SCT Educator Resource Guide

EDUCATOR RESOURCE GUIDE

Presents

The Wizard of Oz

Synopsis .....................................................................................................................................................Curriculum Connections & EALRs ..................................................................................................The Father of Oz – L. Frank Baum ...................................................................................................A Chat with Marianne Roberts, Choreographer .......................................................................About the Set ...........................................................................................................................................About the Costumes ..............................................................................................................................Oz and Dorothy – Everyone’s Story ...............................................................................................Moved by the Music: Why and How Music Affects Us ............................................................True Tornado Stories ...........................................................................................................................We’re Off to See the Wizard – Team Dorothy .............................................................................Words & Phrases That Might Be New to You .............................................................................Activity Pages ..........................................................................................................................................Booklist ......................................................................................................................................................Evaluation Form .....................................................................................................................................

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SYNOPSIS

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Dorothy Gale, a poor Kansas farm girl, dreams about escaping her troubles to a place “over the rainbow.” One day a tornado rips through her family’s farm and carries Dorothy, her house and

her dog, Toto, to the magical, vibrant, and strange land of Oz. Her house lands in Munchkinland, right on top of the Wicked Witch of the East. The

Munchkins are thrilled to be free from the terrors of the Witch. But the Witch’s sister, the Wicked Witch of the West, is not so pleased—until she

realizes that this is her opportunity to get her hands on her dead sister’s magic shoes. Before the Witch has a chance to grab the slippers, the Good Witch, Glinda, magics them onto Dorothy’s feet, multiplying the Wicked Witch’s anger at the poor girl. The Witch vows she will have her revenge—

and those ruby slippers, too! Dorothy just longs to return safely home to her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Glinda suggests that Dorothy travel to the Emerald City and ask the Wonderful Wizard for help.

Setting off for the Emerald City along the Yellow Brick Road, Dorothy makes several dear friends also in need of help from the Wizard: Scarecrow, who seeks a brain; Tin Man, who yearns for a heart; and Cowardly Lion, who just wants courage. In an attempt to thwart Dorothy’s quest to reach the Wizard, the Wicked Witch conjures a field of poisoned poppies to put Dorothy and her comrades to sleep before they reach the city’s gates. Luckily, Scarecrow and Tin Man aren’t affected by the spell and when Glinda magically makes it snow to dampen the potency of the poppies, they are able to cart Dorothy, Lion and Toto to the Emerald City.

The Emerald City is filled with delights, and populated by delightful people. Unfortunately, when the four companions (and Toto, too) finally gain an audience with the Wizard, he demands the Wicked Witch’s broomstick as payment before he’ll come to their aid. So off they troop towards the Castle of the Witch, determined to get courage, a brain, a heart and a return to Kansas. The Witch sends her flying monkeys to attack the band of adventurers, stealing Dorothy and Toto away. Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion may be frightened, but they won’t let their friends down—they

sneak into the Witch’s castle to save the girl and her dog. Before the friends can make their escape, the guards corner them and the Witch sets fire to Scarecrow. Trying to douse him, Dorothy throws a bucket of water, which accidently lands on the Witch, melting her into nothingness. Free from their horrid mistress, the guards rejoice and give Dorothy the broomstick she needs to secure the Wizard’s assistance.

Back at the Emerald City, the Wizard tries to go back on his deal, until Toto exposes him as the impostor he is—why he’s just a man from Kansas himself! He decides to return with Dorothy and Toto. First, he grants the friends their wishes, giving a diploma to Scarecrow, a heart-shaped watch to Tin Man and a medal of valor to Lion. But before Dorothy and Toto have a chance to join the Wizard, he floats away in his hot-air balloon, leaving them stranded in Oz. Just when all seems lost, Glinda tells Dorothy that she has had the means to get herself home all along. With three clicks of her heels, Dorothy bids her new friends goodbye and finds herself back in Kansas, with her family and friends around her, overjoyed that she has awakened. It seems the entire journey was but a dream.

The Wizard of Oz touches on many themes and ideas. Here are a few we believe would make good Curriculum Connections: Courage, Wisdom, Compassion, Weather, Family, Quest, Self-Confidence, Reading, Adaptation.

We believe that seeing the show and using our Educator Resource Guide can help you meet the following EALRs:

State Standards

Theatre 1. The student understands and applies arts knowledge and skills.

