Snow White and the Seven Little Children

School days come and go… but we wanted this one to be special for the children and their parents. So we, the staff at this small school in a remote corner of India, decided to stage “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

One of the most challenging and enjoyable roles of a teacher is preparing children for a play… especially if the children are in high school… The experience of coaching them and getting them to practice describing the challenges.

Snow White and the rest of the cast were grade 5 or below. A cute and talented third grader became Snow White more because she was relatively less mischievous. The role of the evil queen went to a smart fifth grader who was very good at acting.

The seven dwarfs were chosen for their bright eyes, exuberance and overall optimism about everything… as you’ll soon see… The prince, appearing alone in the last scene, was a quiet boy who learned his lines and recited them when called upon. I asked for, a redeeming quality… as you will soon see…..

With minimal and minor hiccups, we made the children’s words perfect for the play. They were very excited, even the seven small children… since they had to be themselves, fun and lively.

The big day arrived… Everyone was excited. The children were angels when it came to punctuality and dress rehearsals. With the play scheduled for 7:00 pm, the children were brought to the green room at half past five.

Since the dwarves’ costume was not complicated, they prepared themselves first, put on their beards, mustaches, and wigs, and marched them to stand in line, waiting for their big moment… This was a big mistake…

They waited, 10 minutes… like good children, silent and happy… The next 10 minutes they looked around and drew the attention of others to their costume. Some posed for photos… They began to speak… softly, louder… louder until they were ordered to stand with their fingers to their lips.

It was then that the taller of the boys noticed a beautiful dug hole just behind the green room. He silently gestured to the other children and said, “Let’s see who jumps out first.”

Those who couldn’t jump simply slid down, whooped in victory, and then scrambled back to the ground. This seemed to be a good game to pass the time… By the time they were lost and detected, each dwarf could be credited with at least 3 attempts to jump in and out…

Their attire bore witness to this fact… The suits were terribly muddy, the mustaches and beards were crooked, there was no trace of make-up, and little fights had broken out between men… Of course they were lucky to have the nice axes of silver colored cardboard that we had made for them, to begin their skirmishes. “Bang! Crash!” articulated to simulate a well-fought ax duel….

However, the axes had not been designed for this eventuality and they bore the brunt of the fights… all the axes bowed evenly and then some fell apart…

The teachers quickly fixed up the seven little boys, making them presentable for the play. Mustaches were glued back, clothes were dusted, spare axes were given and makeup was put on again…

The play started… The queen, the king, Snow White and the queen’s henchman were unbelievably good… Now our little kids were sent on stage… Everyone got ready with their axes on their shoulders and a happy smile. faces… except one… This little boy didn’t want his whiskers… ever again… his nose was being tickled! He cried for his mother and kept twitching his nose and sneezing until she fell…now he looked like what he was…a third grader…

Although he took the stage without a mustache, he played his role well, just like the other six boys… We almost became complacent when the other surprises that awaited us were revealed…

It was the scene of Snow White’s happy domestic life in the dwarfs’ cottage… She sang and danced and dusted and cleaned… The parents of the girl who played the part were so proud of her that her father decided that needed to be photographed/videotaped/captured on mobile at that moment… So, like any loving father, he asked his other daughter (3 years old) to come up on stage and pose with his now famous sister Snow White.. .

Snow White loved all the attention, she stopped singing and started posing for pictures… I mean… how many times would this moment repeat itself for her? She did the best she could…

The play started after 10 minutes when one of us lifted the three-year-old off the stage and politely informed the now-smiling father that people were waiting to watch the play unfold so he could take the rest of the photos. after the play. ?… Being magnanimous at heart, he complied and leaned back in his seat to watch the rest of the drama…

A real drama it was now…the evil queen came with the pretty lace and bows…she was applauded for her acting prowess by the parents while the children watched her wickedness with their mouths open…Then the stepmother disappeared…

It was the scene where I had to give Snow White the poisoned apple… Well… Snow White sang and knitted and danced and cleaned, waiting for the queen to appear, so did we… there seemed to be a stir backstage. ..

What actually happened was… the basket of bright red apples (five of them) tipped over and the apples rolled… none could be traced… A first grader wanted to help find it… he searched around and then ran back to the director.. “Is he okay?” he asked… she had a red ball the size of a melon in her hand, which he had found somewhere… It also had wide white stripes…

I won’t dwell on the director’s plight, nor will I stop to consider whether he considered using the huge plastic ball…for the apple…because at that moment an apple was located… It had rolled onto the stage and was installed under Snow White’s chair…

An enterprising fourth grader, who was the host for the evening, happily jumped up on stage and said, “Hello, Snow White! How are you? I’ll be right back…” and deftly picked up the apple and went back on stage… .

There were no mishaps after that… The prince brought Snow White back to life and the dwarfs cheered and lowered the curtains…

Much later, while the main guests and the school management were warmly appreciating the teachers’ efforts to make the play a success… I wondered if we would be prepared enough to direct another play next year… Maybe time… “Alibaba and the 40 thieves”? Does anyone want to direct it?