Why would a classroom at Bingham High School suddenly look more like a landfill? It is all for a good cause as the Bingham High School musical goes green. We’ll hear from students involved in this unique production of Children of Eden where all the costumes are made of recycled plastic and other recycled materials.
Children of Eden runs November 22, 23, 24 and 25 at 7 p.m. at Bingham High School with a matinee at 2 p.m. on November 23.
Audio Transcription
(00:15):
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent, Anthony Godfrey. Today, we take you where very few have gone before. A Bingham High School classroom turned landfill, filled with hundreds of plastic, water bottles, milk jugs, and food containers, piled high almost to the ceiling. It's all for a good cause as theater students in the upcoming musical, Children of Eden, are involved in a real life recycling lesson. All of the costumes for the musical are being made out of recycled and reused plastics. Here's what I discovered on a recent visit to Liz Smith's classroom. Some intelligent and talented theater students who care deeply about planet earth guys. Yes, I am an hour later than I wanted to be. So what do you guys have cooking here? A whole lot of plastic. Wow. Look at that around, Holy cow.
Teacher:
I'm Liz Smith. I'm one of the theater teachers here at Bingham and the director and choreographer of Children of Eden. We are using all of the plastics to create the animals that are needed for the musical. There are lines in the musical that talk about how we, as humans, have kind of destroyed the world for the animals. And now we're going to create our animals out of the plastics that the cast members have been collecting around the school. And so right now I just have a landfill, but we're going to turn it all into something.
Superintendent:
Yes. A classroom fill, if you will.
Teacher:
It's pretty crazy. I've got empty yogurt cups, sour cream bins and a mountain of it.
Superintendent:
And so it looks like you have plans for this. Hopefully again, the mountain of used plastic piled high in Miss Smith's classroom is going to be used to create all of the costumes for the school's musical. And in this case, the costumes are going to tell a lot of the story, is that right? So they're not really costumes. Is it more of a creature that you're going to be inhabiting? Or is it a costume?
Teachers:
So this is an ostrich and it's got a flexible neck made out of cardboard and plastic bottles and then a head made out of milk jug.
Superintendent:
Can I pick it up or will I damage the spine here? So is this a milk jug on top?
Teacher:
Yes.
Superintendent:
Where are you getting these designs from?
Teacher:
Just off of online and from creativity. But for this one we found online and we're basically trying to copy it as much as we can out of all recycled plastics. One costume I found almost complete was a turtle. So was this the top too? Like about three dozen Walmart, chocolate chip cookies or something?
Teacher:
At some point, I think it was from a Kneaders catering. When Kneaders catered a lunch in here, (I believe it was actually from alumni) the alumni luncheon during homecoming week. So student government donated that to us. Since, they took it and painted it and then all of the parts on top are water bottles. Superintendent:
These are from just water bottles.
Teacher:
Yeah. So it's the pattern.
Superintendent:
If it's the pattern from the bottom of water bottles, I think I see an Aquafina right there.
Teacher:
Yeah.
Superintendent:
Wow. And I'm a little disappointed in myself that I didn't recognize this catering top. I love a good catered lunch. I kind of pride myself on knowing my food containers a little better than this, but again, these, they look like flowers. The bottom of water bottles look like flowers. If you're listening at home, pick up your water bottle, put the lid on first and turn it upside down. It's a flower on the bottom. What have we here?
Teacher:
It's an aardvark.
Superintendent:
Oh, of course it's an aardvark. It took a long time to find my character, but you know, once I found it, hit the spot. Did you always know you had an inner one and what was it again?
Teacher:
Aardvark.
Superintendent:
Did you always know you had an inner aardvark?
Teacher:
I mean, they stick to corners and they liked dark places, so yes, a little bit.
Superintendent:
Okay. Well done. Well done. You are transforming the plastic and in turn, transforming the people who wear it. That's very cool. And there are these sour cream lids. Do you find yourself walking around now looking at everyday objects saying, I can make something out of that.
Teacher:
I saw a lot of heads nodding though, that you are looking at things in a different way. And that's literally what we're trying to do, literally and figuratively with education is have you look at the world in a different way.
Superintendent:
So it sounds like that's really being accomplished through this project. When do we get to see the performance?
Teacher:
So Children of Eden will run November 22nd, 23rd, 25th and 26th. And then we have also been asked to perform for the Utah Theater Association Conference. So we will run again January 17th and 18th. Anything that we don't end up using that we've collected, we will separate the things that we can actually take to a recycling center. We will take it to a recycling center. And sadly, there's a lot of the stuff, a lot of these plastics that are not recyclable and we will just have to throw them away. But we're hoping to use as much as we can so that we are doing our part to help make our world a little bit better place.
Superintendent:
Let's take a quick break, and when we come back, we'll hear a song from the musical Children of Eve.
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Superintendent:
Children of Eden runs November 22nd, 23rd, 25th and 26th at Bingham High School at 7:00 PM. There's a matinee on November 23rd at 2:00 PM. Welcome back to the Supercast. I'm Anthony Godfrey, Superintendent of Schools for Jordan District. What's your name?
Student:
McKenna Ashby. I'm a senior here.
Superintendent:
What are you going to singing?
Student:
I am singing sparker creation, who the character Eve and children of Eden sings. And it's a beautiful song of when she's finally figuring out just the beauty in the world. And like
(07:08):
Just before, right before she eats the fruit.
(07:10):
So I am a keeper. We think it is a lifetime of pleasure each perfect day, the same and less vacation. Well, that's all right. If you're a kind of crustacean, but when you're born within imagination, sooner or later, you're feeling you'll get this book. [inaudible] Great job. Thank you very much.
(08:07):
I have loved this musical since I was first introduced to it back in the early two thousands. It's one that's not well known. It was written by Steven Schwartz who also did wicked. So that's something more people are aware of. And just as I've encountered the show, I've, I've actually, this'll be the third production that I've worked on and I've learned something different every time that I have been with this show this time because of there's lots of different messages through it. And as the kids will test to, I've barely made it through a rehearsal without crying, sometimes ugly crying. So we're going to see how well I do getting all the way through it without ever crying. But the idea of just this time when I came back to it, I found just such a strong message of environmentalism and doing your part to make the world around you a better place giving people and things a second chance. I think it's just kinda like shown just how far we have to go. In the terms of like environmental and getting rid of our plastic addiction we have right now I can see like how, on an outside perspective, how collecting the plastic has been affecting the school. And I think that the rest of the programs in the school, I really impressed with what the theater department has been trying to do with recycling and trying to affect their environment with musical this year. So
(09:44):
Has been very effective. It has affected me a lot because it's all about like loving people who are different than us and just really being accepting of everyone because we all live in the same earth and world, like we're all like cohabit co and co hap cohabitating the earth. And we just don't need to love each other, no matter what our differences are. Like, no matter where we come from what are like family situations are like, we can all just fill the world with love. Wonderful. I've loved spending time with you guys. I was I took drama in high school and was in the productions. It was not in the musicals because I could not sing or dance or I thought I couldn't sing her dance. Maybe it's still hiding inside of me before leaving. I had to share a bit of acting trivia with these talented theater students. I actually had a bit part in a movie called three o'clock, high, a classic. If you ask me no lie, because it was, it was a speaking part. I still get residuals. So this year I got $2 and 37 cents from universal studios. It was so awesome.
(11:05):
Thanks to Liz Smith and her theater students for sharing their thoughts on going green. As they prepare to take the stage for their upcoming musical. We appreciate you tuning in and remember education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see ya.