1.1 Understand arts concepts and vocabulary, specifically, identifies and describes characters, setting, actions, conflict, sounds.

1.2 Develops theatre skills and techniques.1.3 Understands and applies theatre genres and styles of various artists, cultures, and

times.1.4 Understands and applies audience conventions in a variety of settings and

performances of theatre. 3. Theatre: The student communicates through the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual arts).

3.1 Uses theatre to express feelings and present ideas. 3.2 Uses theatre to communicate for a specific purpose.

Music4. Music: The student makes connections within and across the arts (dance, music, theatre,

and visual arts) to other disciplines, life, cultures, and work. 4.1 Demonstrates and analyzes the connections among the arts disciplines (dance, music,

theatre, and visual arts). 4.2 Demonstrates and analyzes the connections among the arts and between the arts and

other content areas. 4.3 Understands how the arts impact and reflect personal choices throughout life. 4.4 Understands how the arts influence and reflect cultures/civilization, place, and time. 4.5 Understands how arts knowledge and skills are used in the world of work, including

careers in the arts.

Reading1. The student understands and uses different skills and strategies to read.

1.1 Use word recognition skills and strategies to read and comprehend text. 1.2 Use vocabulary (word meaning) strategies to comprehend text. 1.3 Build vocabulary through wide reading. 1.4 Apply word recognition skills and strategies to read fluently.

2. The student understands the meaning of what is read. 2.1 Demonstrate evidence of reading comprehension. 2.2 Understand and apply knowledge of text components to comprehend text. 2.3 Expand comprehension by analyzing, interpreting, and synthesizing information and

ideas in literary and informational text. 3. The student reads different materials for a variety of purposes.

3.1 Read to learn new information. 3.4 Read for literary experience in a variety of genres.

Science 4: Earth and Space Science2-3 ES2C Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons. Weather can be described

by measurable quantities, such as temperature and precipitation.

Communication1. The student uses listening and observation skills and strategies to gain understanding.

1.1 Uses listening and observation skills and strategies to focus attention and interpret information.

1.2 Understands, analyzes, synthesizes, or evaluates information from a variety of sources.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS & EALRs

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THE FATHER OF OZ – L. FRANK BAUM

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Continued on the next page...

Lyman Frank Baum was born on May 15, 1856, near Syracuse, New York. His father, Benjamin, was a wealthy oil businessman, and young Frank (who disliked his first name and never used it) grew up in comfort. Because he had a weak heart, Frank led a quiet life as a child and was educated largely by tutors. A brief stay at a military academy was not successful, and Frank returned home to indulge his taste for reading, writing, stamp collecting and chicken breeding. He also published two different monthly newspapers during his teenage years.

Baum grew up to become a man of great charm and many interests, yet he had little direction. He pursued a variety of careers ranging from acting to newspaper reporting to theatrical management to writing plays. One of his plays, The Maid of Arran, was a surprise smash hit, and Frank and his company toured with it throughout the United States and Canada in the early 1880s.

While at home on a break from the tour, Baum met and became engaged to Maud Gage, youngest daughter of prominent women’s suffrage activist Matilda J. Gage. The strong-willed Matilda did not approve of the impractical Baum, but Maud, equally determined, insisted, and the two were married in November 1882. The marriage, apparently one of opposites, was a happy one, as Maud provided Baum with the stability and good sense he needed.

Baum gave up acting when Maud became pregnant with their first child and all the scenery, props and costumes for The Maid of Arran were destroyed in a fire. He worked for a time in the family oil business in Syracuse, still writing plays in his spare time, none of which were produced. In the late 1880s he and the family, which now included two sons, moved to the Dakota Territory, where Baum worked for a time as a shopkeeper and then as a newspaper editor, enjoying both jobs but failing financially in each.

By 1891 it was clear that his growing family, now with four sons, required that he find a job that would provide financial stability. They moved to Chicago, where he was first a newspaper reporter but soon took a better paying job as a traveling salesman with a crockery firm. At the suggestion of his mother-in-law, Baum began to write down some of the stories he made up to tell his sons every evening when he was home. One of these stories, Mother Goose in Prose, was published in 1897. The book sold well, and, on the advice of his doctor, Baum gave up his traveling job. Instead, he became the editor of a journal for window-dressers, which also did well.

