Daegan’s class, for 6-8 year olds, was considerably more advanced, with a fairly long script that had the kids memorizing lines. (Gareth’s class had very short lines to learn; the bulk of the story was narrated by the teacher and the kids simply acted out the story). Here, the story was “The Principal’s New Clothes”, a take-off on “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, but set in a school. Daegan played the role of “Roger, the smartest boy in school.” I LOVED what the instructor did to work with the kids’ strengths; for example, in Daegan’s script at one point his line was: “Mr. Bundy [the principal], did you know….(mentions several interesting facts about dinosaurs)”, which Daegan had no problem filling in in his “Little Professor” way. Jim got a chuckle out of other parents in the audience murmuring, “Wow! What a long line he memorized.” LOL! I also asked Daegan how he felt about playing a school kid (we homeschool), and he said, “It’s just pretend, Mom!” This not-corresponding-to-reality is the kind of thing that Daegan would flip out about when he was younger, so this was wonderful to hear. Yay for drama!

Daegan was very proud of himself for his performance. While he was kind of bouncy from nerves and excitement (this was the first time he had ever performed for an audience), he remembered ALL his lines without needing prompts or the script! And I was pleased that he said his lines loud enough for the audience to hear—for the first stage of drama, remembering what you are supposed to say, when you are supposed to say it, and saying it loud enough for all to hear is SUPER! And Daegan loved, loved, LOVED this class—both he and Gareth have asked to be signed up for more drama classes in the fall. Here’s some pics: