December 9, 2011

"Three cheers for parents" is the final sentence cheered by the grade 5 students who performed the play Kids and Parents today. In the end, they realized that their parents were not be as strict as they thought after all.

The student-written play examined overly-strict parents in famous fairytales and contrasted them with parenting styles today. The Sacandaga students mentioned how hard it was to live with parents who make them clean up their rooms, make their beds, eat vegetables and gets As and Bs in school.

Students in Jeannine Dowdle's grade 5 reading class put on two 20-minute performances of the play today. The performance examined scenes in Jack and the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel, Swiss Family Robinson and Peter Pan. Adults in those fairy tales are very strict with children as they face difficult and overwhelming obstacles, like getting off of an island or climbing a huge stalk to the sky.

Between scenes, the audience was kept on track by a student who walked across the stage with a sign that may read "Bobby's Messy Room," "Back to the Clubhouse" or "A deserted island."

 Today's cast included these students, many of whom plays several parts: Nick Benedetto, Liam Burke, Mari Calderon, Amy Fuller, Sara King, Molly Malone, Emily McCarthy, Lauren Mehigan, Colin Normington, Tom Omicinski, Marcus Paone, Nathan Phillips, Rachel Rankin, Carrington Sanders, Clare Scott, Sam Whitehead and Kaitlyn Wilson.

Below are a few scenes from today's 9:30 a.m. performance. Click on the photo to enlarge it: