Behind the Stages: Guide for Educators and Families

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Behind The Stages For Educators and Families

www.chicagohumanities.org

Allstate Insurance Company

Arts Midwest

Consulate General of Switzerland in Chicago

Crown Family Philanthropies

First Time for a Lifetime contributors

Franklin Philanthropies Foundation

Illinois Arts Council

J.R. Halligan Charitable Fund

Kirkland & Ellis, LLP

Lorraine and Jay Jaffe

MacArthur Foundation

McCormick Foundation

National Endowment for the Arts

Nuveen Investments

Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council

Québec Government Office in Chicago

Sarah Siddons Society

Southwest Airlines

Stearns Charitable Trust in memory of Virginia S. Gassel

Stages, Sights & Sounds support provided by:

The Chicago Humanities Festival is a member of International Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY).

Media & Back-of-Ticket Sponsor WBEZ 91.5 FM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Welcome........................................................................................................3Journey & Adventure.......................................................................................4 Thought Questions and Activities.............................................................5Coming of Age................................................................................................6 Thought Questions and Activities.............................................................7 Embracing the Mystery....................................................................................8 Thought Questions and Activities.............................................................9Additional Resources......................................................................................10Education at CHF............................................................................................11

2 | STAGES, SIGHTS & SOUNDS • MAY 2013

This year’s Stages, Sights & Sounds festival explores the broad and multifaceted theme of fairy tales. Grounded in oral tradition, these stories have been endlessly transformed, reinvented, and transcribed. Fairy tales, at once risky and complex, safe and understandable, are a way for children to learn the truth about the cruelties of the world and how to cope with them. They invoke the universal. Dark woods, breadcrumbs, a house made of sugar—a few details are all you need to recall Hansel and Gretel. Fairy tales are stories we know, and wish to know again. Hans Christian Andersen, E.T.A. Hoffman, and the Brothers Grimm created what has become the timeless fairy tale canon: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, The Princess and the Pea, and The Little Mermaid. These stories and many more disrupt our conception of reality and the seemingly indelible divide between childhood and adulthood. This year’s Stages, Sights & Sounds embraces the journey and adventure, the mystery, and the coming-of-age transformations we find in traditional fairy tales, while presenting us with new twists on familiar stories. “To artists, fairy tales provide rich material both for storytelling and visual exploration; for audiences, artists’ interpretations can bring a new perspective to familiar material, or bring back warm memories of listening to mom or dad,” says Mary Kate Barley-Jenkins, Artistic Director of Stages, Sights & Sounds. Under the Stars is a retelling of Hansel and Gretel. Cloud Man tells the tale of a cloud expert in search of an elusive cloud dweller. Both are puppet theater works that journey through dark forests, up mountains, into the sky, and home again. Paige in Full uses the elements of hip-hop theater (dance, beats, and rhymes) to tell the story of a girl growing up in Baltimore, while Sleeping Beauty Dreams recasts the princess as an overprotected daughter. Both shows modernize the timeless coming-of-age search for acceptance, meaning, and true love. This year Stages, Sights & Sounds pushes the boundaries of the genre, asking audience members to search for clues and come to their own conclusions. .h.g. untethers the narrative of Hansel and Gretel from its familiar storyline and presents it, instead, as a self-guided installation. And finally, Murder on the Midwest Express embraces the whodunit, a genre to which many of us turned when we graduated from fairy tales. Form and formula are exposed as our beloved tales are changed—even distorted—to make them resonant again.

Allstate Insurance Company

Arts Midwest

Consulate General of Switzerland in Chicago

Crown Family Philanthropies

First Time for a Lifetime contributors

Franklin Philanthropies Foundation

Illinois Arts Council

J.R. Halligan Charitable Fund

Kirkland & Ellis, LLP

Lorraine and Jay Jaffe

MacArthur Foundation

McCormick Foundation

National Endowment for the Arts

Nuveen Investments

Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council

Québec Government Office in Chicago

Sarah Siddons Society

Southwest Airlines

Stearns Charitable Trust in memory of Virginia S. Gassel

Welcome Educators and Families

This is your guide to the 2013 Stages, Sights & Sounds Festival. This year’s festival takes on fairy tales, bringing six companies from around the world to Chicago to present classic and re-imagined stories. Within these pages you’ll find behind the scenes features on each of the six companies, as well as helpful questions and activities that offer a chance for deeper engagement with the spring shows. We can’t wait for you to join us!

