“Time in Westfield” playwright Kathleen Palmer and some of the 40-odd cast performed a short version for the School Committee this week. (Photo by Amy Porter)
WESTFIELD – Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski invited Westfield 350 players to Monday’s School Committee meeting to give an abbreviated version of their play “Time in Westfield,” before awarding them with “Above and Beyond” certificates.
Czaporowski said early on, the plan was developed to bring a part of the Westfield 350 play to teach third and fourth grade students about Westfield’s rich history. He said the volunteer players gave countless hours and an entire week of their time, planning, preparing, rehearsing and performing in each of the six elementary schools and St. Mary’s.
Following performances, volunteers went into third and fourth grade classrooms to teach students about colonial games and toys, colonial kitchens, native settlements, children’s life, early small schools, life along the canals and fur trading, Czaporowski said.
“Time in Westfield” author Kathleen Palmer introduced herself, saying all told from student teaching to theatre work she had spent 50 years at Southampton Road Elementary School. She said the idea to go to the schools came from Cynthia Gaylord’s planning committee as a way to deliver history to the students as part of the Westfield 350 celebrations. She said they went to the third and fourth grades because the play best fit in with their curriculum.
“We were very pleased to be able to do this,” Palmer said, adding that funding came from the Westfield Cultural Council and the Mass. Cultural Council.
