Oh, That's Different!
2011 · Lincoln Land Community College
Oh, That's Different! was the fall 2011 first-semester project of Ken Bradbury's Lincoln Land Community College theatre class — an original traveling children's theatre production devised by his students and rehearsed since September. As Ken described it in his letters to local school principals, "This year's show is about the need to appreciate differences in other people." The class took the show on the road in late 2011, traveling to sixteen elementary schools — including every elementary building in Jacksonville's District 117 — over four days.
The show built its message around four groups of fanciful characters, each defined by an exaggerated physical trait: the Big Noses, the Big Ears, the Horns, and the Tails. Through these good-natured "deformities," the young company invited elementary audiences to laugh at, and then look past, surface differences — and to recognize the worth of people who don't look or act the same as everyone else.
Cast
The Big Noses:
- Nosetradamus — John Love
- Nasala — Annie Schone
- Beaker — Ryan Harris
The Big Ears:
- Lobey — Brandon Smith
- Aural — Billie Smith
- Flapper — Anika Velie
- Pierce — Michael Baker
The Horns:
- Antley — Wes Burton
- Pointdexter — Tim Phillips
- Buck — C.J. Beckwith
- Caribou — Katie Taylor
The Tails:
- Buttley — Jessica Clinton
- Reardon — Phillip Whited
- Shontail — Erin Washington
Production Notes
The production was the fall-semester capstone of Ken's LLCC Theatre Practicum, a class that met every other day on an A-B schedule. As he wrote, "The final project of first semester is a traveling theatre production, which the class has been rehearsing since September. We travel to sixteen elementary schools in four days with the show." On the class's "first day" handout, Ken laid out the semester game plan: the traveling children's show Oh, That's Different, working with elementary students on improv activities, and interviewing subjects for the spring project, Jacksonville... Works — along with "having a good time" and "trying to get along with Brandon Smith."
The company left from Triopia around 7:30 each morning and returned by 3 p.m., performing on November 30th and December 1st, then again the following week on December 7th and 8th. During development, character names and assignments shifted (early notes group the students by traits such as noses, ears, horns, tails, and pairs who finish each other's sentences); the cast above reflects the show's settled character list.