News & Press Releases
“Who’s Behind Your Curtain” Performed by Mr. Stallard’s 3rd Grade Class
Now an ICS 3rd grade tradition, at the conclusion of each school year Mr. Stallard's class invites the entire student body and school community members to an originally written and choreographed play. The 2009-2010 version of this innovative collaborative classroom project involved Mr. Stallard's reading class students as well as last year's group. The play, called “Who’s Behind Your Curtain?,” tells the story of a class of students preparing to present the play “The Wizard of Oz.” As the kids travel down their “yellow-brick road” they learn about character traits such as honesty, respect, caring, self-control, and responsibility. Other common challenges that kids experience in schools such as bullying were also written into the script.
The play is titled “Who’s Behind Your Curtain” for two distinct reasons. First, it shows the importance of getting to know people first, or finding out “who’s behind their curtain” before judging them, being mean to them, or simply just deciding not to like them without any reason. Second, it demonstrates that you should not be afraid to let people see the real you. In fact, you just might be hiding an awesome person behind your “curtain” that others would like to get to know!
More than 600 students, parents, and staff saw the play in eight performances in Mr. Stallard's classroom and one in the ICS Gym.
Students involved in writing, preparing, practicing, and putting on "Who's Behind Your Curtain?" had this to say about their experience:
- "It helped build my confidence and allowed me to make new friends." – Elizabeth Kaufman (who played Wiki)
- "The play helped get the shyness out of me." – Aurora Scott (Tory)
- "It helped me become a better person. I felt better about myself afterwards." – Ezra Moran (Steve)
- "The play helped me learn how to treat others better." – C. J. Guyon (Puppet)
- "I learned many character traits and life lessons as I practiced the play over, and over, and over." – Jason Montgomery (Larry)
- "The play helped challenge me to do things I didn’t think I could do before." – Brenna Bauder (Video)
- "It taught me to learn more about other people." – Jakob Goodwin (Mr. W)
Judging from the "experts'" opinions expressed above, the play proved to be a valuable lesson for all concerned!