(upbeat music)
-: I'm Gillian Jorgensen.
I'm the education director for Book-It Repertory Theatre.
-: My name is Nora, I'm in sixth grade.
-: My name is Rouchie, I'm in second grade.
-: For today's lesson,
we are gong to explore a story called
"A Very Deep Hole in the Ground
with a Very Dangerous Creature at the Bottom."
-: (girls in unison) Dun-dun-dun!
(Gillian laughs)
-: Okay, to do this story,
you need a lot of imagination
and you need a few props because,
we're not really gonna dig a hole in our apartment floor.
Here's what you're gonna need.
To make your hole in the ground,
you'll need something to make an outline of the pit:
blue tape or yarn, or string.
You could also use pillows to make a border.
You could even use stuffed animals.
Any of those things will work to make the pit.
Hey Nora. -: Yeah?
-: What should we use to make it look like there's a pit
in our apartment?
-: Well, since we can't dig a hole,
we could build things up from the ground.
-: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, okay, so that's one way.
What else could we do, Rouchie?
-: Well, if we build things up from the ground,
if it was a very deep hole,
then we couldn't exactly step over the things.
Just be like, hey, this is cool,
it's not too tall at all.
-: Oh yeah, okay.
So what we're trying to figure out
is how we're gonna make that hole,
and it takes some talking,
just like how I was talking to Nora
and I was talking to Rouchie.
So when we actually make our hole,
our very deep hole in the ground,
we're gonna take some time to talk to each other
to figure something out
so that we all agree about how it looks.
Okay, we've made our pit.
We used masking tape
and taped it right on the floor in a rectangle.
That's the shape that I used,
but it could be circle or an octagon
or a rhombus, or any shape you want for a pit.
If you live somewhere where you can't tape
on the rug or the floor,
you can also make your pit out of pillows.
You can make a shape that is a border of the pillows.
Now that we've got our pit,
there's only one thing to do.
-: What?
-: Fall into it!
Nora? -: Yes?
-: Will you please fall into a pit?
-: I will. -: Okay.
So this very deep hole in the ground,
Nora knows where it is.
There's the solid part,
and we know this is very, very deep.
Okay Nora, take it away.
Nora: Look at me, walking on this very stable ground,
looking at this very stable forest where I'm walking,
and I'm not expecting a pit.
But I mean, what could go wrong?
Oh my gosh.
(Nora yells)
(collapsing sounds) (Gillian laughs)
-: Oh my goodness. -: Poor little
Nora. -: My poor child has fallen
into a very deep hole in the ground.
And I have learned that if I wanted to try this again,
I might make my pit a little bit larger
so it could really look like falling down.
Nora, hey what's down at the bottom of that pit?
-: Sharks!
-: Sharks, oh no.
All right, get outta that pit!
Rouchie, are you ready to show us,
-: Wait- -: your terrible fall
into the pit?
-: In slow motion?
-: Oh yeah, will you do it in slow motion?
-: Yeah, I'll do it. -: Awesome.
Okay, go on over.
Oh look at that, see,
it's only a pit when we need it to be a pit.
It's a pit now. -: Nora, can you
scooch that way a little bit?
-: Thank you for asking for space for your body.
(stomping sounds)
-: Thud!
-: Oh!
Oh my goodness.
Rouchie has fallen and rolled all the way down.
Rouchie showed us in slow motion
that she could do something a little more dangerous:
A trip, and then falling on her head,
but she protected her head.
Hey Rouchie, what's a one-word thing of something
that's down in the bottom of the pit with you?
Rouchie: Dirt. -: Dirt.
Hey, my friends,
if we had some really dangerous animals
at the bottom of this pit,
some very dangerous animals,
I would be very scared.
So instead, I know Nora and Rouchie
have each chosen one of their own stuffed animals.
Nora, who did you choose?
-: I chose this very dangerous skunk
and her name is Rosavelle.
-: Thank you, Rosavelle -: I chose this super
ferocious cheetah, and her name is Licky.
-: Okay, thank you.
Will you please show the time
that Rosavelle and Licky were racing each other
and didn't know a pit was there and fell in?
When I say "Once upon a time,"
you show that race, got it?
Rouchie: Mm-hmm. -: What am I gonna say?
-: Once upon a time.
-: What am I gonna say?
-: Once upon a time. -: 'Kay, go ahead
and put Licky on this side
so we can see Licky, there we go.
Once upon a time-
-: Ready? -: What are we doing again?
-: We're racing each other
from the other side of this floor.
-: Oh, so you're gonna be where I am
and I'm gonna be where you are?
-: Yes, and we have to see
who gets to the other side first.
-: Okay.
-: Ready- -: Set.
(cheering sounds)
(Rouchie yells)
(thumping sounds)
Oh gosh, Licky, are you okay?
-: I'm fine, just don't, uh-
-: Did you just fall in a pit?
-: Yes. -: I better come down
and see what's down there. -: No, just don't-
-: Wheee! Rouchie: Ugh.
(thumping sounds) (Gillian laughs)
-: 'Sup.
-: Thank you, Rosavelle.
Thank you, Licky.
Now we've got two dangerous animals
at the bottom of the pit.
Rouchie: And they're very angry.
-: Okay, leave them there.
Rouchie, come back closer to me.
(Rouchie shouts) -: All right.
Now let's imagine what could happen next in our story.
Rouchie, you just said that they were angry.
So now we've got the story of two angry animals down there.
-: Ooh! -: Rouchie,
would you want to act it out,
write it out, or draw it?
-: I don't know, maybe act it actually.
-: Oh yeah, I notice that Rouchie
was having a pretty good time using her animals
and her body and her voice to imagine this whole story.
Nora, what about you?
Would you wanna write it down,
act it out, or draw it?
-: Well, I think my first choice would be to act it out,
but I could also draw it in like a comic book format.
-: Oh sure, cool.
Yeah, with like different shapes and the shapes
of the pit too. -: Yeah.
I think that what I would wanna do
is actually go back to the other activity
and just keep falling and falling
(Nora laughs) and falling in a pit
because that sounds really
fun to me. -: Same.
-: Yeah, because it's not even real,
but we still get to do it,
to fall in the bottom of a very deep pit,
and then maybe rescue our animals.
Maybe rescue the animals?
-: Yeah, but if we rescue the animals,
we have to get them out of the pit,
and how are we gonna do that?
-: I don't know how we'd get 'em outta the pit.
That's our story,
and I wonder what your story might be.
I really love Drama True because I get to explain things
that are scary in real life,
but I know that they're safe in my imagination.
Drama True is when you look all around you
and it's your imagination that you see.
It's kinda like pretending with a purpose.
Real True is when everything is just as it is.
Sometimes my imagination does run away with me
in Drama True,
and I need a little help to find my way back to Real True.
Sometimes, my helpers are Nora and Rouchie,
the two kids, who are mine,
who did the story with us today.
You can do the story of "A Very Big Hole in the Ground
with a Very Dangerous Creature at the Bottom"
with your family or with your neighbors,
or you can even figure out how to do it all by yourself.
Happy creating!
(upbeat music)