Cans of Creativity

Posted by M.Govier on May 16, 2012 at 12:31 PM
General School Shows

People have been asking about our stockpile of creativity.  Well, we
have an underground base we store all of the creativity in.  Maybe you
have some cans of creativity in the back of your closet, or under your
bed, or hidden inside those blank pages of paper.  Well here is a
recipe from the Monkey cookbook.

Recipe for 1000
You will need:

1 bed sheet
5 wooden dowels
2 pillows
1 picture frame
16 oz’s of creativity (more or less to taste)

Place all of these in the hands of Barrel of Monkeys and wait 10
minutes. You will see images appear such as a giant cake, people being
pulled into a video game, and a giant bed to tell you it was all a
dream.

This meal pairs well with chocolate milk.

Good news, we have so many cans of creativity that we are cooking up a storm!

Bon Appetit,
  The Monkey Cooks

Found Them

Posted by M.Govier on May 7, 2012 at 06:20 PM
School Shows

It’s springtime and I (Michael Govier) have been doing a little cleaning.  I was going through some boxes and found my old blogging pants.  So I tried them on and… guess what? They still fit.

Let’s go for a blog!

What’s new with me?  I just got back from the Kentucky Derby.  “I’ll have Another” won the big race. Now you might be wondering if the name “I’ll Have Another” is about drinking, that is what I thought.  The owner of the horse loves cookies, and as his wife puts them away, he always says, “I’ll Have Another”.

That is what I always say when I think about Barrel of Monkeys.  I’ll have another school show.  I’ll have another Monday night show.  I’ll have another, baby!

Now for the next two weeks, I am going to keep these sweet blogging pants on and tell you tales from our current school show at Morton. Not the steakhouse.  I know, I was really disappointed too.  I thought Barrel of Monkeys was doing their first show at a steakhouse, alas, that was not the case.  I am excited to help bring these wonderful stories to life for the kids at Morton Elementary.

Also if anyone wants to buy me a steak at Morton’s (the steakhouse, not the school) I am in.

Best,
  Govier

We lived! We laughed! We LEARNed!

Posted by Katie Marie on May 7, 2012 at 09:26 AM
School Shows

Ten glorious days ago, Barrel of Monkeys performed our first of two school performances at LEARN Campbell. It. Was. Awesome. Reading, adapting and rehearsing stories for a school show is always so much fun, but as an actor, the most rewarding part of the process is the in-school performance, when you see and hear the kids react to the adaptations of their own and each other’s writing.

Ten glorious student reactions from the show, in no particular order:
1. The roar of the children when Brandon, as the heartbroken father werewolf in Diante and Miles’ “The Serious Day”, howled at a full moon to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”.
2. The “eeeeeewwww” of the Kindergarteners in response to the prospect of eating fish in Vashanti’s untitled story.
3. The “eeeeeewwww” of all the students in response to a quick stage kiss during the wedding in Bentrell’s “We Got Married”.
4. The collective hubbub when, in an adaptation based on Nakhia’s true story about the time she thought she broke her leg, her mother told her to calm down because if she could move her leg, it wasn’t broken. And a similar reaction to the line “Get your attitude straight” written by Ariejah and Jenay in a dialogue that took place at a zoo. (“Ohhh no she didn’t!”,  “Ahhh, she told her!!”, “Oooooo!”).
5. Cheers and dancing along with the cast of “Celebrities” to “The Wobble” (Thanks, Jaali, Aliya, Zuri and Jalen! Our new favorite dance is The Wobble, too!).
6. So much singing to Justin Bieber in Malik’s “Talent Show”!
7. Screams and squeals and giggles when Laura got a pie in the face and Dan got spaghetti in his hair in Kyjuan’s “Weird Party by the Bus Station”.
8. The empathetic “awww” when Dixie let out a sad “Meow” after being berated for not ordering the on sale chicken combo in Lanyah’s story about two cats in NYC.
9. Belly laughs at Dan as a corkscrew-curled Princess and Ryan as a split-personalitied Duchess/Queen’s messenger in Iyonna’s “I Am a Princess”.
10. Hugs! So many hugs! As the cast cleaned up the stage and props after the show, we watched student after student come up to their Monkey teachers to give them a hug and thanks for a wonderful experience. We love you too, LEARN Campbell! Thank YOU!

Coming soon to LEARN: Singing and dancing and human puppets!

Posted by Katie Marie on April 25, 2012 at 04:32 PM
School Shows

We are so excited!  We are geeking out! We are singing about cinnamon toast rolls! We are performing at LEARN Campbell Elementary on Friday!!!

This is our first of two residencies at LEARN Campbell this year, and it was what we call a single class residency, meaning that we taught one group of students every week for 6 weeks at the school (as opposed to two or three groups of students). This is rare for us, but even MORE rare is that this single class was comprised of students from three different classrooms. Woah!  Because we only taught one group of students, we have the absolute pleasure of having stories from every single student in the group adapted for their show on Friday! This is fun and wonderful for us, but I’m going to go ahead and guess that it’s going to be a SUPERTREAT for the students.

Some of their stories have been turned into songs (with dancing!):

And some have been turned into plays (with acting!):

We hope the students love watching their stories come to life as much as we loved reading and adapting them! YAY FRIDAY!!

Dawes 4.  (We’re skipping 3.  Going right to the revenge.)

Posted by Brennan on April 19, 2012 at 05:29 PM
School Shows

It’s (not) important (at all) to note that, in order to help me start this blog entry, I just watched the “Jaws 4” trailer.  Dudes.  This time, it’s personal. 

(Is it personal because that’s the one with like a baby shark or something at the end?  PS—Spoiler alert.  Except probably not, because I get them all confused.  In one there’s this shark family thing, and in one there’s like this robot shark.  Also, close that beach.)

I’m stalling a bit, because I’m a little embarrassed to be writing this a few days late.  But not SO embarrassed that I won’t write it at all!  Hurray for getting over ourselves!
This past Monday morning, the Dawes School Show cast marched into Dawes Elementary, (under our arms: piles of cardboard boats, tutus, George Washington wigs made of toilet paper rolls, and giant tv-box-sized Red Lobster tables complete with pop-up buckets of crab, lemon butter sauce, and ice cream…you know, the uusch), and as has been widely declared and agreed-upon, a grand time was had by all.  What a wonderful morning….

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