The weather may have been heating up outside, but things sure were cool May 26 at the Emerald Park Elementary School auditorium, where the fifth- and sixth-graders were rehearsing a new show about polar bears and penguins.
Called “Black and White” and written by fifth- and sixth-grade teacher Bob Johnson, the play focuses on a group of penguins who discover a cell phone.
According to Johnson, two of the penguins have “inclinations” toward being scientists and learn about global warming, which they then try to tell the rest of the group.
“Most of the other penguins don’t believe her,” Johnson said, of one of the main characters, during a break in rehearsals.
In Act 2, however, a pair of polar bears arrive from the Arctic and confirm that yes, the ice is melting where they live.
Johnson said the play, which features 38 students in various roles, is a multi-media presentation featuring several videos that help move the play along.
“We interact with the videos,” Johnson said.
The show also features songs and dance, which culminate in the “Moonlight Madness” festival at the end of the play, complete with a big dance number choreographed by Joselito Castillo of the South Side Dance Force.
“When we brought the South Side Dance Force in, it really changed things,” Johnson said.
Castillo said his group has been wanting to work in the community and does an after school program for primary students already at Emerald Park. He saw this as another opportunity bring dance into the schools and liked the idea of choreographing an original work, as well as the relevant subject matter of the play.
“It’s a crowd pleaser,” he said of the number at the finale. “It’s finding that individual party in each of the dancers.”
“Black and White” is the sixth play Johnson has written for performance at the school and he said this one was inspired by a Discovery Channel special highlighting the plight of polar bears as Arctic ice melts due to increasing global temperatures.
“It stuck with me for years,” he said of the polar bears.
Previous plays have dealt with the Kalakala, the old ferry moored in Tacoma, as well as one in which aliens landed on Earth and tried to figure out the WASL exams.
Though a controversial issue by some standards, Johnson said that while this production’s title is a play on both the outfit worn by the penguins and the growing scientific evidence supporting a warming planet, the message is not heavy-handed.
“We don’t want to preach,” he said, “but we want to make you aware of what’s going on.”
Johnson said he spent three months writing the play and kids have been working hard at rehearsal, two hours a day, several times a week for the past two months.
“It’s pretty ambitious,” he said.
“The message is about helping the polar bears,” said Meaghen Schneider, 10, a fifth-grader.
“I think at the end the polar bears and the penguins are trying to convince the people in the audience about global warming and how to deal with it,” agreed Jazmin Caliman, 12, a sixth-grader.
Principal Dean Ficken, who could be seen clapping along during rehearsals, said the play provides another area for students at the school to show their talents.
“There’s kids that shine in this discipline that don’t shine in other disciplines,” he said.
The play ran May 27-28 to a crowd of enthused students, parents and teachers.
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