Brooke had a program at her school the week before Valentine's Day. A night performance and a day performance. If I had known beforehand how awesome it would be or how involved it would be, I would've been more insistent that everyone come to watch! There's a grade level program for each grade sporadically spaced throughout the year so when it came time for the 1st grade program, I assumed it would be similar to the others. Then I started getting instructions sent home about Brooke's speaking parts, her costume changes, and more! Come to find out, the 1st grade program each year is done by the PE Coach (she's awesome!). She only does the 1st grade program. She creates the whole program herself using movement, songs, and stories. This year they did The Magic School Bus goes Back in Time. If you are unfamiliar with The Magic School Bus series, its a TV show (on PBS) and a series of educational books for kids. The same characters each time use a "magic" school bus to travel somewhere to learn about different things - the human body, or dinosaurs, or whatever. So this program took the Magic School Bus and 'travelled back in time' to learn about eating and exercise habits throughout the decades, starting with the 50's. They incorporated music and activities typical of that era.
So. The whole program was close to an hour long. Brooke had some speaking parts (as I mentioned) and several dancing parts and some other activities. We bought the DVD that recorded the whole program in its entirety, but its much too long to share here. Not to mention it is panned back the whole time so you can't make out the kids very well. I'll share a few pics/videos here that we took with our small camera...
Here's Brooke (the hippie) aka Dorothy Ann, before going 'backstage'...
The program started with Brooke's crew. They rotated the kids in different parts so it wasn't always the same one getting ALL the speaking parts. But the characters stayed the same. They switched out shirts to be able to tell who was who. Ms Frizzle always had the wig and apron (she's the teacher for the kids in Magic School Bus). The whole play was talking about going back in time (to diff decades) to talk about eating habits, activities and show some of the songs and dances or whatever for those different eras. In between each one, they would have the characters come out and talk about it. Here's how the play started out and one of Brooke's speaking parts, as Dorothy Ann (in the pink shirt)...
Dance from the 50's (Brooke's not in this one, but I thought I'd share for continuity sake... :P
Transition to the next scene....
Brooke's first dance, in the 60's, (she's on stage, back row, with tie dye shirt)
Then more talking about that decade, another transition, then...
Dance from the 70's, the boys dancing to Stayin Alive (so cute!)....
Repeat. More talking about that decade from the characters, more transitioning, then...
Brooke's dance from the 80's (Michael Jackson's Beat It)...so cool with the black lights and white gloves! Brooke is in the back top part of the stage...
Now, I can totally see the above video. Maybe b/c its' mine (my account?), I dunno... but I've been made aware that YouTube blocked it in some countries (namely the United States...ugh) because of Warner Bros copyright. Blech. So I still included it, just in case it works (because it was such a FUN one...the best of them all I think!), but here's a couple of still pics too cuz the video probably doesn't work for others...
The crowd both performances loved that dance. The black lights, the music, etc. It was just cool. So it sucks you can't see it. :( But anyway...
Next dance from the 90's (no Brooke this time) dancing to MC Hammer's You Can't Touch This...
Leading into the 2000's, Brooke was the photographer (how appropriate right??) before their 'dance'...
The 2000's, the basketball players...
More talking about how fun it was learning about all the different decades, etc etc... then it was time for the Grand Finale (??)...all the kids together, Brooke's part was the parachute, but the other kids were doing gymnastics, cartwheels, etc across the stage (no video of them, sorry)....
Thoroughly enjoying the show (both times!).
Again, can't say how awesome the whole program was! Thoroughly impressed. Can't wait till Brenna is in 1st grade and gets to do something this cool. Brooke is ready for things to be back to normal at school. The practices were tiring for her, but otherwise, she had a great time doing it. Maybe she'll try out for a play at the local theatre company now? Eh? ;)
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