March 15, 2007

Part of the cast of this weekend’s Antioch School performance of “Peter and the Wolf” got into character last week. They are, from left, Alaina Hoff, water; Henry Potts-Rubin, a hunter; Jorie Sieck, the wolf; Jesse Beard, a hunter; Landon Rhoads, Peter; Cecilia Comerford, Grandpa; Ket Snyder-White, water; and Lena Bingenheimer, a hunter. Students will perform with the Community Orchestra on Sunday, March 18, at 3:30 p.m. in the Bryan Community Center gym.

By Lauren Heaton

Everyone knows the age-old musical themes of the timeless classic, “Peter and the Wolf.” Or do we? The rump, thump, thumping of grandpa’s bassoon warning the hop, skip, plink of Peter’s strings not to venture out into the meadow? The flit, flitting of the bird’s flute as it makes a narrow escape? The wolf’s French horns and the timpani drums that sound the hunters’ call?

It has been about 10 years, maybe more, since anyone in Yellow Springs has performed the musical tale that Sergei Prokofiev composed for children’s theater in 1936, and local conductor Cammy Dell Grote, for one, thought it was time to introduce a new generation to the sounds of the orchestra.

Proceeds from the concert will benefit the school’s Emily Bailey Artist-in-Residence Fund.

The younger group (YG) students at the Antioch School along with the Yellow Springs Community Orchestra will perform “Peter and the Wolf” on Sunday, March 18, at 3:30 p.m. in the Bryan Community Center gym. While the orchestra plays, former Antioch School teacher Bill Mullins will narrate, and the children will act without words in a new kind of performance they have named “actorstra.”

“This story was a brilliant idea Prokofiev had as an introduction to the orchestra,” Grote said. “The melodies are so singable, and it’s such a fun way to get to know the sounds of all the instruments.”

“Peter and the Wolf,” according to the YG students in Kit Crawford’s class, is a story about a curious boy named Peter, played by Landon Rhoads, who wants to go to the meadow to play. His grandfather, played by Cecelia Comerford, tells him it’s too dangerous “because what if a wolf came out of the forest,” Comerford explained. Then a big grey wolf does come, Eric Romohr said.... and the cat runs up the tree, the bird flies up in the air, and the duck gets eaten by the wolf, the others exclaimed.

The story twists and turns some more, but the thing the students find challenging is listening for their cues, which don’t all come from the narrator, they said. Their cues must come from the music.

Samantha Bold, who plays a tree, listens for the sound of the blaring of the horns as the wolf snaps up the duck as her cue to begin trembling with sadness. Ket White and Alaina Hoff, who play the pond, know when the music gets sad and scary after the duck gets eaten, that they are supposed to make a big wave with the water to disappear the duck.

Jeff Crawford is one of the hunters who loves being right beside the orchestra when his part is called out by the banging of the timpani drum. “It’s a thrill to be right by the loud drum!” he said. And Danny Grote, who plays one of the hunters, likes it when the cymbals crash as the cat tries to get the bird.

The story is short and sweet, just 35 minutes long, perfect for young kids and charming for everyone “from zero to 99,” Cammy Grote said. In the beginning of the piece, each charactersin the story gets introduced along with the instruments that represent him or her. The narrator tells the story as the instruments play out the actions. For the uninitiated, said Grote, classical music can seem very inaccessible, and Peter and the Wolf is a “delightful way to make the whole thing more approachable,” she said.

Grote, who teaches private piano lessons at home so she can be with her son, Danny, said she was glad to get a chance to conduct. And Shirley Mullins, who usually conducts the Community Orchestra and has organized the musicians for the performance, said she was delighted to get a chance to play the cello and let someone else handle the stress of leading. Many of the musicians have commented about the nostalgia they feel playing what they affectionately call “P and W,” said Grote, who hopes this experience will produce the same feelings for the children later on in their lives.

Last week at the Antioch School, Grote heard a few of the boys humming the Peter theme as they were playing in the corner of their classroom.

“That’s really why I wanted to do this,” she said. “So that they would be familiar with these wonderful themes.”

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com