--- CHF Programming & Education Staff

MAY 2013 • STAGES, SIGHTS & SOUNDS | 3

Cloud Man and Under the Stars Journey & Adventure

Many fairy tales begin with a call to adventure: characters must rise to a challenge, explore a new world, defeat a monster or witch or wolf. This year’s festival is filled with journeys. Cloud Man (recommended for ages 4+) is a show by Ailie Cohen Productions from Scotland. The audience follows Cloudia, a cloud expert who searches for clues of Cloud Man—a rare and mysterious creature who lives a peaceful life in the sky. The story is, on the surface, an adventure up Cloud Mountain, but what becomes paramount is Cloudia’s personal journey. She is a scientist who must set aside the factuality and certainty of science and embrace the possibility of magic. Only then can she discover something as unprovable and wondrous as a man made of clouds. “The show does not shout or scream. It is not rainbow colored,” creator Ailie Cohen explains from Edinburgh.

Instead, Cohen assumes that children have the same emotional vocabulary as adults. Montréal’s L’Illusion, Théâtre de marionettes retells the Grimm’s original Hansel and Gretel in Under the Stars. This adaptation (recommended for ages 6+) centers on the relationship between the brother and sister who must brave abandonment, a dark forest, and a tricky witch. To gain insight and inspiration from their core audience, L’Illusion conducted workshops with children during the show’s creation. Sabrina Baran, co-artistic director, says that the children with whom they worked responded most strongly to the darker elements of the original tale. These details, which L’Illusion has chosen to include, create a sense of gravity. But the lightness and optimism of children is omnipresent, too. The siblings work together to outsmart the witch and find their way home.


“We realized we were exploring human desires to pursue and understand, to make sense of the world around us. Questions were emerging about our interaction with the natural world: Do we attempt to control and manipulate to our advantage? Or do we put samples in jars? Do we believe in what we can’t see?” — Ailie Cohen, co-creator and performer, Cloud Man

Cloud Man and Under the Stars are shows that are good for children just learning about the fairy tale genre. Cloud Man is a new story with strong fairy tale elements and Under the Stars is an adaptation of a Brothers Grimm classic. The two productions are perfect for a basic introduction to the elements, qualities, and cultural differences that define fairy tales.

These questions may be considered whether or not you and your students attend these performances: What are the elements of a story? Is there more than one way to tell a story? What are some special characteristics of fairy tales?

These questions pertain specifically to the productions of Cloud Man and Under the Stars: What was different or the same about Under the Stars compared to what you know about the story of Hansel and Gretel? How did you know that Cloud Man and/or Under the Stars were fairy tales? Is Cloud Man a fairy tale? Why or why not?

Story Map and Acting

Cloud Man and Under the Stars are two shows for our youngest audiences. This activity is a great introduction to using fairy tales as simple teaching tools. A story map is a series of drawings or sentences that explain how a story unfolds. This assignment can help build a foundation to discuss more complex ideas about storytelling like themes, character archetypes, and plot. There are many different types of story maps. The most basic focus on the beginning, middle, and end of the story. More advanced maps focus more on plot or character traits. To download story map templates visit: http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/story_maps/

Read any version of Hansel and Gretel.

1. As a class, recall the story elements of Hansel and Gretel. Create a story map to help identify the place/setting, characters, time, problem and solution. 2. Using the story elements as a reference, have the students retell the story by acting it out or drawing the stories main events. This may be done as a whole class or in small groups.

Make your own Cloud Man puppet! For easy directions visit: www.cloud-man.co.uk

Thought Questions

Activity

Just for Fun


Coming of AgePaige in Full and Sleeping Beauty Dreams

We’ve all been there; adolescence is by turns poignant, embarrassing, and awkward. It is the bridge between childhood and adulthood. Coming of age is itself a fairy tale of sorts; young people confront wolves, witches, dragons—either literal or metaphorical—and ultimately defeat them by their wits, strength, and experience. There are two shows this year that offer a glimpse into this universal struggle, one for teens and one appropriate for younger audiences. Paige Hernandez, the creator and star of Paige in Full (for audiences age 12+), calls her show a “visual mixtape that blends poetry, dance, visual arts, and live music to tell my life story.” Paige, who grew up in Baltimore in the ‘80s, was known in high school for making mixtapes—compiling the perfect list of songs, ordering them with significant intention, in an earnest attempt to reflect a certain friend’s current life situation. Technology may have changed, but the adolescent discovery of music is timeless and passionate. In Paige in Full, Paige Hernandez tells her story of growing up in a multicultural family (Chinese, Cuban, African American) and facing the growing pains of bullying, racial adversity, and heartbreak through the lens of hip-hop—a form that uplifts, empowers, and gives a voice to her trials. Paige in Full, a story both personal and deeply universal, is an energetic piece of hip-hop theater that reaches out and breaks the fourth wall; it calls and expects a response.

