News & Press Releases
“Fish Heads” Musical Delights ICS Audiences and Engages Student Performers
For the past two years, Mr. Stallard’s 3rd grade class has performed Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes” as a year-end project. This year, he and his class decided to do something different – and more involved. Much more.
Says Mr. Stallard, “I decided not to look for any pre-existing plays; instead, I asked my reading class what they thought of writing and performing their own play.” And that was the start of something big.
The class worked on the new original script for the entire first semester and Mr. Stallard polished it during the winter break. Interwoven into the scriptwriting were powerful concepts that could leave lasting impressions on the entire cast and crew. “We spent time reviewing the school’s character-building traits (as promoted by the ICS Lighthouse Leaders program) in detail and discussed different ways each of them could be demonstrated,” says Mr. Stallard. (The “Fish Heads” song as a thematic interlude in the 3rd grade musical ended up being a vehicle for humor along the way. The song is a derivative of the classic piece from the "Dr. Demento" radio show.)
The ICS “Fish Heads” musical’s character trait focus covered honesty, self-control, fairness, responsibility, and respect, all revolving around the exploration of friendship. “Fish Heads” also met 14 of the Indiana Language Arts Standards for 3rd grade. “The kids learned teamwork and how to depend on and appreciate each other’s talents and skills in order to accomplish a common goal,” notes Mr. Stallard. “I also hoped they would get a better understanding of the character traits they were demonstrating daily to their peers.”
Mr. Stallard believes that his learning objectives for the project were met, and in some cases, went far beyond his expectations. As for the students’ assessment of their experience, Mr. Stallard observed that many of them called it “the highlight of their year.” Not only did they learn about photography, videography, scriptwriting, set design and construction, musical production and direction, and the art of acting but the students connected with the musical's character lessons. Those lessons included:
Jim Ellsberry, a career educator and school administrator who provides third-party evaluations of teachers for ICS and the Irvington Community High School, had the pleasure of watching a “Fish Heads” performance. Mr. Ellsberry’s best wishes to the performers through a note to Mr. Stallard states: “Please express my admiration for your students because it took each of them doing his/her part to make it a successful presentation.”
“Fish Heads” was performed for the entire school during the month of May, grade by grade in multiple sessions, and culminated in a final performance for Mr. Stallard’s students’ families. Mr. Stallard’s only regret is that now, weeks after the last performance of the musical, he’s having a hard time getting that darn song out of his head: “Fish heads, fish heads…”