Program Highlight

STUDENT DRAMATURGY

Story by the Junior Dramaturgs of Clairemont Elementary, with teacher Tom Seetoo, and the Junior Dramaturgs of the Museum School of Avondale Estates, with teachers Emily Gardner and Elaine O’Mast, Alliance Theatre Institute Teaching Artist Kim Bowers-Rheay Baran, and the Naked Mole Rat Experts at Zoo Atlanta.

Since the naked mole rat is one of the most unusual and fascinating creatures in the animal kingdom, we asked our Junior Dramaturgs and our colleagues at Zoo Atlanta for some facts about these amazing animals. BY AXEL

FROM OUR JUNIOR DRAMATURGS:

Naked mole rats are unusual and unique animals that lots of people don’t know about. We did the research for you so you can learn some cool facts about the characters in this hilarious play.

SIZE AND APPEARANCE

• Naked mole rats are very small, usually three inches long and weigh only 1.5 ounces to 3 pounds. They have tiny tails and long whiskers, and are pinkish in color. They’re very wrinkly and have no hair. They have two long teeth on the top and two longer ones on the bottom. They have very poor eyesight and five appendages (toes) on their four limbs (legs).

BY ANNE

HABITAT

• Naked mole rats are found in eastern

Africa, specifically in Ethiopia, Kenya,

Djibouti, and Somalia. • They live in underground burrows and tunnels in grassy and partially dry areas. The tunnels can total up to 2.5 miles. DIET BY TAYLOR • Naked mole rats are herbivores. They eat roots and tubers by digging. A tuber is food, such as a potato. • They do eat feces, which makes them coprophagic. Feces is waste matter that is discharged from the intestines. • They don’t need to drink water because their food gives them all the water they need.

GLAM ROCK

Glam rock is the kind of music that inspired the “rock experience” of the play. It is a musical movement from the 1970s that started in Britain. It is also known as glitter rock because the singers’ costumes were glittery and crazy. People wore outrageous costumes, hairstyles, makeup, platform shoes, and, of course, glitter. People and bands famous for glam rock include Queen, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Elton John, Roxie Music, the New York Dolls, and Alice Cooper.

ABOUT OUR JUNIOR DRAMATURGS

Our Dramaturgy by Students Program is a “real world” project offered by the Alliance Theatre Institute. Teaching artists from the Alliance and classroom teachers collaborate with students who serve as Jr. Dramaturgs for an Alliance stage production. The Jr. Dramaturgs’ research process includes reading the play, researching the author of the source material, and identifying characters, setting, and historical and scientific content to provide information for the audience, director, actors, and designers of the play.

BY FIE

THE LIFE OF A MOLE RAT Fun Facts from Zoo Atlanta

Found beneath the grasslands of eastern Africa, naked mole rats spend their entire lives underground. Truth is stranger than fiction when it comes to these subterranean mammals – check out some fun facts about nature’s weirdest underground families.

• Naked mole rats are one of only two mammal species that are eusocial (the other is a cousin, the Damaraland mole rat). “Eusocial” refers to a lifestyle spent in the service of a queen, just like bees and ants. • The average colony size is around 70 individuals, but colonies numbering almost 300 have been documented. These supersized colonies can take up more space than five football fields. • Anyone who is not the queen has a designated role such as soldier or worker. Soldiers defend the colony from predators, largely other subterranean animals such as snakes or unwelcome mole rats who are strangers to the colony. Naked mole rats use smell to tell friend from foe. • When a female becomes queen, she grows physically larger, thanks to a bizarre spontaneous increase in the distances between the vertebrae in her spine. She is the only member of the colony whose size is different from the others. She is also the only female in the colony who reproduces. • While the queen may rule all, she isn’t born to royalty. She has fought fellow females to earn her leadership. When a queen

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dies, other females will fight for the right to the queendom. • Naked mole rat colonies use very complex systems of burrows. These feature different “rooms” for different purposes, including food storage and toilet area. Because so much of their time is spent digging, naked mole rats have highly specialized teeth that can move independently of one another, like scissors, or work as a unit, like chopsticks. Their lips are capable of closing behind their incisors to keep dirt from entering their mouths. • The name “naked mole rat” is somewhat of a misnomer. While they are classified as rodents, naked mole rats are not rats; they are most closely related to porcupines, chinchillas and guinea pigs (they have no relation to moles). Nor are they entirely naked; they have sensitive whiskers on their faces and tails, as well as hair between their toes that help their feet function as brooms to sweep away soil. • Naked mole rats fascinate the scientific community in that they do not get cancer, are insensitive to pain, and have long lifespans – the longest of any rodent species. In this way, these cool creatures may aid in discoveries that could improve human healthcare.

Visit the colony of naked mole rats at Naked Mole Rats: Nature’s Weirdest Underground Family, only at Zoo Atlanta. Learn more on zooatlanta.org.