Preparing your class for their theatre trip The aim of this resource is to provide advice and suggestions to support your visit to the theatre. A visit to the theatre has the potential to be a life-changing experience, as well as an opportunity for learning. Quality productions can provide an exceptional resource, linking the arts to so many other areas of knowledge: history, geography, language and citizenship for example. In addition to this, learning through experiencing the performing arts nurtures a unique set of skills: an understanding of dramatic conventions, a specialised vocabulary and the ability to sit and watch a performance without distraction. In-School Preparations Before your visit it is helpful for pupils to know something about the theatre and what they will be doing there. Action Transport Theatre has dedicated participation staff to support your visit to our venue and we can help with the logistics of your visit and provide useful information and resources. Look out for teachers packs and lesson plans that may accompany the production to help you with ideas for creative work in school to either prepare for or follow-up the performance. There are no hard and fast rules for how to behave in a theatre. Watching live performance is a unique experience and the collaboration between the audience and the performers is what makes it work. Class Discussion Discussion could include the following general points:
What is a theatre? What is the difference between watching a performance in a theatre and watching TV or a film at the cinema? How do these differences influence the way we behave as an audience member? What sort of theatre is it? (old, young, big, small) Does that affect the kind of shows you will see there and how they are put on? There are many different aspects to the experience to enjoy: the plot, the staging, the acting, the stage and costume design, the lighting and sound.
Think about whether to discuss the plot of the play you will be seeing with your class. Often there is so much to take in that children can find it harder to follow the storyline. On the other hand, surprise could be more stimulating. You obviously know the children in your class better than anyone and what would benefit them the most. Following your visit Think back to your first experience of going to see a play or other performance at the theatre – It can often be a defining moment that stays with you for the rest of your life. Children often surprise with their insights 1 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
and analysis after watching a piece of theatre. As well as thinking about the play, children should be encouraged to remember how much they enjoyed the performance.
Managing Children’s Responses It is important to avoid making discussions of the play feel like a test.
It can help to personalise questions e.g. don’t ask what the play was about, ask what they think the play was about. By asking questions in this way there is no right or wrong answer.
Ask open-ended, non-leading questions about how the play made them feel and what they thought the play was trying to communicate.
Explain that it is fine for children to disagree with each other as they might have experienced the performance in a different way to others.
If the production was successfully engaging, you may find the discussion veering off into interesting areas that you hadn’t planned for as the children make free associations with their own worlds or with other imagery with which they’re familiar. This can be very telling and sometimes funny.
Be prepared to accept all interpretations and connections, however improbable, because these are usually genuine ways of responding to something which may be outside children’s current experience.
By accepting the more unusual responses you encourage children to think about theatre in new ways, help them make theatre relevant to their own lives. Other Ideas Pupils could express themselves using art forms such as drawing, painting or poetry and these can be used as stimulus for further class discussion. For instance, if they drew one of the characters from the play you could ask why they used those colours, why they chose that character, or how they think that character is feeling. You can also ask children to act out different parts of the play. Often it’s better to not worry too much about the exact lines but just to recreate the feelings from the play or explore the key themes. It can be fun to ask children to improvise scenes from the play or even to improvise the characters in different settings or contexts. Extra resources Sometimes children might not have the language or context to respond to a play as fully as they would wish. We have provided a glossary of theatre terms and a synopsis of the play which may give some pupils a helping hand with this. Take some time to look through the resources in your teachers pack – there are various activities including creative ideas for arts and drama projects. There will be additional materials online including comprehension, punctuation and grammar lesson plans. Visit http://piedpiperintheport.co.uk/
2 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
THEATRE VISIT PREPERATION
Brief Glossary of Theatre Terms Aisle: A passage through the seating Auditorium: The area inside the theatre where the play takes place and the audience sit Backstage: Any part of the stage and theatre which is out of the sight of the audience – dressing rooms, store rooms, technical boxes Blackout: When all the stage lights are turned out Cast: The actors in the play Company: The cast and all other staff associated with a show Cue: A signal given to an actor to speak or move or a command given to technical staff to turn on particular lights or play a sound or stage effect Downstage: The part of the stage nearest to the audience or a movement towards the audience Dress rehearsal: Usually the first time the actors rehearse the play wearing the costumes they will be wearing for the performances Fire Officer: Then person who is responsible for ensuring there are no fire risks on and off stage and looking after the audience during the show. The fire officer works with the ushers – see below Floor cloth: A special floor covering which covers the floor of the stage area. Sometimes colours or patterns are painted onto the floor cloth to help create a different world for the play Front of House: The areas of the theatre outside the auditorium 3 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
