BY VINAYA SAKSENA

CENTRAL FALLS — Half a year after parading through the city with giant puppets, students in a local art-based literacy program showed their creative sides again at Central Falls High School on Thursday, December 18, in a multi-school effort designed to create positive feelings in tough economic times.

That morning, students in TALL (Transition through Arts Literacy Learning) University theater program performed a series of short dramatic and often comical performance pieces in the high school auditorium, with the theme of imagination running through the entire show. A joint venture between the city’s schools and the University of Rhode Island, TALL University is a program intended to assist students learning the English language by exposing them to artistic expression.
The event also served to showcase the Girls of the Future literacy club, whose members performed a short piece detailing the life of 19th-Century African-American abolitionist Harriet Tubman. The group also used its performance as an opportunity to invite students to join them after school on Wednesdays.
According to Elizabeth Keiser, Principal Investigator for Tall University said the show’s theme, “The Gift of the Imagination,” was devised by Veterans Memorial Elementary School teacher Cathy Fox. The idea behind the theme, Keiser said, was that if people use their imagination, it can more than make up for things that families may not be able to buy for Christmas or other holidays due to tight finances. With a little imagination, she said, families can come up with more fulfilling ways to celebrate than anything involving a big-ticket purchase.
“We want to give you the most precious gift that anyone could give you for the holidays,” Keiser told the audience during one of Thursday’s performances. “You can’t buy it in a store.”
The event also served as a means of promoting goodwill among students. According to Calcutt II student Leonaldo Severino, having students participate in the shared task of preparing for and putting on a dramatic production such as the one they performed on Thursday could give frustrated students an outlet for their emotions that did not involve violence or other negative behaviors toward fellow students.
“Bullying happens when kids don’t get something, or they feel bad,” Severino said. “So what we tried to do is get people to (participate) so they have fun and they let their anger out.”
With help from musical instructor Keith Munslow, Ella Risk Elementary School students participated in a group effort that showcased their own collective imagination and creativity. During the show, the group performed “Friends ‘til the End,” a song of friendship for which the students wrote lyrics, which were then combined with music composed by Munslow.
“We thought of a (song theme) and all of us picked friendship,” explained Ella Risk student Sara Setaro. “So we came up with a song all about friendship.”
And friendship proved an appropriate theme for the event, according to the students. Many of them, attending different schools, had not met prior to working on Thursday’s production, and doing so was a remarkably positive experience, they said.
“For me, putting the show together was exciting,” said Calcutt Middle School student Malcom Rios. “You meet new people, and you get to work with them, so it’s very exciting.”