EAT. LEARN. PLAY.
MATTHEW THORSEN
✱ THE ART OF…
WHERE TO GO: Saturday
Drama in Three Hours BY A M Y LI LLY
It’s about cultivating the imagination, and the skills with which to apply your imagination in the outside world.
Info, 355-1461, verymerrytheatre.org.
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KIDS VT
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The Art of...” spotlights creative skills that enrich kids’ lives. Got a class or teacher to recommend? Email us at ideas@kidsvt.com.
MAY 2012
imagination in the outside world,” she says during a phone interview. The moms say other children got their own interested in theater. Lynn Sutton explains that her son, Thomas, has older sisters who are “very into drama.” Nyarkoa Mensah-Jordan says her son, Zaiah, had a friend in the club. “We create these shows for our neighbors three times a year,” she adds, and Very Merry Theatre seemed like a good next step. “Are you going to leave yet?” Zaiah calls out from the balcony, making his mother laugh. When the parents are gone, the instructors lead the boys in a round of drama games where they take turns acting like “weird people,” whales and police cars. After a snack break, they start talking about their characters. Before long, Thomas is the owner-chef of the Burger Palace, Zaiah is a vegetarian and undercover PETA agent, and the third boy, Kody, is a wild panda. “It all fits together in the end,” assures the experienced Denton. “It’s all very wacky and free form, but it’s surprising how well things gel.”
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KIDSVT.COM
plays by Shakespeare, Dickens, Carroll THREE YOUNG BOYS ZOOM around and Twain. In summer, the company the empty stage at Very Merry uses a traveling theater wagon to Theatre on a recent Saturday mornpeddle its plays at festivals and other ing. One wields a prop — a sign that events. The “camp” sessions that take reads “Burger Palace” — as if it were a place in Charlotte are already sold out sword and charges up to a balcony to for 2012. face his opponent. Another clambers Cofounder Don Wright says the on hands and feet around a painted Saturday Drama Club began almost foam rock. Their moms wait at the four years ago when the company door with drama instructor Jane opened its 333 theater space, a brick Beaumont-Snyder to see if more building decorated with cheerful children will show for the Saturday murals behind Pho Hong on North Drama Club. Winooski Avenue. The club is a He passed the weekly opportunity program on to direcfor 6 to 12-year-olds tor Trish Denton, to create, stage and a Goddard College star in a drama of grad who specializes their own making in physical theater. — all in three hours. Beaumont-Snyder, Along the way, the who is Denton’s kids have a blast and regular assistant, is hone their social substituting for her skills, too. Anyone TRISH DENTON, on this particular can show up, making VERY MERRY THEATRE Saturday. the group’s dynamic A veteran of as unpredictable as Spielpalast Cabaret, Denton uses the 15-minute performance at the end. clowning and miming exercises to Parents drop off their kids and return engage her charges, and says she’s to play the important part of audience seen kids grow more empowered. “It’s for the show. about cultivating the imagination, and Since 2002, Very Merry Theatre the skills with which to apply your has been casting Vermont children in
Drama Club, ages 6-12, at Very Merry Theatre, 333 North Winooski Avenue, Saturdays, 10 a.m.–1 p.m., September through June. Pay $15, or whatever you can afford, at the door. There is no lunch break, but kids should bring a snack. (One is provided if necessary.)
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