All their classroom’s a stage, the students learning players

Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Jacqueline Rabe William Barton, right, acts out a vocabulary word at an after-school theater program at General Smallwood Middle School while Allison Claggett, left, and Jessica Napoletano excitedly guess the answer. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story   Get involved To become a mentor for the Stage Training Apprentice Mentor Program, or STAMP, go to www.indianheadblackbox.org or call 301-743-3040.

Thanks to the Black Box Theatre of Indian Head nearly 50 General Smallwood Middle School students are spending their time after school learning both how to act and to speak in public, among many other things.

‘‘I like getting the kids involved and getting them playing with the language,” said William Barton, a mentor for the Stage Training Apprentice Mentor Program who used to teach English in New Jersey and is a veteran thespian. ‘‘I don’t know if they realize they’re learning. ... I’m a guerrilla teacher. You got to sneak up on these guys and trick them into learning. They don’t seem to mind, just look at their excitement.”

Chloe Riggans, a seventh-grader at Smallwood, said she definitely doesn’t mind becoming a better actress at the price of learning.

‘‘I love to act, and I love to make people laugh even more. I want to be a famous actress someday,” Chloe said. She joined the after-school mentoring and theater program to perfect her acting skills.

But Chloe acknowledged she might be getting more than just an acting lesson from the program.

‘‘I’m learning how to express myself and my feelings on stage,” she said.

Barton said he uses the tit-for-tat method to get students learning. For example, on Tuesdays the students learn vocabulary and other speech exercises through theatrical activities and on Thursdays the students work on producing a play.

‘‘I tell them, ‘in order for us to do this, we have to do this learning exercise first,” Barton said. ‘‘It works every time. They are just excited to be here, versus at home sitting around doing nothing, waiting for their parents to get home from work.”

The tit-for-tat method is a very successful tool for getting students excited about learning, said Peggy Palmer, also a mentor with the Black Box Theatre group.

‘‘It’s about finding their passion, be it science, sports or, in this case, theater. Motivation comes from a desire,” Palmer said. ‘‘We have had tangible results. We see our students’ verbal skills improve so much from when they come to us and when they leave. We are reaching them at a different level than what the normal school day may offer.”

The Black Box Theatre is a forum for arts in Indian Head and is located next to the Indian Head Town Hall.

The theater mentor program at Smallwood is the only one of its kind in Charles County schools, but Palmer said she has the ambition to expand the program to all the county’s middle schools, she just needs the volunteers to make it a reality.

‘‘Mentors just have to know how to have fun with these kids, and then sprinkle it with knowledge,” she said. ‘‘We are helping prepare these students for high school so they can jump right into it.”

Cynthia Baker, principal of Smallwood, said she is grateful for the after-school program.

‘‘They are learning in a fun way, and really that’s what it’s all about,” she said. ‘‘This brings kids out of their shells. It helps them speak faster, with more articulation and [they] will be able to flow in their reading.”

E-mail Jacqueline Rabe at jrabe@somdnews.com.