Home Drama Stage Plays

Pic: Nonqaba waka Msimang

Kids enjoy the not-so-ordinary, so they will love moving furniture around, to make a home stage for the play you wrote about six feet distancing at the grocery store. They always see it on the floor, marked with the red, green or black tape .

Everybody has a part to play so you will print the script and give them copies. What a pity you don’t have clipboards. Preparations for the home drama might involve covering windows with black cloth for the make-shift stage. That will excite even sulking teenagers. Do they ever smile? Never mind.

Photo: Nonqaba waka Msimang

Drama is storytelling and storytelling is about life. Your kids will grow up and run their own businesses or work in corporate Canada and U.S. They will be expected to tell stories i.e. make presentations before investors, management, workshops or conferences. Some will become fashion models, win beauty contests like Miss Anonymous, become famous actresses and be labeled ‘celebrities’.

Everybody is at home these days, so drama could pep things up. You will write the first few home plays, but they will write subsequent ones using your computer and printer. Say, ‘any story ideas for next week’s play?’

REHEARSAL
Tell them that stage plays at the London West End, Broadway or Market Theatre in Johannesburg need the following, before a play opens to the public: a script, actors, director, stage manager, costumes, lighting, music director, sound people, make-up artists, costumes etc.

It might look like a lot of fun to kids, but it’s about responsibility. Who does what, when and how. That is what work is all about.

Stage Management
What room can you turn into a stage? Where will you get chairs and where do you put them? Where will you put lights? This is a challenge in an apartment or flat, and easier in a double-storey house because the ‘audience’ can sit on the stairs. The director must also decide which side actors enter and exit the stage.

Costumes
This is the fun part because it means raiding the basement to find old clothes. Many families keep clothes in suitcases and boxes because they don’t have basements.

If you don’t have appropriate clothes be creative. Someone is playing a nun? Go to the art store and buy black and white wrapping paper and make a nun’s habit.

Very Young Kids

Three and five-year old kids cannot be left out. They love responsibility.

1. They can be ushers when grandparents come for the opening of the play.

2. They can introduce the play, “Welcome to the Sun family. Today’s play is Six Feet, not underground, but social distancing.” They must memorize their lines, like actors.

3. They can thank the audience after the play.

4. They can serve food afterwards.

Kids will learn valuable skills while waiting for the solution to COVID-19.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.