Fourth Graders At Head O’Meadow Storm The Stage

By Susan Coney

The fourth grade chorus students at Head O’ Meadow, under the direction of music teacher Julie Bastos and accompanied on the piano by Carl Anderson, provided the younger students at the school with a funny and entertaining musical entitled Wild and Wacky Winter. The plot of the play revolved around the strange, unpredictable weather conditions occurring throughout the world in which climates that usually are warm and balmy receive cold, blustery weather and cold areas suddenly become toasty.

Coordinating and bringing to fruition a musical play involving 100 fourth grade students required patience, bravery, and experience on the part of Ms Bastos and her assistants, especially considering the play was presented on Wednesday, January 4, the first day back from holiday vacation with one snow day adding to the time off.

After the presentation to the kindergarten through third grade students ran smoothly, Ms Bastos praised the chorus students for the wonderful job they did, despite the fact that they had not practiced the play since December 23. The students also gave an evening performance for family and friends.

Wild and Wacky Winter, written by Michael and Jill Gallina, began with the entire group of students singing about the extreme weather changes that recently had been plaguing the world. Later students took turns reciting a lengthy poem that described specific climate changes occurring worldwide.

 A cleverly written dialogue, using numerous meteorological terms, took place among the four weather forecasters who each had a whimsical name. As the play progressed, forecasters Gail Force, Hail Stone, Storm Front, and Drew Point, played by fourth graders Jillianne Lyon, Samantha Chanko, Mia Terracino, and Michael Lally, attempted to figure out the cause for the drastic change in weather conditions.

The weathermen, feeling the heat from the viewers because they can no longer accurately predict the weather, blame La Nina and El Nino for the abrupt changes in weather patterns. The characters of La Nina, played by Lauren Russo, and El Nino, played by Aileen Sheluck, stormed in to say that they are not responsible for the severe weather changes.

At the end of the play it is finally revealed that El Meano, played by Dale Shearin, who is upset with the way humans have treated the world’s environment, was responsible for the drastic weather changes. El Meano caused the sudden, strange weather conditions to teach humans an important environmental lesson; they need to respect and take care of the earth and its many resources.

Samantha Chanko, who played one of the weather forecasters, said, “I liked learning the lines and saying them up on the stage.” Classmates Jillianne Lyon and Michael Lally said their favorite part was the singing. Mitchell Roberts, who played Roger, said, “I like the feeling of being on stage in front of others.”

Second graders from the audience, Allison Silkowski and Cameron Gaudette, both thought the play was great. Allison said, “I really liked the show, especially the weather broadcasters and the funny songs.” Cameron’s favorite part was seeing the set and different costumes.

 Many children had speaking parts, allowing for more participation. The children recited their lines with clarity and expression and their voices could be clearly heard throughout the cafeteria setting. It was apparent throughout the performance that the cast as well as the audience was having a great deal of fun.