DB Drama entertains children around the district
Diamond Bar High School’s drama department performed their annual Children’s Theater show at several elementary schools in the district, teaching children to “just keep swimming.”
This year, Intermediate Drama organized its play with inspiration from Pixar’s 2003 film “Finding Nemo.”
“When we perform for the children, we hope to introduce them to other entertainment mediums,” senior Tricia Parker said. “Live theatre has been a vital part of our lives and we want to spread that joy to the little ones.”
The movie was adapted into a 45-minute play about a man whose son is tragically kidnapped and follows his search to find him. Along the way, he meets several eccentric characters who help him reunite with his son.
Senior Richard Chang and junior Sude Buyuktazeler assisted with the choreography. The script was written by juniors Vivian Li and Vanessa Aguilar and directed by Parker.
The drama department rehearsed for the show throughout January and performed the play 15 times in front of elementary schools Jan. 28-31. The nine schools they travelled to in the Walnut Valley Unified School District were Vejar, Evergreen, Walnut, Quail Summit, C.J. Morris, Westhoff, Collegewood, Maple Hill and Castle Rock. This is the second year that the drama department performed at grade schools for Children’s Theater. Last year, they performed an adaptation of Dreamworks’ animated film “Trolls” at various elementary schools in the district.
The cast for the play was split into two different casts: the Coral Cast and the Bubbles Cast.
While they still enjoyed performing in front of a different audience at each location, some admit that were a few challenges that came from presenting at different schools.
“I learned that sometimes you can’t control your environment,” Parker said. “Some of the schools we went to had ginormous MPRs [multipurpose room] and others could barely contain the 10 of us. One of the schools had such a slippery stage that I slipped during the angler fish chase scene.”
Although it was a new experience for some of the performers, they said they found it enjoyable.
“Performing for children gave us an opportunity to build a production from the ground up, an opportunity that might not have been presented to us otherwise,” junior Alyssa Guerra said. “I had a very positive experience at this performance because I loved seeing the children’s reactions and being able to reach audiences.”
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