House: The audience e.g. “How full is the house tonight? Or the auditorium: “The house is now open” House Lights: The theatre lighting which is usually faded just before a show begins Props: Short for Properties – Objects that are handled by actors or that are on stage to help to tell the story Script: Describes all the details of the play, where each scene takes place, the lines that narrators and actors learn and speak on stage Set: The scenery which is built on stage which creates the setting for the play. The set might be made in a way so that pieces can be moved or changed for different scenes Stage Manager: The person in charge of making sure things get done in preparation for the show, and also during and after the show Sound Effects: Any sounds that are played as part of the show that is separate from music e.g. explosions, recorded voices, telephones ringing etc. Technician: The person or persons who operate the lighting and sound and any special effects for the show. The technician also has to put up the lights and set up the stage for the show Technical Rehearsal: Most often the first time the play is rehearsed in the auditorium with lights, scenery and sound Usher: The people who show you to your seat and look after the audience during the show, interval and after the show
4 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
The Pied Piper
Synopsis
Once upon a time, in a town with no cats Arrived a swarm of ravenous rats
They ate up the chocolate, they ate up the pie They ate up so much the mayor started to cry!
Can nobody save us? Will nobody try? When all of a sudden a Piper came by
I’ll rid you of rats, both thin and both long I’ll do it with music, I’ll do it with song!
But sadly the town was unwilling to pay So one of the children must save the day…
The story is set in Hamlin, a town overrun by a plague of rats. The townsfolk have put up with the rats invading their homes and stealing their food for as long as they can take and look to the mayor for a solution to this problem.
One of the townsfolk, a young girl, encounters a mysterious stranger who seems to have magical powers.
The mayor, under pressure to rid Hamlin of rats, sends out the message that he will pay handsomely for someone who can rid the town of rats and restore order among his people.
It is the same mysterious figure the young girl encounters, who convinces the mayor he is the man for the job. 5 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
The Mayor and his sidekick then negotiate with the Pied Piper. They will pay him a bag of gold coins if he rids the town of rats. He agrees the next morning he will rid Hamlin of rats.
Unbeknownst to the townsfolk, the Mayor has a secret stash of money which he greedily keeps for himself. He is a dishonourable man, easily bribed and flattered, who uses his position to get what he wants.
The next morning, the Pied Piper plays his magic flute and the rats come out from their hiding places and follow him to the river where they are drowned.
The town celebrates and the Mayor performs a speech. However when the Pied Piper appears and asks for his payment, his request is publicly refused by the Mayor, a decision which is cheered by the townsfolk! The Pied Piper threatens the Mayor and the town – “you will be sorry, you should never break a promise”.
Later, The Pied Piper returns to Hamlin and playing his magic flute, he leads all the children out of the town and towards the river. Their parents watch in horror but are powerless to overcome the spell.
The young girl follows also but cannot keep up as she must use crutches to walk. She gets as far as the river and sees that in the distance the children are being taken into the mountain!
The townsfolk, now in panic don’t listen to the young girl at first when she returns to tell them where their children have been led. They gather sticks, pitchforks and brooms and charge to the mountain to get their children back but when they get arrive, there is no obvious way inside and is no evidence that the children were ever there.
They chastise the girl - she is an ‘’idiot, a fool, a liar, it is her fault the Pied Piper came to town in the first place”. Why has she been spared when all the other ‘good’ children have been taken? They banish the girl from Hamlin.
The girl sleeps outside on the mountain and resolves to find and free the other children - she will go under or over or round the mountain until she finds a way in. Inside the mountain, all the towns’ children have been given all the things their parents promised them but never gave to them.
After searching and searching, the girl finds a way into the mountain and the Pied Piper appears. She challenges the Piper but he holds his ground, stating that he needs his payment; that the promise was broken and the town needs to pay to get the children back. 6 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
The Piped Piper gives the girl a shoe belonging to one of the towns’ children as evidence and sends her back to the town to get his payment.
On hearing the girl’s tale and seeing the evidence, the townspeople pay the full bag of coins initially offered to the Pied Piper to rid the town of rats. The girl takes this to the mountain; the Pied Piper appears and says it is not enough!
