Storytelling is an integral part of how students learn at Fieldston Lower, and this spring, 3rd Graders brought a hands-on approach to the stage with their production of an original play. Having produced a 3rd Grade play for the first time during the 2024–2025 academic year, the Fieldston Lower team expanded the original project with new source material this year. Assistant Principal of Academic Life Shawn Chisty adapted a script from Blackout, John Rocco’s Caldecott Honor Award-winning children’s book inspired by New York City’s 2003 blackout. While the story draws on a historic event, Chisty focused the adaptation on the book’s theme of forming human connection when technology is limited.
“Each year, our 3rd Graders conduct a yearlong study of culture, exploring how the arts serve as a powerful commentary on the human experience,” Chisty shared. “This year, we adapted Blackout to examine a cultural theme deeply relevant to our students’ daily lives: how living in a highly technological world can interfere with our fundamental need for human connection. Through this play, students explored how our modern culture can feel disconnected and that there is joy in rediscovering meaningful connections with others.”
In a time when 3rd Graders may struggle to imagine a world without technology, their work on Blackout highlighted the value of community and connection from the very beginning. The story follows several families in the same neighborhood whose reliance on their electronic devices leaves them increasingly isolated in their daily lives. When the block experiences a blackout, the families get to know their neighbors and discover the social network that has been around them all along.
While classroom teachers Alexa Shikar, Gio Casiano, Bianca Troche, and Matt Cleary helped them study scripts and learn lines, students spent their Art and Social Studies Workshop classes creating the New York City backdrops for the show.
“Our Arts team, Shari Fischberg and Kate Elliot, guided students in designing and creating the set backgrounds, helping them take ownership of representing the visual contrast between a dark and illuminated city,” Chisty said. “Students worked on two backgrounds simultaneously, allowing the audience to visualize what the characters experienced before and during a blackout.”
Rehearsals took place in the gym, where students had plenty of space to experiment with movement while learning the fundamentals of theatrical performance. Alongside fellow Music Teacher Bárbara Martínez, play director and Music Teacher Angela Dixon led students in choreographing dances that showcased both their individuality and their ability to work together. The finale dance number featured students freestyling in pairs and on their own, while a scene transition depicting a busy New York City street challenged each student to develop a unique character with their own backstories and onstage presence.
“For me, theatre is the ultimate tool for developing student agency because it shifts ownership from the director to the actors,” Dixon said. “I’ve intentionally avoided just telling the students what to feel or where to stand. Instead, I’ve challenged them to trust their own instincts and find personal connections to their characters, asking how they would genuinely react or speak in a moment. They took this independence a step further by creating our ‘NYC Transition’ scenes. Watching them use improvisation to build those moments from scratch has been incredible.”
Those characters ranged from a mother with children to a dog walker, bringing a city scene to life. These portrayals embodied a message shared at the beginning of the performance: “We invite you to use your imagination to visualize.”
From alternating roles between scenes to using creative sound effects, the final production encouraged students to step out of their comfort zones and participate in a creation process from beginning to end.
“Over the past two years, it has been my privilege to work alongside my colleagues to bring this new facet of the Fieldston Lower program to life,” Chisty added. “This student-centered and truly interdisciplinary project builds community amongst students and deepens their love of the arts!”
