Drama club slumbers to new heights in production

Special to Leader-Press 

It is often said that the third time is the charm and the third year proved to be the charm for the Martin Walker Elementary School drama club which received a Copperas Cove Education Foundation grant to sponsor a production of Sleeping Beauty. After months of hard work and rehearsals, students brought down the house with their performance that audience members described as “magical.”
This is the third year that Martin Walker has had a drama club on campus under the direction of teacher Hillary Newton. The first year, students worked on voice and fluency by utilizing readers’ theatre and performing for the kindergarten class. The second year, Martin Walker sponsored the play, The Jungle Book. 
“It takes a lot of work, but in the end the students learn so much and they have this amazing experience,” Newton said. “Not only do drama club students get this amazing experience, but the entire campus gets to see the magic of theatre.”  
Students performed “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” during first grade’s fairy tale unit. As students continue to work on fluency and voice in readers’ theatre, Newton monitors. She explains to her students that everything they do is a part of their audition. This includes the way they treat each other and how hard they work, even on an activity as simple as readers’ theatre. The club has students ranging from first grade to fifth grade, so they have to work together and help younger, less fluent students to become just as great as the older more experienced students. 
Principal Amanda Crawley says the drama club has had an extremely positive impact at Martin Walker.
“It’s one of our clubs that allows our students to express themselves, use dramatic flair, and learn acting techniques to build confidence at an early age,” Crawley said.
Samantha Parker is one of only two students who has been in drama club for its entire existence. 
“The reason I stayed in drama club was because I wanted to actually act in a school play,” said Parker, who played the role of Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty. “My favorite part to play was Mowgli in the Jungle Book.” 
Brooklynn Bryan was cast as Princess Aurora.
“I really liked the warmups that we do in drama club. I think they help me to not just be able to say things, but to be able to act it out as well,” Bryan said. “I really liked doing the readers’ theatre when we got to perform for the other classes.”