Baum next decided to collaborate on a children’s book with a friend, the artist W. W. Denslow. Father Goose, His Book, published in 1899, was a best-seller. One of the five books he published in 1900, also based on stories he

had told his sons and illustrated by Denslow, was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which immediately broke records for sales and made Baum a celebrity. At the suggestion of his publisher, Baum’s book,

L. Frank Baum

The first book Baum and W.W. Denslow created together

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with substantial changes to fit the theatrical tastes of the day, was made into a musical in 1902, which also was a great success and toured the United States for years. A second Oz book, The Marvelous Land of Oz, a clever satire on the women’s suffrage movement, was published in 1904 and was very popular, and other Oz books followed, though none matched the originality or sales of the first two books. In addition, over the next two decades he wrote more than 35 non-Oz books under various pseudonyms and aimed at various audiences. Most of these were “pot-boilers,” but they did well financially and helped make Baum a wealthy man.

Always looking for new outlets for his creativity, Baum became interested in films. In 1909 he founded a company to produce hand-colored slides featuring characters from his Oz books. These were shown while he narrated and an orchestra played background music.

Although highly innovative, these “radio-plays,” as he called them, lost a great deal of money, and in June 1911 he was forced to declare bankruptcy. A later venture into the film business, the Oz Film Company in 1914, produced six movies but experienced severe distribution problems and also failed, though not as disastrously.

Using money Maud had inherited from her mother, the Baums moved to Hollywood, California, in 1910 for Frank’s health, and there built Ozcot, a large home with an impressive garden. Here he produced additional Oz books, to a total of 14, which helped ease his financial problems. But with most of his fortune gone and his health failing, in his later years Baum lived quietly at Ozcot, gardening, writing stories and answering the hundreds of letters he received from Oz-struck children. After a long illness he died on May 6, 1919.

Excerpted from:Your Dictionary – http://biography.yourdictionary.com/l-frank-baum

L. FRANK BAUM’S OZ BOOKSThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz 1900 The Marvelous Land of Oz 1904 Ozma of Oz 1907 Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz 1908 The Road to Oz 1909 The Emerald City of Oz 1910 The Patchwork Girl of Oz 1913 Tik-Tok of Oz 1914 The Scarecrow of Oz 1915 Rinkitink in Oz 1916 The Lost Princess of Oz 1917

The Tin Woodman of Oz 1918 The Magic of Oz 1919 Glinda of Oz 1920

The company of Fairylogue and Radio-Plays, a multi-media Oz stage show created and presented by Baum, to promote his first three Oz books. The show, staged in the autumn of 1908, consisted of filmed segments,

magic-lantern slides, live actors and a narration spoken by Baum himself (seen in the center of the photograph).

Ozcot, Baum’s home in California

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A CHAT WITH MARIANNE ROBERTS, CHOREOGRAPHER

Please tell us a little bit about your working process.

First, I read the script so I can start to understand the characters and situations where there will be musical numbers. Then I listen to the music to get a sense of the tempo, rhythm and tonality of the song—what we sometimes call the “feel” of it. I start developing ideas for how I might approach each song, but before I begin choreographing I sit down with the director to discuss what we want from each number. Sometimes we want to move the plot along, sometimes we want to show something about the characters and their relationships. Then I spend hours working with the music, trying out movements to see if they create the effect I want. For

large group musical numbers, like Ding, Dong, the Witch Is Dead and Follow the Yellow Brick Road in Munchkinland, I might take a ground plan of the set and move around chess pieces that represent the actors so I can keep track of who’s moving where throughout the number.

What is a particularly interesting or unusual challenge on this project, and how are you setting out to solve it?

So many people have seen the movie version of The Wizard of Oz that there are probably a lot of expectations for what our stage version will be. I want to honor the memories people have of the film, but also add something fresh and different to the dances. One of the most famous dance sequences from the film is the step Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion do as they sing We’re Off to See the Wizard. Anyone who has seen the film remembers it because it’s repeated each time a new character is added to the group. I definitely want to come up with something different there, so I’ll put together some new steps that accomplish the same thing—show they’re friends happily traveling along the yellow brick road together.

What in your childhood got you to where you are today?

