When All Was Green Play Analysis

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Introduction When All Was Green by The Key Theatre was showcased at Esplanade Recital Studio as part of the Octoburst! Festival for children. The play revolves around the interactions between a boy and a tree and, showed the tree as a great support system for the boy since he was young. However, due to modernization, not only was the environment at stake, but also the deeds of the tree were forgotten by the boy. The play aimed to engage children on the importance of the environment through the relationship between the two characters and the effects of modernization. In order to determine whether the play was engaging for children, the essay analyzed the play based on the characteristics of Children’s theatre in three aspects: character, storyline…show more content…
Character Character plays a crucial role in engaging children in the play. According to Sloyer (1982), characters in Children’s Theatre must be compelling and easily understood through dialogues. This can be achieved by careful selection of characters. Some characteristics to take into account include characters who share the same problems as the children or who display human stereotypes. Such commonality allowed easily identification of the characters to children. In addition, Sloyer (1982) emphasized that the character must contain action and suspense in order for children to witness the growth of the character. Character development was indeed evident in When All Was Green. Age development was clearly shown through costumes from young boy with t-shirt and pants to older man with white hair, wrinkles on his face and walking stick. Besides costumes, the speed of the character’s actions also displayed age development where slow speed indicated young age whereas, fast speed indicated aged. Not only that, the character began the story by playing with the tree and the bird. Such personalities were evident in children’s own experiences which created an immediate connection within them and…show more content…
Klein (2005) highlighted that Children’s Theatre is often used to reinforce conceptual ideas that children have already learned by applying metaphoric concepts obtained from the play to their own experiences. This causes the child to be an active spectator by articulating their thoughts about the theme. However, he further emphasized that being able to create links between the metaphoric concepts and real-life situations does not necessarily mean that the child is able to transfer the lesson learnt to their own behaviors as they are still grasping the concept of causal connections. Such discrepancy was evident in When All Was Green where the overarching theme was highly relatable to children but, the underlying messages were too in-depth for them to conceptualize. The overarching theme of the play was environment whereas the underlying messages were saving the environment and remembering others’ deeds. The first message was shown through the urban city where the environment was manipulated to provide space for high rise buildings, papers were thrown away instead of recycling and factories released polluted air. The second message was reflected through the relationship between the character and the tree. The tree was always there for the character as he aged and in times of need such as in a storm. However, the character neglected these deeds when he was offered
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