"There's no feeling in the world like performing for a school assembly," declares Noble, the chair of the troupe.
Stimulus was founded in 1988 to perform for the children of Philadelphia. Run completely by students, Stimulus' 45 or so dedicated volunteers put on two full-scale productions at Penn for children in the surrounding communities, one during the fall and another at springtime. They performed "Sleeping Beauty...With a Twist!" at Houston Hall Auditorium from Nov. 21 to 23.
To attract children to their shows, the usual publicity ploys - press releases and fliers - are not enough. So Stimulus puts on a scene or two at the downtown Borders Books.
And about five times each semester, Stimulus brings the theater directly into the children's lives, visiting West Philadelphia elementary schools, health care facilities and shelters.
But the group does more than just perform. They hold workshops before and after the show to discuss the play's themes and the theatrical process with the children. The production staff members usually run the pre-show workshops, and the cast and rehearsal staff run the post-show workshops, giving the children a chance to meet the people they saw on stage.
The performance itself often involves the audience, a hallmark of children's theater. "As much as possible, we try to break the barrier," said Rebecca Brown, the director for this year's production, referring to the barrier between the stage and the children. The perfomers walk into the audience and speak to them, and even occasionally bring children onto the stage.
In "Wendel the Sheep Herder," one of last year's productions, the children contributed to the play by bleating like sheep. This year's production included audience clapping, and the actors performed half the scenes off-stage in front of the audience.
Stimulus also works with older children in a new program the troupe began last spring, the day long Winter Performing Arts Workshop for junior high students. More than 30 eager students from Shaw and Turner middle schools attended.
Stimulus invited Penn's entire performing arts community to participate in the program. Representatives from groups such as Quadramics, Arts House Theater, Intuitons Experimental Theater, and Without a Net led workshops on topics such as costumes, character development and script writing. Children in the set-design workshop visited the actual sets of Penn's performing groups, and the participants of the lighting workshop went to the top of Irvine Auditorium to check out the lighting system.
Pleased by how last year's program went, Stimulus is planning to hold it again this year.
Because the focus is on theater for children, rehearsals include more than just scene work, choreography and practicing the music. The members also play games, usually for about an hour of their four-hour rehearsals (these workhorses have five four-hour rehearsals a week). The games have multiple purposes.
The Sound in Motion game, for instance, involves big motions, getting the actors to be comfortable with exaggerating their motions. Brown explained that "everything has to be so much bigger since kids are so visual."
As if all that rehearsing weren't enough, some of the students actually write many of the plays. Some are completely original, and some are based on sources like "Hansel and Gretel" and "Cinderella."
The plays usually have morals. "Wendel the Sheep Herder" urged children to follow their dreams, and "Sleeping Beauty...With a Twist!" examined gender roles in society.
This year, Stimulus plans to bring its theater and its message to Pathway, a school for learning-disabled children, and Harrity and Drew elementary schools in West Philadelphia.
For information about Stimulus, contact Kim Noble at 386-0698 or check out the homepage at http://dolphin.upenn. edu/~stimulus/.
Return to Compass Features for November 25, 1997