In Marionetas de la Esquina’s Sleeping Beauty Dreams (for ages 5+), the princess asks her mother: “What does it feel like to go outside for the first time? What does it feel like to touch the trees, the earth, the grass?” Having never been allowed to leave her home, the princess wants what most take for granted: to wander, to explore beyond what she has always known. Sleeping Beauty Dreams was created by puppeteer Amaranta Leyva in both Spanish and English-language versions. (Both versions will be presented at this year’s festival.) Marionetas de la Esquina is a full-fledged family affair, with Amaranta writing the script and creating the initial drawings, her father, Lucio, creating the puppets, and her extended family working tech. They create a world that beautifully celebrates their Mexican heritage. Amaranta was drawn to the tale of Sleeping Beauty because of the princess’s strength and agency. Amaranta’s princess, at once classic and contemporary, fearlessly seeks out “the most dangerous danger,” the dragon on the other side of the wall. “Writing for young audiences lets me explore the intimate emotions that adults sometimes forget and children sometimes are not given the ‘space’ to express,” Amaranta says. “Puppets have a magical quality that transports the audience. The best thing that could happen for me as a playwright is for children to leave with a lot of questions to discuss with their parents: ‘What did you think?’ ‘How did you feel?’ ‘Why do you think that happened?’ I don’t give all the answers in the play. In my view, that is true audience participation!”


Thought Questions

Activity

Just for Fun

Coming of age is a tough business. Paige in Full and Sleeping Beauty Dreams are stories of agency, of rising to meet life’s trials and tribulations, and of confronting questions about expectations, desires, and disappointments.

These questions may be considered whether or not you and your students attend these performances: What role do fairy tales play in modern culture? Are there elements of fairy tales in your own life? If so, what are they? (If you and your students do see one of the performances, revisit this question afterwards.) Do the characters in fairy tales share any of your problems, life goals, or desires? How do fairy tales uphold or reject stereotypes? Fairy tales are typically considered children’s stories. In what ways do you agree or disagree with this assessment?

One, Two, Three, Write!

In this activity, students will deepen their engagement with the genre of fairy tales through writing.

1. Watch the Chicago Humanities Festival’s “An Evening of Modern Fairy Tales” with Kate Bernheimer and Lydia Millet online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zstjb4ekVR4 (program most suitable for ages 12+). Use this video as a launching pad to write about one of the following topics: a. Compare and contrast the two fairy tales shared in the video. b. Kate Bernheimer suggests that contemporary authors incorporate fairy tale elements all the time in novels and poems. Find and analyze an example of “those crumbs on the path” in a book or poem you have read.

2. Write your own fairy tale. It can be a fantastical story filled with magic, or in the spirit of Paige Hernandez, it can be about your life. Include a thesis statement and specific examples explaining what makes your story a fairy tale. (If you are taking your students to see either of these productions, you may want to have them write a version of their fairy tale before they see the play. Then, after seeing and discussing the performance, ask them to revise their story. Discuss what changes they made and why.)

Make a Mixtape!

Make a playlist for yourself and for one other person. The one for yourself should be made up of songs that represent you, your life, your personality, and your background. The other is for a close friend or family member. Choose songs that tell the story of your bond or relationship to that person. Write a sentence about why you included each song on the list.

“It’s a rocky road to grow into yourself, but it can also be rewarding and inspiring. The arts are what pulled me through.”

— Paige Hernandez, creator and performer, Paige in Full


Embracing the Mystery.h.g. and Murder on the Midwest Express

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s Nursery and Household Tales, now widely known as Grimm’s Fairy Tales, are dark stories. The original tales (first published in 1812) included murder, cannibalism, infanticide, and mutilation and were edited in later editions for a children’s audience. Despite these adjustments, the fairy tales are frequently heavy-hearted with the themes of poverty, disloyalty, and loss. What keeps them from sinking our collective spirit, however, are the glimmers of magic and the unlikely triumphs over tricksters and darkness. From Switzerland comes .h.g., an installa-tion by Trickster-p that melds memory and image to re-envision Hansel and Gretel. Cristina Galbiati, one of .h.g.’s creators, explains: “We thought about Hansel and Gretel as if the fairy tale were real. Taking out the important elements, we worked from our personal memories and asked ourselves: what is the atmosphere? What does it mean to be lost in the woods at night? How can that feeling be transposed?” .h.g. is made up of nine rooms through which individual visitors wander, guided only by earphones. Each space is a sparse, visual piece of storytelling, reliant on personal association and recollection as much as the creators’ intent. At once personal and collective, each person’s imagination becomes an integral part of the story: you could be the two children lost in the woods; a parent telling a bedside fairy tale; or a child

