car f!ifff 'rd a readers Ibea'ef -ee,t8!0i j:t tin!ff tf "A 0-.rKmas Cafol" fckhwas adpM fli itvt.r'-e fyrrc ar.d S'-rriP a'.joi e$ ?e -Mvgirif.r.;. ! jf.ai ad- tr p- s l?"d f!f-s" .a:-r " f. i f 9 ot f issr. (h sidf f.'S 4i r ffyr'5 ts f if li a th;Mripn'!i S'rpy f4 t'--rr, p J z f t J) ff'TS !'-i;'tf gr.-J f'-t-i. f -fff ?vt.f f 5;r-5' iVc. ';c, f-f l ? . ' 'I t (" t y 3 i 1 c "t c c v ? . r - f t done in such a short time period. Dr. Black has a delightful, fanciful nature to go with his years of knowledge and theatrical expertise that is apparent in his approach to readers theater. He says poetry, prose and stories or any type of literature is adaptable to readers theater. "It isn't easy. The script is almost memorized and the action and mime take a lot of rehearsal. rehear-sal. You need just the right movements to achieve the characterization", Dr. Black explained. ex-plained. A comparison of readers theater to radio drama sheds light on its nature, "What you hear; voices, sound effects ef-fects and music, are w hat cause you to form a picture In your mind. This is the same effect as readers theater," noted Dr. Black. One of the goals of Dr. Black's recent re-cent workshop was to instigate the use of readers theater as an educational educa-tional tool for teaching children, Children seem to easily grasp the Concept of off stage focus Usrd by the artor in readers theater, according to Dr. Black, which U a trchni'iue that puis the mind of the audience into in-to the story, rather than tmta the IV' r -ntSo 52 L ?-j re'aVv?5 cf s'u-.'e-tj i r stage. The actors gaze out over the heads of the audience and focus in "space" away from the stage. Only an occasional prop is used. However, in the past few years, lighting, music and costumes have been added to take away the sterile image of book and reader. The script or book is used many times by the actors ac-tors as props for everything from clubs to things to peek from behind The director has the fuu.1 say in the set and blinking, but the actors are encouraged to, and are welcome to expand on the stage. Each of their suggestions for staging are con-Mdi-red Dr. Black said be listed on a blackboard a number of the ways his students came up with on how they could do a train (sounds and actiom on stage, The blackboard was filled w i'.h creative suggest ions. Directors develop their own style and the choice of their strirt are varied Some like the pw1ic theme, others adventure Dr. Blaik prtfrrs a story w itb siror-g emotional appeal He recently u-ed a background nf drum and f-rnr.Mn as an emotional emo-tional stimuli lor hi pfrscfttaiion. f . ,1 t :;V ''.'-'if: , I i ft ffc9 fcacrj fc-.t-';'; SL. . . - I -j. "The great thing about readers theater is that it can be done with nothing; that is a bare stage, or w ith a multitude of technical additions," Dr. Black emphasized. With 23 years of teaching at I'SU under his belt In the speech, English and theater arts departments, Dr. Black passes skills in story telling, poetry appreciation, oral interpretation, interpreta-tion, oral techniques, language arts, teaching and more on to hi students, Ik did his graduate work on oral interpretation end has a "real love" for expanding this medium. The six students at his latest workshop include: Alice Hall. Sharon I'lUman. Kay Jharpe, Chm Dye, Vonda Windham and Charlie Sicfani, At the completion of their work?.hnp U wcrk they gave a per-(or per-(or ma nee titled "Once tm a Time" that included a cotflnbutigfl front farh of the six Their ubjU fmm children'! literature were: "The Ton and the Cm;r,try Mouse", "Million tvf Cats", "U Al.ke", "tt-irry and t? Terrible VM-at.-il", "The Boy Who Ci?4 lind An thing", "Ameha l !:.", end "Marvin K Mwney, U,:t Yj Ivae (to N"'.' '?-f- ?! Vs"?' J.-11 " Wednesday, August f , "" 'i- -v i S . f aMMMMt ' 1 i' j I f I i , :m I i j if - 1 V .f 4 THE ONLY TWO props used at the student's presentation are shown by Charlie Stefani who puts the mule ears on Chris Dye used in "Look Alike" and Chris holds the "Marvin K. Mooney" blanket. The use of choral reading was especially good and the audience responded to the concepts explained by Dr. Black very well. It was interesting in-teresting to watch the faces of the children w hose parents were performing perfor-ming in the readers theater. They seemed a little surprised at first that mom or dad would do such things and then relaxed into the mood of the stories and began to identify w ith the characters in them. Hopefully, readers theater will continue lo grow in this area and become what Dr. Black suggests. "A teaching tool" in the schools. t t "V p -A ' Ij 17 7 - - ' i if Vl. , 7, 1985 Vemfll ExpfeSS 1 3 4 V pw;i.i.w,wi,iiypw';"i J - c1; El U DR. FARRELL BLACK, professor pro-fessor in theater arts at Utah Sl3te University, explains to the audience how readers theater is done. t |