The East Hartford Gazette

8th Graders Record Story For Thousands

Four Sunset Ridge School 8th graders have become "recording artists" for one of the toughest audiences of all - more than 2,000 of their fellow pupils.

Their taped rendition of an abridged "Treasure Island," complete with Yo-ho-ho-and-a-bottle-of-rums, is being played for all 6th, 7th and 8th grade pupils in East Hartford schools.

The project began weeks ago in preparation for the school system's first of three cultural programs. The first series will be at Hockanum School Thursday and at Center School Friday.

A live production of "Treasure Island" will be put on by professional actors. When the program was set up, school officials feared that many of the children who would see "Treasure Island" had not read the book. They believed they would get more out of it if they were familiar with the story.

Speech Teacher Enlisted

There was no way to get copies of "Treasure Island" to all pupils and not enough time for them to read it if they could. So the school system's Cultural Committee asked Mrs. Marie Johnson, speech teacher, for help.

Mrs. Johnson found a synopsis of the story at the East Hartford Library. She edited it somewhat to make it the right level of understanding for 6th to 8th graders. Then she put in a call for talent to Eugene Bailey's 8th grade class at Sunset Ridge.

The pupils sent to her were David Procter, 46 Burnbrook Road; Karen MacDonald, 61 Britt Road; Judy Tonkin, 12 Chandler Street, and Jean Blackburn, 21 Ridgewood Road. Some had heavy voices, suitable for Long John Silver. Others were lighter toned, better for general narrative.

The quartet went to work. They practiced tones of conspiracy, of mystery, of fear.

They will know "Treasure Island" the rest of their lives,

MacDonald said "Hispaniola" instead of "Hispaniola," had to be erased and redone.

"Treasure Island" had been captured on tape. Then came a major rerecording, worthy of a national network. Each elementary school sent a teacher to the Slye School with a tape recorder. The master tape played, while each school's individual recorder picked up the story. Then the recording went out to each school.

There's almost no trace of nervousness in the final recording.

"They have good mike presence," Mrs. Johnson explained.

But there were awful moments when the tape was played in Mr. Bailey's class. The four recording artists sat there, paralyzed.

"I didn't dare look around," one of the girls said.