TMA Students Expand Their Acting Skills With the Help of Child Audiences in Young Company’s Most Recent Production
When Jacob Day initially considered auditioning for BYU Theatre and Media Arts’ Young Company Show “Babe, the Sheep Pig,” he wasn’t quite sure it was the project for him. “If I'm being transparently honest, I definitely went into this very scared,” Day said. “I am the youngest in my family, and I don't work super well with children.” Despite this apprehension (something he discussed with the show’s director Teresa Love), he was cast as the titular character Babe the Sheep Pig and has now completed a successful run of shows for young audiences around Utah in elementary schools, libraries and at BYU West Campus.
However, a major shift in perspective came for Day when in an early rehearsal Love invited the cast to reflect upon their early theatre memories that made an impact on them and sparked their love for the art form. With “Babe, the Sheep Pig,” BYU students would have the opportunity to be a part of those memories for the next generation of theatre children. “That is when it really clicked for me — just how important it is to bring the arts to children and how influential it can be in their lives,” said Day.
In addition to regular shows at BYU West Campus, BYU Young Company also took the show to charter schools, public charter schools, private schools, Title I schools and libraries around Utah in an effort to reach populations that might not have easy access to quality theatre experiences, especially those specifically crafted for kids.
“I love seeing the BYU students extend the mission of our university by going out and being with people,” Love said. “They are so kind and patient, and adapt to kids in the audience who have disabilities or are English language learners. They are ministering, and to me, that's Christ-like.”
Certain aspects of the show, including the level to which the cast played into certain jokes, were tailored depending on the audience. Near the end of the show, theatre arts education major Truman Barnes’ character Farmer Hogget is overcome with emotion and simply says, “Good night, pig” for the elementary school audiences. For the BYU West Campus audiences, which are typically made up of an older demographic, Farmer Hogget says, “Well, good night pig,” followed by an adlib under his breath, “Why was I talking to a pig?” as he walks away.
“In the elementary schools, that additional line would harm the kids’ perception of the farmer as a character, because they can see the pig talking, and for them it makes complete sense that he’s going to talk to the pig,” Barnes said. “But for the BYU audiences, who more clearly see the delineation between people and puppets and animals, it endears them to the character more.”
Theatre arts education major Ellyn Arkell played Fly, the Sheepdog. Arkell found her passion for theatre arts education through her volunteer work during high school where she taught theatre at her former elementary school and helped with their plays. This BYU Young Company production catered to her strengths and interests. Performing for groups primarily made up of children has helped Arkell sharpen her acting skills in ways that an adult audience has not.
“Some people will think that adults need better quality performances and kids do not, but that’s not true,” Arkell said. “Kids can tell if things are fake and how much effort is being put into a performance. With an audience full of kids, you can easily tell if your show is funny or not and if they’re understanding the story.”
Having an audience filled with children can help make an actor’s skills more sensitive and precise because their ability to read an audience improves. Love shared that adult audience members can politely applaud and laugh at the right moments but still be mentally checked out of the show, whereas children will more clearly show their disinterest by becoming distracted with braiding each other's hair, laying down in the aisle, etc.
“There is not a more honest or responsive audience than one made up of children,” said Love. “It heightens the actors ability to realize that their job is to communicate with that particular audience in that time and space.”
The actors made the children an active part of the production by inviting them to participate with props, playing a version of “Simon Says” with Babe. “The rehearsal process was pretty challenging because of how much audience participation is in the show,” said Barnes. “In rehearsals it felt like half the cast was missing.”
At one point in the show, a large group of children from the audience are gathered to act as a herd of sheep. “‘Babe says, walk! Babe says, do a random disco dance!’ That's pretty fun because the kids think it's hilarious.”
After the shows in the elementary schools, cast members would visit different classrooms to do 40 minute workshops about puppetry with the students. In the show, the puppets are fashioned out of household items (the puppet for Babe, for example, is made out of a repurposed makeup bag), and Love wanted the children to learn that anything can become a puppet, from pencils and notebooks to backpacks and jackets.
Performing for such a wide variety of young audiences required that the cast improvise and adapt to the different personalities and needs of the children. After performing for a particularly rambunctious group of kids, Day realized that no matter how wild an audience was or how difficult it was to get through the show, they were still making an impact on the kids.
“I was reminded that it's not about us, it’s about them,” said Day. “Especially when we’re doing it at the elementary schools, we're being watched from the very beginning, setting everything up, helping the kids sit down, giving them instructions and doing workshops with them afterwards. We're never off the job.”