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P
erforming Arts For Children, Inc. conducts field trips to live performances of classsical music and the performing arts (70 students per trip), through the two Programs we direct. For each child who picks up a musical instrument rather than a weapon, two lives, two family's, a community is saved. Our Programs have evolved to serve "at risk" disadvantaged students of Los Angeles, the ones "who never get to go anywhere." We charge no fee to students nor their school. If we charged a fee, most of the nearly 10,000 students whose lives have been positively changed by our trips, could not have participated. These are the future gang members, drug addicts and drug dealers. One special day in their life at age six could positively change their direction at a crucial time. Children are our National treasure and should be respected as such. | |
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Our trips to the morning rehearsals at the Hollywood Bowl are live performances of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Hollywood Bowl Orchestras and other gifted musicians and artists they accompany. For example, we have watched the dress rehearsals of Pittsburgh Ballet Theater perform "The Nutcracker" and Romeo & Jullet when actors from a Broadway Production Company sang songs from "West Side Story." Among other memorable dress rehearsals were those of a fully staged production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and the Joffery Ballet of Chicago perform their version of "The Nutcracker."The most memorable rehearsal we attended in Season 2006 was the dress rehearsal of a Broadway production of Mozart's "Amadeus-Live". | ||
Young children cannot sit in one place for an extended amount of time,
they require activity. The Hollywood Bowl Museum is our solution. When the
first of the three classes becomes restless we send their teachers and those
students on a "walk through" the Museum. This year most of our students have been given a tour of the museum. About fifteen minutes later we send the second most restless class to the museum. When
the second class returns we send the third class to the Museum. We always
tell the third class that the reason they were the last to go to the Museum is
because they were the best behaved and most cooperate students of their school. On our way to Cambrose Park for lunch we pick up the third class at the
Museum which is en route to the Park. At the conclusion of the rehearsal and tours students enjoy a picnic lunch. After lunch children play running games on the grass in the open spaces of the park, directed by their teachers. Volunteers (family members of the children) are recruited by the schools and enhance the memorable experience for everyone involved. Students have someone other than their teacher to discuss what they have learned.This year we have added ten 5th grade students on our trips. 5th grade students communicate better with our 1st grade students than their teachers or I do. It works a little like a big brother or sister would. | ||
Our trips to the Zoo offer another kind of exposure, education and adventure. The activities include a tour of about a third of the big animals at the Zoo and most of the Winnick Family Zoo. Depending upon our timing, we visit the Animal Care Center, the Petting Zoo and/or Desert Trail. The Adventure Theater is where we watch a Adventure Theater Show in which children are chosen from the audience, told a familiar story, put into costumes and directed to perform the show. The audience is also directed in their enthusiastic participation in the Show. Everyone plays an essential part in the "production".
The Zoo's purpose of the "Show" is to entice children to read.  The Show and children imitating animal behavior, as they perceive it, serve our program as each child's introduction to the performing arts. After the Adventure Theater Show we leave the Zoo for picnic grounds about a mile away. Tree shaded picnic tables provide a perfect setting for lunch and are located adjacent to Shane's Inspiration Boundless Playground.
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After lunch children play that this wonderful Playground, supervised by their teachers. Some children have enjoyed the Playground as much as the Zoo. In addition to exposure to classical music, the performing arts and the educational value, both venus are set in two of the most beautiful examples of Nature located in Los Angeles. At the Hollywood Bowl children walk at least a mile and a half and play running games on the grass after lunch. On the Zoo trips children walk about 3 miles. Containing their exuberance can be a job. Running is not allowed in either arena. Young children in Los Angeles are not receiving enough exercise and our trips provide for this need, without children realizing the result of their vivacious demeanor being "exercise."At the Bowl we pass out the snacks, two Nature Valley granola bars, when children are seated in the theater. The snack serves as a distraction while students are being acclimatized to the theater and the music. On our Zoo trips our students are more excited than hungry when they arrive at 10:00 A.M. By 11:00 A.M. our students are hungry and require the energy boost the granola bars provide. At this time our tour has led us 
to the Chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains. Opposite this Exhibit is a cement theater.
We seat our students in the theater and pass out the granola bars. Children are entertained
by the Chimpanzees while they eat their snack. The Chimpanzees were particularly energetic
this year. They chased each other through the mountains of the Exhibit and on one trip we
heard how loud their cry is. After eating our snacks we walk back to the Winnick Family
Zoo which is located near the entrance to the Zoo. . On our way we see various other Exhibits including the Elephant and the Red Ape Forest Exhibit (orangutans). On February 22, 2005, a female infant orangutan was born which was especially exciting this year.
I have always told students on my trips that they are perfect whole and complete, there is no competition. There has never been anyone just like them since the beginning of time and there never will be. God does not repeat Himself nor make mistakes. Marbles are unique, there is not one exactly like another. In 2007 I added marbles to my programs. When children board the bus to be returned to their school I hold a box of marbles over their heads and ask them to close their eyes and pick their marble. When they get on the bus and notice how different each marble is, it is as though I have given them a jewel. I designed a marble holder and fax the instructions and form to schools with my trip memos. The 'holders' are simple and give children a place to put their marble. Every time a child sees their marble they are reminded of how special they are. |
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