Momo Resources Pack - Filament · PDF fileMomo Resources Pack . 2 Momo Adapted from the novel by Michael Ende A Filament Theatre/Greenwich Theatre co-production Devised by Osnat Schmool

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Momo Resources Pack

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Momo Adapted from the novel by Michael Ende

A Filament Theatre/Greenwich Theatre co-production

Devised by Osnat Schmool and Sabina Netherclift with Annie Siddons and the company Lyrics/ Music by Osnat Schmool Directed by Sabina Netherclift Written by Annie Siddons Designed by Emma Wee Lighting Design Charlie Lucas Pack written by Sabina Netherclift with Maria Leaf Polka Theatre 12-22nd March 2014 Stratford Circus 28th -29th March 2014 Greenwich Theatre 2nd-5th April 2014 Full Production details at www.filament-theatre.com

Filament Theatre Company, c/o Greenwich Theatre, Crooms Hill, London, SE10 8ES Registered Charity: 1151037

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Who Are We?

Filament is a music theatre company, whose productions combine close part harmony singing with physical performance. We make work which tells stories, performed in both traditional and non-traditional theatre spaces. Since our formation we have created four original pieces: Drive Ride Walk, which was the winner of The Bridewell/ MMD/ Nitro Writers Development Fund Award, has toured to theatres in London (Stratford Circus, Greenwich Theatre, Chelsea Theatre and Jacksons Lane) as well as appearing at over 20 public venues throughout the city, including St Pancras Station, Homerton Hospital, Lewisham Shopping Centre, Spitalfields Market, The Royal Naval College and the London Transport Museum. It has been seen by an estimated audience of over 7,000, and was nominated for a ‘Best Ensemble’ award at the Offies in 2011. One Dark Night, One Small Step and One or the Other have all been created for Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival.

One Dark Night tells the story of one woman’s long dark night of the soul as she struggles to cope with loss and loneliness, looking for any kind of solace - in food, television, her wardrobe, her books and her memories. It features 8 performers (1 protagonist and her chorus).

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One or the Other received development support from Barbican/Guildhall Pit Lab, and a workshop version was performed in August 2013. It is an a cappella trio which sees two flatmates vying for the attention of their landlady Bella, by means of a cooking competition. The piece is part slapstick (the relationship of the flatmates was inspired by the cartoon Tom and Jerry) and part very tight harmony singing.

Filament Theatre Company was awarded charitable status in March 2013

One Small Step is a promenade piece

which charts the emotional journey of a

couple as they witness their child’s first

faltering steps. A cappella duet, intercut

with a percussive score, charts the highs

and lows of watching a child learn to walk.

We used it as the focus for a workshop for

the Glyndebourne and Welsh National

Opera’s Youth Companies

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What is Momo? Momo is a story, written by German author, Michael Ende. It was first published in 1973, 40 years ago, before we had computers at home and school, mobile phones and iPads. People didn’t have so many ways to access information or connect to each other. Although Michael Ende never specifies where exactly the story is set, it imagines a place which is warm and relaxed. We today might think of Spain, Portugal, Greece or Turkey having this type of atmosphere. It tells the tale of a young orphaned girl who arrives in a town and makes friends with the people who live there. She is very good at listening and the townspeople bring her their problems. Momo is able to give them all the time they need, she makes people feel better about themselves and life. However, soon things begin to change. Momo's new home is invaded by a sinister group, the Men in Grey; their mission - to persuade the townspeople to ‘save time’. They persuade people that if they stop ‘wasting’ time right now (by spending time playing, chatting, sitting and dreaming), they could have so much more to spend later on, ‘time saved is time doubled’. Gradually, Momo’s friends stop visiting her, children aren’t around to play with her. She is left alone. However, before the Men in Grey can destroy her, she meets a clairvoyant tortoise and a Time Lord in the shape of Professor Hora and very soon she is fighting back to rescue her friends from the domination of the Time Saving Bank and to reinstate the value of time. "Time is all you need, right?" By the author of The Neverending Story, our musical version of Michael Ende's fantasy novel is a thrilling fusion of dazzling vocals, original songs, puppetry and storytelling. About Michael Ende

Michael Andreas Helmuth Ende (12 November 1929 – 28 August 1995) was a German writer, whose books combined fantasy and reality. He wrote for both children and adults, but his best known works are his children’s books, amongst them, The Neverending Story, which was turned into a movie in 1984.

