Usually, someone thinks of a train whistle, and I show them how this whistle begins the phrase (m. I often have the children pretend they are composers and do an interaction around the phrase “A train! A train! A train! A train! Could you, would you, could you, on a train?” First I ask them if they could imagine any sound or instrument associated with a train. Since Sam-I-Am asks the Grouch to try the eggs over and over with no success, I ask the children what makes the final request successful? What would they do, if they were composers, to make the music of the last request special? Should it be the loudest, softest, longest etc.? Then I suggest they listen closely, during the performance, to hear what I did to make this last request special and to tell me after the performance. This gets them involved with listening to interpretation.įrom this it is easy to move to musical issues. Did they whine? Threaten? Cajole? I have individual children stand and try different lines from Green Eggs and Ham using various intonations like whining, threatening, and so on. I then ask how they got their parents to try it. Consequently, I often begin by asking the children in the audience to tell me something they have gotten their parents to try that the parents were sure they would not like, for example, marshmallow fluff, or bungee jumping. Seuss' story is a parable in which a child teaches an adult about prejudice- green eggs and ham representing all those things that we are sure we will not like even though we have not tried them. Should the conductor wish to try one of these sessions, I would like to offer some suggestions based on what I have found to be successful. These sessions have turned out to be lots of fun and they greatly increase the audience's understanding of the performance. (Kids love to hear themselves over a microphone!) This portion of the program ranges from 5 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on whether or not any other piece is programmed with Green Eggs and Ham.
I go out into the audience with a hand-held microphone and talk directly to the children and parents. Although Green Eggs and Ham can be performed as a purely musical/theatrical event I always precede the musical performance with an interactive session with the audience.
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