Tableau
tableau – a special kind of performance.
One person, the
narrator, tells the story. The rest of the actors don’t talk. They
silently make pictures with their bodies to tell the story. They freeze
in a position that helps to tell the story. Then they move to another
position that tells the audience what happens next.
We did a Christmas pageant about Santa’s
helpful elves.
First, everyone wrote a Christmas story. Then with
our teacher’s help we decided which ideas would make the most interesting
story for a tableau. We had a couple of kids write the the final version.
Our teacher added some more ideas so we had a really interesting story.
Here is our story.
Elves to the Rescue
By Kalie and Lizbeth
It was two days before Christmas. Mrs. Folman had spent her last dollar
on medicine for her little girl. There was only breakfast cereal left
for dinner.
Santa’s littlest elf stood outside the window of their apartment
and watched as the three children ate.
There was not a Christmas tree in house. The children didn’t
talk about presents, but Peter, the oldest boy, did say that his best
friend might get a bicycle for Christmas. The littlest girl, Sarah,
told her mama that her teddy bear had a hole and was losing his stuffing.
Maria sighed and said it would be so nice to have a Christmas tree.
Mama said she’d try to mend the bear, but there was no money
for a Christmas tree. The littlest elf was very sad.
Back at the North Pole, Timmy, the littlest elf told Mrs. Claus about
the family.
She told Santa. Santa sent his elves to work.
Then Sandra and Sally elves went to work gathering food for wonderful
dinners for the whole month of January.
William and Willard elves went to find toys. They at least wanted
a teddy bear and a bicycle. But what to get for Maria, the middle
girl?
Timmy, the littlest elf, got Tina and Terry elves to help him get
a Christmas tree and something for Mama.
Mrs. Claus went with them to put up the tree and put the gifts at
its base. They carefully put the food in the cupboard.
They ended by putting lovely fresh rolls and milk on the table for
breakfast. They finished just in time to hide and see the family come
in to see the wonderful surprise.
The next day, Mrs. Folman told her neighbor about the wonderful surprise!
Her neighbor, Mrs. Sanchez, just smiled. |
We chose one student to read the story. We chose parts so that everyone
was either in the family or was Santa, his wife, or the elves.
Next we decided which “pictures” would tell the story for
our audience.
- The littlest Elf watching the family having
little to eat and the children talking about others having a nice Christmas
.
- The littlest Elf telling Santa about the family.
- The elves making and finding the gifts.
- The elves bringing the gifts
- The family finding the gifts.
- Finally, Mama telling her neighbor about the wonderful
Christmas. (Do you suppose Mrs. Sanchez had anything to do with the
Christmas gifts?)
We practiced the tableau “pictures”
with our being the characters frozen in the position of the characters
while our narrator read the story. Then we decided we’d have more
fun if we added a bit of dialogue to each scene. We practiced that.
Then we went looking for props and costumes. We found elf hats and an
apron for the mother. We found dishes for the family and the gifts. We
also found a cardboard Christmas tree in another classroom!
On the day of our show, we practiced the
whole tableau twice, with comments from our teacher to help us do better.
Then we performed for the first and second graders. They liked our tableau!
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