Theatre

5 Pages 1334 Words

Youth theatre is described as a performance whose main purpose is to enrich the audience’s lives in some way during the course of the production. “How Da B-52 cockroach learned to fly” is an excellent example of a performance for youth theatre. The play is based on an award-winning children’s book by Lisa Matsumoto. Although the book was written for a younger audience, both children and adults alike find humor and educational value in “How Da B-52 Learned to Fly.” With the help of exuberant performers, unique props and a creative set, the story of how the B-52 cockroach was a successful example of what youth theater should be.
The play is centered on Kimo the cockroach and his brothers. The play is done in story form with two narrators, one who is telling the story and the other who is listening and asking questions about the major characters. The major conflict that Kimo encounters is trying to fit in and gain acceptance amongst the rest of the insects in the insect kingdom. The insects all view the cockroaches as being lazy with no good traits that could help out there society. Kimo travels through out the insect kingdom in search of a task that he and his brothers could do to gain respect and be accepted into the animal kingdom. Kimo and his brothers try to do all kinds of tasks like be movers with the ants, or deconstruct workers with the termites but they are never really able to pull off those tasks. Kimo comes close to giving up because it seems as though there is nothing that they can do to help the insect kingdom. In the end Kimos persistence pays off he is given wings and he and his brothers create there team of human attackers and for all there hard work the queen bee honors them.
Dialogue of the play is almost entirely spoken in pidgin. The story is told from a young girl to a boy. By making pidgin the dominant language it made the play unique. When I think of plays, I usually think of Shakespe...