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Community Corner

Story Pirates Come Ashore at Stark School

Actors from the arts and creative writing organization took to the stage to perform original stories written by elementary school students in the audience.

On Wednesday morning, elementary school students filed into the auditorium at — eagerly awaiting a performance by the Story Pirates —  a New York City-based organization that travels to schools around the country to promote literacy and creativity through writing and drama workshops.

The Story Pirates first came to Stark on March 31 for an assembly called an "idea storm." In this session, the elementary schoolers were taught about story structure and asked to write stories for the group using what they had learned.

"We got over 100 stories, our director reads them all and she picks out four or five to do," Nicole Brodeur, a producer at Story Pirates, told Patch. "Every story is returned with a personalized note on it...a way to say "Thank you for writing this.""

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Story Pirates only have two rules for stories — they must be written by the child and they must be original.

"We can't emphasize enough that this is not a writing contest," Brodueur said. ""We want them to know that their words and ideas are valuable."

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For the performance at Stark, the Story Pirates performed a blend of favorite stories — written by children from California, New York, and Illinois — and premiere performances of stories written by children in the room.

"They don't know whose story has been chosen ahead of time. Everyone will start looking around, then they start pointing and cheering," Brodeur said. "It's indescribable."

The children were captivated by the Story Pirates from the very start — reacting to what they were seeing on stage, roaring with laughter at many of the stories, and searching the room as each author's name was announced.

Seven of the Story Pirate's gifted entertainers performed at Wednesday's assembly. Mike Petry provided piano accompaniment to the show and Meghan O'Neill, Josh Lay, Matt Gehring, Louie Pearlman, Peter Russo, and Dana Kaplan-Angle performed the stories.

The Story Pirates wrote an original song to tell the story "The Football Team," written by a kindergartner at Stark.  Other stories by Stark students included "The Full Moon," "Rock Paper Scissors," "Sammy and the Snake," and "Let's Be Silly." Each story blended the words of the child with music, costumes, and exhuberant performances by the cast.

Marcella Branca, the chair of cultural enrichment for Stark School's Parent/Guardian Faculty Organization (PFO) first saw the Story Pirates perform in upstate New York.

"The show was hilarious and the songs get stuck in your head. I found myself singing them with my kids," Branca said. "We love it because they help the kids to write stories, a lot of teachers have come up and thanked us because it fits in so well with what they're doing in class."

At the conclusion of the show, the Story Pirates recognized the budding authors whose work was performed on stage. They then asked the students who had written stories to stand and be recognized — just about every child in the room stood.

Dying to see the Story Pirates in action? There are two great opportunities coming up. On May 20, Tracey and Jon Stewart and the Story Pirates will be holding a benefit — the third annual After School Special — at the Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York City. Special guest performers will include comedians including Jon Stewart, John Oliver, and Ana Gasteyer. Visit the Story Pirates website for more information.

Closer to home, the Story Pirates will return to Stark on May 13 for an encore show at 6:30 pm. This performance, open to all, will help to raise money to bring the program back to Stark next year for a more extensive program. Tickets are $5 and will be sold both at school and at the door. Contact Marcella Branca at nymarcy@hotmail.com for more information.

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