His books have been translated into more than 40 languages and have sold more than 20 million copies.

Although he wrote for children, he was concerned with issues that affected the adult world and addresses complex issues surrounding the nature of time, friendship and society in Momo

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Themes within Momo

Momo is a book which looks at how society operates, how people spend their time, and what they choose to do. Ende imagines what would happen if people were convinced that all the things we might see as a relaxing way to pass our time (chatting, seeing friends and relatives, playing, watching the world go by) were in fact WASTING it.

He slowly eliminates these things from the lives of his characters.

He forces us to look at the value of time, the value of friendship, what investing time in people means. He asks us to examine how a community functions, how family relationships function and what might happen should we no longer spend time enriching those relationships. He asks us to consider what would be lost in a world which is looking for ever greater efficiency and whether we think that what would be lost would outweigh what there is to be gained from a relentless desire to ‘save’ time.

Links to the Curriculum

KS2 Citizenship and PSHE

Realise that their actions affect themselves and others and try to understand different points of view

Understand why and how rules and laws are made and enforced and why different rules are needed in different situations

Consider social and moral dilemmas they come across

KS2 English and Drama

Recognise the choice, use and effect of figurative language, vocabulary and language patterns

Identify how character and setting are created, and how plot, narrative structures and themes are developed.

Evaluate ideas and themes that broaden perspectives and extend thinking

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KS2 Music

Explore and explain ideas and feelings using musical vocabulary

Listen with attention to details and internalise and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

Understand how the combined musical elements of pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and silence can be organised within musical structures

Adaptation Our show is adapted from Michael Ende’s children’s book. We have worked with a writer to make the book come to life for our audiences, and we have adapted the book in order to tell the story in the best way we can. This means, there will be some bits of the book and characters within it that we have missed out and others we have mixed together to help us to dramatically tell the story in the time we have. Here are some of the characters: Momo: the heroine (an orphan), who arrives in the town and is very good at listening. She makes friends with everyone. Guido: a friend of Momo’s and a very good story teller, he is also a guide and regularly leads groups of tourists around the amphitheatre. He loves making up stories about what used to happen there which he tells the tourists are true! Figaro: a Barber /hairdresser who is very shy at the beginning of our show, has always liked Miss Nina but never quite had the nerve to tell her. What he can do however is cut hair, (which he really enjoys), and talking to his customers (which he also enjoys!) Nina: the innkeeper has a heart of gold! She loves cooking and looking after everyone. She doesn’t care how much or how little money people have – but she does wish that Figaro would pluck up the courage to ask her out on a date! Professor Hora: the keeper of Time (a bit like Dr Who) The Men in Grey: shadowy and up to no good baddies! More about them later. Paulo, Rosa and Maria: children and Momo’s friends

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TIME to begin ‘Long, long ago, when people spoke languages quite different from our own, many fine, big cities already existed in the sunny lands of the world. There were towering palaces inhabited by kings and emperors; there were broad streets, narrow alleyways and winding lanes; there were sumptuous temples filled with idols of gold and marble; there were busy markets selling wares from all over the world; and there were handsome spacious squares where people gathered to discuss the latest news and make speeches or listen to them. Last but not least there were theatres, or more properly, amphitheatres. Thousands of years have passed since then. The great cities of long ago lie in ruins together with their temples and palaces. Wind and rain, heat and cold have worn away and eaten the stonework. Ruins are all that remains of the amphitheatres too. Crickets now inhabit their crumbling walls, singing a monotonous song that sounds like the earth breathing in its sleep. A few of these ancient cities have survived to the present day however. Life there has changed, of course. People ride around in cars and buses, have telephones and electric lights. But here and there among the modern buildings, one can still find a column or two, an archway, a stretch of wall, or even an amphitheatre dating from olden times. It was in a city of this kind that the story of Momo took place.’ From Chapter 1 Momo, Michael Ende (Copyright Michael Ende) This is how Michael Ende introduces the world of Momo. What do you notice about the way he uses language? How does he build a picture of what the world was like? What do you think an amphitheatre was for? Can you find out? What sort of things can you see in modern day amphitheatres? When you have found out, why do you think Michael Ende makes it a key part of the description at the start of the story? Momo is found one day, living in the amphitheatre and much of the action of the story takes place inside its walls. We decided that our set should evoke the feeling of an amphitheatre – as it is a perfect place for actors to make a play! All of the other places we visit are made out of different sections of our amphitheatre, Nina’s Inn and Figaro’s hair salon. We’ll come across them as we continue on our journey with you!

