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Children in Kabul using the masks they made

Arts in Education: Mobile Mini Circus for Children in Afghanistan has returned

Since I visited this incredible program in 2013, they were forced to shut down and seek safety when the Taliban again grew powerful and violent in the Autumn of 2022. Now, once again (as of January 2023), they have 27 teams in 11 provinces, serving children of all ages and genders, with a social circus program that also provides food and other instruction. You can learn more about them on their Facebook page (they post most often on Facebook). Support by sharing or donating if you can. — I am walking down the dirt road, my headscarf up over my

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Holly Adams warms up in her booth before starting her recording for the day

Vocal warm up techniques for audiobook narrators: Part two

I play a lot of characters and I mean a LOT. For me, getting into the mind of every kind of person is both satisfying and illuminating. I love capturing both the hero and the villain, the mom and the sword maven, the dog and the cat — you get the idea! But diving into each one of these personalities means significantly changing the way I speak for every character. Some of that is functional: because a single-narrator audiobook only has one speaker, you need a way of telling who’s who (as opposed to full cast where this is less

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Holly Adams warming up in her booth

Vocal warm up techniques for audiobook narrators: Part one

I’m not gonna lie, recording long narration (audiobooks) can be vocally brutal. A bajillion characters, lots of booth time, plus whatever else you have going on in your life, especially if you are doing outdoor shows or working with kids. Despite years in the theatre, including numerous musical theatre leads, I struggled at first with the extended booth time. Even a singing heavy show, you should only have an hour or so of vocal performance — max. I’m often doing a book a week, plus other performance work, meaning I could spend 8 or 9 hours recording on a heavy

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Summer Sling

Body in Motion, Spirit at Rest

I spent part of this past weekend attending New York Summer Sling, “a 4-day stage combat workshop sanctioned by the Society ofAmerican Fight Directors (SAFD). Classes are taught by SAFD certified fight directors and teachers from universities and theaters around the country. Class options include introductory instruction in all of our eight weapon disciplines for the stage, unique and specialized experimentation with period fighting styles, and master classes in advanced physical acting techniques” (from the Summer Sling website description). Despite an incredible lack of sleep and profound anxiety ahead of time, I had one of the most wonderful conference experiences

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Sky Chief masks, "Raven..."

Arts impacting life: 3 glimpses

These past weeks have held plentiful reminders of the horrendous things we do to each other as people and societies. In the face of large darknesses, we often forget that ignorance and intolerance are bred and cultivated in much smaller arenas long before they grow into mass malignancy. I myself have found it difficult to find anything to write about of late, and I am one of the most pragmatically action-oriented people I know. With this in mind, I have decided to devote this blog and the next to arts-based projects that are creating opportunities for connection and knowledge. The

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Boy stands in front of white board with a science lesson on it

Fourth Graders and the Magic of Theatre

(Music plays) “The Earth is a magnet. It’s the (beat) third planet from the sun. Flowing electrons and protons/come together to make things run!” The Kid Scientists and Benjamin Franklin sing valiantly through an explanation of their thinking while the storm rages and the flying kite conducts electricity down to their home-made motor. The adults watching in the seats of the professional theatre are grinning, completely enchanted as the first group of fourth-graders performs the play they wrote, with an important plot-driving song, thank you very much. I am once again at the Hangar Theatre for the Project 4 performances,

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Mobile Mini Children's Circus kid Tumbling

From Kabul: Mobile Mini Children’s Circus

Although I have returned to the United States from Afghanistan, my heart is still in a small bright classroom filled to capacity with girls — bright, ferocious, and beautiful as fireflies. I would like to focus on the Mobile Mini Children’s Circus (MMCC) itself, and the incredibly important work they do. I quote their website below, photos provided by MMCC. “The Mobile Mini-Circus for Children (MMCC) and its local partner, the Afghan Educational Children’s Circus (AECC), together form a cooperative International/Afghan non-profit organization dedicated to empowering young people. MMCC is the supervising umbrella organization under which AECC operates. Activities, however,

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Peter Sellers, from the blog Chowdaheads

The delicious math of comedy

She enters, pauses, then turns and walks stage right, and Inspector Dreyfus leaps out. She stops. “Why didn’t that work?” “You have to count to three. A full count. That was just a bit too long, and I think ‘M’ (the boy playing Dreyfus) wasn’t sure when to jump out.” “Yeah, I thought I was supposed to jump, but you were still there,” the boy adds. “So, it goes step-think-go, walk, then the upstage-right one is the second set?” The girl (‘B’) playing Inspector Clouseau tilts her head, thinking. “The first grab/miss should be just under three seconds, then three

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A small child painting on Holly

Youth Theatre for Civilians: How to help your students put on a play

I get a lot of questions from non-theatre people about how to teach theatre to kids. And I love it! It might be from a camp counselor who wants to put together a skit for the parents or a history teacher trying to get students to understand the choices of the Ancient Romans. Regardless, I have a few tricks that I always like to pass on to educators undertaking this endeavor. What background do I need as an educator? Know first that it will be difficult, similar to running a science camp without a strong background in science. Don’t make

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A christmas play with mummers in costume

How to put on a Mummers’ play

Got an event? Grab your friends, some archetypal and silly costumes, and do some mumming! What is mumming? Mumming arises out of the same tradition as sword dances, and ethnohistorians believe they both grew out of ancient agrarian societies. They have their origins in ritualized sacrifice to ensure the renewed fertility of the land and the people as well as the battle between the eternal opposites — the old and new year, winter and spring, the darkness and the light. In the past 200 hundred years, a group of Mummers might perform for members of a household, people on the

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