Biff! All the World's a -Pow!- Stage
The Times of Trenton
March 3, 2006
By Kelly Rouba

At Sherman Avenue Middle School Academy, students are learning how to fight. Stage fight, that is.

It's all part of a new language arts program aimed at finding self-expression through an author's written word. Student teacher Jennifer Harford is behind the idea to partner the Trenton alternative school with the Ateh Theater Group of New York.

``I saw that there was no art program, no drama program,'' Harford said of the middle school that takes children in grades six through eight who have been removed from traditional Trenton public schools. ``These students shouldn't be isolated from the rest of the world,'' Harford said. ``We needed to find other ways to get them involved in reading and writing.''

Harford, who is attending Rider University, enlisted the theater group to spend a total of eight days between February and March with students to aid them in the process. As part of their overall grade for the unit of study, students are expected to incorporate artwork and improvisational techniques into a presentation of a work they selected or wrote relating to ``A Midsummer Night's Dream'' or Black History Month. ``We are trying to give the students a project where they have a lot of decisions to make,'' Harford said.

Kathryn Ekblad, a certified fight instructor with Ateh, said she noticed some of the students were reluctant to learn stage fighting at first because they think they already know how to fight. With stage fighting, she said, ``It looks real, but nobody ever gets hurt. They learn how to do it without hurting anyone. It ends up being a teamwork experience because they are working together.'' ``We start with stage fighting and improvisation just to get everything juiced up,'' Harford said.

After only a few days, language arts teacher Anna Kreyman has noticed a change in her students. ``They are a lot more engaged than they normally are,'' she said. Cheryl Fleischman, an in-class support teacher, noticed that attendance increases on the days the students will be studying theater and art. ``Some of the kids who very rarely come to school are (now) coming to school,'' Fleischman said.

``I love the theater. Art is great,'' said Kirsten Mayes, an eighth-grader. Mayes, who proudly displayed a picture of a bird she drew, said she loves it when she can discuss project ideas in art class on Friday. Mayes said the pupils made tie-dyed shirts and towels to wear during their presentations. Keenan Kparway, a sixth-grader, said, ``I liked stage combat. It was fun. I like doing it more than work.'' ``We are not doing classwork, but we are still learning,'' Mayes added of the time spent away from studying math or science. ``My dream is to become an actress or a singer. Doing theater, I felt like I was on Broadway. As for now, we are thinking what character we want to do or what we want to say.'' Members of Ateh said they are impressed with the talent the students have shown so far.