Captain Von Trapp Psychology

Have you ever been put on the spot, maybe for a presentation, speech, or because someone messed up and you have to come save their ass? Have you ever been so nervous that you feel as if the world I spinning around you and you could just faint? That terrifying all eyes on you moment, where if you even stutter out of nervousness you feel like the world will come crashing down upon you.

Well, when I was a sophomore in high school at Stewarts Creek, I performed in my first musical, “The Sound of Music.” It was our third school show, and we were performing for freshman and sophomores, I was on stage about to do a dialogue with Maria. When all of a sudden Captain Von Trapp came out on stage to do his line, and instead of saying “Frau

Schmidt” it came

We had decided to do more improve games as a class, we did one which was fruit and vegetable day. You would pick your favorite or least favorite fruit or veggie and have to act out that character but only using the name of that object.

This game went on for a little over a week and I asked if I could try something to expand it a little, and so I taught a game using the same concept but instead you would have multiple characters and you would interact with one another and tell a story only using the names of the fruit or vegetable you chose. This was a sparking moment in my life, I decided that this was something that I wanted to continue doing, so I started journaling. I would write poems, scenes, songs, or just whatever was on my mind at the time. Before long, I started working with young children and special needs children, teaching them how to express themselves. Some of the kids were taught through journaling, some through movement such as dance, and some through music. Whenever one of them would be having a bad day, they would turn to their “expression place” to help. They would write about what was upsetting them, or they would play a song