By Jenni Beaver—Friday is Writing Day is an event meant to encourage Morningside students and faculty to look at literature with a hunger to know more. On March 13, this special event was taken in a different direction.
In honor of the upcoming play, Into the Woods, being put on by Morningside’s theatre department, the FIWD committee decided to focus on the magic of fairy tales. The coordinator of the committee, Marty Knepper, said that the play sparked the exciting day and “we just had to have a fairy tale day.”
In Lincoln Center’s UPS auditorium, stars of the play gave a tease of what was to come. David Young (the Wolf), Kathryn Jones (Cinderella), Preston Needles (Cinderella’s prince), Jaden Lux (Rapunzel’s prince), Lisa Wipperling (the Witch), Cat Ruddy (Little Red), and Jocelyn Wolff (Jack’s mother) all took the small stage of UPS and performed songs specifically related to their characters. The songs gave the small audience a taste of what the full play would hold. At the end of the performance, everyone was encouraged to reserve his or her tickets.
On the opposite side of campus part two of FIWD was going on in Buhler Rohlfs. About 120 kindergarteners from Spalding Park Elementary gathered on the second floor of the building to enjoy five stations all related to fairy tales. The kids read, colored pictures for a storyboard, wrote their version of a Mad Lib, acted out well-known fairy tales, and enjoyed a Spanish and English reading station.
While the kids were hard at work, the coordinator of the event, Marcie Ponder, wandered around the room taking photographs. When asked what went into putting the event together, she smiled and said, “A lot of creative thought. What do kindergarteners do?”
Although the room was filled with chaos, the 120 kindergarteners were well entertained. It seems that the Friday is Writing Day committee successfully answered their question about the young students. Kindergarteners color, write stories, act, and read.
Tickets are available for reservation for Into the Woods. The performances start on March 19 and end March 29. Admission is free, but reservations are recommended. Call (712)-274-5702 for more information.
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