Fright and Suspense in Children’s Theater

I’m currently working on an original project for a children’s theater group and the question keeps coming up in my mind: How frightening can a scene be when creating for children’s theater.

Many times while talking with the seedy underbelly of society (yes, I am referring to thespians, or as Stephen Dietz says in his Dracula; “that theater crowd”), the subject will come up of our favorite scenes we remember as a child. And in that conversation eventually it will come to the scenes that frightened us the most.

I used to think this was only MY experience, that I was frightened out of my wits by things that now seem borderline comical – but I have been enlightened that my experience has been common for tens of thousands of others as well.

A LIST OF SCENES FROM CHILDRENS STORIES THAT FRIGHTENED ME AS A CHILD

  • Wizard of Oz – Anytime the Wicked Witch of the West shows up – especially the first scene when she meets Dorothy, and ESPECIALLY when she sends her flying monkeys out. I think I was five years old when I watched this for the first time (I still heckle my Mother for the fact that she would not come sit with me and protect me from the witch!)
  • Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – When that evil long nosed man in black tricks the two children into entering his candy wagon, which turns into a cage once they enter and they are rushed off to captivity.
  • In The Hall of the Mountain King – In first grade I saw a video of Grieg’s “In The Hall of the Mountain King” (which you might not know by the name, but would certainly know it once you heard it) – but they had a chorus singing the melody to “Witches in the Pumpkin Patch” and the witches danced around in a field. Very creepy. I think the adults who made it thought it was supposed to be cute – well, not to this first grader.
  • Pumpkin Head – Just the thought of Pumpkin Head brings a shiver down my spine to this day.
  • Mother Goose – We sang Mother Goose songs as kids and never thought a thing about it. It was great fun. Then one day you make the mistake of actually reading the words – EEGADS! It’s hideous.
  • A Christmas Carol – The Ghost of Christmas Future. In ANY version of the Dicken’s tale I would have to hide behind something and peek out every ten seconds or so.
  • Pinnochio – The whale didn’t scare me, but when Pinocchio gets donkey ears and all the kids turn to donkeys, then they start breying – THAT freaks me out. As a kid you don’t know it’s going to be better, you just know he’s a donkey. Even as a kid, imagining the biological process of turning into a donkey made me almost faint. Do your organs turn inside out? Yuck.
  • Snow White – When the Queen talks to the mirror, that mirror guy was very scary. When Snow White takes the apple and you’re yelling at the screen “No, don’t!” – but she does it anyway (every single time I watched it, which is upsetting she never learned). Then the henchmen take Snow White to the woods to cut out her heart? They don’t actually do it, but the Queen thinks they did and she’s ok with that. DOUBLE YUCK!
  • Fantasia – The whole thing.
  • Land of the Lost – Those darn Sleestak. They move so slow and make that creepy hissing sound, but what happens if they actually catch you? I think they put you in a web or something.
  • H.R. Pufnstuf – The opening scene before the show starts, when the happy pretty little boat turns black and scary. Then Witchie Poo was always scary. I had lots of nightmares as a kid that starred Witchie Poo – when she finally caught me I would wake up and not move for like ten minutes.
  • Sesame Street – Snuffleupagus, Snufflupugus, Snuffulupagus (different spellings). This goes under the “suspense” category. It was SO aggravating as a kid that only Big Bird could see Snufflupugus. I yelled at the screen really loud to, but to no avail.
  • The Ghost and Mr. Chicken – As a kid the organ playing in the mansion was frightening. And then to find out there was blood on the keys. Now when I watch this movie it’s very funny, but as a kid it was like going into a haunted house (which it was).
  • Fiddler on the Roof – The scene where the grandmother rises from the grave, sings a VERY scary song in that screechy spooky voice, then chases Tevya through the graveyard. I’m including it even though it’s not children’s theater, because that’s my #1 pick for a creepy scene.

    • That’s all I can think of right now. You might recognize some of these yourself and are might be saying “But that was FUNNY, he was scared of that?”

    I am very scared of heights, so I love going on rides that are very tall. I get white knuckles and can’t even speak while waiting for the ride to start. An example is the Tower of Terror at Disneyland’s California Adventure.

    “But”, you say, “I thought you said you were afraid of heights, so you mean you DON’T like going on tall rides.” No. well…I mean I don’t like it, but I DO go on them intentionally because it’s such a rush. To someone who’s not afraid of heights it’s just another ride, but to someone like me it’s something I fret about ALL DAY while at the park – and when it’s over, what a great feeling!

