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CVMS Players sing about science
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Two members of the Canfield Village Middle School Players crew were in charge of lighting board opperations for the group’s production of “Eureka! Let’s Hear it for Kids with Brains!” on Feb. 8.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.A member of the Canfield Village Middle School Players sang a solo during the group’s production of “Eureka! Let’s Hear it for Kids with Brains!” on Feb. 8.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Members of the Canfield Village Middle School Players acted out a scene depicting the Wright Brothers during their production of “Eureka! Let’s Hear it for Kids with Brains!” on Feb. 8.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.The fifth- and sixth-grade Canfield Village Middle School Players presented “Eureka! Let’s Hear it for Kids with Brains!,” written and directed by CVMS Theatre Arts teacher and Drama Club advisor Kandace Cleland, in the Village Theatre for their fellow students on Feb. 8.
By ABBY SLANKER
The fifth- and sixth-grade Canfield Village Middle School Players presented “Eureka! Let’s Hear it for Kids with Brains!” in the Village Theatre for their fellow students on Feb. 8. The Players first presented the play for family and friends Feb. 5-6.
CVMS Theatre Arts teacher and Drama Club advisor Kandace Cleland wrote the book and lyrics for the play and was also the artistic director, with Jodine Pilmer writing the music and serving as musical director for the production, which focused on science with an emphasis on young inventors, past and present. With 36 fifth- and sixth-graders cast in the production, several played various characters in the science classroom, as well as child inventors.
“Sometimes it’s easier for kids than for adults to look at a problem from multiple angles because they have not yet learned about what will not work. Their minds are still open to possibilities. They don’t care that ‘it’s never been done that way before.’ And when a kid has interests in academics, athletics and the fine arts, he or she may be able to draw on knowledge from all those interests to find a new solution to an old problem. Many thanks to the original 2010 cast of this show who helped me research the inventors highlighted in this musical, and to all the kids who believe science is worth singing about,” Cleland said.
The production began with Scene 1: Kids in the Science Lab, with the entire cast on stage singing “Eureka! I’ll Find It.” The second song in the scene, “The Not-So-Famous Gang,” featured various cast members and the sixth-grade cast discussing inventors who invented important items, but are not well recognized. The scene ended with “Period 3 with Mr. Flannigan,” featuring several cast members thinking about what they would like to invent, including Guest Doggy Jasmine Ceci.
Scene 2: Kitty Hawk, N.C., Dec. 17, 1903, featured various cast members and focused on the Wright Brothers and their invention of the first powered airplane, with the Curious Crowd singing “The Wright Way to Fly.”
Scene 3: Girls ONLY Campfire featured all the girls in the cast singing “Without the Wheel.”
Scene 4: Young Inventors at Work started with “Gonna Stick to It,” featuring various cast members dressed as child inventors who did not give up on their ideas. “Believing is Seeing” was the next song the cast performed, which featured two cast members. To end the production, the cast, featuring two students, belted out “I Just Wanna Make a Difference.”
“I am very proud of our fifth- and sixth-grade performers. They have worked really hard and did a super job. I hope you learned something about science here today because I know I did while I was writing it,” Cleland told the audience of students at the end of the show.