The Ages project will involve over 100 Santa Barbara area students from fourth grade through high school who will interview some of our community’s valued senior citizens about their life stories.

Under the guidance of Boxtales Theatre Company, the students will use these elders’ life stories as the basis for creating original theater sketches to be performed in school assemblies and in a special performance at the Lobero Theatre on December 13, 2008.

This program is funded by in part by the Santa Barbara Foundation, Karuna Foundation, Weingart Foundation, Venoco Foundation, High Tide Foundation, Bower Foundation.

Friday, December 19, 2008

The Ages Reviewed in the SB Independent



Thursday, December 18, 2008 The Ages Project by Boxtales debuted its stage show at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara.

The performance received a review by Esther Tran-Le of The Independent, who wrote:
The Ages glowed with pure sincerity and respect for the elders’ lives portrayed. The children moved through the play brushing up against experiences far beyond those of their present youth like racism, fear, and war. Yet these kids gave up these old experiences to innocence and made The Ages a gentle bridge between two distant generations.

Read the entire review here:
link

Sunday, November 23, 2008

I love these posts!

I love reading these letters and comments by the students! It's been incredible watching your (Boxtales') work with the kids and also the elders' interaction with them at Washington School. Thank you so much for this incredible opportunity. It's been a journey that our students will carry with them for a lifetime. Thank you. Boxtales rocks!

Harriet Whaley

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

FUN at boxtales!

         11-04-08


     Boxtales is realy fun (: because there's lot's "o" acting 
and well.....sitting still but it's still a blast


                                                                                    jackson eddy

Monday, October 27, 2008

Our day on Tuesday

Last Tuesday we did some fun exercises that helped us act. Our teacher made us do a pattern with a tennis ball and remember it. Then he added another ball to our game with a different pattern. It was hard, but it was fun trying. Then he set three balls on the floor. He told us that wen we stepped near the first ball we would act like we were stepping in mud. The next ball was cement, and the third ball was through toilet paper. So we walked through the balls until we reached first ball. That's when the acting began. We slowly got to the finish, when our teacher told us to do three more. The first was walking through marshmallows. The second ball was walking through jello, then walking through ice cream. So again we started walking normally until we reached the first ball. When we once again ended up at the other side he gave us more things to act up on with the balls. The first was being mad. The second was being depressed, then the last was falling in love. Once again we made it slowly across the room, where we got another set. Being crazy, being happy, and being lazy. Once we made it through, our teacher told us to create a story using all the emotions we just did. After that it was time to go home, so we packed our bags and left the building. We had so much fun!
Olivia Seoane

Friday, October 24, 2008

Remembered Stories


Anne's Blog!

Hey Everybody!
One of our elders, Anne Warburton has a blog!
It is called pawsdelux; please check it out.
THANKS.
click here:
link

Friday, October 10, 2008

The Ages Takes Off

After a week of theater games and interview exercises the students from the Hope School District were ready to meet their elders. We were honored to begin the process with two amazing women- Bettina Barrett (a former nurse originally from Denmark) and Anne Warburton (a retired children's librarian who grew up on a ranch in Wyoming.)



The students prepared several questions which we put into two categories: full stop questions and springboard questions. Their full stop questions were designed to elicit basic information like age, marital status, number of children or grandchildren etc. These are questions that can be answered either with a "yes" or "no" or with a short statement. Their springboard questions are designed to spark a memory or feeling. They are open ended and prime the interviewee to tell a full fledged story. "Did you ever do something you were ashamed of?" asked one student. "What was it like sailing across the ocean knowing you were moving to America?" another student asked.

Even in the presence of the video camera and lights the students and the women they interviewed were instantly comfortable with one another. Even though they'd just met, they seemed like family- like a curious group of grandchildren surrounding their grandmother and demanding stories. Watching the young and old faces light up in each other's presence was very inspiring.