    There’s an exhiliration to these things once they are over. A feeling of accomplishment – you dared to do something and came out ok.

    And yes, I was the kid in swim class you laughed at because he was the last to jump off the diving board. (I’m still surprised I’m alive after that.)

    In children’s theater if there’s a happy ending to a suspenseful scene, should you let the audience know right away or leave them hanging? Is it mean to leave them hanging or part of the adrenalin ride? Fun question.

    You can fill a children’s presentation with morales and monologues on what is to be learned, but for me it’s the adrenalin moments that I remember. Looking at a mountain peak and saying “Yes, I’ve been there.” That’s a great feeling for a child.

    Notation Software – Multiple Movements

    Setting up multiple movements in a single file with notation software.

    The things you need to look for are:
    1. Measure atributes: final double bar at the end of a movement
    2. measure attributes, begin a new stqaff system
    3. measure attributes: hide cautionery clefs, key and time signaures. This will give you a clean end of movement and a new system for the next one.
    4. Attach the movement numbers as score expressions to the first measure of the movement and assign it to a staff list showing top score staff and top parts staff. That way it will show where you need it, you will just have to drag it to the centre of the page each time. This is more reliable than using a text block.
    5. Use the page layout tool to indent the first system of each movement. This will require manually dragging it in the score and parts, but it looks much clearer, especially if you begin a movement halfway down a page in the parts.
    6. Set up staff styles that have no change, except the abbreviated staff name is the same as the full staff name. You will need one for each staff, and apply it to the first measure of each movement. This will give you full instrument names on the first system of each movement.

    Using all of these makes parts much more flexible, layouts can include new movements half way down a page, repagination and changing page turns does not affect numerous files, but flows within a file, and the start of each movement is clear and easy to see.

    HSM DVD Release Party

    hsm_dvd_sleeve.jpgFrom HSM Producer Harold Paige

    Yea! It’s finally going to be here! Cast, crew and production staff are invited to a premier showing of the DVD of Theater Arts Guild’s presentation of Disney’s High School Musical.

    Cast, crew and production staff should have already received an email with the time and place of the showing – this is a private showing and not open to the public.

    Question about Ed Sullivan Adagio Acrobatic Trio

    I received this question via email from a reader. Having no idea what the answer is I’m posting it in case someone else knows.

    ****************

    Could you please tell me if you could find out the name of an adagio acrobatic trio that appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show?

    It definitely was not The Bal Caron Trio or The andrea dancers, or the Keoni Dancers or The Saddri Dancers or The Three Wiles or Trio Gypsys. or The Dior Dancers. It was the best adagio act I had ever seen.

    It consisted of Two six ft tall men wearing regular black tuxedos and shiny black patent leather dress shoes that tied. The girl was a tiny petite blonde haired girl she wore a black bathing suit outfit with black ballet slippers she must have been a
    tiny double jointed contortionist because she was just like rubber. One man circled her around his waist like she was his belt or tuxedo cummerbun wrapped around his waist as her body was facing outward wrapped around his waist tightly and he spun around and around in fast circles while she was wrapped around his waist like a belt or tuxedo cummerbund.

    Both men took his turn of doing different acrobatic lifts and spins to her one man used her as a single jumprope and her jumped over her body several times while he was holding onto her two ankles in one hand and in his other hand he
    held onto her two wrists and she was in a horizontal position like a real jumprope and her brought her body up and down and around and jumped over her like a jumprope.

    One man put her body across his shoulder like the letter T and spun around and around in circles  then she locked her feet
    around the other man’s neck and hung upside down on the front of him as he spun her around and they did other adagio lifts and spins and balancing to her even both men used her body as a double jumprope too.

    It also was not the three Cottas either In 1951 the trio Hurricanes were on the Ed Sullivan Show maybe it could be them or there was another act called Kay, katchas, and Kay see if it was them or The Hermanos Williams trio or see if you can find out what the name of their act was.

    The great trio I saw danced to the music of The Can Can or The Sabre Dance song please find out and email me back soon as I will be looking forward to hearing from you soon. Thanks.

    Wayne

    *******************

    If you have any knowledge about this, please post a note here on the blog. Thank you!

    May 27

    birthday-cake.gif

    Today is the 100th anniversary of the Bubonic plague outbreak in San Francisco, California.

