Brava, Westridge Lower School! Fifty students across 4th, 5th, and 6th grades performed original group plays to a packed audience in Braun Auditorium on Wednesday. The performances marked the culmination of a months-long after-school playwriting and performance workshop, introduced this year and led by Pasadena Playhouse Teaching Artists Emoria Weidner and Christopher Cid. Titled "Prom Night on a Boat," "Once Upon a Slop," and "Camp Donkey Corn," the performances were a product of collaborative imagination and storytelling done in the sessions, per Weidner.

Elliott S. '33, a self-proclaimed theatre kid who was part of "Prom Night on a Boat," described the whole experience in one word: "amazing." She enjoyed writing the play with friends and peers she got to know during the workshop sessions.

Participants began by building trust within the groups through a series of theatre games. (“We need to be able to trust each other if we’re going to be writing and performing stories,” Weidner shared.) Then, the groups discussed play structure—including a genre, theme, setting, plot, and characters.

After discussion and voting, students worked together to brainstorm a plot and worked individually to create original characters. Weidner grouped similar characters together, and students worked on storytelling to ensure they fit into the main plot. In the last few weeks of class, the groups were hard at work rehearsing the plays for the final showings.

“I’ve worked in theatre education for over 15 years, and the main thing I see theatre bringing to young people is confidence,” Weidner shared. “ … Quiet kids grow into their own, realizing they are allowed and even encouraged to take up space and be heard when performing theatre. Even already bold and confident kids gain something very special, which is learning how to share the space with others and celebrate their own strengths while working in a group that celebrates everyone else, too.”

She added: “What could be more important than an art form that encourages empathy and emotion?”

Click here to see photos from the performances!