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In the show, we meet the characters spending time doing things they really enjoy - children are playing games, Nina is cooking and getting her inn ready for opening time, Figaro is creating a new haircut! We’d like the children to consider what they really like doing. Here are some questions you can ask them to think about: What do you most like to spend your time doing when you are not in school? What things do you most like doing with your family? What things do you most like doing with your friends? What things do you most enjoy in the time that you are at school? What makes you forget time? What do grown-ups think about time? When does time feel good/bad? If there was a court to sentence time, what would it be like? If time was a character how would they look?

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Discussion

In groups of 4 discuss your answers to the above questions. Are there any things in common? Do any of you like spending your free time doing the same thing? Is eating and chatting with your family important? Do you spend time playing games by yourself or with others? What sort of games do you play with your friends? Are there different objects that are linked to the ways you think about time?

Drama Activity 1

Step 1 In your groups, make a still image for each of the activities you really like doing with your friends. Think about this like a photograph. Everyone should be in the photo and should have a role. The person who really enjoys this activity is the photographer and will arrange the others in the image they want to photograph and will then put him/herself into the image. If two people enjoy doing the same activity, e.g. skateboarding or dancing, then there can be two photographs of the same activity but perhaps showing different things For example: If your favourite thing to do (when not at school) is to play football, then perhaps set up the picture of a football game. Think about who is playing, are there 4 players in the match? Or only 2 and 2 supporters? Which moment is the photograph taken at? The final moment of the match or half time? Where are the people in the photograph? Which position should they be in to make it really exciting? Where are you in the photo?

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Step 2 When you have each had a go at being the photographer, can you practice all 4 of your still photographs? Step 3 Find a way to move between each of the photographs as smoothly as possible. Step 4 Find a title for your photograph album, for example ‘Time Well Spent’. You are now ready to present your photo album to the class. Announce your title and then move into photo number 1. You can clap after counting to 5 and then move into photo number 2. Hold this photo for 5 counts, clap and move into photo number 3. Keep going until all your photos have been shown. (Note to teachers: To extend this exercise, ask each group to add one word per photo, then one sound, then one action. You can repeat this exercise to encompass any of the activities which the group has discussed – time spent at school, time spent with family, time spent doing things they don’t like!)

Discuss at the end what sometimes stops activities you like taking place. Is lack of time ever involved?

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Art /Design Activity 1 We are going to think of Time as a character. What would Time look like? For this exercise you will need to be in groups of 8-10 Materials you will need: Large sheets of paper (wallpaper lining is ideal) Coloured pens Tissue paper/crepe paper/newspaper Feathers Felt Odds and ends! Step 1 Spread out your sheet of wallpaper paper until it is long enough for one of your group to lie down on it. Step 2 One child lies down on the paper whilst the other children draw round their outline. Step 3 Once the outline has been completed, the child lying down gets up and now all the children around the outline get to work. What kind of clothes would Time wear if they were a character? What kind of hair would Time have? What kind of face? Old or young? Draw one object on that Time might have? You can divide up these tasks amongst the group. You can draw the different additions to Time or stick them on out of the materials you have to hand – what texture clothing might Time wear? Write one phrase that Time might say. Write down a secret that Time might keep. Write down Time’s favourite food. Write down Time’s favourite activity. Step 4 When your drawing of Time is finished, can you present it to the rest of the class?