    Today is the anniversary of the jukeobox (so I am told).

    And today is my birthday.

    Gratulerer med dagen!

    Grattis pŒ fšdelsedagen

    Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag

    Events on May 27th

    1120 – Richard III of Capua anointed as prince a fortnight before his untimely death.
    1153 – Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland.
    1328 – Philip VI is crowned King of France.
    1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg.
    1812 – South American Wars of Independence: In Bolivia, the battle of La Coronilla, in which the women from Cochabamba fought against the Spanish army.
    1813 – War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George.
    1849 – The Great Hall of Euston station, London opened.
    1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian Unification.
    1883 – Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia.
    1895 – Oscar Wilde is sent to prison for sodomy.
    1896 – The F4-strength St. Louis-East St. Louis Tornado hits in St. Louis, Missouri and East Saint Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and incurring $2.9 billion in damages (1997USD).
    1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins.
    1907 – A Bubonic plague outbreak begins in San Francisco, California.
    1919 – The NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight.
    1927 – The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacturing the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make Ford Model A’s.
    1930 – The 1,046 feet (319 meters) tall Chrysler Building in New York (tallest man-made structure at the time) opens to the public.
    1933 – New Deal: The U.S. Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
    1933 – The Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon The Three Little Pigs, with its hit song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”
    1933 – The Century of Progress World’s Fair opens in Chicago.
    1935 – New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in the case A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495).
    1937 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County.
    1939 – DC Comics publishes its second superhero in Detective Comics #27; he is Batman, one of the most topical comic book superheroes of all time.
    1940 – World War II: 97 out of 99 members of a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are massacred while trying to surrender at Dunkirk. The German commander, Captain Fritz Knoechlein, is eventually hanged for war crimes.
    1941 – World War II: U.S. President Roosevelt proclaims an “unlimited national emergency”.
    1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing 2,300 men.
    1942 – World War II: Operation Anthropoid – assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.
    1957 – Toronto’s 1050 CHUM AM becomes Canada’s first radio station to only broadcast top 40 Rock n’ Roll music format.
    1960 – In Turkey, a military coup removed President Celal Bayar and the rest of the democratic government from office.
    1963 – Folk music singer Bob Dylan releases The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan album, which features “Blowin’ in the Wind” and several other of his best-known songs.
    1964 – Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru dies in office.
    1965 – Vietnam War: United States warships begin bombardments of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam for the first time.
    1967 – Australians vote in favour of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians, and to count them in the national census.
    1967 – The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) is christened by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline.
    1968 – the meeting of the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France (national Union of the students of France), most outstanding of the events of May 1968, proceeds and gathers 30.000 to 50.000 people in the Stade Sebastien Charlety.
    1971 – The Dahlerau train disaster, the worst railway accident in West Germany, kills 46 people and injures 25 near Wuppertal.
    1977 – An Aeroflot plane crashes, killing 69 people.
    1980 – The Gwangju Massacre: airborne and army troops of South Korea retake the city of Gwangju from civil militias, killing at least 207 and possibly many more.
    1994 – The Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn returns to his native Russia after 20 years of exile in the United States.
    1995 – In Charlottesville, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.
    1996 – First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire in the war.
    1997 – The F5-strength Jarrell Tornado slams into the small town of Jarrell, Texas, killing 27 people.
    1997 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Paula Jones can pursue her sex harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton while he is in office.
    1998 – Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
    1999 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan MiloÅ¡ević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.
    2006 – The May 2006 Java earthquake strikes at 5:53:58 AM local time (22:53:58 UTC May 26) devastating Bantul and the city of Yogyakarta killing over 6,600 people.

