First, we read a book called The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything, by Linda Williams.
Next, we chose characters from Mo Willems's books that we could use in our play. We wrote a script with these characters, and the new lines they would say.
We did a table read of the script, all sitting around the circle instead of standing up and acting. We did a number of table reads to help familiarize us with the script, our lines, and our cues.
Now, we are dividing up into working groups to tackle some of the details we need to attend to before we can perform the play.
We have a costume group. These students made a list of all the characters, and are designing a costume for each character.
We have a set group. These students are designing the set, and will direct others when we construct it.
We have an invitation, ticket, and promotion group. These students will choose who to invite, will design the invitations, the promotional material, and any handouts. They also had to choose what kind of tickets we would use. A big question was whether or not we needed to have a barcode on each ticket. If we don't have a barcode, some of us are worried that people who want to see the show could just make their own tickets out of paper at home. We will have to figure this problem out.
We have a prop group. These students read through the play and are deciding what props we need to have in the play. They need to get very specific. What kind of basket should Trixie carry with her on her walk in the forest? How will we get a basket?
Finally, we have a movie group. These students are developing the movie version of the play. They will make a shot list and conduct the necessary video recordings.
We have a lot of work, and not much time to do it! Like all performances, we might make a mistake, but the show must go on!
A copy of our script is attached at the bottom of this page on our class website.
