Sidney Glen Elementary prepares for 'Frankenstein' play
By JUSTINE FREDERIKSEN
Port Orchard Independent Staff Writer
Nov 11 2008
There’s less glory, but just as much passion, in doing the work backstage.
There were no latte stands in Dr. Frankenstein’s day. Then again, who really knows? Maybe too much caffeine was the cause of his monster’s super-human strength and violent rages.
At any rate, Cheryl Marshall decided that the village she is creating for Sidney Glen Elementary School’s performance of “Frankenstein” will have one front and center.
“It’s artistic license,” said Marshall, a teacher who has helped create scenes for the school’s plays for at least 10 years. “I try to put in little touches the audience will like.”
Wednesday after school, Marshall, several students and two parent volunteers were busy painting the village she envisioned, with the help of a children’s book showing buildings of the time.
Lark Church, the mother of fourth-grader Dylan Church, carefully copied the diamond patterns on the windows in the book as her son used a sponge to dab on cobblestones with fellow fourth-grader Ryan Green.
Church, who moved to South Kitsap from Southern California after getting married, said there are few areas of theater productions she hasn’t dabbled in, and volunteering with Sidney Glen’s productions was one way she could stay involved.
“I love the theater,” she said, while admitting that painting sets wasn’t exactly where her talents lie. The “resident artist,” she said, was fellow volunteer Mike Harris.
“I am a freelance artist,” said Harris, who runs a handyman business as his day job. Frankenstein is the second production he has helped put on at Sidney Glen, where he said his two nieces attend school. “I moved up here to spend more time with them.”
As for Marshall, she said she got involved with the theater productions after spotting fellow teacher Scott Hopkins struggling to create a set piece with some students years ago.
“I knew then I had to help,” she said, and after her first attempt, “Scott said, ‚ÄòYou’re hired.’” And she’s helped create the sets ever since.
“We are the art department,” Marshall said of the group scattered across the gym Wednesday, most of the kids lying on their stomachs as they carefully stenciled letters to create Dr. Frankenstein’s periodic table of the elements. Which, of course, had some extra touches sprinkled in. “We’re working in ‚ÄòFe, Fi, Fo, Fum’ somewhere, too.”
Marshall said they put every student who signs up to work, and at first had 30 kids helping out. Many of those have since stopped coming, she said, but the large turnout helped them get a jump on this year’s sets.
“We’ll have finished them in only two months, which is great,” she said. “Normally it takes twice as long.”
Another change this year that Marshall was excited about was that South Kitsap High School’s drama department was going to help hang the sets, then pull them up and down during the performance.
“So we just get to watch this year ‚Äî I’m so excited,” she said, explaining that last year the volunteers had to display and change the sets by huddling backstage with flashlights and “these really hokey things to hold them up.”
Marshall also credited the school’s principal and Parent Teacher Association with giving the volunteers and students the support they needed.
“I give the PTA a list of things we need, and they buy it,” she said. “They’re wonderful.”
The school will perform Frankenstein at SKHS Jan. 15 and 16 at 7 p.m.
Port Orchard Independent Staff Writer Justine Frederiksen can be reached at jfrederiksen@portorchardindependent.com or (360) 876-4414.- Civil
- Smart
- On-topic
- Free of profanity
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