    Births

    1332 – Ibn Khaldun, Arab historian (d. 1406)
    1519 – Girolamo Mei, Italian historian (d. 1594)
    1576 – Caspar Schoppe, German scholar (d. 1649)
    1601 – Antoine Daniel, Jesuit missionary and martyr (d. 1648)
    1623 – William Petty, English scientist and philosopher (d. 1687)
    1626 – William II, Prince of Orange (d. 1650)
    1651 – Louis-Antoine, Cardinal de Noailles, French cardinal (d. 1729)
    1652 РLiselotte von der Pfalz, Duchess of Orl̩ans (d. 1722)
    1738 – Nathaniel Gorham, American politician (d. 1796)
    1756 – King Maximilian I of Bavaria (d. 1825)
    1794 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (d. 1877)
    1818 – Amelia Bloomer, American suffragette (d. 1894)
    1819 – Julia Ward Howe, American composer (d. 1910)
    1827 – Samuel F. Miller, American politician (d. 1892)
    1836 – Jay Gould, American financier (d. 1892)
    1837 – Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter (d. 1876)
    1837 – Ivan Kramskoi, Russian painter (d. 1887)
    1864 – Ante Trumbić, Croatian politician (d. 1938)
    1867 – Arnold Bennett, British novelist (d. 1931)
    1871 – Georges Rouault, French painter and graphic artist (d. 1958)
    1876 – Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Polish writer (d. 1945)
    1879 – Hans Lammers, German SS officer (d. 1962)
    1884 – Max Brod, Austrian author (d. 1968)
    1888 – Louis Durey, French composer (d. 1979)
    1891 – Claude Champagne, French Canadian composer (d. 1965)
    1893 РHermann D̦rnemann German WW1 veteran and supercenetarian (d. 2005)
    1894 РLouis-Ferdinand C̩line, French writer (d. 1961)
    1894 – Dashiell Hammett, American author (d. 1961)
    1897 – John Cockcroft, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
    1900 – UÅ‚adzimir Zylka, Belarusian poet (d. 1933)
    1904 – Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (d. 1997)
    1907 – Rachel Carson, American biologist and science writer (d. 1964)
    1911 – Hubert H. Humphrey, Vice President of the United States (d. 1978)
    1911 – Teddy Kollek, Austrian-born mayor of Jerusalem (d. 2007)
    1911 – Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)
    1912 – John Cheever, American author (d. 1982)
    1912 – Sam Snead, American golfer (d. 2002)
    1912 – Terry Moore, baseball player (d. 1995)
    1913 – Wols, German painter (d. 1951)
    1915 – Herman Wouk, American writer
    1918 – Yasuhiro Nakasone, Prime Minister of Japan
    1921 – Caryl Chessman, American robber and rapist (d. 1960)
    1922 – Christopher Lee, English actor
    1923 – Henry Kissinger, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
    1923 – Sumner Redstone, American entrepreneur
    1925 – Tony Hillerman, American writer
    1930 – John Barth, American novelist
    1930 – William S. Sessions, American director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
    1933 – Ted Rogers, Canadian entrepreneur
    1934 – Harlan Ellison, American author
    1935 – Lee Meriwether, Miss America and actress
    1935 – Ramsey Lewis, American pianist
    1935 – Mal Evans, British Beatles assistant (d. 1976)
    1936 – Louis Gossett Jr., American actor
    1936 – Marcel Masse, Canadian politician
    1937 – Allan Carr, American film producer and writer (d. 1999)
    1939 – Socratis Kokkalis, Greek businessman, owner of Olympiacos
    1943 – Cilla Black, English singer and presenter
    1943 – Bruce Weitz, American actor
    1944 – Alain Souchon, French singer and songwriter
    1945 – Bruce Cockburn, Canadian musician
    1946 – Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Danish musician (d. 2005)
    1947 – Branko Oblak, Slovenian footballer
    1948 – Wubbo de Boer, Dutch civil servant
    1951 РAna Bel̩n, Spanish singer and actress
    1955 – Richard Schiff, American actor
    1955 – Eric Bischoff, American professional wrestling promoter
    1957 – Siouxsie Sioux, English musician (Siouxsie and the Banshees )
    1958 – Neil Finn, New Zealand singer and songwriter
    1958 – Linnea Quigley, American actress
    1961 – Peri Gilpin, American actress
    1962 – Ray Borner, Australian basketball player
    1964 – Adam Carolla, American comedian, radio and television personality
    1967 – Paul Gascoigne, British footballer
    1968 – Jeff Bagwell, American baseball player
    1968 – Frank Thomas, American baseball player
    1970 – Tim Farron, British politician
    1970 – Joseph Fiennes, English actor
    1970 – Michele Bartoli, Italian cyclist
    1971 – Paul Bettany, English actor
    1971 – Kaur Kender, Estonian author
    1971 – Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, American singer (d. 2002)
    1971 – Glenn Ross, Northern Irish strongman
    1971 – Monika Schnarre, Canadian model
    1972 – Ivete Sangalo, Brazilian singer
    1974 – Derek Webb, American singer and songwriter (Caedmon’s Call)
    1974 – Danny Wuerffel, American football player
    1975 РAndr̩ 3000, American musician (OutKast)
    1975 – Jadakiss, American rapper (The Lox)
    1975 – Jamie Oliver, British chef and television personality
    1975 – Michael Hussey, Australian cricket player
    1977 – Abderrahmane Hammad, Algerian athlete
    1977 – Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lankan cricketer
    1979 – Mile Sterjovski, Australian footballer
    1981 – Marcos Miloy, Angolan footballer
    1981 – Özgür Çevik, Turkish singer and actor
    1983 – Bobby Convey, American soccer player
    1984 – Kalle Spjuth, Swedish bandy player
    1985 – Chien-Ming Chiang, Taiwanese baseball player

