For the past several months, Ella's 5th grade class has been working on the production of The Monkey King. Now, I am pretty sure none of you have ever heard of it, but it is wildly popular here in China. It is the Chinese classic novel, Journey to the West, about a monkey that is born from a stone (how is that even possible?) and has acquired supernatural powers. He is accompanied by a priest, a monk and a pig. There are many adventures that this foursome encounter on their journey to India, in search for his rightful place in the Heavens.
Each of the individual classes did their own portion of the play. They had to write their own scripts, write and play their own music to go along with the play, audition for parts and act in the play and do their own makeup. (Have you seen Chinese plays? The makeup? Oh, the makeup!) The kids even had one week that they got to spend with some Chinese actors from Taiwan that had been performing the Monkey Key. They taught them how to basically "over act", do fight scenes and put on all of that makeup. The kids absolutely loved it. We even got to watch the professional actors perform one night in the auditorium. It was fun to watch the kids because they were so engrossed in the whole production. They laughed and cheered. It was great. Just great. Yeah, I didn't get it! Whatever. Don't judge.
My sweet little Ella got the part of the pig. All 65 pounds of her. She was stoked to be the pig because he is the comedian of the bunch. Right up her ally. She did an amazing job and actually had the audience laughing pretty good. Her best line......she had to try on some clothes and shake her little butt and say, "Does this make my butt look big?" As if! It was cute!
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| Ella as the pig and her buddy Maya as the Monkey King. |
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| My little pig. |
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| Ella's 5th grade class. They split the lead roles. That is why there are 2 pigs, 2 monkeys, 2 priests, you get the point. |
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| The makeup. WOW! |
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