Adventure Play Videos
Last January, Brazilian filmmakers David Reeks and Renata Meirelles visited Parish, filming and interviewing students and playworkers on Adventure Play. David and Renata are traveling the globe, documenting play and how it is portrayed around the world with a goal to release a feature-length documentary about free-play. Their first stop on their tour was Parish and they spent two weeks capturing the action on AP and interviewing both playworkers and students.
David and Renata chose AP at Parish because it stood out as an organization that prioritized free play and its inclusion of neurodiverse children. “That’s not saying free play doesn’t happen in other circumstances, but these are usually isolated within family settings, or in very rural settings,” says David. “So for this documentary about free-play around the world, we set our sights on Adventure Plays to represent “Western Civilization” and we chose
Houston for that reason.”
When reflecting on their time at Parish, David acknowledged the impact that free play has on neurodiverse children and how that freedom positively affects them. “One thing that was really surprising was how hard it was to distinguish between the Parish children and the community children,” says David. “Renata and I have been researching free play for over 20 years, and one thing that is constant in all free play situations is that children are living up to their full potential, or at least striving to. In play, they have a chance to become whole, they are defining who they are, what they need, whatthey want, and what they don’t want. They’re digesting and experimenting with the world around them. So, when you see kids with that freedom, it’s hard to see their personal challenges/diagnosis because they are showing us their best: on their own terms.
Their next stop will be a small island off the coast of Mozambique, and although they are still choosing the other locations, their goal is to visit continents and areas that have an array of climates and geographies. Eventually David and Renata plan to release a feature-length documentary about Free-play around the world as a sequel to The Territory of Play, a documentary they released in 2015 about the vast geography of children’s gestures in the most diverse areas in Brazil.
How to Enroll
Adventure Play is offered as an after school program held on The Parish School campus Monday – Thursday from 3:15 – 5:30 p.m. It is open to all children (public or private) between the ages of 6-12 years old. Students have to opportunity to attend 2, 3 or 4 days per week. Sibling discount available!
Adventure Play enrollment is now open online. The Parish Business Office will follow up with payment information after processing your registration. For Adventure Play Summer Camp, visit the Camp Acorn section of our website.
Questions?
Jill Wood
Director of Adventure Play
713.467.4696 x. 1145
One of the unique features of Adventure Play at The Parish School is that the same children get to play together day after day, and often year after year. The result is play that goes deep and takes the children on remarkable journeys into themselves and the world around them.
– Joan Almon, Founder and Director of the Alliance for Childhood