Students Perform at Millbrook Early Childhood Education Center

A main component of Millbrook School’s mission is preparing students for lives of service, and this is evident across all our programming. On Thursday morning, students from our improv class served in the local community by putting on two mini-plays for an adorable crowd at the Millbrook Early Childhood Education Center.

Led by Theater Instructor Elaine Lifter, students spent six classes developing plays based on two children’s books. They used an improv process called devising—collaboratively creating act-outs of the stories.

That hard work paid off, as the performances enraptured the audience. The show began with “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt,” a story in which a child and his parents head off in search of a bear. Kelly Kwok ’25 served as the narrator, and Andrew Stambaugh ’26, Elias Castro ’27, and Annie Huang ’28 played the hunting party. They provided comical visuals of the tale’s onomatopoeia, swishing through tall grass, sploshing through water, squelching through mud, and tumbling through a forest.

KJ Pimentel Jr. ’28, Lisette Lacroix ’28, Everett O’Brien ’28, and Lifter then delivered a rousing performance of “Look.” Pimentel narrated and played the main character, David, who must stay home from school due to sickness. His mother (Lifter) advises him to pass the time by looking out his window, and when he does, he sees dancing birds, singing cats, and circus performers, energetically portrayed by Lacroix and O’Brien.

After the performers took a bow, they interacted with the little ones, answering questions and thanking them for being an amazing audience. Pimentel noted that he and his classmates were nervous ahead of the performance, but everything turned out great.

The children were fully entertained, and even inspired, as one little aspiring actress exchanged high fives and posed for pictures with the Millbrook performers.

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