Thursday, May 21, 2026 was our school's Spring Concert. I peeked back on my previous blog posts (I don't want to sound too repetitive in my reflections!) and the last time I ruminated on the Spring Concert was in 2025 when I reported on getting a concert ready when the main coordinator has been absent, and in 2024 when I was responsible for the kindergarten performances.
I don't teach dance or drama this year, but I was still involved with the show. My focus for these thoughts are all about the little things that turn a good performance into a great one.
Being Ready
It's no surprise that advanced preparation benefits a performance. The more familiar students are with what they must do on stage, the more comfortable they will be when the time comes for the final viewing. What's tricky is making sure that those rehearsals do not become boring or dull or counterproductive. I was supporting a primary division class who had become tired of their review. To spice it up a bit, I asked them to do their act as if everyone except me had laryngitis. I provided the oral component and they were very quick to point out when I was speaking too quickly or too slowly, or to ask me why I was saying the lines a certain way. The process actually made them more critical and more conscious of the process. The teacher with the class of students playing recorder had a unique way of preparing the kids; at any point during the day, he'd declare that it was time to pick up the recorders and play. It wasn't stop-drop-&roll, but stop-popup-& play! They were SO ready for the concert.
The Aural Experience
Layering sound can be impactful. I took over coordinating the contribution from a different primary division class and a week before the show, I had an "aha" moment. We had narrators and we had sound effects; would it be possible to add soft instrumental music to enhance the cultural aspect of the material? We tried it out and it really added to the quality of the performance. We used this tactic for another class' show and it really helped delineate the "reality" vs the "dream" portion of their play.
The same goes for the band. Connie set up the chairs in three compact rows instead of two rows like before. I'm not sure if the reason for this decision was to consolidate the sound, but it served to contain and unify the instrumentalists.
The Grade 4-5s turned what would have been a mediocre rendition of some common recorder songs into something interesting and appealing to the ear with accompaniment that provided different musical genres to make it multilayered and unique. (This was an offshoot of a collaboration between the library and the music class that had originally intended to use AI to help generate the background supplements, but we realized that there's no replacing actual musicians yet - big thanks to Connie Chan's husband for playing the instruments that formed the backup for the jazz, rock and roll, and reggae flavored music to go with the recorders.)
Having other people sing along with the ukulele club made the performance excellent. I am so grateful that Deliah Williams and Connie Chan agreed to sing a duet to the ukulele number. Their beautiful harmonies really added variety and texture to what could have been a very repetitive song. I'm also glad that in the end, I chose to use a lummi stick for a dual purpose - to mark the downbeat and conduct the ukulele players as they strummed in a syncopated rhythm.
Clothes Make the Man-y
Props and costumes are so important. Ms. Thiya spent weeks and weeks working with the Grade 1 and Grade 1-2 class to design their own costumes, using leaf collection bags. The students were absolutely adorable!
The Grade 3-4s created their own conical villager hats after I gave up in despair. (It actually became a math and art lesson for them in their home class.)
I ordered some beards for our "poets" to wear and it really helped these students get into character. I loved watching them thoughtfully stroke their beards as they struck a pose and pretended to think deep thoughts.
These students also helped build the boat that they used as part of the play. I've never seen students work so carefully to measure and cut cardboard. They were worried when the handles fell off but were happy when we came up with a solution (thanks to Mr. Malisani's recommendations).
My daughter and I also constructed some dragon hats and the actors loved them so much, one asked if she'd get to keep it after the show.
Visual Interest
To piggyback on the idea of props and costumes, adding movement to any potentially static delivery livens things up tremendously. For the primary choir, our last chorus included some clapping and stepping. I worried that the Grade 1s, 2s, and 3s would not be able to clap, dance, and sing at the same time, but they were fine. The addition of actions, even as simple as switching seats on stage, invigorated the Grade 2-3 number.
Student Voice
Giving students agency means that they care about the show because they had a say in what goes on. Ms. Thiya's play with Room 115 and 116 was based on their ideas about what whimsical things could exist in a reply to the question "What did you do at school today?" The answers had a mix of capybaras, soccer players, K-pop dancers, insects, flamingos, and other popular animals and figures.
Letting students decide which role they'd like in the play was helpful. It actually became part of a lesson, as students analyzed their skills as drama performers and determined which job suited them best.
I want to thank everyone who had a hand in creating yet another memorable concert. It was a lean but jam-packed 45 minutes and the reward was hearing a visitor say that they paid $25 to attend a different school concert but it wasn't as good as this one, which was free!
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