NEWMAN – The after-school programs offered in Newman-Crows Landing schools have developed into extensions of the school day, setting aside designated times for participants to complete their homework, receive tutorial help in core subjects as needed and also take part in educational enhancement activities in areas such as fitness, math, science, performing and visual arts, family literacy, health and safety.

New to the local district’s program this year is an emphasis on the arts. Students who wish to participate will find drama, fashion design and voice classes at the high school, a music composition session at Hunt, a play writing and skit performance program at Yolo and choir, recorders, guitar and reader’s theater at Von Renner.

These are just some of the art classes or sessions that are currently taking place through the local after school programs.

Reader’s theater, offered at Von Renner Elementary, is one of the new programs offered this year. Teacher MaryBeth Roe said the program was the brainchild of Mary Williams, the district’s after-school program director, who wanted to support the after-school drama programs at the high school and junior high. She said the likelihood of students trying out for school performances will increase if they have been exposed to and experienced the thrill of performing in front of a group.

That’s precisely what Roe saw happening as the first class of third-grade students began performing.

Reader’s theater is a non-threatening way for students to perform in front of their peers, she explained, and will improve their reading skills-fluency, expression, comprehension and vocabularies.

“As an added bonus, students are exposed to many old fairy tales and their wonderfully rich language,” Roe expressed.

For the first session, Roe adapted the common fairy tale of “Three Little Pigs” into a modern-day tale of the “Five Little Pigs,” creating characters and dialogue her students could relate to while keeping the original storyline intact.

The play is kept simple, the lines are read aloud from a script, a few minor props are utilized and no stage is needed. It is a traveling performance, moving from classroom to classroom and only lasting about 10 minutes but bringing a huge reward of accomplishment for the cast of players.

The students who volunteered for the class rehearsed for about three weeks, Roe said, and then it was show time! “It wasn’t until the kids got in front of that first audience, and got their first laughs and applause, that the magic happened,” she described.

Some were hooked and with each subsequent performance their act improved.

“I only gave them the direction to read their parts with expression and with loud enough voices for their audience to hear, and they did the rest,” Roe explained. The students created their own personalities for their characters and their own unique movements for their roles.

Brayan Martinez and Erick Romero, who played Mutt and Jeff respectively, said they were nervous before their first performance, afraid they would mess up their lines by saying them too fast. “But it gets easier with practice,” they both agreed.

Julia Kaminski and Monique Medina played Dotty and Daisy, the pigs who built their house with sticks. They thought it was great to use a couple of hand mirrors as props for their roles. “We liked being able to pretend we were the characters and act out our lines,” they said, “especially the one where they proclaim they are the cutest in the land.”

The role of Jasmine, the pig who built her house out of bricks, was played by Makayla Perry who smiled throughout most of the performance. “I liked my part because I got to pretend like I was marching as I said ‘Hi-Ho’ and be off to work,” she described.

Some of the young actors found changing their voices helped them play their character.

Evan Orlando played the Man with Supplies and was right on cue with his lines delivered with a unique Southern accent he invented for the part.

Alexandra Rubalcava said it was difficult at first to sound like her character of the Wolf.......but that it was really fun when it came to the howling.

Mother Pig was played by Daisy Alfaro, shy and barely audible when the class first began but by the last performance had found her voice strong and confident.

“When we first began we used a microphone to make sure our audience would hear us but found we didn’t need it as the performances developed,” explained Roe, who narrated the performances.

Reader’s theater is a program that will continue throughout the year at Von Renner. Each session will include a live reading that students perform for the other after school classes. The next session begins immediately, a new opportunity for more students to find their voices and acting skills.