Drum Me A Story sets a beat for Black History Month
ANN ARBOR, Mich.–Wild Swan Theater, to mark Black History Month, is performing Drum Me A Story, a trilogy of three African stories told through acting, dancing and drumming. As is always the case with Wild Swan, the children in attendance seemed to eat it up and relished having a few from the audience brought into the action on stage.
The three stories–”Anansi and The Sky God,” “Anansi and The Moss Covered Rock” and “How The Turtle Got Its Shell”–feature a Sky God and animals of the jungle/forest of Africa. In the first two, a spider named Anansi (played by Brian E. Buckner] interacts with animals of the jungle/forest (played by Sandy Ryder who also plays The Sky God] and Jaclyn Morrow (who also serves as drummer). Morrow uses a different kind of drum for each story, and explains the differences to the children.
The first story sets up the characters, but it is the second and third vignettes that grabbed the kids better. In the second story, every time someone says “the moss covered rock,” they are struck unconscious. Anansi discovers this by accident, and then figures to trick the animals–a hippo, a zebra, a giraffe–into falling for the trick so he can swipe their food. Anansi brings a couple of kids on stage to play the gazelle and giraffe, so they can take their pratfalls on stage once they understand their role. Then, the Bush Deer (Sandy Ryder) gets hip to the trick, and turns it back around on Anansi who is rendered unconscious again. When he awakens, all the food is returned to its rightful owners.
“How The Turtle Got It’s Shell” is about a leopard (Morrow), and the Sky God who challenges any animal to get Leopard’s drum. An ostrich tries and fails. An elephant tries and fails. But then a turtle (Buckner) with no shell uses his brain to outsmart Leopard and gets her to prove she can fit inside it. Once she is in, Turtle rolls her in the drum to the Sky God, who grants his wish of a hard shell to protect him from predators. Turtle reappears with a shell to oohs and ahhs from the children.
Buckner, who we usually see behind the keyboard for Wild Swan (he won the 2015 Wilde Award for Music Direction for Wild Swan’s The Ugly Duckling) is lithe, nimble and sparky the way he plays his Spider and turtle. Stage energy is key to holding the kids’ attention, and he scores with his able cast mates. Ryder, with her face made for storybooks and animated voice for making them come alive, always has the children rapt. Morrow does an excellent job of integrating her role as drummer, drum instructor and animals. As always, the ASL interpreter, this time Jennifer Poole, does an excellent job of shadowing and paralleling the performers rather than standing off to the side and signing for the hearing impaired.
The one-piece painting background set does just fine to convey forest/jungle. The drums are wonderful, and the costumes are just enough for the actors who have to change roles rapidly. Ryder does the Sky God effectively with just a hand-held mask. Costume designers Rebecca Valentino and Suzanne Young, set designer Toni Auletti and prop designers Ryan Edwards and Valentino make colorful and creative choices that contribute to a special hour of theatre for children.