Date: Fri 14-Aug-1998
Date: Fri 14-Aug-1998
Publication: Bee
Author: MICHEL
Quick Words:
education-SMART-the-Egg
Full Text:
Sci-Fi Comes To Sandy Hook In "The Egg"
(with photos)
BY MICHELE HOGAN
Originating as an improvisation, the one-act play The Egg combines humor with
intrigue, as squabbling and bumbling Earthlings take a most precious egg from
the good planet Oospore.
The egg contains the new leader of the planet Oospore, so the people of
Oospore are naturally upset to find it missing. Not expecting crime of any
kind, the Keepers of the Egg left the egg unguarded during the ten months
prior to hatching.
But now that it is missing, the Keepers of the Egg quickly search for clues,
and they find a human footprint.
So it's off to Earth they go, where they find bumbling scientists Professor
Thick (Caitlin Dalton) and Professor Dense (Nikki Tarshis) playing around with
the egg.
Thinking quickly, the Keepers of the Egg hide under a neutron paralyzer
disguise, designed to scare the scientists. They rescue the amazingly
still-intact egg, and return to Oospore just in time for the hatching.
The Great Ruler (Nicholas Luzzi) emerges light-hearted, well-jostled, and
immediately declares a holiday, so the people celebrate with song and dance
reverberating throughout the land.
The performance was spellbinding. The ten budding actors and actresses did
much more than simply learn their lines in this intensive play production.
Dana Sachs, instructor, said that the ten actors and actresses brought
creativity to character development, and wouldn't settle for bland roles.
There was one character, a rather stiff unbending character called "Mission
Control," that nobody wanted.
As one fifth grade girl put it: "I want a character I can develop." In
response, Dana assigned the unwanted part to one of the two high school
interns, and re-wrote the play with three astronauts instead of two.
Unlike "Mission Control," the highly spontaneous, at times, rather prickly
astronauts offered amply room for personal expression and let all the actors
and actresses shine.
The fourth to seventh grade students also worked out set design, costumes, and
even re-wrote lines of the nine-scene play themselves.
This is one of over a dozen programs offered during July at Sandy Hook School.
