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General News: The American Dream Onstage
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| The kids were talking about history at the start of the show. |
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| Christopher Columbus faces off with a Norseman and a Native American. |
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| The colonists sing and dance to show their displeasure with England. |
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| There is plenty of singing and dancing as Americans head west. Photo by Karen Kaiser-Sharp. |
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| The civil war soldiers pose in front of the American flag. Photo by Karen Kaiser-Sharp. |
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| Director Ann Shatto and her assistant Rose Tommasi. |
January 21, 2011
The history of the United States comes alive on the stage of Cornwall Central High School this weekend in the lively musical The American Dream by Roger Emerson and John Jacobson, which is staged by the Cornwall Elementary School PTO Drama Club.
With 100 children in grades one through four on the stage, either in leading roles or in the marvelously choreographed group numbers, The American Dream will entertain you and teach a bit of a history lesson as well.
The play begins with three children in the modern day, one of whom says he is bored. His friend asks how he can be bored when there are so many historic sites in the area to visit. He recounts a recent dream about Christopher Columbus – and the next thing the audience knows, they are seeing this dream world.
Who Discovered America? Not Columbus, It Seems
In this dream world, Christopher Columbus takes credit for discovering America but a Norseman arrives who reminds him that he was in North America hundreds of years earlier. Then a Native American talks about her ancestors who, 10,000 years ago, walked to America across what is now the Bering Strait.
Within moments other explorers arrive to talk about their contributions to America – John Cabot, Ferdinand Magellan and Amerigo Vespucci among them – and the stage fills up with everyone performing the “Explorer’s Rap.”
From Pilgrims to Independence
The Pilgrims arrive in the next scene, where they sit outside a church until they burst into a new song, “We Call It America.” The treatment of the Native Americans who were pushed off their land is noted as the story hits the high notes of colonial history. The colonists soon have independence on their minds and in the song “Gonna Be A Revolution,” they show they are ready to stand up to England.
From the American Revolution, the student actors re-enact the founding of the new country and its expansion west in the gold rush and by homesteaders who carved farms and fields from the wilderness. The play then takes on what has been perhaps the nation’s biggest challenge, the Civil War.
Older Students Volunteer on Stage Crew
The production is directed and choreographed by Ann Shatto, with musical direction by Karen Snider and light & sound by Tony Ravinsky and Kevin Franca. Dorothy Henry oversaw the creation of costumes, sets and props and Drama Club chairpersons Rhonda Growny and Maura Franke took charge of innumerable production jobs.
The stage crew included graduates of the Cornwall Elementary School drama club who have gone on to stay involved with theater at the middle and high schools.
On Friday morning, when another snowfall closed schools in Cornwall for the third time in a week, all of the children and their parents wondered if the dress rehearsal (which is open to the public for a nominal fee of $1) would go on as planned on Friday night at 7 pm. By mid-day they were given permission and invite the public to join them tonight (Friday) and Saturday at 7 pm or on Sunday at 1 pm at the Cornwall high school for this year’s rousing production of The American Dream! Click here for more information about tickets.
Comments:
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Nice to see that US History is being portrayed a little more realistically these days, even in school productions such as this.
Kudos to Ms. Shatto and Tommasi.
posted by Ted Warren on 01/27/11 at 3:07 PM
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