The girl returns to the town without the children and tells them it is not enough. This time the townsfolk give all the money they have which she takes to the mountain but again, the Pied Piper appears and says it is not enough.
The girl returns and tells the townsfolk that even all the money they have is not enough. “But it is all the money we have!” they cry.
The girl then challenges the Mayor and his secret stash of cash is revealed which he is forced to hand over. The townspeople show their anger at the Mayor for breaking his promise and hiding the money - they take his chain away and banish him from Hamlin forever.
The townsfolk then take the mayor’s stolen money to the Pied Piper at the mountain but once again the Pied Piper tells them it is not enough!
Desperate and defeated, the townsfolk are sorry and apologise to the Pied Piper for the town’s dishonesty at not keeping their promise. This is the payment he has been waiting for!
The townsfolk then understand that they were wrong to let their Mayor break his promise and turn a blind eye to the corruption in the town. The girl’s tenacity and bravery is celebrated and the townsfolk also issue an apology to her for doubting her and treating her badly.
7 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
THEATRE VISIT FOLLOW-UP
DRAMA PICTURES – TABLEAUX Curriculum Links: English – Listening, Drama / Physical Education Key Vocabulary: Tableaux / images / expressions / body language / motionless To encourage pupils to: • Respond imaginatively to different scenes and characters in the story • Gain greater awareness of their body language and facial expressions • Make decisions as a group and support each other • Build on their understanding of the characters and scenes in the play Introduction Tableaux can be used either in response to or to provoke story telling. The exercise is great to get children working together as a team. Tableaux can be used to imaginatively recreate aspects of stories of all kinds using different stimuli including poems, historical facts, newspaper headlines or music. Method and Organisation You will need a fairly large space for this, school hall for example. Put the class into smaller groups of no less than 4 or 5. Explain to the group that they will be creating still pictures / living photographs or tableaux of scenes from The Pied Piper. To begin the exercise and introduce the concept of tableaux, you could start by giving the groups a scene to show as a group, for example: birthday, cinema, seaside, shop. In their groups, ask the pupils to think of an action or pose to illustrate a part of the scene and when all groups seem to have something, tell them all to “freeze!” and hold their pose. You can ‘spotlight’ each group, having a look at each one in turn, so that they can enjoy each other’s still pictures and generate some mutual support. You can then introduce scenes from The Pied Piper for the groups to recreate and ask the children to guess which ones they are presented with.
8 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
Pupils usually respond to the suggestions instinctively and can come up with great scenes without much discussion between them. As such it can be a great activity to help everyone feel included, not just those with the most confidence. Alternatively you could work with the whole class and build up the scene asking one person at a time to take the shape of any person, creature or object that they imagine may be part of the scene. Once the first person has taken a pose, the second can add to the picture by assuming the shape of another person, creature or object that interacts with the first. Once each child is in position the scene is held for a few moments for others to enjoy and discuss what they can see. Extended Activities • Tableaux pictures could be ‘brought to life’ - from the still pose, the group then act the scene out with voice and movement • Encourage an active audience for the still pictures by asking the viewers to describe things in the picture that are unseen, smells, sounds, colours or costumes
9 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
THEATRE VISIT FOLLOW-UP
HOT SEATING KS 1&2 curriculum links: EN1/ English – Speaking & Listening/Drama, PSHE and Art and Design Key Vocabulary: Characters / hot-seating / roles To encourage pupils to:
Explore acting techniques, being ‘in character’ and role play
Use speaking and listening skills
Explore unseen aspects of characters from the show
Learn about creating back stories and personal histories to enhance their creative writing skills
Introduction This exercise introduces ‘hot-seating’ which is an established method used by actors to explore a character. The group can rediscover, connect with and invent aspects of the characters from The Pied Piper through this fun exercise.
Activities The group are settled as one audience for this exercise with a chair set on the ‘stage’ in front of them. One child is then chosen or picked from volunteers to be the actor each time. From the range of characters from the play, either the child chooses their own or the teacher chooses one for them to play or one is picked at random somehow. At this point the ‘actor’ should think about what voice their character might use, if they have a particular way of moving, any physical mannerisms or specific sayings they may use. It can be a good start if the actor walks ‘on stage’ playing the character and takes their seat in front of the audience.
