THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 16, 1994 TAG: 9408160031
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGIE MARBURY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
``MY FRIEND. . . she comes to school every day and tries to just act like me. I tell her, you have your own style, so why don't you just be yourself?''
Fourth-grader Jessica spoke emphatically into the microphone.
TV show host Lisa Parker nodded sympathetically.
``There's nothing wrong with appreciating what somebody else is like, but you want to be yourself, right?'' Parker asked.
``If everybody was the same, it would be boring,'' Christina chimed in.
``No challenge, really, right?'' Parker prompted.
``Kind of boring, like you said,'' Michelle agreed.
Kids know boring like no one else does. Enter the Clubhouse Kids, stage right.
The Clubhouse Kids, a local theatrical group for children, provides entertainment, acting lessons and values all rolled up into one fun activity.
The Kids appear every other Saturday on Kid Talk, a locally produced television show that brings children into the studio to watch skits, listen to experts and offer opinions.
``It is a show where we can say what we feel without being embarrassed,'' said 11-year-old Jarrod Best of Churchland Middle School.
Produced at WAVY-TV 10 in Portsmouth, the show airs every other Saturday at 11:30 a.m. It is sponsored by WAVY and Partners On Your Side, a group of area businesses.
The show, with the help of the Clubhouse Kids, tackles such issues as racism, fitting in and differences between right and wrong.
``It is an exploration tool,'' said Deloris Gee, a producer for the show.``It helps kids to think, verbalize and build self-confidence.''
The Clubhouse Kids present a taped skit each week dealing with a specified topic.
Yvonne Rice, director of the Clubhouse Kids, writes the skits with her son, David Cummings. They write, she said, to show the way kids think. Then the Clubhouse Kids present the show to the studio audience, which responds with its own comments.
In the skit dealing with racism, an African-American child talked about going into a store where the clerks watched him closely, fearful he would steal something. None of the white kids was watched, he complained.
The kids in the audience seemed surprised.
One child said she has a friend with dark skin, ``but she's really nice on the inside.''
Another said racism is something kids - not just adults - should talk about. ``What we learn now, we will remember as adults,'' she said.
Such responses please Connie Allen, the executive producer of ``Kid Talk.''
``This is a show where kids at home can tune in,'' Allen said. ``They can relate to just about everything we have on the show because it's about them and their peers.''
The show brings in local experts to discuss the week's topic, such as Dr. Nancy Guarnieri, director of child development at Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach, who tells the kids it doesn't matter what's on the outside, only what's on the inside.
And so the dialogue with the studio audience begins.
The show host works the crowd, asking questions and opinions. The kids, ages 8 to 13, wave their hands in the air for a turn at the microphone. The half-hour passes quickly.
And five, four, three, two, one.
Loud applause marks the completion of taping, along with shouts of ``One-hour show! One-hour show!''
``The kids were wonderful,'' Allen said. ``I think they've had some very definite thoughts about racism. We go for diversity. There are schools represented here from several different cities.
``It helps to build self-esteem in them,'' she added. ``It helps to build initiative. It helps to promote free thought because, in other words, there are no right and wrong comments.''
For the enthusiastic participants, it gets them off the couch in front of the TV, and into the TV itself.
``It's nice,'' said one 11-year-old, ``to talk to an expert once in a while, to talk about things in life.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
``Kid Talk'' brings kids into the studio. It airs every other
Saturday at 11:30 a.m. on WAVY.
by CNB