Posted by Amanda Farrar on March 11, 2015
The Monkey Minute
That's Weird Grandma
Company Members
School Shows
School Residencies
After School Program
In each and every school show since Barrel of Monkeys’ inception in 1997, one or more student-written stories have been adapted into song for the stage. Multiply that by upwards of 15 original school shows each year, and you have a couple hundred songs in the archives!
We have so many songs, in fact, that presently That’s Weird, Grandma is an all-musical revue! You can see 16 of some of our most favored songs adapted from the incredible work of student writers this Sunday at 2pm and Monday at 8pm. Jennifer Johnson, author of the following blog entry and current performer in That’s Weird Grandma: The Musical, shares some of her most favorite epic Barrel of Monkeys songs that have not yet made their way into the current show! Enjoy celebrating the power of these students’ imaginations!
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My Favorite Epic Barrel of Monkeys Songs
By Jennifer Johnson
In the classroom, we encourage students in Barrel of Monkeys writing programs to continue stories they’ve started or we ask specific questions to further their creativity during the writing process. Sometimes, a student is ready to write! And the product is long, detailed, complicated, creative and fabulous. Below are my favorite epically long stories written by students in Chicago Public Schools that we’ve turned into songs.
Sculpting Alaska
By Gautam R., Hough Street School
“Let the competition begin,” boomed the announcer, as I quickly started planning out my ice sculpture. Scrape, scrape, scrape, went my carving tool as I knocked away ice. This was the regular carving routine. We were at the 2000 year end ice sculpting contest in Alaska. Nobody would think of such a wonderful sculpture as a fish sculpture. “Hey Jimmy,” a voice shouted, how you doing? Continued!
Sculpting Alaska was brilliantly staged using the entire cast. There are so many great characters to play in this story/song. Two people even played the actual ice sculptures!
IRS Moles
By Ben L., Hough Street School
Eeooo! The sirens rang throughout the city. Speakers popped out of buildings. “Run, the IRS Moles are coming” said the speakers. Everyone ran. They knew that moles would make them pay. “Come on” said Harold to his mother as they ran. “But the cookies” said his mother, “we need them.” “We’ll have to leave them” said Harold. “Dang” said his sister. “I say we fight back against this tax collecting” said Bob who was 2 and very smart. Continued!
I was in the original cast of this—I got to sing “Dang, not the cookies!” It’s one of the best lines I’ve ever sung in a BOM song!
IRS Moles from Barrel of Monkeys on Vimeo.
The Race
By Dorian W., South Loop School
Once upon a time there was a man named Truman. And he was joining the Big Race finals to win $300. When he was practicing he run 5 miles a day. When he run home he took his dog out and ran with his dog. His dog was named Ace. His dog was really nice and could run so fast. He was the fastest dog in the whole world. Truman was a gym teacher. Continued!
I love The Race because in the end Truman races by jumping in the sack—it’s so exciting to watch!
The Evil Kangaroo
By Emilio G., Loyola Park After School Program
Once upon a time in 1212 BC and now in the middle of the ocean there was a city named Freeopolis that no one knew about. Everyone was happy until Professor Wiggems built an experiment on kangaroos. It went completely wrong. The kangaroo escaped and destroyed the city, then when there’s no hope left it’s to be continued…The island sinks and the kangaroo finds a boat. Continued!
Emilio G. wrote many stories about evil kangaroos and Professor Wiggems, but this one is my favorite! It’s staged with lots of action and verses!
A long story creates a wonderful basis for a musical theatre masterpiece!
Posted by Kassi on January 20, 2015
School Shows
The Super 7 Girls of Willa Cather Elementary love scary stories. And we are having a great time adapting those spooky tales into thrilling plays.
In “The Day it was Halloween” by Nakiya B., the tension build will have you shaking in your boots.
“One Spooky Trick or Treating” by Lanesha R., includes a cast of some classic spook-sters, guaranteed to make you run and hide.
And finally… “The Clown” by Diamond R., tells the all-too-common true story of when a clown is pretending to be your dad.
The End…or is it? Mwahahahahaha…...ahhhhhahahahahahaha!
Posted by Bradford on January 12, 2015
School Shows
In case you’re wondering, (and I know you are); what a typical Barrel of Monkeys school show is like….Well, it goes a little something like this…
Wake up in the wee hours of the morning and kick it down to the breakfast spot for some pre-show bonding. That’s right friends, nothing like a fresh cup of coffee and a giant donut to kick off the day!
Head over to the school. Set up our trusty curtains and key board. Check sound levels, rehearse the show, say hello to the kiddos as they walk into the gym; and before you know it… It’s Show Time Yall!!!
And after 6 days of rehearsal, 18 hours of hard work, the show is over in the blink of an eye. And it never gets old. Seeing the kiddos laughing, applauding and celebrating their stories is always a blast. Well done Columbia Explorers fourth graders. Keep putting the pen to pad and always remember….Every idea is a good idea! Yeah!!!
Posted by Rachel C. on May 19, 2014
School Shows
I’ve always been incredibly fond of outer space and cats, so rehearsing for Morton School’s show has been an absolute blast. We’ve got a lot of outer space, and a lot of cats. Other themes we’ve gotten to explore include sharks, birthday parties, body swapping, and houses that look like faces. Watching these amazing stories jump off of a page and morph into beautiful, funny, and inspiring pieces of theatre and music is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I was a volunteer teacher this spring at Morton, and I’ve been blown away by all of the creativity and positive energy radiating from the classroom and the rehearsal room. Molly, our fantastic director, and the rest of the cast have been incredibly welcoming to me during this process, and I can’t wait to share this exciting experience with all the kids on Friday! I was actually so excited about everything that I forgot to take pictures, so here is a picture of outer space to tide you over.
Posted by Dan R on April 10, 2014
School Shows
With all the firsts (and a few seconds) in this show, it’s time to get excited.
It’s the first school show for BOM Teacher, Ashley Bland. She’s been teaching with us for a while now, but this is her first time on stage with us and she’s doing an incredible job! Here she is with fellow Monkey (and BOM teacher at Haines Elementary), David Pintor:
It’s also the first school show that I have done this school year. It’s exciting to be back in the rehearsal room, reading our students’ stories and working with my fellow Monkeys to adapt those stories for the stage. Being away from the process for a while, it’s easy to forget the scope of kids’ imaginations. In this show, alone, we have international villains, clowns, zombies, scary rabbits, aliens, flower-eating monsters to name, but a few. Sharing a room with performers dedicated to bringing students’ stories is a really exciting process. In the space of 6 hours together, we were able to adapt 18 stories; add to those, a handful of songs and we have our show.
This is the second show that company member Jeff Trainor has directed. He’s doing an incredible job and has joined a growing corps of company members who are taking on directing responsibilities for school shows. It’s a tough job. You have 18 hours to convert a stack of stories to an hour long show. When you consider that most pre-written plays take weeks of rehearsals, you can imagine the amount of focus and hard work needed, as a director, to make sure we’re stage ready, come Friday. He’s ably assisted by a committed and energetic cast.
This is company member Lindsey Dorcus rehearsing one of the stories.
This is also the second year that we’ve been at Haines. It’s always great to come back to a school for another year and we’re excited to be returning there, this Friday, to perform the show.
And that brings me to one more first: Friday will be the first time, ever, that this show has been performed. Now that’s something to get excited about.
