| Bio History Note | Article about the history of the "Participation Players," by Scott Strode.
Information about Touring Children’s Theatre: The Participation Players
The original idea grew out of the positive response of local schools to my creative dramatics class visits to elementary school classrooms to practice creative dramatics activities.
The first company of the Participation Players was formed for January Term, 1978. Eight college students performed Hansel and Gretel by Moses Goldberg. Our tour was mostly local (Wabash County) and the response was overwhelmingly positive. The second company toured during January, 1979 and involved a company of 24 students. That company presented a choice of programs to schools under the title of The Storytellers. One program included The Real Princess and The Giant With The Three Golden Hairs, the other program included The Real Princess and The Nightingale.
Since that time, The Participation Players have toured during every January term except 1989, 1993, and 1996. We then toured only on January of odd years. Thus, the tour in January 2005 was the twenty-first tour in twenty-seven years. We have been seen by well over 151,700 children and adults. There have been 240 students in the various casts. The total number of performances was 524.We have traveled to Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Arizona. Over the years, we have received grants from Indiana Arts Commission, Honeywell Foundation, the Shaw-Burkhardt-Brenner Foundation, and the Indiana Educational, Cultural, and Fine Arts Foundation, Inc.
Because the tours were only during the month of January, we always confronted three difficult circumstances: limited rehearsal time, the unpredictable weather and the fact that our availability was so limited. We usually only had five or six days to rehearse and twelve or thirteen days during which to tour. It was not unusual to schedule as many as 32 performances in a thirteen-day tour! During each tour, we travelled over 1600 miles in a college van filled with actors, costumes, and scenery. This challenged the college students in unexpected ways: they had to develop and maintain their characters over an extended period, create a believable scene while at the same time inviting participation from segments of the audience, and they had to maintain an ensemble culture on and off stage.
We could not serve all of the requests for performances. I always had to tell schools, “Sorry, we’re booked. Try us again next time.” Our performances were always of participation plays—thus our name. These plays are written in such a way to require help from the audience, usually whole audiences (not individuals from the audience, which is usually threatening to a child). The audience participation is organic to the story and not merely tacked on. Our productions were done in a twenty foot square with the audience around us on all four sides. Our productions provided several important functions which I feel are essential in a child’s education. One of these is to engage the creativity and imagination of the child (in a way that film and television is incapable); a second is to educate the child in the art of theatre, and a third is to address meaningful issues. I always provided a pre-show study guide and post-show activity ideas for the teachers.
Scott K. Strode, Producer/Director
Professor Emeritus of Theatre
Manchester College |
