The Prime Time Players recently started their storytelling tour for local third- and fourth-graders in Loudon and Monroe county schools.

The group’s first performance was to occur on Monday, Sept. 9, and more productions are scheduled to run throughout the remainder of the week in the morning and afternoon.

The fun will continue into next week, as well.


WHO’S IN CHARGE, HERE?

The main person behind the incentive was Debbie Mayberry, who started putting on plays in local elementary schools back in 2010. Today, however, a couple of people are in charge of The Prime Time Players: Sharon Smith and Gail Link.

Smith is in charge of the creative side of the performances — choosing the stories, writing content and directing the actors.

Meanwhile, Link is what she describes as a “logistical director” and works with all the schools setting up the schedule(s) and working with the principals to determine where the players are going to do the show … and how many third- and fourth-graders will be in attendance.

Link told The Connection that in Loudon County and Lenoir City, the Prime Time Players perform in all elementary schools and put on shows for third- and fourth-graders. In Monroe County and Sweetwater, however, they just perform for third-graders.

Productions have evolved over time, but continue to be made up of passionate actors.

“This is not what we call a main stage production, but we use limited props and limited costumes,” Link said. “For example, in one of the stories this year, there are three cats and three dogs.

“For the cats, our three actors have little cat ears and whiskers and boas … and when it’s the dogs, they have sunglasses and dog ears that they wear.

“But we don’t do full costuming.“

‘READING IS MAGIC’

Currently, the Prime Time Players only do their storytelling tour once a year in September — and split with one week in Loudon County and one week in Monroe County.

According to Link, the Prime Time Players do a variety of things beyond entertainment of the youth.

“This has turned out to be a very targeted initiative with all the testing on reading skills that started last year and (with kids) being tested at the end of third grade measuring how many children read at grade level,” Link said.

“And there we are in the third and fourth grade with these performances — and what we reinforce through all the storytelling is, ‘Hey, go to the library and get these books, You’re really going to enjoy them’ … and we give each of the schools a set of books.”

The Prime Time Players main goals are to reinforce the idea of reading books, and to show kids that they can read stories by themselves and find the fun in the activity.

The Tellico Community Foundation has approved grant money last year and this year, which has helped the Players fund the books they give out.

This year the title of the program is “Reading is Magic.”

“We have a cast of 10 people … two casts of 10 people … one for Loudon, which is (this) week and one for the week after that,” Link said.

The three productions included in this year’s tour include Cactus Soup; Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters From Obedience School; and Magic Tree House: Pirates Afloat.

In total, all three of the programs last around 40 minutes long.

While some Tellico Village actors may have missed out on getting involved in the storytime tour, more opportunities are set to be coming in the future.

“One of the cool things about this is that we attract a lot of people who have never been on stage before, but they hear, ‘Oh, storytelling and children, this could be really fun,’ and it IS really fun,” Link said.

“You don’t have to have stage and theater experience to do it, so several of our people have gone ahead and auditioned for main stage productions of theater after doing this.

“Our people just have a great time with this, and the kids love it.

“The teachers stand there and laugh at it as we do it. So it’s one of those ‘feel good’ experiences.”