10 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
TIP! Stress to the group that they don’t have to mimic the character as it was presented in the Action Transport Theatre production but have the freedom to interpret each in their own way. The audience then are free to ask any questions to the actor who answers them ‘in-character’. The questions can be chosen to explore aspects of the character, to explore some of the ideas in the story, decisions the character made, or to clarify any parts of the character that may have been confusing. You can also encourage the group to ask about things that are not specific to the story but are more general for example, what are your favourite foods / TV show / pastimes, where did they go to school etc… This way the actor can enjoy creating these aspects of the character and the group are encouraged to think about them in a wider sense. The role of the Pied Piper is particularly interesting for hot seating as little of his personal character is given away and he remains mysterious. Each child may have very different ideas about this character – see below for further ideas in Extended Activities.
Extended Activities For a twist – Like ‘Twenty Questions’, the audience do not know which character has been picked and are then allowed to ask questions of them until they determine who they are. Impose a few restrictions; Limit the number of questions that the group can ask to try and reveal the characters identity. If the identity of the character is revealed quickly the exercise can be continued so that both group and actor can enjoy exploring the character more consciously and explore reason and understanding. The Pied Piper – Since the character is quite mysterious, the variety of interpretations of the role could be enjoyed, celebrated and explored in more detail through art work. The class could work in groups or on their own to create, using collage, drawing etc. their own visualisation of the Pied Piper character to create a display or scrapbook.
11 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
ART ACTIVITY RAT CRAFT Create your very own finger-bob Rat! Materials
Photocopies of Rat Craft template sheet on card, scissors, sticky tape or glue
stick, crayons/felt-tips/paint‌
Decorate Each of the shapes on the template 1: Tail, 2: Ears and 3: Body and Nose, can be coloured in or painted and left to dry either before or after they are cut out depending on class ability
SHAPE
Start with the body shape and mould the piece round into a cone to roundabout where the two dots meet
Stick
Now attach the tail to the body, asterisk to asterisk and the ears, dotted line to dotted line with the tab facing the nose using sticky tape or glue sticks
Finish Finish your rat craft with googly or sticky label eyes and some whiskers!
12 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
THEATRE VISIT FOLLOW-UP
REVIEW COMPETITION Curriculum Links
English, Citizenship
How was your experience of seeing the show? What did you think of the design, the performers, the venue, the sound and lighting? Share your experience with us and you could win theatre vouchers. There are prizes for the three best reviews received. Introduction for pupils A review is a short report that describes a play to people who haven't seen it. It will tell people what was good or bad about all the different parts of the show e.g. acting, lighting, costumes and the way the stories have been told. Don’t forget to pay attention to the names of the cast and company, the venue and partners.
Here are some more tips about things to include in your review: Describe what the production is about. What are the main themes in the performance? What stories came out of it for you? What were the moments in the play that have stayed in your mind?
Acting Do you think the performers were good? Who was your favourite character and why? Lighting design How did the lights used help to create different moods and atmospheres? What colours were used? Was it bright or quite dark? 13 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
Sound and music What did you think of the music and sound? Did it help you to understand what was going on or how the characters were feeling?
Costume design What did you think of the costume design? What colours and styles were used? Did the actors wear makeup or any masks? How did the designs help you to understand the different characters? You could also include your answers to these questions: What was your favourite part of the show and why? How did you feel after watching the performance? Was there anything that you didn't like or that was confusing? Was the venue comfortable? Did the rest of the audience seem to like the performance? Would you recommend the show to friends or family? Your review doesn’t need to be long; the most important thing is that you have thought about and commented on all of the different parts that go into making the show. Don’t just write “It was good” or “It was bad”, tell us why it was good or bad, scary or happy, funny or sad. Send your reviews to us to arrive by 5pm on Monday 3rd February 2014 Pied Piper Review Competition, Action Transport Theatre, Whitby Hall, Stanney Lane, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire CH65 9AE
Feedback from both teaching staff and pupils is very valuable to us in planning future projects and productions. We’d love to see copies of any art or written work done by pupils in response to the 14 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK
production. We have also provided copies of our evaluation forms and would be most grateful if you would return them to us: Pied Piper Feedback, Action Transport Theatre, Stanney Lane, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, CH65 9AE. If you’d prefer to an e-copy to email back to us please let us know via christina@actiontransporttheatre.org Resources developed by Louise Flooks unitytheatre Participation Coordinator
15 Action Transport Theatre Creative Learning Supported by Essar Oil UK