Monday, August 07, 2006

playback and the legend of the bitter gourd (ampalaya)

how do we fuse storytelling for children and playback theater?

last july 30, i was privileged to be asked to tell a story to the children of montalban, rizal. i chose the legend of the bitter gourd (ampalaya) beacuase kids are very much familiar with the "ampalaya". i first brought out my "bayong" basket of vegetables. i showed them the vegetables one by one and asked them to mention the name as i bring them out of the "bayong". then, i started the storytelling. i shifted from one voice to another to give them the feel of the different characters. i finished the whole story in about 20 minutes.

i asked the kids the lesson they learned from the story. i also asked them if they want to see the story on stage, they all agreed. i asked 7 kids from the audience to go up the stage, pick a color that they want from the cloth tree to represent the vegetable they want to portray. we chose the part where the envoius "ampalaya" took all the colors and taste of the other vegetables. one of them played the role of "ampalaya" and got the white cloth to represent colorlesness and tastelessness of the character. while the others wrapped their bodies with the colored cloths that they chose and pretended to be the vegetables that they want. the kids were at their best in playing back the scene. they walked and paraded around the stage, sat down and pretended to sleep. that was the time when "ampalaya" attacked and got all the colored clothes of the other vegetables. the kid playing the role of "ampalaya" wrapped her body with all the clothes that she got and walked around. the kids stood up at all went laughing when they saw the "ampalaya" dressed up with different colors. they had experienced indeed the story while they were playing it back (the legend). for the kids who performed, a more complete experience than by just sitiing down. the audience applauded the in affirmation of the playback performance

we, specially the kids enjoyed playing back the story of "ampalaya".

i ended up the session and promised them that more storytelling and playback theater performance will come soon.

life is beautiful with playback, let's watch!