I thought I would begin by thank you for allowing us to use Peggy the Pint Sized Pirate as part of our acting workshop. I conducted this workshop with the fifth graders at Tompkinsville Elementary School located in Tompkinsville, KY. I worked with four different class groups and two of the groups have been using your play. The pictures I am sending were actually taken at an informal dress rehearsal the kids presented to their fellow students. They have not yet performed for their parents and the PTA because of basketball tournaments. It is a shame that so many schools regard sports programs to be more important than academic programs such as this one, but that is the way in Kentucky. Now the presentation for the parents has been rescheduled for a third time, but because of the success of today I wanted to share with you some of the ways we, as a small group with no production budget, over came some of our obstacles that we faced.

First, the school has no theatre so we had to perform in the area with the best seating available, the gymnasium. Not the best acoustics, so in some instances we utilized microphones. We also had no lighting equipment available to us, so we used sound to make our sea monster as scary as possible. I had larger boys behind our backdrop make the roaring sounds though a microphone, so when the audience saw our little sea monster, they all got a chuckle from such a big sound coming from a small threat. Our Baby Sea Monster did not make her entrance until after the roaring was finished and she began speaking. That worked quite well and I was pleased with the reaction from the audiences. Another concern regarding the Baby Monster had to do with how to have the stick go into the foot and stay there until removed by Peggy.

I placed foam disks that are usually used for floral arranging in the toes of the costume’s feet. This works, in case you ever have someone ask for asuggestion on how to accomplish this little bit of ‘special effects’.

The Mama Sea Monster was another concern because all our children were, and are, of minimal size. To overcome this problem, I made a cutout from foam board and covered it with the same material I used for the Baby Sea Monsters costume. The girls that play the Mama Monster were also supplied with microphones so their voices were not lost coming from behind the cutout. To complete the look, they had feet that matched their Baby.

All in all, I would guess that I spent around $200.00, borrowing a backdrop from a local community theatre, where I happened to be the Director of Children’s Programming. I purchased some fabric, pirate bandanas, and captain hats that were shared by both groups. I treated the head pieces with a spray that would prevent any spreading of head lice. In schools this is a major concern, so I just thought I would mention it. Since there was no money (except my own) I was quite frugal. So for others out there producing this play, it can be done inexpensively.

Thanks again for allowing us to use your play. There are many reasons why I chose this play. One, the flexibility of the cast, do we have 10 or 20 pirates? It does not matter. And still there are the messages; you can do anything if you put your mind to it, no matter how small you are. And I really like the way the Mama Sea Monster ‘tortures’ the pirates, by making them clean up the litter they made. I only wish I had been able to supply my pirates with orange jumpsuits.

If you have any questions for Vivien, you may email her at wmeck@earthlink.net

If you have other production ideas for the website please email freedrama.com at pocolocoplayers@yahoo.com

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