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Marshall Minstrels present spring theater
  
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Elementary students poke fun at TV newscasters in one play and teach a lesson in another.
By Angela Hokanson
Classic fairy tales were given healthy plot twists Friday in the Marshall Elementary School drama club’s spring theater performances.
The fifth-grade club, which is known as the Marshall Minstrels, performed two plays for their classmates, one called “Fairy Tale News,” and the other, “Reading, Writing and Little Red Riding Hood.”
In “Fairy Tale News,” the characters poked fun at television newscasters as they analyzed and dissected breaking news stories that had marked similarities to fairy tales like “Sleeping Beauty” and “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
Investigative reporter Wanda Whereabout — played by 11-year-old Yekaterina Mkrtchyan — arrived at Sleeping Beauty’s castle where the princess had just been awoken from her long sleep with a kiss on the hand from a boy who was passing by.The boy and the princess tried to explain that they weren’t a couple, that the kiss didn’t mean anything, but the reporter was having none of it.
“When are you going to get married anyway?” the reporter asked them.
As the news segment ended, the two news anchors, played by 10-year-olds Imani Story and Jonathan Nabifar commented on the burgeoning romance.
“Oh young love, it’s so wonderful,” Jonathan said.
“Oh it is, Pete,” Imani answered.
Playing a news anchor was tough because they had to be onstage the whole time, Imani said, and they had to make sure not to laugh at the other actors’ funny lines.
“They act kind of serious, and sometimes they say some jokes,” Imani said about her depiction of a news anchor.
The play closed with the anchors saying in unison, “Good night, and happily ever after.”
The second play was a variation of the story of Little Red Riding Hood in which the wolf forsakes life as a menacing creature and decides to become a kindergarten teacher instead.
The story is told in flashback. In the first scene, Jonathan Nabifar, who played the wolf, explained to his pupils how he initially tried to work as a fearsome wolf because that’s what his parents wanted him to do.
“My first job was with an agency that trained big, bad wolves,” he said.
But he couldn’t bring himself to eat the Little Red Riding Hood or her grandmother.
When Little Red Riding Hood, played by 11-year-old Jasmine Campusano, heard that the wolf liked kids, she suggested he go into teaching.
“I’ve got the perfect job for you,” Jasmine said. “And it’s got nothing to do with eating little kids.”
The moral of the play, Imani said, was “don’t judge somebody by the way they look. Judge them by the inside.”
Teacher Frances DeLeon, who directs the drama club along with teacher Marc Sercomb, said the plays give the students a chance to learn how to get up in front of their peers and present, how to project their voices and how to develop a character.
“You watch them go beyond themselves into their characters,” DeLeon said.
The fifth-grade club, which is known as the Marshall Minstrels, performed two plays for their classmates, one called “Fairy Tale News,” and the other, “Reading, Writing and Little Red Riding Hood.”
In “Fairy Tale News,” the characters poked fun at television newscasters as they analyzed and dissected breaking news stories that had marked similarities to fairy tales like “Sleeping Beauty” and “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
Investigative reporter Wanda Whereabout — played by 11-year-old Yekaterina Mkrtchyan — arrived at Sleeping Beauty’s castle where the princess had just been awoken from her long sleep with a kiss on the hand from a boy who was passing by.The boy and the princess tried to explain that they weren’t a couple, that the kiss didn’t mean anything, but the reporter was having none of it.
“When are you going to get married anyway?” the reporter asked them.
As the news segment ended, the two news anchors, played by 10-year-olds Imani Story and Jonathan Nabifar commented on the burgeoning romance.
“Oh young love, it’s so wonderful,” Jonathan said.
“Oh it is, Pete,” Imani answered.
Playing a news anchor was tough because they had to be onstage the whole time, Imani said, and they had to make sure not to laugh at the other actors’ funny lines.
“They act kind of serious, and sometimes they say some jokes,” Imani said about her depiction of a news anchor.
The play closed with the anchors saying in unison, “Good night, and happily ever after.”
The second play was a variation of the story of Little Red Riding Hood in which the wolf forsakes life as a menacing creature and decides to become a kindergarten teacher instead.
The story is told in flashback. In the first scene, Jonathan Nabifar, who played the wolf, explained to his pupils how he initially tried to work as a fearsome wolf because that’s what his parents wanted him to do.
“My first job was with an agency that trained big, bad wolves,” he said.
But he couldn’t bring himself to eat the Little Red Riding Hood or her grandmother.
When Little Red Riding Hood, played by 11-year-old Jasmine Campusano, heard that the wolf liked kids, she suggested he go into teaching.
“I’ve got the perfect job for you,” Jasmine said. “And it’s got nothing to do with eating little kids.”
The moral of the play, Imani said, was “don’t judge somebody by the way they look. Judge them by the inside.”
Teacher Frances DeLeon, who directs the drama club along with teacher Marc Sercomb, said the plays give the students a chance to learn how to get up in front of their peers and present, how to project their voices and how to develop a character.
“You watch them go beyond themselves into their characters,” DeLeon said.
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