News Release
March 6, 2014
Imari Davis and Samantha Ruiz
Public Relations Officers
We are Lightning Strike Kids Opera Company, twenty-two third graders in Ms. McGinn’s class. We are making our own original opera. On May 7 at 2 p.m. and May 8 at 2 and 7 p.m. our opera will be performed at Stedwick Elementary School in the All Purpose Room.
[Read more…] about Lightning Strike Kids Opera Company News Release
How can we design and construct the set and lighting for our opera without properly knowing the space we will inhabit, our stage? Set designers and electricians are busy making important decisions to bring our story to life. How many lights should be built? Where must they be placed on stage? What set pieces are needed to effectively tell our story and how will they fit in our small theatrical space?
All third graders in Montgomery County are currently learning measurement and fractions. We learn by doing. With a bit of knowledge about tape measures and how to record accurate measurements, the entire company set out to help our designers acquire the information needed to proceed with set and lighting construction.
Every Wednesday morning the halls are abuzz with incredible energy for Opera Class. Students walk from place to place with purpose. They know they have a job and they must be prepared. From 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. we meet as a company to work in our respective job groups. Our talented and dedicated volunteers work with us as we specialize in learning the specific skills necessary to carry out the responsibilities in creating an original opera. Each company member becomes an expert in his or her field. The groups work independently. Then, little by little, as we move through the process, students recognize the significance and purpose of each job group and learn that without all groups combining effort and commitment, the opera could not happen. A sense of interdependence is born. There’s no turning back. It’s all for one and one for all.
Having an authentic field experience engages students on numerous levels. It shows how the work we do in our classroom translates and is applied to the real world. The purpose for everything we do is connected to something meaningful and real for students.
A trip to the train station brought to life our study of setting. We weren’t just reading books about train stations and looking at pictures and paintings, but getting an up-close, detailed tour of our very own Union Station in Washington, DC. Our tour guides, Michele, Debbie and Jamie dazzled us with stories about the history of the station and the trains that pass through everyday. We boarded the Acela, receiving a first class experience from all Amtrak personnel busy at work. One of our composers, Daylon, was invited to take a seat in the conductor’s chair. At the helm of all controls, Daylon rang the bell, turned on the windshield wipers and adjusted the side view mirrors.
From intricate opera character relationships, a story is born. Conflicts, directly transferred from our collective lives to our original characters, come to life and create a storyline sure to make us think. The process for writing our scenario begins as we determine how our primary and secondary conflicts develop and are resolved in our setting, a train station. Why are the characters at the station, together? What events and activities take place that enable us to see the conflicts played out in a believable fashion? What is logical? How do we see these situations in our daily lives? How do we show connections to our theme and thesis throughout the story? What is the central message we wish to deliver to our audience?
[Read more…] about A Story is Born – The Plot Thickens (Video)
For years I have worked on teaching my class the art of yielding to others. The idea of facilitating a student led discussion with twenty-four students, where no one raises a hand asking permission to speak, but everyone contributes to the conversation has always intrigued me. When should I speak? When is it better to hold my tongue and allow others to be heard? How does knowing when to speak help me as an individual and help my class as a whole?
For many, this may seem an impossible feat, but for Lightning Strike Kids Opera Company, anything is possible.