SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Sept. 25, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Last week, I had the pleasure of traveling with Plan-B Theatre Company for two performances of the 12th annual Free Elementary School Tour, serving students statewide.
“EllaMental,” a world premiere by Salt Lake City-based actor, writer, singer and former teacher Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin, is available for performances in schools during the 2024-25 academic year and will go until May 2025. Created specifically for grades 4 through 6, the play centers on Ellament, a 12-year-old Black girl who likes YA novels, playing on her Nintendo Switch and filming TikTok dance crazes. Ella’s grandmother, who she was very close to, has recently passed away and she is struggling to make sense of her Big Feelings from the pandemic, which include grief, loss, fear, and anger.
“‘EllaMental’ engages students in an accessible, real-time, comforting conversation, one as barrier-free as possible, one that instantly invites students to live inside the play rather than searching for a way in,” Plan-B’s website says. “Instructive without feeling preachy, ‘EllaMental’ provides a much more chill experience than students in grades 4-6 might expect: one that is natural, aspirational, and even inspirational.”
As the only professional theatre company in Utah creating new work specifically for elementary students each season, Plan-B visits about 100 schools during each tour, as part of the Professional Outreach Programs in the Schools (POPS). The tour also serves an additional 80 schools virtually.
“The tours started in 2013 as a partnership with Davis Arts council serving only Davis county,” Sharah Meservy, Plan-B’s education coordinator, told Gephardt Daily. “It’s grown a lot since then, with support from many different sponsors including the National Endowment for the Arts. It’s always two actors and minimal props and set pieces in order to make it very portable and easy to stage anywhere. When my job was created in 2017 the tour was just a few months in the fall. The biggest transformation was in 2019 when we became a POPS organization. That funding from the state legislature allows us to offer the tour throughout the school year and helps us reach schools in every school district in Utah. It also allows us to double cast each tour which is super helpful with scheduling.”
Directed by Jerry Rapier and designed by Arika Schockmel, the play features two casts in rotation: Noelani Brown and Talia Heiss as Ellament and Mak Milord and Taylor Wallace as Ms. Aliyah, school kid and Mrs. Shephard. Occasionally, actors from both casts will perform together.
So what does the tour look like on a day-to-day basis? There are usually about a dozen shows per month of the school year. Depending on how far away the school is, a tour day starts at around 8 a.m. when the person who is driving the large vans that Plan-B began to use during the pandemic picks the vehicle up at the rental place. Plan-B has a handful of folks that drive the tour vans and in this case, lucky for me, it was my husband, Jay Perry. Then it was on to pick up the actors, which for this trip were Heiss and Wallace, along with tour manager Kallie Filanda. Each actor carries a small brightly-colored suitcase that contains their costumes, and the group also hefts around a larger suitcase full of props and a sound system that is used if it’s a bigger school.
Our first location was Flaming Gorge Elementary School in Dutch John, which is about a three-and-a-half hour drive east from Salt Lake City. Flaming Gorge Elementary is an absolutely tiny school, with approximately 15 children total. After the first performance, it was back in the van and we embarked on the hour-long drive to Manila, which is right by Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
The actors, plus Filanda and whoever drives, stay in an AirBnB or similar accommodation when there are two schools back to back; on the second day, we visited Manila Elementary School, which has about 75 children, including pre-K kids, for an early afternoon show. After that performance, we headed back to Salt Lake City.
And the show itself? Darby-Duffin says in the script that the play is an ode to the young people she encountered during her time as a teacher. When the children are all seated, Filanda and the actors introduce the play, and talk about the interactive elements. Then the story begins and we meet sixth-grader Ella, who is teased by some of her classmates, who call her ‘Ellamental’ without realizing why she is struggling.
The first educator we encounter in the play is Mrs. Shephard, who is described in the script as a “veteran teacher” who “rules with an iron fist.” Mrs. Shephard orders Ella to go to the principal’s office when she fails to complete a math assignment because she is distracted. However, as the principal is not available, Ella spends time with Ms. Aliyah, the after-school program coordinator. With Ms. Aliyah’s gentle prompting, Ella feels more comfortable to begin to open up about her feelings. Ella says that she feels “weird,” which she and Ms. Aliyah explore further; in Ella’s case, she is having anxiety and grieving.
During and after the show, there are segments where the children can chime in with their own feelings. Ms. Aliyah mentions that many people have had a change in their routine of late, and then the students are asked what recent changes they have experienced. Answers ranged from the profound; that they had a death in the family, to others that said they were adjusting to a new sleep schedule or that the batteries in their Nintendo recently ran out. After the show, there is a talkback, to give the students a chance to chat about the themes and characters, and ask questions.
There is also a study guide available, which includes suggestions about how teachers might incorporate the story into classroom activities. Each school that participates also receives a copy of “When the World Turned Upside Down” by K. Ibura, a feel-good story of friendship and overcoming adversity in a time of COVID.
The really lovely thing about “EllaMental” is that it lets kids know that whatever they are feeling is acceptable and that it is always good to talk about feelings. But of course, in each school, the teachers are also watching the show, and the piece is informative for them too, sharing ways that they can better communicate with their students. It’s also likely that the children (some of whom had never seen a play before) might go home and talk about the show to their families, which of course opens lines of communication still further. Ms. Aliyah talks about how she best communicates with her own child on car rides to school, where she makes her and her son a smoothie and then she listens to his thoughts.
Rapier keeps the direction of the 40-minute piece simple, unfussy and fun, and Heiss and Wallace do a great job. Heiss very naturally embodies the character of Ella, which also means the young people in the audience really identify with her. Wallace has a natural warmth and sweetness that makes the character of Ms. Aliyah very relatable. Wallace mentioned during our trip that children will often comment on the character of Mrs. Shephard, and ask, for example, why that teacher is mean. On that note, something that both Heiss and Wallace also adapt to excellently is the fact that every performance is completely different because of the responses from the children. When we went to the second school, and Heiss and Wallace asked the students what they thought of when they heard the word grief, one little boy put his hand up and said “a tree.” That’s the wonderful thing about children’s brains, of course, that they often say things that are unexpected or surprising, and the actors and Filanda do a very good job of making the kids feel as if whatever they say or think is valuable and important.
The production values, of course, are simple, to allow the show to tour, and because the cast are at times performing in smaller classrooms (in the first school) or larger school auditoriums (in the second school.) The set consists primarily of two chairs and a table, with different props to show Ms. Aliyah’s space. The costumes are colorful and simple to allow the actors to change easily and move around comfortably during the show.
Teachers anywhere in Utah may request a performance of “EllaMental” at their school; to schedule an in-person performance, click here. The full performance is also available digitally in two formats: an audio-play podcast and a filmed stage production, with closed captioning. To request digital access, click here. For a digital playbill, click here.
This week, there are two free, non-ticketed performances of “EllaMental.” The first is today; Wednesday, Sept. 25, at 4 p.m. at the Salt Lake City Public Library Day-Riverside Branch, at 1575 W. 1000 North. On Friday, Sept. 27, at 2:30 p.m. there will be a performance at Salt Lake County Library, Kearns branch, at 4275 W. 5345 South. Both will have ASL interpreters and both facilities are fully ADA accessible. Audiences can come early to grab a Kids Café snack.
All in all, “EllaMental” does a brilliant job reminding both children and adults that although all our brains do not work in the same way, that diversity is a good thing and we all deserve to be understood and celebrated. As Ms. Aliyah tells Ella: “Being heard is so close to being loved, that for most of us we can’t tell the difference.”
