Home, A Dogs Tale: An Original Childrens Play From Page to Stage

Dr. Robyn Pursley and Christopher Miller, Northeastern State University, Department of Communication, Art and Theatre

Research Goal
The importance of engagement in the arts at a young age is a topic of interest for many people. Theatre for Young Audiences is an excellent devise for imposing this type of engagement and childrens theatre productions are a regular part of the typical main-stage season at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, OK. Additionally, the Theatre program is also invested in producing new work that is developed with our students. The purpose of this body of research was two-fold: 1) to develop an original childrens play and a fully mounted theatrical production geared towards a child audience, and 2) to raise awareness of local animal welfare concerns through the theatrical voice.

Theatrical Conventions Utilized

In the production of childrens theatre a variety of theatrical conventions are utilized in order to fully engage a child audience. In this production of Home, A Dogs Talel the following theatrical conventions were utilized: Audience Participation During the production characters periodically engage the audience by asking their advice or for help making decisions. This type of engagement allows the audience to feel invested in the production. Breaking of the Fourth Wall Characters traveled off of the stage and through the audience, allowing each audience member to have at least some moment of close proximity to the major action within the play. This type of engagement draws the audience into the action by means of intimate proximity. Willing Suspension of Disbelief Through the use of puppetry we asked the audience to exercise their imagination and for the moment to fully believe that an obviously stuffed toy dog was a real puppy interacting with a young girl. This contract between the audience and the production prepares the audience for the later interaction with human actors in full-body dog costumes.

Script-building Techniques
After the initial outline was completed, the artistic team utilized a technique of improvisation to flesh out and develop specific areas of the script. The actors were given shared given circumstances as well as secret objectives whose test was in the other person. The actors then pursued their secret objectives from one another providing some useful material that was then crafted by the playwright into more fully realized scenes. While this technique of play development has existed for some time in various forms, our specific method is derived from the one used by playwright Lanford Wilson and director Marshall W. Mason during their prolific collaborations of the 60s, 70s and 80s. The employment of puppet and toy theatre was a device utilized to engage a young audience without resorting to heavy-handed didacticism. Children are far more connected to their sense of play than adults and have a full understanding of how fully one can commit to interacting with these toys, imbuing them with personalities and emotions. Since this sort of drama is so identifiable with youth, it makes the transition into the less familiar human actors playing a role that much more seamless. Through an improvisational session employing Sanford Meisners The Reality of Doing technique, the actress playing Old Lady Grudge literally tried tending to her garden (chopping up mulch and applying it to her flowers) while the actress playing Sadie, the lost puppy, sought Grudges attention and help. This gave the actors opposing goals in direct opposition through an activity that met with conflict. Key moments from their improvisation made it into the final script.

Final Production Outcomes

The play was overall well-received by the audience. Over 3,000 elementary age students engaged in this form of art over the course of one week. The NSU students involved with the production experienced a unique process of script development and realization of a new script from page to stage. The theatrical conventions utilized by the production proved effective for the child audience. Knowledge gained through this creative process will be utilized in future productions developed by the NSU Theatre program The animal welfare message was communicated to a large audience of young minds as well as adults.

Major Literary Resources

Mason, Marshall W., Creating Life On Stage Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Drama, 2006 Kahn, David, Donna Breed, and Lanford Wilson. Scriptwork: A Director's Approach to New Play Development. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1995. Meisner, Sanford and Longwell, Dennis. Sanford Meisner on Acting. New York: Vintage Books, 1987.

Production Photos

The Audience
The child audience was composed of elementary age students ranging from pre-Kindergarten through fifth grade. The students were associated with a variety of school systems in Northeastern Oklahoma. For many of the students, this experience with live theatre in a formal theatre setting is the only one of that kind that they have ever and possibly will ever encounter. Therefore, engagement in this type of artistic offering has a great impact on those students. Although the primary audience was children, the play also was attended by adults. This was considered in the development of the play, as many of the jokes and much of the humor is easily accessible for an adult audience, but is also still amusing on a different level for a child audience. This is a common practice among film and television pieces today.