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This blog reports events and interesting tidbits from Rensselaer, Indiana and the surrounding area.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Wind in the Willows
On Thursday and Friday the Fendig Summer Theater for Children presented The Wind in the Willows at the RCHS Auditorium. The play was based on a century-old British classic of child's literature. A mole decides to see the world, meets up with a water rat, and encounters a wealthy, eccentric toad who is obsessed with driving but constantly crashes his automobiles. As always with the Summer Theater, the sets were entertaining. A lot of work goes into their construction.
Toad ends up in a human court where he is convicted and jailed. However, he escapes by conning the gullible daughter of the jailer and returns to his old neighborhood. Shortly before he is discovered by Rat and Mole, Mother Nature presides over the cast singing about wind in the willows.
Every play needs conflict, and the punk weasels provide the heavies in this play. They have moved into Toad's house while he was in prison. Led by wise, old Badger, the forest animals fight to oust the weasels, but all ends in friendship, peace, and harmony. Love conquers all.
It is always amazing to see how well these kids, the oldest of whom will be high school freshmen this fall, do in these productions. This year they probably learned a bit of vocabulary--there were a lot of words in the play that most high schools do not use.
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3 comments:
I have always thought that if the kids get nothing else from many of these productions, they have significantly increased their vocabulary. Pirates of Penzance was another show that stretched their vocabulary as well. It seems the British shows are always good teaching tools.
Your photos are wonderful. You had good seats. It was a very, very nice production of a children's story.
Jim, I was the director of Fendig's "Pirates" and we frequently sent the kids home from practice with assignments that had something to do with terminology or vocabulary from the script. We then had to RUSH home and find the answers to verify that the kids were right with their responses at the following practice! :)
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