listening wide-eyed. .h.g. is a journey unlike any other, taken alone, but somehow recognizable and known. (Please note that children under 10 will not be admitted.) Murder on the Midwest Express (recom-mended for ages 12+) is the brainchild of Marc Frost, artistic director of Theatre Un•Speak•Able and the creator of Superman 2050 which was a hit at last year’s Stages, Sights & Sounds. Like Superman, Murder on the Midwest Express relies heavily on bodies and voices to create props, scenery, and characters. Each actor plays many characters, switching costumes in a seemingly haphazard, comedic way that emphasizes gesture, playfulness, and ensemble awareness. On stage, the actors realize the physical challenge they’ve set for themselves, making the audience witness to their struggles. They do a lot with very little. The plot loosely follows Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. Frost says: “It is the genre that all audiences will recognize: the ‘whodunit.’ Maybe this is Ms. Christie’s most lasting contribution to popular culture, the game of keeping the audience guessing about the identity of the culprit until the last possible moment.” Setting the play in the future on a high-speed train from Chicago to Toronto, Theatre Un•Speak•Able creates a madcap world in a surprising form that borrows and breaks from the classic mystery.


Thought Questions

Activity

.h.g. and Murder on the Midwest Express are both shows that have dramatically reconfigured well-known stories. It is not essential to know the classics. Yet the radical changes in plot and form made to Hansel and Gretel and Murder on the Oriental Express do not diminish their familiarity.

These questions may be considered whether or not you and your students attend these performances: Why are fairy tales so prevalent as a form of storytelling throughout the world? What are your personal memories/associations with fairy tales? Do fairy tales reflect the reality of life, or are they purely magic? Explain. Why do you think the organizers of Stages, Sights & Sounds included a murder mystery in a festival based on fairy tales? What do fairy tales and whodunits have in common? How are they different? Why do you think readers of all ages (through the ages) continue to be interested in these stories, even though the formula is so well-known?

These questions pertain specifically to the productions of .h.g. and Murder on the Midwest Express: What was your experience with .h.g.? Do you think it was a play or more like a museum exhibition? How did it tell a story? Describe the set and props of Murder on the Midwest Express. How did their presence (or absence) help tell the story in a unique way?

Different Versions of a Fairy Tale

Encourage students to tell you what they already know about any fairy tale. Explain that many of today’s fairy tales have been around for centuries. People often retold these stories with their own variations. As a result, similar tales exist in many different cultures around the world. The different versions contain similarities and differences. Prompt the students to consider these differences.

As a class read different versions of the same fairy tale. Invite your students to bring in their own. As you read the stories compare the different versions. How are they alike and how are they different? How did the characters differ? Was the ending the same in all of the stories? Use a Venn diagram on the board to highlight the differences. Use the same process to consider other literary genres that rely strongly on formula (comic books, superhero stories, etc.). Discuss what narrative characteristics these forms share with fairy tales and in what ways they are different.

— Julia Mayer, CHF Senior Program Manager

“In .h.g., there is the chance to move beyond the familiar linear narrative of the fairy tale. They can break it up, mix it up in a new setting; they can explore an example of what comes next in terms of literary genres; and they can laugh.”


Lesson Plans:Read, Write, Think.org Fairy Tale Lesson Plans:

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/Search: “Fairy Tales”

National Endowment for the Humanities Fairy Tale Lesson Plans

http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/fairy-tales-around-world

PBS Teachers’ Fairy Tale Resources:http://www.pbs.org/teachers/earlychildhood/theme/fairytales.html

Scholastic Fairy Tale Lesson Plans:http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/myths-folktales-fairy-tales-grades-k-3

Articles: National Geographic Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale Resource:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/index2.html

Smithsonian History of Agatha Christie:http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/Where-Agatha-Christie-Dreamed-Up-Murder.html

“Once Upon a Time: The Lure of the Fairy Tale”by Joan Acocella from The New Yorkerhttp://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/07/23/120723crbo_books_acocella

Book Review: “Phillip Pullman’s Twice Told Tales”By Maria Tatar from The New Yorkerhttp://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/11/philip-pullmans-twice-told-tales-fairy-tales-from-the-brothers-grimm.html

Other:Classic fairy tales, annotations and analyses:

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com

Additional Resources

This guide was conceptualized and written by CHF Education Fellow Marlee Prutton.

Kelsey Rotwein and Dana Lambert also contributed to the activities and thought questions that appear in this year’s Behind the Stages Guide. Editing thanks to Julia Mayer and Mary Kate Barley-Jenkins.


