Full Text:

Three Cheers For America (performance at Head O'Meadow)

(with photos)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

Head O' Meadow School students in grades three through five were treated to a

performance of Three Cheers for America by the Pushcart Players, a theatrical

group from New Jersey.

Three Cheers for America takes a loving look at a small group of immigrants

who came to this country in 1901 seeking freedom, and follows their

involvement with, and reaction to, major events in American history.

The first stop for the new immigrants was Ellis Island where they were

questioned by an immigration officer.

"Do you have a job? Do you have a place to live?" The audience clearly

approved when Emma Poplanski's upbeat reply, "I will look! I will find!" was

enough to gain her entry to the United States of America.

After the performance, Dan Tavella, third grade student at Head O' Meadow

School, commented that it would be important to ask a new immigrant "if you'd

be willing to get a job; so you can buy food; so you won't die of hunger."

Katie Datin, also in third grade, thought the question "Do you have any

money?" would cover it. What if they said no? Katie says, "I'd still let them

in. I'm a nice person. But I'd say you have to get money soon!"

The immigrants found that getting money during the Industrial Revolution meant

hard work under intolerable working conditions. Tony, one of the actors,

laments, "So what if my family forgot what I look like? So what if I only see

my son when he sleeps... why should I complain?" Tony then responds to the

exploitation of factory workers by organizing a union.

In the next scene, set in the 1920s, the audience felt the unbridled

enthusiasm for the first telephone, the early automobile, the radio, electric

brooms and lights, as a new era of technology was heralded as the solution to

the world's woes.

The meaning of the Depression was brought home when Tony lost his job and the

bank closed.

Similarly the young audience learned about FDR and the New Deal, eras of war

and peace, and the recurring struggle for human rights and civil liberties,

all with a personal touch, and within a one-hour period.

The performance comes with a study guide, providing teachers and students with

many extensions for learning particularly in social studies, language arts and

drama.

The music for Three Cheers , a combination of America folk songs and original

scores, reflects the spirit and mood of our country from 1900 to the 1960s.

Three Cheers for America has also been performed in Russia and is one of three

Pushcart Players plays performed by Terrence Burnett, Harry Christian,

Roseanna Consalvo and Angela Ventura. The other two plays, Dear America and

The Last Butterfly , have themes related to the Holocaust.