SNOW WHITE
Patricia Rickard-Lauri, Harriet H. Groeschel, Carol M. Robbins, Client E. Robbins, Michele S. Ritholz, and Alan Turry
Reviewed by Hanne Oftedal
(Music therapist/lecturer,
Sogn og Fjordane College, Sandane)
Nordic Journal of Music Therapy (1998), 7 (2), 196-198
Reprinted with permission of the NJMT
For more NJMT book reviews, visit: www.hisf.no/njmt/bookreview

Snow White. A Guide to Child-Centered Musical Theater is a book about dramatizing the fairy tale “Snow White”, a book about the work and the process of making a musical theater performance of this fairy tale. Patricia Rickard-Lauri has written the text of the book, which is as you can see, meant to be a “guide” to “child-centered theatre”. The book is abundantly isllustrated by Harriet Groeschel, with drawing from different performances. There are also several musical compositions that can be used in the play. These are made by Carol and Clive Robbins, Michele Ritholz, and Alan Turry. With this book the authors intend to “fulfill the needs of theatre and other groups in producing successful children’s musical theatre.” It is also said that it is one in a series of plays.
.....The book consists of four distinct and related sections plus a CD. The first part is simply the story, and as far as I can see it is simplified but true to the original fairy-tale written down by the Grimm brothers. The fairy-tale is followed by drawings, so this part may be used for reading aloud. The drawings – the authors say – are taken from pictures and videotapes from different performances. They are nice, both simple and expressive enough for children to identify with characters and situations.
.....The second part is the formal script with dialogue, stage- and lightening-cues. This part is also followed by drawings. The third part is the “work-book” with lots of ideas and descriptions on how to work with drama with children. It is divided in two parts. The first is a guide for using the play, and also focuses on costumes, set design, etc. In the second part the focus is on the players, and how to choose actors, how to prepare the actors for dialogue, dance and expression etc.
.....The fourth part is the score. The music is written for piano, and this is also the instrument they use on the CD. The CD has 40 tracks – with a complete instrumental program. Here you can hear Carol Robbins and others play and sing the compositions, mainly made by her.
.....My reflections on this book, and how to use it, are based on being and working as a music therapist, and the work I have myself in dramatizing fairy tales. Snow-white as a “starting point” for dramatizing is good because it is such a simple story, but even contains some very important conflicts and themes which is a good frame for talking with children and helping them through similar conflicts in their own life.
.....The book is called a guide, but in some parts is rather close to a recipe. The exercises are focused on the project more than the process it can be to create e.g. a dance together with a group of children. This is a way of working that I think is not familiar to most music therapists. To work with dramatizing fairy tales gives us a great opportunity, and it is a big challenge to give each child a possibility to make or form her own character. Drawings of how a sad expression on a face “should” or could be are unnecessary – or could even stop the child’s own process sin finding her right expression. I hope music therapists use this book as a guide, even if attempting to follow all the subscriptions.
.....As in other drama-like works made by Carol and Clive Robbins – (in this book they have other authors with them as well) – the music is of excellent quality. It could be used in many settings. The compositions may be used as they are or one could easily make new arrangements of them or use them as a starting point for further improvisations. The CD has such good quality of sound that it could be tempting to use it as accompaniment in a performance. Again: I hope music-therapists trust their own processes and life of live music.
.....I like the book. It is an inspiring book where I can find ideas on how to make a score and how to explain things for my pupils. But I see difficulties in using it the direct way the authors and composers have suggested. I think the product they seem to present as an aim, is too ambitious for people with little musical and dramatic experience. Those who have such experience and competence I hope will use the book more as a collection of ideas, and then work through their own process with the dies or grown ups they have as actors, musicians, and technical workers etc.
.....A kindergarten-teacher with long experience had a look at it, and she came back with some of the same reflections. It is possible to use it as it is told with the eldest children – or the youngest in school – but she would rather use it as an inspiration for herself and let the children work out the final product through a process. The result then could be something like this – or something very different.
.....As an epilogue you can read the authors’ story. And here I find a way of thinking and working that I miss in the main part of the book. Patricia Richard-Lauri tells the story about how she and the other authors and composers have put their interest and competence in working through a process together with groups of hearing, hearing impaired and deaf children toward a performance that reflects what just these people want to express. As earlier stated; this is a stimulating book and the music is wonderful. The songs, the melodies and the original text are so simple – in a positive way – that it is easy to translate or make your own words for a “Snow White – performance”, or simply use the songs in another setting. It is nice to see how others have done it, but I think it is difficult and not very meaningful to transmit other peoples’ work to a new group of children. This reflects one of the magic things with fairy-tales: They handle themes that most of us can recognize and find interest in. But what we see as the most important situation, feelings, and expression in the fairy tale is a personal thing.