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By Todd D. Norris, Director of Interpretation
Many of us have had this experience: we go to a conference that is supposed to energize and educate us to shake us out of our stale work routines. We attend sessions, meet interesting people, and then we return home. When we reflect on the experience, we say, “Well, that was nice, but I don’t really think that I can carry much of that into my particular situation.” What an absolute treat, then, when our Early Childhood Specialist, Stephanie Eddleman, reported on a conference she attended on Theatre for the Very Young, and we realized that we could, indeed, use what she learned to tap into an area that we hadn’t really explored.
An Idea Emerges
Working with both Stephanie and our Director of School Programs and Early Childhood Education, Cathy Southerland, I developed an outline for a script that would allow us to create a pilot show for our youngest guests and their families. We wanted a topic that would be simple and clear, but that would allow for multiple sensory experiences. After a satisfying brainstorming session, we agreed on the idea of a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly.
The outline included six scenes:
- Waking at daybreak
- Eating food
- Becoming a chrysalis
- Emerging with wings
- Taking flight
- Sleeping at sunset
Then, with input and revisions from Stephanie and Cathy, I added sensory elements to the moments, including moving colored lights, scented props, shimmering multi-colored fabric, beautiful imagery, and lush new age music that all combined to give the audience things to see, actions to do, foods to smell, sounds to hear, and most importantly, plenty of opportunities for the families to interact during the show.
Bringing "Caterpillar Butterfly" to Life
Using ideas from the conference, we sat the entire audience directly on the stage, both to emphasize the intimate, up-close nature of the experience and also to encourage the grown-up caterpillars to help and play along with their little caterpillars. The two actors for the piece, Patrick Mullen and Frankie Bolda, had a unique challenge to meet: They were handed an outlined script with dialogue that represented the “formal” acting of the piece, but then they both had to develop the “rehearsed improvisational” dialogue and blocking that they would use to actually interact with their live, unrehearsed, but very enthusiastic, audience. Through repetition, trial and error, and drawing on experience from other programs, the actors developed a repertoire of different lines, blocking, movements, and reactions that connected the formal dialogue in the scenes and (hopefully) prepared them for anything that the audience would give them.
A few weeks before we debuted, the staff of the Lilly Theater had gone above and beyond (as they always do) to translate the scenic ideas in the script to fully realized atmospheric elements. Krista Layfield and Brent Winderlich designed and realized scented fake foods, gloriously beautiful shimmering butterfly wings and chrysalises, magical moving colored lights, and a rich soundscape that made the actors’ jobs easier.
Taking Flight with the Preschool
Taking Flight with the PreschoolBut we were still missing a vital component—proof of concept. The week before opening, we recruited some rehearsal audiences to react to the actors and the environment, and that proved to be incredibly valuable. Granted, these were adults pretending to be preschool-age families, but certainly better than performing to nothing!
In mid-April, we finally performed two shows for our own preschool classes and their adults, and one show for our general public. Each time, for 15 minutes, entire families willingly became caterpillars wriggling around, chrysalises transforming, and butterflies flitting about the fields. It was gratifying to see both the preschool and the public audiences follow the cues and instructions from the actors, the adult caterpillars helping and playing with their young caterpillars, and everyone performing as if they had been at all our rehearsals with us!
This was a most successful trial run, and so we look forward not only to offering Caterpillar Butterfly again this Fall for additional performances, but to developing and presenting more immersive shows for our youngest guests and their families. Check our online calendar for what’s coming up next in the Lilly Theater, and join us. You might just wind up as part of the show!