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Step 5 Can you now start to become the Time characters you have drawn? How do they walk and talk? How do they say their phrase? Can you whisper your secret to another Time? (Note to teachers: this exercise can be extended to create a story. What would the children like to ask Time if they met it? What would they do if they met Time? Can they construct a story about meeting time that has a beginning, middle and end? Could they construct a series of images of this meeting, as in drama activity 1)

Drama Activity 2 Becoming other characters! Now we’d like you to think about other characters from the story. We are going to meet them before things in the story become difficult for them – so we are going to meet them whilst they are doing things that they enjoy. We’d like you to create 3 photographs to follow some time spent with each of the characters and their customers below. Think about the still images you are creating, making a story with a beginning a middle and an end. Now, as a reminder of who is who and what they do: Nina runs an inn. She loves cooking, making food and looking after people. She is well known for being a really good cook. She’d probably win the ‘Great British Bake Off’ if she entered. Of course this is before she gets visited by the Men in Grey. Figaro is the local barber. He cuts hair, styles hair and really enjoys doing it. He is particularly creative once Momo has arrived and spends time getting his creative cuts just right. Sometimes people are surprised by what he does with their hair – perhaps even a little bit shocked but one thing’s for sure, it is never dull! Guido has many jobs in the story, he is a postman, dog walker, witness at weddings, souvenir seller but most importantly, he takes tourists around the amphitheatre and tells them about its history. However, he is also a great story teller so there is less fact in his account of the amphitheatre’s past than fiction. For Guido, the amphitheatre used to house a great whale that started life as a fish in an empress’s bath, but it was also a place of battles. The children in the story are good at making up games, especially when Momo is around. They didn’t have iPads and IPods when the book was written so games for these children were about pretending to be different characters. One of the games that takes place in the story is about a voyage upon a ship called the Argo. The ship enters a thunderstorm and is blown about and then meets a giant creature. It is only when the children sing that the danger passes away. We’re going to think about all of these characters.

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This will work best with groups of 8 – 10 children. Group 1 Title: It’s dinner time at Nina’s Inn

Characters: Nina, Waiters, Customers Create a scene that follows Nina's inn from 6pm to 9pm. You can set these three different steps up as tableaux first of all, i.e still images and then find a way to move between them. These are the three headlines we would like you to use: Picture 1 Opening time! Picture 2 Dinner is served! Picture 3 Time to go home! Are people excited to get into the Inn at opening time? Hopefully so, Nina is a great cook! Are they also very hungry? People come to Nina’s inn to relax so what might people be doing in the inn before dinner comes out? Could they be playing cards? Talking/laughing? Once they have eaten, are the very full? Very happy? Was it delicious food and if so do they want to tell Nina how good it was? Do they all want to leave the inn or do some want to stay?

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Once you have a series of photographs/still images, can you find a way to move between them? Then can you think about how to bring some life to each of these photographs so they stop being frozen images. Can you find 3 lines of dialogue for each scene? E.g Scene 1: Nina: Come on in everyone! Customer 1: John, here’s a table – let’s play cards! Customer 2: What are you cooking, Nina? Scene 2: Nina: Time to Eat! Customer 3: Yumm Customer 4: Can I have seconds? Scene 3: Nina: Good night everyone! Customer: Wake up, Sarah! Customer: Time to go home! What music would you use if you wanted to underscore? (There are some suggestions at the end of this pack)Can you add some props made from paper or card to the scene? Here are some other scenes and picture titles you might be able to use. You can construct the scenes in the same way as Nina’s Inn Title: Figaro’s Hair Salon Picture 1 Figaro and his customers Picture 2 Snip, brush, cut! Picture 3 All done! How many people is Figaro looking after in his salon? He loves cutting hair so perhaps he is doing some really wild and creative things. Can you create the tableaux first, then find really smooth ways to move between them?

