Playmakers Blog
Posted by Molly on May 12, 2012
That's Weird Grandma TWG Weekly Update
Come join us for a Very Special Show this Sunday at 2, and Monday at 8. Featuring Mom stories. Say “That’s Weird, GrandMOTHER” at the Box Office for discount tickets!
Posted by Katie Marie on May 7, 2012
Ten glorious days ago, Barrel of Monkeys performed our first of two school performances at LEARN Campbell. It. Was. Awesome. Reading, adapting and rehearsing stories for a school show is always so much fun, but as an actor, the most rewarding part of the process is the in-school performance, when you see and hear the kids react to the adaptations of their own and each other’s writing.
Ten glorious student reactions from the show, in no particular order:
1. The roar of the children when Brandon, as the heartbroken father werewolf in Diante and Miles’ “The Serious Day”, howled at a full moon to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”.
2. The “eeeeeewwww” of the Kindergarteners in response to the prospect of eating fish in Vashanti’s untitled story.
3. The “eeeeeewwww” of all the students in response to a quick stage kiss during the wedding in Bentrell’s “We Got Married”.
4. The collective hubbub when, in an adaptation based on Nakhia’s true story about the time she thought she broke her leg, her mother told her to calm down because if she could move her leg, it wasn’t broken. And a similar reaction to the line “Get your attitude straight” written by Ariejah and Jenay in a dialogue that took place at a zoo. (“Ohhh no she didn’t!”, “Ahhh, she told her!!”, “Oooooo!”).
5. Cheers and dancing along with the cast of “Celebrities” to “The Wobble” (Thanks, Jaali, Aliya, Zuri and Jalen! Our new favorite dance is The Wobble, too!).
6. So much singing to Justin Bieber in Malik’s “Talent Show”!
7. Screams and squeals and giggles when Laura got a pie in the face and Dan got spaghetti in his hair in Kyjuan’s “Weird Party by the Bus Station”.
8. The empathetic “awww” when Dixie let out a sad “Meow” after being berated for not ordering the on sale chicken combo in Lanyah’s story about two cats in NYC.
9. Belly laughs at Dan as a corkscrew-curled Princess and Ryan as a split-personalitied Duchess/Queen’s messenger in Iyonna’s “I Am a Princess”.
10. Hugs! So many hugs! As the cast cleaned up the stage and props after the show, we watched student after student come up to their Monkey teachers to give them a hug and thanks for a wonderful experience. We love you too, LEARN Campbell! Thank YOU!
Posted by Molly on May 5, 2012
That's Weird Grandma TWG Weekly Update
Four Words:
Spikey. Bones. And. Rose.
Come see it to believe it.
Sunday at 2. Monday at 8.
Say: “Is any home?” to the box office staff to get a discounted ticket.
Posted by Molly on April 29, 2012
That's Weird Grandma TWG Weekly Update
Brand new cast! Brand new stories!
Brand-new Monkey Dad Michael Spatafora.
Come see 7.1 at 2 on Sunday or 8 on Monday!
Say “I pushed a feeling ” at the box office for discount tickets
Posted by Katie Marie on April 25, 2012
We are so excited! We are geeking out! We are singing about cinnamon toast rolls! We are performing at LEARN Campbell Elementary on Friday!!!
This is our first of two residencies at LEARN Campbell this year, and it was what we call a single class residency, meaning that we taught one group of students every week for 6 weeks at the school (as opposed to two or three groups of students). This is rare for us, but even MORE rare is that this single class was comprised of students from three different classrooms. Woah! Because we only taught one group of students, we have the absolute pleasure of having stories from every single student in the group adapted for their show on Friday! This is fun and wonderful for us, but I’m going to go ahead and guess that it’s going to be a SUPERTREAT for the students.
Some of their stories have been turned into songs (with dancing!):
And some have been turned into plays (with acting!):
We hope the students love watching their stories come to life as much as we loved reading and adapting them! YAY FRIDAY!!