Our Class Play

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At the end of the school year, my class put on Yuuki and the Tsunami, a folktake from Japan. It was our culminating activity to a mini unit all about Japan. At first, I had meant it to be a small deal: half the class performing for the other half before switching. But parents started to ask if they were invited...and other teacher's heard about it and wanted to bring their classes to watch too. In the end...our little class play turned into quite the production...

We spent hours on the set and so I want to show it off. There were students assigned to the set crew who did most of the painting and props. Above, is Yuuki's hut. Andrew was kind enough to use his skills and fashion a sturdy roof for it.

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Our tree made out of cardboard boxes and butcher paper. The kids each made a Japanese lantern that was used somewhere on the set.

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I love how the backdrop turned out. I drew it out in pencil, the set crew painted it, and then I outlined it in black to help it POP.
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At one point in the play, Yuuki takes a torch from the fire pit in order to set fire to the village...in order to save everyone from the tsunami!
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When Yuuki sets fire to this rice stack, a student who is sitting inside it sticks her arms out through holes in the side and waves around orange and yellow tissue paper. Someone inside the hut does the same thing...waving the tissue paper out the side windows. It looks SO frickin' cute.
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Because Yuuki sets fire to the village, everyone runs up to the mountains (a.k.a. standing on the table behind these cardboard peaks) and is saved from the approaching tsunami. .
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Can you see the two students under the blue sheets to the left? When the tsunami comes through and destroys the village, they stand up and run around the stage with the sheets held high over their head and trailing behind them. This is accompanied by a tsunami sound played loud over the speakers... compliments of a special sound effects CD. Same goes for the sounds of fire crackling, calm ocean waves, and Japanese festival music. If I do say so myself, this play turned out awesome! I was so proud of them.
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