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Add dialogue to each tableau as in scene 1. Then find some good music that might be able to underscore the scene. In our adaptation Figaro’s more creative haircuts have been made from paper. Can you design some really wonderful haircuts that are made from paper and card? Title: Guido – the tourist guide Picture 1 The amphitheatre Picture 2 You’ll never guess what happened here! Picture 3 That was the best tour ever! Title: The Voyage of the Argo Picture 1 All aboard! Picture 2 Danger on the High Seas! Picture 3 The creature is defeated!

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Storytelling/Drama Activity 3 Guido Guide – the story teller! As mentioned above, Guido is very good at telling stories. He is very good at making them up. We are now going to make up some stories! Divide the class into four groups. Each group can stand in a circle. You are going to tell a whole story one word at a time. You must listen very carefully to what word the person before you says. The story can be as imaginative as you like but when you listen to it, it has to make sense by having nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns in all the right places. How difficult is it to tell a story like this? How bizarre did the story become? Did it make sense? Can one person from each group tell the other groups what happened in their stories? Let’s now change the word count, so that each person in the group can say one sentence and then the story passes on. Does this make telling the story any easier? Are the stories interesting or dull? Now, you can pick any of the story titles below – and we’d like you to tell a story as one big group. One person will start telling the story and will continue until the teacher says ‘TIME’ when the story passes to the person next to them who carries on telling the story. At any point, the teacher can say the words, ‘and then suddenly’ when the person speaking at that point must make up a dramatic event that changes the feel of the story. What did you enjoy about this supersize storytelling? What happened to the stories when the ‘and then suddenly’ came in?

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Drama Activity 4 The Men in Grey

In Momo, time is at first abundant but then as the book progresses, Momo realises that her friends have less and less of it to spend with her. What can be behind this? It seems to be a mystery until Momo discovers the activities of the Men in Grey (MIG). The Men in Grey could well have been dreamt up by Dr Who – they are the enemy of children and adults, they seem to come from somewhere quite alien to earth – they are a little bit like dementors who are very good at maths. Here is an extract from the show’s script which will give you a feel for them and how they work. Figaro is a barber and he spends lots of time cutting hair. He likes it and enjoys talking to the customers but on one particular day, he feels a little discontented. In our adaptation this is linked to how he feels about Miss Nina who runs the inn. Into his shop walks a shadowy figure all dressed in grey. Cast one Figaro and one Man in Grey (who could well be a girl!) and read the following passage out to your class mates:

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FIGARO What’s it to be a shave or a haircut? MIG Neither. I’m from the time-saving bank. Allow me to introduce

myself. Agent no XYQ/384/b. We hear you wish to open an account with us.

FIGARO That’s news to me. I didn’t even know such a bank existed. MIG Well you know now. Your name is Figaro isn’t it? FIGARO Yes MIG Then I’ve come to the right address. You’re on our list of applicants FIGARO I’m sorry? MIG It’s like this my dear sir. You’re wasting your life cutting hair,

lathering faces and swapping idle chit chat. When you’re dead it will be as if you never existed. If only you had the time to lead the right kind of life, you’d be quite a different person. Time is all you need, right?

FIGARO That’s just what I was thinking a moment ago MIG You need more time, but how are you going to find it? By saving it

of course. You, Mr Figaro, are wasting time in a completely irresponsible way. Let me prove it to you by simple arithmetic. There are sixty seconds in a minute, and sixty minutes in an hour- are you with me so far?

FIGARO Of course MIG (Produces a piece of chalk and writes figures…) Sixty times sixty is three thousand six hundred, which makes three

thousand six hundred seconds in an hour. There are twenty four hours in a day, so multiply three thousand six hundred by twenty four and you arrive at a figure of eighty six thousand four hundred. There are three hundred and sixty five days in a year, as you know which makes, thirty one million five hundred and thirty six thousand seconds in a year, or three hundred and fifteen million three hundred and sixty thousand seconds in ten years.

How long do you reckon you’ll live Mr Figaro?

FIGARO Well…uh…I hope to live to seventy or eighty…

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MIG Very well let us call it seventy, to be on the safe side. Multiply this figure by seven and you get a grand total of two billion two hundred and seven million five hundred and twenty thousand seconds. That Mr Figaro is the extent of capital at your disposal. Impressive isn’t it. How old are you now?

