The Play

You know the summer is winding down when you decide to direct a readers theater with your children and the neighborhood kids. To have an authentic purpose, I contacted the local retirement village to ask if we could be put on their activities and entertainment calendar. Good news, they had room!

The play was called The Wind and the Sun. Basically the Wind, played by our neighbor Kyle (age 8) and the Sun, played by neighbor Ingrid (age 6) were competing to see who could get the traveler, played by Sam, to take off his coat first. Laura was the narrator.

When we arrived Sam started to get stage fright and told me multiple times that he no longer wanted to be in the play. I'm sure wearing a coat, hat and gloves for his role on a 90 degree day didn't help. I reminded him that the play wouldn't make any sense if he dropped out at the last minute. Reluctantly he put on his blue fleece jacket and his reindeer hat and mittens and joined the other kids. Sam's line of, "It's getting warm in here." was said in a whisper, but it was very believable.

The residents were delighted and were very grateful for their performance. The visit made me think of Sam and Laura's great grand-parents and how many of them were living in a home like the one we visited at the end of their lives. I know if they were there they would have been in the front row cheering them on. Who knows, maybe they were there...

Even though the play was short, nobody could probably hear, and Sam didn't totally participate, the energy in the room was very much alive and vibrant. To them this was better than Broadway.

The Cast

After the play, the kids read a book aloud to the residents.

Kyle read a book that he wrote.

Showing the pictures.

Ingrid's sure to point out details the illustrator included.

Sam was bored to tears.

My cup runneth over.