Drinking Gourd Elementary School

Increasing self confidence while improving our community

Educational Plays

Reaching out to our community

Part of the Drinking Gourd School’s mission is to improve our community through education. In addition to teaching our own students, we help educate the children and parents in the Eugene-Springfield area.

Our Gathering Room/Library includes a beautiful stage, ready at a moment’s notice for an informal skit or dance performance or a formal program presented to the entire school community. North Star students research, write and give oral presentations throughout the year to share their knowledge with their classmates and the rest of the school. In addition, both classes use role plays and drama games to practice skills they are learning and to increase imagination and self-confidence. The school performs each year at the Eugene Public Library and creates an extravaganza for the end-of-the-year Big Show performed at the school. Even the youngest children learn to be comfortable speaking in public and gain self-confidence through performing in these programs.

Each year the children of the school perform entertaining and educational plays for our community. The plays we perform are written by our Director, Trisha Whitney. The subjects of these plays vary, but always demonstrate the value of respecting the cultures and heroes of many traditions, standing up for what is right, and finding peaceful solutions to our problems. Drinking Gourd public performances have included:
• Together We Are Strong: Rosa Parks, Dr. M.L.King, Jr., and Thousands of Other Heroes Just Like You and Me
• The Life of Cesar Chavez
• On the Road to the Great Zimbabwe
• Wilma Rudolph: Fastest Woman in the World
• I Want to Be Like Harriet Tubman
• Bread and Roses: Democracy in Action
• Wilma Rudolph: Fastest Woman in the World

Kids and parents love our performances, and every year our audiences grow. Last year a performance at the Eugene Public Library drew the largest audience they have ever had. The librarians heard parents telling each other, “We ALWAYS come to the Drinking Gourd plays.”

2008 Performance Dates

“On the Road to the Great Zimbabwe” by the Quail class
• February 27, 2008: Eugene Library 10:15 and 11:00

Big Show (by invitation only)
• June 7, 2008: Drinking Gourd School 3:00 p.m.