SEASON FOR SHARING
Eimy Rayas, center, enjoys “Suzette Who Set to Sea” by Childsplay in December. Season for Sharing helps the Tempe nonprofit.
At the beginning of every play, a Childsplay actor tells Arizona public school students the same thing: If they think something is funny, they should laugh.
Sometimes they deliver that prelude on a stage in a school auditorium. Or a school gymnasium. Or a school cafeteria.
But the message is always the same: If you keep your “active-listening ears” on, you’ll be transported to another world.
Childsplay, an arts nonprofit based in Tempe, was founded in 1977. The professional theater company almost exclusively caters to children. Childsplay reaches thousands of Arizona students every year, putting on performances with professional actors and working in classrooms to add drama to lessons. The organization aims to reach students in low-income communities.
The organization is one of 162 organizations benefiting from The Arizona Republic’s Season for Sharing campaign, receiving a $10,000 grant to help bring performances to schools. The fundraising campaign for 2020 grants is underway, and continues through January.
The result of Childsplay’s work in schools, the organization’s leaders say: Children gain a deeper understanding of the stories they read and hear.
“Drama is is really important in a classroom space because it gives the opportunity for everyone to express their ideas and their points of view,” Korbi Adams, Childsplay’s director of education & school programs, said.
On Dec. 18, about 100 Kindergartners, fourth and fifthgraders sat “crisscross apple sauce” on a gymnasium floor at Arredondo Elementary in Tempe for a Childsplay performance of “Suzette Who Set to Sea.”
The 45-minute play, with three actors, tells the tale of Suzette, a woman from an island where only men can captain ships. Suzette desperately wants to work on a ship, but she’s told that she can’t. When the island’s men go missing, the women pile into a boat secretly constructed by Suzette to find them.
There are sea monsters who make the Kindergartners laugh.
As one actor mimes a camel ride, the kids laugh raucously.
Set decorations are minimal, but creative. The actors use noisemakers to mimic sounds of the sea and the
monsters. They open big barrels, the insides of which display the carved image of Suzette’s small seaside town. Childsplay’s designers create the sets so they can all fit in the back of a 13-seat van, traveling from school to school.
The story carries a lot of messages for kids: That women can do any job they want, that you shouldn’t rush to judgment based on another’s appearance, that community is important.
At the end, the actors, out of character, pose a question to the students: What do they think makes a good leader? Several kids raise their hand and answer: Loyalty, selflessness, being a “good captain.”
Sometimes as many as 100 people are on Childsplay’s payroll at the same time, including actors and designers. Because the productions are usually performed in front of a small group of people, sets don’t have to be over-thetop.
“It really keeps it focused on the story ... and really connecting with the people that are telling the story,” Laura Berger, Childsplay’s education programs manager, said.
How to donate to Season for Sharing
There are four ways to donate to Season for Sharing:
1 Fill out the secure online form
at sharing.azcentral.com.
2 Fill out the coupon on Page 4A of The Republic and mail to P.O. Box 29250, Phoenix, AZ 85038-9250. 3 Text “SHARING” to 91-999 and click on the link in the text message. 4 Look for the “DONATE HERE” post at the top of facebook.com/ seasonforsharing.
Going into classrooms
Childsplay reaches 150,000 students in 700 schools annually, according to spokeswoman Samantha Johnstone.
While performances are a part of Childsplay’s work in schools, the organization also works in classrooms with students, sometimes for as long as a year. In the program, which Childsplay dubs “EYEPlay,” an artist is paired with a classroom teacher. The two work together to promote literacy in the classroom through drama.
Children and teachers role-play, among other activities, which helps students become more expressive and connect
Where the money goes
One hundred percent of donations and matching funds go to nonprofits primarily located in Maricopa and Pinal counties, but also around the state, that support teachers and students, help struggling families and aid older Arizonans . Last year, $2.1 million was raised and given back to 162 charities. All overhead and fundraising costs are paid by The Arizona Republic/azcentral.com. with the content.
“We put the book down and we enter into the world of the story,” Adams said.
The organization has partnered with Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College to research the effect of drama in strengthening a preschooler’s ability to recall details from stories, under a $2.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Adams said teachers report better test scores and reading comprehension, but the study will produce real data to inform future projects.
“We know it’s a really solid program, we know how it functions, we know that it works and now we’re able to collect data,” she said.
Sometimes, drama programs embed details deep in a child’s mind. One parent told Adams that long after reading a story about paletas, which are Mexican ice pops, their son recalled details about paletas on a beach vacation, seemingly out of nowhere.
“His drama experience felt like a real life experience,” Adams said.
Not all Arizona school districts can afford a theater program. A 2018 report from the Arts Education Data Project showed that 17% of Arizona students don’t have access to any arts programming.
And school-based theater programs are even more rare: 14% of schools in Arizona offer theater programming, compared to 56% of schools that offer music.
Limited resources mean schools are limited in what they can offer.
Adams said many schools have to use funding that could go to arts programming for more basic needs.
“There are so many beautiful experiences that teachers want to provide, that schools want to provide that they’re just not able to because of the deficit of funding that we have,” she said. The goal for Childsplay?
“We would love the arts to be really present in every school and for every child to engage with their body and their imagination,” Adams said.