When I was growing up way back in the 1950s and 1960s there was a lot of musical entertainment in the movies and on TV. I grew up watching great dancers like Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly in movie musicals. This was before videos or DVDs, so each year I had to wait for the one night The Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan were shown on TV. I would listen to all kinds of music on my record player and dance to it in my living room. When I was in middle school, I choreographed Peter Pan and Stravinsky’s The Firebird for my class. During college, I started studying classical ballet, moved to New York City to dance and was lucky enough to perform all over the world. After I was done performing, I moved to Seattle and remembered how much fun I had watching and choreographing musicals when I was young, so I started doing it again.

Marianne Roberts has choreographed over 30 productions at SCT, including Lyle the Crocodile, Peter Pan, Goodnight Moon and The Brementown Musicians. She has also choreographed for Seattle Rep, Intiman, Cornish College and Village Theatre. In addition to choreographing, Marianne works as a Speech Language Pathologist Assistant.

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ABOUT THE SETFrom Matthew Smucker, Set Designer

A big challenge in designing a musical like The Wizard of Oz is that Dorothy’s journey takes her to so many different places. A big goal of the design was to find the right visual style for each series of locations, so we know that we are literally “not in Kansas anymore.”

Kansas itself wants to be very gray, flat and expansive. There is very little color. Everything is worn down and wants to feel tired and lifeless. To help create a sense of the huge expanse of the prairie, buildings and fences are built very small to make them seem far away.

Munchkinland wants to be the polar opposite of Kansas. The hills are green and have a whimsical rolling quality and the world is filled with color. In the original book, L. Frank Baum says the Munchkin’s favorite color is blue, so the design tries to make a nod to his description in the colors of the buildings, trees and flowers.

Rough model of Kansas with Dorothy’s house in the distance. Notice the very small fence near the house that helps show how far away it is.

Rough model of Kansas with Dorothy’s house closer in

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While the landscape around Munchkinland is based on a series of low curves, the Emerald City is very tall and angular. The jagged shapes come from urban Art Deco architecture, as well as the smooth crystallized shapes of precious gems. This is probably the biggest city a Kansas farm girl has ever seen, so it wants to be impressive in its scale.

The darkest, scariest part of Dorothy’s journey is her time in the Witch’s Castle. The castle has a dark grayish-purple color to it, and wants to appear like it was carved out of highly textured rock. I chose to suggest medieval architecture by using the repeated shape of a Gothic arch. This style of arch has an almost knife-like shape, playing up the sense of danger in the home of the Wicked Witch.

Rough sketch of the gate to the Emerald City

Technical drawing of the Witch’s gate with a Gothic arch

Completed model of the Witch’s castle set

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A design (or any artist’s work for that matter) doesn’t spring fully completed from the designer’s imagination. There are a series of steps that need to happen, progressing from the very loose and sketchy to very completed and realized. At each stage, there is the opportunity to evaluate and revise. My process usually begins with rough pencil or pen sketches (sometimes called “thumbnail sketches”) and then moves into a three-dimensional sketch or “rough model.” I will also start to draft (draw out) the plans at this point and will cut out these plans and turn them into what is called a “white model” because there usually isn’t any paint or color information shown yet. The final stage is to create a painted or “color model.” This will hopefully represent all of the final design information clearly, so the entire company of the show, from the director and actors to the painters and carpenters, will all know what it is we are making together.

Color model

Photograph of Munchkinland in the finished production

Rough sketch of Munchkinland

Munchkinland’s white model. Since the designer takes copies of the drafting and cuts it up to make this model, if you look closely you can

see the drawing on the surfaces of the set pieces.

Drafting for Munchkinland

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ABOUT THE COSTUMESFrom Catherine Hunt, Costume Designer

This sketch of Dorothy’s costume also includes some images that influenced the costume designer

Three Munchkins Some residents of the Emerald City

Munchkinland is larger than life, with round jolly people. The shapes are oversized and I used lots of blues, purples and some contrast yellows and orange. The costumes of the Munchkinland characters are built out to make them bigger and rounder than the actors really are.

In contrast, the people of The Emerald City are all in greens. Their fabrics are shiny, have reflective details and are sleek. They represent an exaggerated 1913 style of dress. The Emerald City is “The Place” and everyone wants to go there, so we wanted to make it glamorous and really cool.