FIGARO Forty two MIG And how long do you sleep at night…on average? FIGARO Around eight hours MIG Forty two years at eight hours a night makes four hundred and forty

one million, five hundred and four thousand seconds…we’ll have to write that off I’m afraid.

FIGARO Oh dear MIG How much of the day do you devote to work, Mr Figaro? FIG Another eight hours or so MIG Then we’ll have to write the same amount off again. You also

spend a certain portion of the day eating, you spend an hour or so talking to your mother each day, despite the fact she’s deaf and can’t hear you – that counts as more time wasted- and you also keep a budgerigar, a needless extravagance who costs you fifteen minutes a day

FIGARO But.. MIG Don’t interrupt. Your mother’s arthritic as well as deaf so you have

to do most of the housework…how much time does that consume daily?

FIGARO An hour maybe… MIG So you’ve already squandered another fifty five million one hundred

and eighty thousand seconds, Mr Figaro. You go to the cinema once a week, sing with a social club, go drinking twice a week, and spend the rest of the evenings reading or gossiping with friends…what’s the matter Mr Figaro aren’t you feeling well?

FIGARO No, yes, I mean

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What other characters (from books or TV programmes that you know) do the Men in Grey remind you of? What do you notice about the language they use? What do you notice about the way they categorise Figaro’s time/ what do you notice about what the Men in Grey think of as time wasted? After the Men in Grey have visited the different characters in the town, life begins to change. Nina gives up the easy life of the inn in order to open a fast food cafe. Instead of cooking all her food from scratch, she puts things in her microwave and is able to serve people in a quarter of the time. She redesigns her inn to make more efficient use of the space. She replaces the comfy chairs so that people will want to spend less time on them. Figaro the barber speeds up his service, spending less time on talking to customers and more time on giving straight forward haircuts. He has a digital clock installed so that he can time his hair cutting to the second. Guido Guide (who has always wanted to be famous) finds that with the help of the Men in Grey he is! He doesn’t have time to spend with his friends in the amphitheatre anymore because he has planes to catch, people to see, programmes to make. He has no time to chat. The children (although the last ones to feel the effect of the Men in Grey) are however put into child depots from morning to evening where they play at ‘data retrieval’. Does that sound good fun, or not?

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Art and Design Activity 2 For this exercise, we would like you to think about an activity that you would like to do in half the time it currently takes you to do it e.g. tidying your bedroom or doing your homework. You can do this exercise individually or in groups of 8-10 Materials you will need: Paper Coloured pens Cardboard Foil Tissue paper/crepe paper/newspaper Feathers Felt Odds and ends! Step 1 Design and draw on paper a machine that would help you do this activity. What would the machine need to have? Don’t, for the moment, worry about practicalities. If you know a certain thing is impossible, don’t let that stop you putting it on E.g. a machine that has different parts to help you do different sorts of homework, one area for spellings, one for times tables, one for reading. Step 2 Using card and other materials, can you make a model of this machine? Step 3 Present your model to the rest of your class, explaining what its purpose is and how it works!

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Drama Activity 5

As we saw earlier, the Men in Grey are very good at persuading people that they need to save time. They are also very good at blending in, and going about their business without being noticed or making a fuss. Stand in a circle with your eyes closed. Your teacher will walk around the circle and will place their hands on the shoulders of one child. That child is going to be Agent ABC. Now everyone in the class must walk around as though they are walking around the amphitheatre. It is up to Agent ABC to try and turn everyone into a Man in Grey like themselves. The way that Agent ABC is going to do this is by winking at the other children. Once you have been winked at, then you can count up to ten on your fingers. Keep doing this whilst walking around. Agent ABC doesn’t want to get seen. Once winked at, you must start counting – no cheating! If you have guessed who it is you can say! Did anyone guess who Agent ABC was? (Teachers note: You may want to play the game with half the class watching and half playing. What reaction does the audience have to the gradual change from people walking around not doing anything to people counting up on their fingers? What would be the adjectives to describe this change? You could move this game on by giving the Man in Grey a word or a phrase which they say to the people they encounter. Once being told the phrase and becoming a Man in Grey, the children can then turn and say the phrase to someone else, so that the Men in Grey spread even more quickly.)

