Class I Play Celebrates the Magic of Creativity

The Winsor community was treated to a fable of childhood wonder on Friday, January 16, with the Class I play, The Magic Paintbrush. This year’s production, written specifically for Winsor’s Class of ’33 by Theater Director Jeremy Johnson, was an original musical adaptation of the Chinese folktale of the same name, with original music by Choir Director Andrew Marshall, choreography by Performing Arts Faculty Ann-Marie Ciaraldi, costumes by Performing Arts Faculty Jessica Pribble, and stage design by Theater Technical Director Andres Puigbo and Assistant to the Technical Director Wynn Graves. Every Class I student had a role in the production, which celebrated the role of the imagination in lifting up communities and working for justice.

“Jeremy Johnson and Annie Ciaraldi did an outstanding job capturing the personalities of Class I students through casting and choreography,” said Head of Lower School Sharon Jones Phinney in her weekend memo. “At the same time, Jessica Pribble’s gorgeous costuming truly brought the play to life. It was a joy to watch the students perform with confidence and give their all. Of course, nothing would have been possible on stage without the efforts of Andrés Puigbo and the stagecraft crew.”

“What if my paintbrush could change the world?” the characters ask in the opening number. Mr. Johnson’s adaptation tells the story of a village racked with poverty, transformed by the magic of creativity. Across five original songs, that paintbrush does just that. Gifted to the village children in their sleep by mysterious sources who tell them to “use your talents to aid one and all,” the paintbrush empowers the children to create whatever their neighbors need, just by painting it.

The villagers are overjoyed with their impossible luck: “Things are gonna change around here,” they sing over swaggering choreography in the third song, which was met with raucous applause.

But when the emperor gets word of the children’s gift, greed gets in the way. “I want more,” the emperor’s court sings, and the emperor becomes determined to make the magical artifact his own. So he summons the children to his court.

The emperor demands the children paint him a pile of gold, and when they refuse to do so, he sends them to the dungeon and attempts to paint riches for himself. However, the brush produces only useless objects. When he casts it aside, one of the emperor’s courtiers secretly brings it back to the children. They paint a door out of their cell and escape.

The story’s climax, which involves a high stakes chase across a raging river and a sabotaged golden boat full of shipwrecked royals, eventually delivers the children back to their village. Arriving home, they paint up a celebration for the community, and they come to the realization that, though the brush created wonderful things, “it’s the way you see the world that’s truly magic.”

View a video of this year’s Class I play, The Magic Paintbrush.