When I first met with Linda Hartzell, the director of the play, we talked a lot about the costume imagery for the show. It was really important for Linda, who grew up reading the books rather than watching the movie, to focus on the time period when the books were written. So, for example, in the Kansas scenes we have dressed the actors in more of a 1910-1913 style than the 1930s style that many people remember from the film. The colors are also very muted and sepia toned, so that when we get to Oz we experience shapes and colors, and odd-looking people unlike what we’ve seen before. We, the audience, become just like Dorothy. We’re pulled in by the beauty of the locations, but ultimately, we want to go home.


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As for the Witches, the monkeys and the Winkies—they are a bit scary but we also wanted to make them very beautiful.

I hope that the play is enhanced by the costumes and that when you see the play you are swept away into Oz and home again, just like Dorothy.

Sketch for the Wicked Witch of the West with some fabric samples, known as “swatches” attached, as well as images that

the designer found inspiring

Flying monkey

Winkie costume sketch with research images attached

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OZ AND DOROTHY – EVERYONE’S STORY“Where is Kansas?” asked the man, with surprise. “I don’t know,” replied Dorothy sorrowfully, “but it is my home, and I’m sure it’s somewhere.”

In 1900, L. Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and created two images that have echoed throughout the world ever since, across many ages and cultures. Dorothy, the poor orphan farm girl, who expresses the universal human longing for home; and Oz, the magical land, which fulfills the opposing wish to escape from reality. Neither the wonderful beauty of Oz, nor the harshness of Baum’s Kansas affects Dorothy’s desire to go home. And Baum paints a truly terrible Kansas:

Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. …When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now.

The Land of Oz, on the other hand, provides a break from stark reality. Oz is as beautiful as Kansas is bleak:

The cyclone had set the house down very gently—for a cyclone—in the midst of a country of marvelous beauty. There were lovely patches of greensward all about, with stately trees bearing rich and luscious fruits. Banks of gorgeous flowers were on every hand, and birds with rare and brilliant plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes.

And Oz is a place not just beautiful, but full of magic, where animals talk and objects come alive. In the introduction to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Baum writes that:

…the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.

But if that was truly his intention, he failed. Oz has always appealed to adults as well as children. Nor did he succeed in leaving out “the heartaches and nightmares.” Oz is a place where ideas and imaginings come to life, and not all ideas and imaginings are happy and safe. The freedom to invent an infinite variety of characters and stories that range from whimsical to terrifying, accounts for the appeal of that magic land, not only to Baum’s readers, but to the many artists aside from Baum who have made Oz their own.

Poster for the 1902 musical The Wizard of Oz


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Almost immediately after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published in 1900, both the story and the Land of Oz itself began to take on lives of their own, escaping from the control of their creator. For both have been recreated many times by many different authors and artists. Some of these re-creations have been just as successful as Baum’s original book.

In 1902 a vaudeville-style musical extravaganza called The Wizard of Oz opened in Chicago. Although Baum helped to write the show, many other writers were involved, and it veered wildly away from his book, incorporating a multitude of songs, comic bits, new characters and plot changes. Toto was replaced by Dorothy’s pet cow, Imogene. The Wicked Witch of the West did not appear at all. Baum was not completely happy with the show, but it was a huge hit.

The MGM film that came out in 1939, starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, returned to the original story. Many previous attempts to film Dorothy’s story had failed, cluttered

with jokes and diversions. The 1939 film changed the plot of the book in many ways, but it took Dorothy’s struggle seriously and became a classic. The most famous song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, expressed Dorothy’s desire to escape her harsh life, which Baum’s book had never mentioned. This added guilt to her struggle to return home, making it even more emotional.

Moved by the power of Dorothy’s journey and the chance to create magic in the Land of Oz, other authors and artists have told the story from the perspective of their own cultures. Translations of Oz have often become adaptations, as the translators, under the spell of Oz, change details and sometimes end up inventing completely new versions of the world and the stories. In 1939, the same year that MGM released the Judy Garland movie version, the Russian writer Alexander Volkov wrote something between a translation and an adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz called The Wizard of the Emerald City, in which a girl named Ellie and her dog Totoshka travel throughout the “Magic Land.” Eventually this would lead to a series of books written by Volkov, which became popular throughout the Communist world during the 1960s. In places like Russia, Eastern Germany and China they are still better known than Baum’s version. Volkov’s books harbor dark plot elements, including mind control, poison gas and alien invasions.