Drama Activity 6 You will need chairs for every child taking part Rules: No running ever (the Men in Grey can ONLY walk, otherwise they evaporate) no pushing anyone to stop them sitting in a seat, no returning to a seat you have just left. Step 1 Place chairs around the room, enough for everyone. They should all be facing in different directions and spread apart. 1 person is going to play Momo, everyone else is going to be a Man in Grey. Everyone should sit in a seat until Momo is chosen. When Momo is chosen she gets up and moves as far away from her chair as possible.

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Step 2 When the teacher says go, Momo sets off to walk back to her empty seat (figure 1) She can only walk using pigeon steps. Everyone else, (the Men in Grey) must work together to stop her sitting back down by one of them sitting in Momo’s empty seat. Once her original seat is taken, Momo must look for the next empty seat (just vacated by a MIG) Figure 2) and make her way towards that one. Before she is able to sit down, another Man in Grey must fill the seat. Momo must then aim for his last seat and that again must be filled by another MIG. If the MIG do not work together, then Momo will manage to sit down and a new Momo will be chosen. Chair game: Figure 1

Child A

Momo’s empty seat

X (Momo)

Figure 2

Empty Seat

X (Momo)

Momo’s seat taken by child A during game. Momo heads for empty seat

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Drama Activity 7

Whilst devising ‘Momo’ the company of actors have to work hard to become the ‘Men in Grey’, to find a common rhythm of movement which allows them to operate like one organism rather than lots of individuals. This work is often known as ‘chorus’ work and it originated in Greek theatre where the chorus were narrators of stories and were able to become different groups of people as needed by the play. Below is an exercise which we use when building up the chorus. Step 1 A group of three children stand in a triangle with one child at the front (A)and two behind (B) and (C). Everyone must face the same direction. The child in the front of the triangle is the leader(A). When the teacher says go, the leader walks forward in a straight line. When the leader wants or needs to stop (because they have run out of space for example), they then turn on the spot to either the right or left as do the other two, until the triangle has a new point and a new leader. In figure 2, A turned to the right so the new leader is child C. In figure 3, Child C also turned to the right, so the new leader is Child B Figure 1 Figure 2

X (A) X(B) X (C) X (A) X (B)X (C)

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Figure 3

X (A) X(B) X (C) Step 2 Once the children are happy handing over leadership, ask each leader to change the rhythm with which they walk. If child A walks fast, child B walks slowly, child c, a rhythm in between. Then ask them if they can change their walks, with really big strides, or on tip toes. Every time there is a change of leader, there is a change of walk. Step 3 Add 2 more children to the group. The shape they should think of is a bunch of grapes or a shoal of fish, with 1 grape/fish always at the front. Go through the first stages again. The children being close together and walking together until the leader stops and turns to their right and left, and the group follow. Whoever is most in the front when the turning stops becomes the new leader and starts to walk. Build up slowly adding 2 children at a time until you have a chorus of 9 -11children. You can have several choruses working at the same time Step 4 Ask the leader to introduce a gesture. It can be one long gesture which the rest of the chorus copy or a repeated gesture e.g. arm raised slowly towards the ceiling as the chorus walks, or arms being raised and lowered continually. Step 5 Introduce the idea of the chorus becoming different things, all of which will follow from what the leaders do: e.g., a chorus of rabbits, a chorus of dogs, a chorus of fish, a chorus of mums, a chorus of teachers, a chorus of children at playtime, a chorus of Men in Grey.

