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Arts & Entertainment

Evans Park PARP Play Captivates School

PARP Program presents a medieval themed play to teach the importance of reading.

Students at Evans Park Elementary School were transported to a medieval fairytale as Tom Price, art teacher at Evans Park and Franklin Ave Elementary Schools, collaborated with parents and performed a spectacular show emphasizing the importance of books.

This was the tenth year PARP prepared a show for students and had everything from a moving dragon to popcorn raining down on the lucky students in the first few rows.

“It gets bigger and grander each year as more parents volunteer,” said Price.

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Parents As Reading Partners, PARP, is a collective effort among teachers, parents, students, and the community to encourage reading outside of school. The program urges parents to read with their kids at least 15 minutes a day.

The program, which tied in Friday with the Rockland Read-In, gave students quiet time during class specifically to read and are sent home with activities to build a reading relationship with them and their parents.

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“I think the kids really enjoyed it,” said the play narrator and parent Angelica Terry. “It’s all about reading and enjoying reading.”

The impressive show was pulled together in less than two weeks, with most of the rehearsals cancelled due to snow. Cathy Sherry-Cassidy, this year’s PARP coordinator, decided with Price the theme for the year would be medieval. Price, who is also active in Community Theater throughout Rockland County and recently designed the set for , wrote the piece and rehearsed with the parent volunteers.

The outcome was outstanding. From a theatrical standpoint, the play was clever and smooth. The set looked fantastic, had a working backdrop, and the special effects such as the dragon looked phenomenal. More importantly, from an academic standpoint, the material was age appropriate and informative without preaching.

The story followed a scrawny and short boy who dreamed of marrying the kingdom’s princess. After a dragon destroys parts of the village with his fire-breathing abilities, the king sends out a decree stating that any knight who can find the dragon and defeat him will get his or her heart’s desire. Every strong person in the kingdom goes on the quest for the dragon and, very humorously played by the parents, comes back beaten and sore.

The boy decides he’ll try, but first he reads up on dragons and learns about them. He remembers a poem his parents used to read to him before bed and it gave him clues to where the dragon could be hiding. After finding a wizard who casts a spell on him, he finds the dragon, who is actually a very nice dragon but is frustrated he can’t read.

The boy promises to teach the dragon to read if the dragon follows him back to the king to show everyone he didn't mean any harm. When the king realizes it was all a mistake, he gives the boy permission to marry his daughter.

In a twist of events, the boy decides that he isn’t quite ready for that yet, but instead he wants a big library built -- so big that both humans and dragons can fit inside of it. This excites the dragon so much that he spits fire by accident, but luckily, a woman with corn seeds in a basket thinks quickly and throws her basket in the way of the fire, making popcorn. Everyone reads and eats popcorn and lives happily ever after.

The students were delighted with the performance and loved the story. Second grader Emma Rinaldi liked the dragon the best and felt bad for him.

“The dragon wasn’t really mean,” she said. “He was really nice.”

Other than the dragon and the popcorn, the students’ favorite part was when Evans Park’s librarian, Rosemary Amabile, stole the show by running out from the back of the audience rejoicing that the kingdom was getting a new library. Amabile, who is retiring this year, has a gift for finding books that suit the interest of her students.

 “I like to read chapter books about the sea and the ocean,” said Rinaldi. “I like swimming and the ocean has a lot of interesting and nice animals in it.”

Jackie McGee, parent to two boys who graduated from Evans Park and a girl in third grade, loves the shows and always tries to come and see them.

“Mr. Price takes this on every year. We always ask him and we’re glad he welcomes it. It’s wonderful that the parents are always willing to commit to it. It’s great for the kids,” McGee said.

“Reading is a lifelong tool and that’s what the show is really about,” explained Price. “It’s important for the children to understand the importance of reading and learning.”

The PARP play took place at 9:30am on Feb 11th in the multipurpose room at Evans Park Elementary School. The actors, other than art teacher Tom Price, were parents and the play was in honor of Rockland Read-In and the PARP movement to get children reading at home.

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