    Deaths

    366 – Procopius, Roman usurper (b. 326)
    735 – Bede, English historian and theologian (b. 672 or 673)
    866 РOrdo̱o I of Asturias, King of Asturias (b. 831)
    927 – Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria (b. 864 or 865)
    1039 – Dirk III, Count of Holland
    1444 – John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, English military leader (b. 1404)
    1508 – Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1452)
    1525 – Thomas Muentzer, German rebel leader
    1541 – Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury (b. 1473)
    1564 – John Calvin, French religious reformer (b. 1509)
    1610 РFran̤ois Ravaillac, French assassin of Henry IV of France (b. 1578)
    1615 – Marguerite de Valois, queen of Henry IV of France (b. 1553)
    1661 – Archibald Campbell, Scottish religious dissident (b. 1607)
    1675 – Gaspard Dughet, French painter (b. 1613)
    1690 – Giovanni Legrenzi, Italian composer (b. 1626)
    1702 – Dominique Bouhours, French critic (b. 1628)
    1707 – Marquise de Montespan, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (b. 1641)
    1781 – Giovanni Battista Beccaria, Italian physicist (b. 1716)
    1797 – François-Noël Babeuf, French revolutionary and early socialist (b. 1760)
    1831 – Jedediah Smith, American explorer (b. 1799)
    1840 – Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1782)
    1896 – Aleksandr Grigorievich Stoletov, Russian physicist (b. 1839)
    1910 – Robert Koch, German physician, Nobel laureate (b. 1843)
    1919 – Kandukuri Veeresalingam Social Reformer of Andhra Pradesh, India (b. 1848)
    1926 – Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian poet (b. 1904)
    1947 – Ed Konetchy, American baseball player (b. 1885)
    1949 – Robert Ripley, American cartoonist (Ripley’s Believe It or Not!) (b. 1890)
    1953 – Jesse Burkett, American baseball player (b. 1868)
    1960 – James Montgomery Flagg, American illustrator (b. 1877)
    1964 – Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian politician (b. 1889)
    1963 – Gregoris Lambrakis, Greek physician and politician (b. 1912)
    1967 – Ernst Niekisch, German politician (b. 1889)
    1969 – Jeffrey Hunter, American actor (b. 1926)
    1986 – Isma’il Raji’ al-Faruqi, Palestinian-born philosopher and scholar (b. 1921)
    1987 – John Howard Northrop, American chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1891)
    1989 – Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet (b. 1907)
    1990 – Robert B. Meyner, American politician (b. 1908)
    1991 – Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (b. 1904)
    1992 – Uncle Charlie Osborne, American fiddler (b. 1890)
    1993 – Mary Philbin, American actress (b. 1903)
    1993 – Werner Stocker, German actor (b. 1955)
    2000 – Crawford Murray MacLehose of Beoch, British Governor of Hong Kong (b. 1917)
    2000 – Maurice Richard, Canadian hockey player (b. 1921)
    2001 – Ramon Bieri, American actor (b. 1929)
    2003 – Luciano Berio, Italian composer (b. 1925)
    2006 – Craig Heyward, American football player (b. 1966)
    2006 – Paul Gleason, American actor (b. 1939)
    2006 – Alex Toth, American cartoonist (b. 1928)
    2006 – Rob Borsellino, American columnist (b. 1949)

    Holidays and Observances

    Lag Ba’omer in Judaism (2005)
    Feast day of the following saints in the Christian Church:
    o Augustine of Canterbury
    o Venerable Bede
    o Saint Julius the Veteran
    o Pope John I
    o Hildebert
    o Bruno, Bishop of Würzburg
    o Eutropius
    Mother’s Day in Bolivia (Día de la Madre) and Sweden (Mors Dag)
    Children’s Day in Nigeria