This summer Circle of Stones had the great pleasure to work with 77 elementary and middle school children in our children’s outreach program, Pebble Theatre. It was our goal to give children an experience of learning math, grammar and history that was not only fun, but a memorable experience that would give them a sense of pride and accomplishment every time they thought about it.
If you, dear reader, cannot comprehend math, grammar and history as being exciting and fun, we hope you will have a listen to one of the songs Circle of Stones composed for one of our three original hip hop operettas performed in Allentown this summer.
Click on the following links to listen to excerpts from the songs called “Idiomatic” and “Sound Alike“.
We are so grateful to the three wonderful Allentown organizations who partnered with us this summer: The Allentown Public Library, Casa Guadalupe and Old Allentown Preservation Association. They helped us identify the participating children, identify the rehearsal and performance locations, financially supported the program as well as million other ways of ensuring the program was a success. They have all asked us to return next year, and we’ve already started the discussions about how to expand the program!
We’d like to express our hearty appreciation also to the City of Allentown and the Harry C. Trexler Trust for their generous support of this program. We could not have done it without you!
The funny thing about trying to use theatre to catalyze positive community transformations is how often we find our own lives are transformed in the process. Our experience of Pebble Theatre this summer was a perfect example. We had no idea when we started out, how much we would love the Allentown youth we’d be working with. They are so talented!! And beautiful!! And hard working!! I don’t know about you, but if someone told me I had ONE WEEK to memorize and perform a solo or dance a routine or act a scene, I would be nervous! These kids leaped into the program with so much gusto it made our hearts melt. A colleague of ours came to see one of the performances and called it “a miracle”. These kids were our miracle this summer. They won our hearts and have completely inspired us to dedicate a large part of our programming to focus on nurturing their awesome potential. Here’s to you, Pebble kids! Can’t wait to work with you again next year!
Love,
Pana