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From what you have found out so far, what do you think the Men in Grey would walk like? What would their gesture be? The Men in Grey are continually talking in numbers. Listen to Figaro’s application to the Time Saving Bank to see what Osnat thinks the Men in Grey sound like. The first voice you hear is Figaro the barber who is thinking about his life. Then he begins talking to the Men in Grey – the second voice you hear is him. Listen to all the different figures he lists! https://soundcloud.com/filament-theatre/figaros-application-to-the

Men in Grey Drama/Music/Maths Activity

Divide the class into 3 choruses of Men in Grey. Chorus A, B and C Step 1 Allow each chorus to find their way of moving as the Men in Grey. Step 2 Chorus A will start counting from 1 to 5. They will continually repeat the count so that it becomes a cycle. They have to keep moving as a chorus as they count. After they have set this up, ask them to make the number 1 stand out. They might sing the number 1, they might turn on the number 1. They might do a particular gesture on the number 1. Chorus B will start counting from 1 to 6. Ask them to do the same for the number 1 Chorus C will count from 1 to 7. Again ask them to do the same for the number 1.

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Step 3 Find a common sound and gesture for number 1 but keep each chorus to its own counting structure. Notice when all the number 1s line up. To push this exercise further, allow individual children to come out of their choruses and experience being in amongst the three bands of Men in Grey. Start a discussion afterwards about what it was like to be an individual watching the three groups. What did they feel? What did the choruses feel like? Did they want to re-join their chorus, or were they happy being apart from it?

Dance Activity 1 Professor Hora and The Hour Lily

The children can work individually in this exercise. Here are the steps: Curl yourself in to the smallest space you can. Very slowly (as slowly as you can) allow yourself to uncurl and stretch out until you make a star shape. How slowly can you do it? Move from the star shape back into the curled up ball. Now try the exercise again, but imagine instead of moving from a curled up ball to a star shape, you are moving from a bud to a flower. What sort of shape does a bud have and what sort of lovely shape does the flower have? Can you move from the flower back into the bud?

In Momo, Michael Ende imagines that the hours of people’s lives are guarded by a time keeper called Professor Hora. He lives in a house that is full of clocks and passages. He offers to take Momo to see her own time passing. He leads her to a great big room and Michael Ende describes how Momo watches the cycle of an enormous flower bud and then bloom, fade and then die again and again. It is beautiful and magical and Momo can hear a wonderful music accompanying the sight. Step 1 Please use either the pictures within this pack or from the internet/Books to show the children the life cycle of a flower

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Step 2 Find a partner. Try the same exercise, but now you are working together to make a much bigger flower which can blossom and then fade. Step 3 Move from working with a partner, to groups of 4, 6 and then finally 8. Can you make 1 flower bud which then expands to one beautiful flower, and then fades? Repeat the movement sequence. Step 4 All the flower groups within the classroom can work together to music (please see suggestions at the end of the pack) to create a room of blooming and fading flowers. One group at a time can stop and wander around the room to watch the other groups at work. Discuss what watching the blooming and fading flowers made the children feel.

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Drama Activity 8 This activity can be done as a whole class activity or in four groups. Ask the children to pick a character they have liked during the afternoon. Set out a seat in front of your class/group, and ask one child to sit in it. This is the ‘hot seat’. As soon as the child is in it, they are no longer themselves but are the character they are playing. The rest of the class or group can ask the character questions, in order to find out how the character feels about other characters or the story. Example questions might be: What is your favourite food? Who is your best friend? What is your favourite way to spend your time? What do you worry about? You could use the questions at the start of this pack. The characters answers might be different depending on whether they have had a visit from the Men in Grey or not! Once all children have been hot seated, ask all the children playing Nina to stand together, all those playing Guido to stand together until you have all the children playing the same character in a group together. Ask the children to retell their character’s story. They can do this individually, or as a group using the exercises in drama activity 3.

We hope you enjoy the exercises within this resources pack – they are to be adapted and used as you wish. Please note all photos of the company are copyright Matt Rozier The photo of Michael Ende is copyright Caio Garrubba. Music Suggestions: Erik Satie’s works, Gymnopedie no. 1 and Gnossienne 1,2 and 3. Yann Tiersen’s fabulous soundtrack to ‘Amelie’, particularly Track 4, ‘Comptine d'un autre été - L'après midi’, and Rachel Portman’s wonderful soundtrack to‘Chocolat’ in particular ‘The Story of Grandmere’. The BBC has a wonderful music clips service which gives the flavour of music from different countries, including Spain and Greece. Use this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/schoolradio/subjects/music/clipslibrary