Several years ago, in the studio, children began to explore good guy and bad guy play. At the time I was very uncomfortable with battle play in general and even more so in the studio. Thankfully the children were such patient teachers. They taught me the importance of making space for children to wrestle with big issues through play, including issues of conflict and duality. This week the children reminded me how important tension is in the arc of a story telling. This time the source of that tension wasn't a bad guy but TIME and the urgency of travel. These three children crafted an elaborate story while working to overcome the challenges of air travel. Here is a sampling of their words:
D. In our world everyone is a worker. Got it? Everyone is a worker!
W. Yea workers. Let’s go to Chicago.
D. Workers get out here! (gathering people) We’re all workers right? HURRY. we've gotta go or we’re gonna run out of time.
W. No these are the people who are going to Chicago, they aren’t the workers?
D. Okay. Are these the workers?
W. Yes.
D. Okay we all need to hurry or we’re gonna run out of time!
W Okay HURRY.
VROOOOOOMMMM
The energy was hurried and frantic... they were clearly battling the hands of time.
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