Le Petit Studio with Toto Kisaku

Oddfellows Playhouse announces “Le Petit Studio”, a series of three theater workshops for ages 8 – 14 and their family members. The first workshop is Saturday, January 26, 10am to noon at Oddfellows Playhouse, 128 Washington Street in Middletown.

Each week will be a new theater experience, a new story, a new creation. Work with Congolese theater artist Toto Kisaku to create instant theater on three Saturday mornings this winter -- January 26, February 9 & February 23, 10 am to noon. Attend one Saturday, or all three. Tuition is $30 per session, or $75 for all three sessions. Financial aid is available. A unique opportunity to work together as a family on a creative project, and to join other kids and families in the process.

Toto Kisaku is a Congolese theater artist who is now a Middletown resident. His one-person show, "Requiem for an Electric Chair", was a highlight of last summer's International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven. Le Petit Studio is an exciting kid and family theater event that Toto has devised and implemented all over the country. Here is a description in his words:

What is it? Le Petit Studio is a workshop space for dramatic readings by and for children and adolescents, with optional participation by adults, including teachers, parents, and grandparents! The Petit Studio promotes a shared space where young people can experience and create around books, words, and sounds. A place to dramatize and recreate a universe that comes from writers from every part of the globe.

Why do this? Creativity is exciting, it’s exhilarating. And creating with other people brings them into our lives in a way that is empowering--the opposite of violence, which keeps others on the outside. Creating safe spaces for young people to be creators of their own lives and experiences is vital to developing the neighborhoods, the communities, the cities we dream of.

How will it happen? Imagine in 2 hours that a group of young people can recreate an entire world on stage. Imagine that they take responsibility for making artistic decisions to realize their vision and make their story come alive. First, the children choose a book or fable to dramatize. Next, they decide who will play each character, who will make sounds that will create the environment, and who will design the costumes and the set. Then the activity begins! For one hour, the young people cut, sew, paint, staple, and draw; they sing, whistle, blow, snap, stomp, and make unearthly sounds to recreate the world they’re creating; they practice voices for characters, look up how to pronounce unfamiliar words, try out various postures that fit their characters, and dig deeply into their characters—how they feel about themselves, how they feel about the other characters.

Each workshop culminates with a performance: the costume group dresses their characters, who now read their individual parts with the sound effects group adding the appropriate accompaniment. There is much laughter and enthusiastic participation as the young people experience the joy of creating together.

Toto has led more than 40 Le Petit Studio workshops for schools, nonprofit organizations and governments.

To register, or for more information, contact Oddfellows Playhouse at (860) 347-6143, email info@oddfellows.org, or go to www.oddfellows.org.