widens the field of potential and possibility, so students can experience the growth of the EcoSanta concept quite quickly.
• Ask the students for all the pantomime qualities they know. Again, a list is really useful. It will bring out the students' interests and where their strengths, as young dramatists, lie.
• The teacher now has the job of synthesising the results of this brain-storming session into a rough story outline that draws on as many of the skills and creative abilities so far revealed. The creative process is messy. Often, new ideas come to the fore later on, when students are much more into the spirit of the story and the characters they are creating. This open-ended approach may immediately show a great narrative line, or more fragmented ideas that can be used as “vignettes” — small self-contained scenes interspersed into the overarching story-action.
• According to available skills, students or the teacher will need to produce a rough script.
• EcoSanta's new identity will be a prime focus — his red-and-green costume as individualised, humorised, and attractive to young children as the inventive minds of students can create.
• The performance of the EcoSanta-mine pantomime does not need to be word-perfect. For several years I had the privilege of performing in a pantomime where we only had a few rehearsals before the live perfor- mance. There was absolutely no way it would “go with- out a hitch.” The mistakes became part of the humour, and our audience consisted entirely of adults. Young children are not usually as critical as adults, though no doubt there are exceptions!
• For students who would enjoy performing a musical rather than a pantomime, using “eco-lyrics” to famous out-of-copyright tunes, the 50 EcoSongs (see below), offer a wide interpretive range.
High-vision environmental projects are much needed now. Cultural change is more readily and permanently achievable through congruency, not mixed messages. The EcoSanta concept works at the mythological level. It builds on what is already firmly established in Western culture as Santa Claus with the additional benefit of originating in that child-land of open-hearted gift-giving based on magic, goodwill, and joy. EcoSanta seeds mutuality and taking responsibility in all relationships. It's time to raise the bar on this once-a-year event called Christmas to its all-year potential through the future celebrity status of EcoSanta. It's clear the EcoSanta spirit has the potential to extend far beyond the global litter-picking and litter-disposal issues. In this decade, we have the challenge and opportunity to make every day a Christmas Day for the Earth.
Ann Palmer, with her husband Peter, runs Ecologisers: The Young People's International Anti-litter and Environmental Charity SC048663, based in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
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The Ecologisers have a 10-year project promoting EcoSanta, through any and all ways that come to heart and mind. “Once his sack is empty, EcoSanta is asking children worldwide to help him fill it with rubbish the rest of the year as a Gift to the Earth.” Ann also writes ecolyrics to famous out-of-copyright songs, anthems, carols, and hymns to encourage intergenerational continuity, (w)holistic thinking and a “Put Earth First” mindset.
EcoSanta resources:
The following EcoSanta resources are available on Ecol- ogisers' website at
http://www.ecologisers.com or by con- tacting the Ecologisers directly by email: gaiadance@btin-
Visit the Ecologisers online
•
http://www.ecologisers.com •
facebook.com/Ecologisers •
twitter.com/earthbonded •
instagram.com/ecologisers
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