Mission

The mission of Chicago Humanities Festival Education is to cultivate a passion for the humanities in educational communities by offering educators and students diverse and dynamic learning opportunities, both in person and

online, based on our yearly Fall Festival, Winter/Spring programs, and Stages, Sights & Sounds.

Online Resources

Educators can visit the CHF website to access more than 50 study guides from many disciplines. These resources help teachers prepare their students to visit CHF events and also include a rich video and audio

archive of past Festival programs. There are step-by-step lesson plans and links to useful online content that help bring the voices of Festival presenters into classrooms. For all of the latest resources,

visit http://www.chicagohumanities.org/Festival/For-Educators.aspx

Educator and Student Tickets

A majority of tickets to Chicago Humanities Festival programming, including the Fall Festival, Winter/Spring programs, and Stages, Sights & Sounds are available for free or at greatly reduced rates for students,

teachers, and class groups. For questions regarding educator- or student-priced tickets, call the Festival Box Office at 312.494.9509.

Summer Institute for Teachers

Each year, the Chicago Humanities Festival presents a symposium that explores the relationship between a component of the humanities and American popular culture. Along with presentations and discussion, the

participants receive teaching resource materials that aid them in adapting the Institute’s content into their curricula. Teachers who participate in the Institute have the opportunity to earn up to 10 CPDUs.

Chicago Humanities Festival

The Chicago Humanities Festival’s mission is to create opportunities for people of all ages to support, enjoy, and explore the humanities. We fulfill this mission through nearly 130 yearly events, including the annual

Stages, Sights & Sounds and Fall Festivals, year-round lectures and talks, and professional development programs for educators, as well as promoting our vibrant online humanities community. This year CHF’s annual Fall Festival

celebrates its 24th year with an exploration of “Animal.”

Stages, Sights & Sounds

2013 marks the 14th season of Stages, Sights & Sounds, the Chicago Humanities Festival’s showcase of acclaimed international and national performing arts for young audiences. With more than 50 performances

every spring, kids of all ages can see original work and new interpretations of classic favorites. The 2013 Festival will run May 7–19.

Education Ambassadors

The CHF Education Ambassadors are a group of educators who serve as advisors to and ambassadors for CHF Education. Participants work directly with CHF staff and provide ideas and feedback about how CHF can optimize

its resources and programs to most effectively benefit educators and students. The group also provides an opportunity for professional networking and the exchange of ideas with other educators who use or would like to

use CHF’s resources to enhance their teaching. If you are interested in learning more about the Education Ambassadors group, contact Corrina Lesser at 312.661.1028 ext. 712.

Education at the

Chicago Humanities Festival


Under the Stars | CanadaMontréal’s L’Illusion, Théâtre de marionettes (puppet theater) uses Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm to reflect on poverty, imagination, and change. For ages 6+.Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Edlis Neeson Theater, 220 East Chicago Avenue Murder on the Midwest Express | Chicago Last year's Stages favorite (and Chicago's own) Theatre Un•Speak•Able returns with its latest physical comedy gem: a whodunit on the high-speed rail tracks between Chicago and Toronto. For ages 10+. Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, Začek McVay Theater, 2433 North Lincoln Avenue Paige in Full | Baltimore Writer and performer Paige Hernandez brings us her unique coming-of-age story, a 21st-century not-so-fairy-tale about Everygirl’s search for acceptance, meaning, and her one true love. For ages 12+. Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Edlis Neeson Theater, 220 East Chicago Avenue

Sleeping Beauty Dreams | Mexico Marionetas de la Esquina’s humorous storytelling and whimsical puppetry awaken this sleeping princess as never before in a contemporary take on the classic tale. For ages 5+. Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, Začek McVay Theater, 2433 North Lincoln Avenue Cloud Man | ScotlandThis highly visual, gentle story tells the tale of Cloudia, a cloud expert whose lifelong dream is to see the Cloud Man, a rare creature who lives a quiet life up in the sky. For ages 4+.Storefront Theater, 66 East Randolph Street

h.g. | Switzerland Part exhibit, part experience, this extraordinary retelling of Hansel and Gretel re-imagines what fairy tales, and theatre, can be. For ages 10+. Chicago Cultural Center, Dance Studio, 77 East Randolph Street

For tickets and performance schedules please visit www.chicagohumanities.org or call 312-494-9509.

May 7-19 2013

Behind the Stages: Guide for Educators and Families

Documents

mary kate

zaek mcvay

edlis neeson

sleeping beauty

questions

contemporary

chicago humanities

sleeping beauty