‘Serious Fun’ takes over The Grand 1894 Opera House
Three digital productions aimed at kids
Galveston’s The Grand 1894 Opera House isn’t ready for the curtain to open quite yet. But it’s nudging things in that direction.
During a normal school year, its Harris L. Kempner Serious Fun Children’s Series puts on 10 plays for students from across Galveston County and beyond. But this spring, it’s teaming with TheatreWorks USA and ArtsPower National Touring Theatre — the same companies who in other years perform to packed houses in The Grand’s ornate 1,000seat auditorium — to present three virtual productions at no cost to area students and educators.
“It’s going to be very different to do it in a virtual space, and we’ll see how it works,” says Sarah Piel, The Grand’s director of education. “We just have to give it a try. We feel like it’s very valuable for (the kids), and we’ve had a good response to schools saying that they were interested in doing it virtually with us.”
Although each play is aimed at a slightly different age range, all will be offered during a two-week window. First up, for prekindergarteners through third grade, is “Pete’s Big Hollywood Adventure” March 22April 2. Meant for kindergarteners through fifth-graders, the beloved barnyard fable “Charlotte’s Web” follows from April 12-23; and the third/fourth grade adventure “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” closes out the series May 3-14.
Interested schools can sign up through The Grand’s website or by calling one of two numbers (see info box).
Founded in 1989, the Serious Fun program now serves more than 25 school districts, connecting with students from as far away as Fort Bend County. Many productions tie in directly with districts’ curriculum, and this year, Piel is preparing study guides and virtual workshops for each play. Teachers are encouraged to get creative; the year The Grand did “101 Dalmatians,” the audience was full of kids in spotted T-shirts.
“The kids love them because, for the kids, it’s one of the few times that they see live people,” says The Grand executive director Maureen Patton. “They’re perfectly comfortable with all the games and everything else that they’re playing on: computers, iPads and game boxes and whatever.
“What we find — and what we’ve found from the very beginning — is that they were fascinated by the fact that those are real people up on the stage,” she adds.
Noting that some 70 percent of students in the Galveston area receive free and reduced lunches, Piel believes these plays offer a uniquely valuable experience to kids who might not otherwise get the opportunity — especially at somewhere as historic as The Grand.
“They’ve never had the opportunity to experience something like that, which I think is a unique experience; and I’m glad that our district sees that as a value,” she says. “It also helps them broaden their scope of the world.”
According to Piel, students who have seen a Serious Fun show tend to ask questions like “You can be a performer?”, “You can be onstage?”,
or “Can you get paid to do that?”
“Kids really have kind of lost the art of imagination, you know?” she says. “With all the technology that we have, some kids really don’t know how to go outside and pretend to be a cat. Believe it or not, that’s very valuable: a lot of problem-solving skills, things like that, are involved with that.
“We feel like it’s very important that we bring that to the students in our community,” Piel adds. “We’re very fortunate that we’ve had some great donors that have seen the value of that and are allowing us to be able to produce that stuff virtually.”
The Grand hopes its days of virtual productions are coming to an end, though. Right now, it’s planning to go ahead with its 25th annual The Grand Kids Festival on May 1, as well as its annual weeklong Summer Theatre Camp July 12-16.
Patton has also booked a handful of summer shows so far, including the Texas Tenors and Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel. The Grand’s capacity will be 200 people, and other pandemic precautions, such as no concessions or intermission, will be in place.
And then, she says, “Hopefully, by fall, we’ll be able to open and fill up the house.”
The Grand 1894 Opera House: ‘Serious Fun’ Details: 409-7651894 and 800-8211894; thegrand.com