Hakuna Matata: Turnaround Arts Schools Get a Lion King Lesson
More than 500 5th and 6th grade students from DMPS Turnaround Arts school attended a performance of Disney’s The Lion King.
Thursday’s dreary weather may have played some havoc at schools with outdoor events such as Field Day or an outing to the Iowa Cubs game planned. But it was absolute hakuna matata for about 500 DMPS 5th and 6th graders from Cattell, Findley, Madison and Oak Park Elementary schools and Harding Middle School. They were treated to a fieldtrip deluxe at a matinee performance of Disney’s The Lion King at the Des Moines Civic Center.
The extraordinary opportunity came knocking courtesy of One by One: Laying a Foundation of Learning Through the Arts, a partnership between Des Moines Performing Arts and Des Moines Public Schools.
Karoline Myers, the DMPA Education Manager, had an idea that something like this might make sense as a tie-in with the district’s cohort of Turnaround Arts schools in the Northside feeder pattern. She shared it with DMPS Turnaround Arts Coordinator Sarah Dougherty who jumped on board. So did Myers’ bosses at DMPA. A grant was secured from the Broadway League, supplemented by private fundraising. Disney even made some concessions on ticket pricing. And Thursday it all came together as smoothly as a Broadway production. Schools and theaters alike, after all, are places where the show must go on.
“This experience will be unlike any other most of these kids have ever had,” said Myers in the Civic Center lobby just as the show was beginning. “And it’s one they’ll have in common as they continue on through middle and high school.”
The students involved in this program have spent classroom time participating in activities inspired by The Lion King.
“Oh yes, the students are psyched for the show,” said art teacher Sarah Skidmore, one of the escorts for the Oak Park contingent, who looked a little psyched herself as her group settled into their seats minutes before curtain time. “We really started working and building towards this after winter break with artist residencies across the curriculum. In art class, for instance, they’ve been studying the meanings behind African masks, then designing and making their own out of clay.”
The DMPS kids were just one big chunk of a sellout crowd. This performance was not part of the Applause series that goes on throughout the school year and consists of shows tailor made for and limited to school audiences. Part of the experience was how to maneuver and behave in big crowds at public venues. Everyone clutched their ticket like the valuable prize it was. They’d all been coached at school about theater etiquette and were well-prepared to play their part as a proper audience. But the preshow buzz felt a little more palpable because of the heightened level of youthful excitement and energy pulsing through the lobbies.
Normally the school day ends at 3:00 PM. Curtain time was 2:00. By the time the kids, who were also going to get some special Q&A time after the show with Mufasa and some of the other cast members, got picked up back at school it would probably be 5:30 or so, according to Skidmore. Isn’t that a long time to stay after school? She looked at the towheaded Simba seated next to her and he looked back. They both smiled.
Hakuna matata…
