A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words...

Today even though really frigidly cold was good.  Annie did very well in presenting her picture to the drama class my father told me as he stayed in it with her while I sat out talking to another mother whose daughter is in the class with mine and whom now I am friends with as well and I might even be attending a co-op she belongs to with her to see if it's something we'd like to do as well.  So it was a good afternoon.

 

 This is Annie with her picture she painted, although I did help her with the butterfly and showed her how to make the flowers, but everything else is her original work.  Not too bad.  She could be a famous artist yet.  She said she had herself with her friends from drama class at the park by a lake/pond.  I thought it was just beautiful.

After their presentations were done they reviewed Pantomime (acting without words) while using props, played games, did solo mimes and talked about exploring improvisation.

Now for a little ...

History

A 'pantomime' in Ancient Greece was originally a group who 'abused all' (panto- - all, mimos - abuse) accompanied by sung narrative and instrumental music, often played on the flute. The word later came to be applied to the performance itself.^[2] The pantomime was a popular form of entertainment in ancient Greece and, later, Rome. Like theatre, it encompassed the genres of comedy and tragedy and sex.

The style and content of modern pantomime have very clear and strong links with the Commedia dell'arte, a form of popular theatre that arose in Italy in the Early Modern Period, and which reached England by the 16th century. A 'comedy of professional artists' travelling from province to province in Italy and then France, they improvised and told stories which told lessons to the crowd and changed the main character depending on where they were performing. The great clown Grimaldi transformed the format. Each story had the same fixed characters: the lovers, father, servants (one being crafty and the other stupid), etc. These roles/characters can be found in today's pantomimes.

Traditional stories

Panto story lines and scripts typically make no reference to Christmas, and are almost always based on traditional children's stories, including several written or popularized by the French pioneer of the 'fairy tale' genre, Charles Perrault, as well as others based on the English tales collected by Joseph Jacobs. Plot lines are often 'adapted' for comic or satirical effect, and certain familiar scenes tend to recur, regardless of plot relevance. 'Straight' re-tellings of the original stories are rare in the extreme.
The most popular titles are:

• Aladdin (sometimes combined with Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and/or other Arabian Nights tales. It can also be set in China rather than the Middle East)
• Babes in the Wood (often combined with Robin Hood)
• Beauty and the Beast
• Cinderella, the most popular of all pantomimes and first shown in 1870 in Covent Garden, London
• Dick Whittington and His Cat, first staged as a pantomime in 1814, based on a 17th century play.
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears
• Goody Two Shoes
• Jack and the Beanstalk (Sometimes including references to nursery rhymes and other children's stories involving characters called Jack, such as Jack and Jill)
• Little Red Riding Hood
• Mother Goose
• Peter Pan
• Puss in Boots
• Robinson Crusoe
• Sleeping Beauty
• Snow White
• The Princess and the Pea
• The Snow Queen 

So you see, Annie just by being introduced to Pantomime is getting her feet wet into a great beginning of understanding drama and hopefully her devotion will continue throughout her schooling and may even lead to something greater one day.  Who knows she may be on Broadway one day....

Now while she was in class I was introduced to a new health supplement drink that I must say grabbed my taste buds really quick but one that I actually liked and gave me a natural pick me up - had it not been for Brenda today (Annie's friend Zoe's mom that I am now friends with) I would never have tried it.  It's as I've learned from research Acai (pronounced, ah-sigh-ee), a purple colored fruit from the acai palm, has shown to contain more antioxidants than grapes, wines and even blueberries. With a wonderfully berry taste and other nutritional values.  Who knew I would like this drink so much, but I did...and I must warn you though the first drink kind of grabs you as very sweet yet tart, but after that it's good.  I mean really good.  I might even have to go pick me up some of this soon.  So thank you Brenda for offering me one today!

Oh but thank goodness the day is done for now...Matthew has a function to go to possibly this evening with his girlfriend provided his dad let's him as he's been grounded (yes I said the dreaded G word) and then tomorrow Annie has a birthday party to go to at a skating rink for one of her friends' birthday parties and then at some point this week-end I've got some more house cleaning to do and we've got to hit the grocery store.

I am toying with the idea of supper this evening as cheaply as can be done and I've came up with grilled cheese sandwiches so far or maybe home-made cheeseburgers....they both actually sound good so we'll see what dinner brings.