August Residency Day 2

Day two was a long but fulfilling one! The morning kicked off with a series of planning meetings with the education committee for the project and prep for our afternoon class.  I got to spend a few hours with two of the performers, Jess and Dusty, in the exhibit space with live visitors bustling around us.  For the last two months since the exhibit opened, I have been communicating with the performers through a google doc reflection sheet they fill out following each 2 hour performance session as well as photo and videos of their work.  We began the project with 6 performers, all Playguides from the museum staff.  We were lucky to have the addition of an actor from Brookings who expressed interest in the project for July and August. Though we had a full day of performer training in June and another in July, it was not enough to fully prepare the group for the intensity and unexpected turns of improvising live with children and families for 2 hours a day.  Though I was very curious about training non-performers to lead engaging performance segments and further play and inquiry, I have learned a lot about supporting this process and what I might do in future projects.
       My morning with the performers was really interesting.  It began by observing their interactions in the space.  I have spent so much time suggesting and coaching the kinds of interactions the space requires from performers but today required further action.  I grabbed an extra costume piece and jumped in!  Not only was it fun to demonstrate child-led investigations of the space to the performers but an essential way to train them in supporting their partner's risk-taking.  With three performers in the space we could position ourselves in different areas and focus on subject matter of interest to each child.  So far in the project, performers have felt most comfortable doing a specific game  in the enclosed pond area of the exhibit.  Following our live rehearsal, we brainstormed a number of storylines to follow that do not rely on a specific character from performers and use a child's curiosity and problem-solving skills to get information already in the space.  For instance, our performers do not speak in full sentences.  They use single words to communicate their most central needs. "Home?" they might ask a child.  A girl I engaged with today, found a rabbit and repeated back to me "home?".  "Nest!" and began to build a nest for the rabbit.  "Family?" she asked me. "Hmmm", I looked around.  "Search". "Babies," she cried out as the rabbit puppet searched for baby rabbits.  Our game continued until we sucessfully found three baby rabbits and sufficient leaves to feed our family. "Happy", she finally said.
 

Performers and I also worked on some puppet handling skills. I have been watching videos of them handling multiple animals at once, in view of children and casually discarding them at will.  We worked on moving puppets at different body points, exploring levels and keeping performer focus on the puppet. Having them use puppets as extensions of their own bodies and emoting  along with puppets seemed to make a world of difference in their connections to the performance pieces.

Finally, this afternoon marked another class session with the CMSD Mixed Media students, a group of 6-9 year olds who built the original model diagram for our A Stream to Ponder exhibit space.  We stuck to their design as closely as possible and utilized their ideas in other areas of the project's research.  Today we explored animal traces or evidence left behind by animals in the habitat.  The group examined animal footprints and designed stamps cut from sponges to add to the exhibit space.  In partners students had to choose a native SD animal, study its footprints and stride patterns, design a footprint (front and hind legs) and cut a sponge stamp.  The group then laid down post-it notes to show where the animal came from and was going to next.  They told the rest of the group the story behind the animal's path and following the class, the footprints were added to the exhibit.
 Some photos: