Vilonia students participate in Greek Showcase

Third-graders, dressed in period costume, hammed it up during the "Greek Showcase" held Friday at Vilonia Primary School.

"Aren't you impressed these are your kids?" asked teacher Elizabeth Sowder, Vilonia Academy of Technology, to a roomful of parents.

With 24 students in the class, all had one main part. In addition, most had a secondary part and some even had three parts in seven different short plays including Daedalus and Icarus; Demeter and Persephone; King Midas and The Golden Touch; The Greater Gift; Orpheus and Eurydice; Athena and Arachne; and Pandora's Box.

Just as though they were using everyday vocabulary, the students pronounced the Greek names loud and clear. Dressed in costumes, they also used hand gestures and facial expressions to add to the mini dramas. For nearly two hours, they told stories.

Attendees learned to "be careful what you wish for" during the presentation of King Midas and the Golden Touch where King Midas turned his dog and child into gold. As well, they followed the plight of Orpheus and Eurydice, "the happiest couple ever." The children portrayed Eurydice being bitten by a poisonous Viper and falling to her death and the grief stricken Orpheus.

The students presented a moving depiction of how "spiders came to be" in Athena and Arachne. Self-declared herself as the best weaver in the world, Arachne had a spell placed on her by Athena causing her body to shrink into a spider.

Closing that play, the student narrator said, "Look for her weaving her beautiful web and remember what too much pride can do."

In the presentation of Pandora's Box, students reminded everyone "from that day forward when someone causes trouble it shall be said they are opening Pandora's Box."

Ovation, the parents were invited to see the students' computer work concerning Greek history.

"As you can see a lot has been put into this," Sowder said. "There's been a lot of reading and research and for the past month this is what has been going on."