Pictures showing some costumes and design elements fromthe 1902 musical

Alexander Volkov’s Russian bookThe Wizard of the Emerald City


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Another successful attempt at placing Oz in a different culture: in 1975 The Wiz opened on Broadway. The musical told the story of Dorothy and her companions in an African-American context, with an all-black cast. However, the show stays more faithful to the plot of the original book than the 1939 film; for example, Dorothy wears silver shoes, not ruby slippers. The play won seven Tony awards, including Best Musical, and ran for four years on Broadway. But a 1978 movie version of the show flopped, despite an impressive cast that included Diana Ross, Richard Pryor and Lena Horne, and a standout performance by Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow (singing Ease on Down the Road).

Just as some writers have adapted Oz to their own cultures, others have tried to create a more consistent world of Oz. The Land of Oz as created by L. Frank Baum is riddled with

contradictions. For example, Baum writes in some of his sequels to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that since the original enchantment of Oz by the Fairy Queen Lurline, no creature in Oz can age or die, but the actual plots of many of his books contradict this basic law. By far the most serious attempt to create a more coherent Oz came in 1995, when Gregory Maguire published Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, a very different kind of Oz book, aimed at adults, not children. Maguire took elements from many Oz books and the 1939 film to create the story of the future Wicked Witch of the West, whom he named Elphaba. Maguire’s Oz is a land troubled by religious division, political unrest and economic hardship. The musical Wicked, by Stephen Schwartz, is based on Maguire’s book. Wicked premiered on Broadway in October 2003 and is still playing today.

Dorothy and Oz have proved amazingly enduring and adaptable, as generations of artists and audiences have found inspiration in both the story and the world. Somehow, all the competing versions seem to have strengthened each other in the long run. Anyone who strives to create an Oz story today, in whatever form—book, movie, play, song, video game—has a huge wealth of material and memories to work with. Who knows what the future may hold? Oz and Dorothy may, like Camelot and Arthur, continue to inspire artists, authors, performers and audiences a thousand years on from their creation.

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MOVED BY THE MUSIC: WHY AND HOW MUSIC AFFECTS US

Somewhere over the rainbowWay up highThere’s a place that I heard of Once in a lullaby

– Over the Rainbow music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg

The 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz begins as a story of the troubles of a poor farm girl in Kansas. Soon a bump on the head and a powerful tornado will transport her to the amazing world of Oz. But even before that happens, the first and most famous song in the movie lifts us out of the realm of realism as Dorothy sings Over the Rainbow. The song affects so many people so deeply partly because it recalls, in words, melody and rhythm, the lullabies that most of us hear when we are very young. The fact that we are so strongly motivated to sing to babies, and to talk to them in musical ways, provides one proof of how strongly rooted music is in humanity.

The enduring popularity of musicals provides more evidence of the power of music. The musical Phantom of the Opera opened on Broadway in January 1988 and will perform again tonight, making it the longest-running Broadway show of all time. In fact, the top ten longest-running shows on Broadway are all musicals. But pairing music and theater didn’t begin in Times Square. Theatrical traditions all over the world incorporate music, especially singing. The tragedies of Ancient Greece featured a singing chorus. Noh theater in Japan, Sanskrit theater in India and the traditional “Operas” of Ancient China all use music and song to tell stories.

But why do we add music to plays? One answer is that music heightens emotion in a variety of powerful ways. As the neurologist Oliver Sacks writes in his book Musicophilia, we are a musical species; music occupies many more areas of our brain than language does. Music can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. Music can animate people with Parkinson’s disease who cannot otherwise move, and give words to stroke patients who cannot otherwise speak. Sacks also reports that music is so deeply wired into human neurobiology that it can cause serious problems. Almost all of us have had tunes “stuck in our heads”—some people cannot get rid of those tunes for years, and in some cases people are tormented by complete musical hallucinations that they cannot control. At the other extreme, people with “amusia,” cannot perceive the difference between sound and music. To them, a symphony carries no more emotion or meaning than the clattering of pots and pans.

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But for most of us, music directly and deeply affects our minds and bodies. Rhythm has deep roots in human biology and pre-history. As Robert Goodall explains in the BBC series How Music Works, rhythm comes to us naturally, through breath, heartbeats heard in the womb, walking and so on. But animals also have breath, beating hearts and sounding feet, and they do not respond to or create musical rhythm the way people do. In his book Beethoven’s Anvil: Music in Mind and Culture, William Benzon suggests two possible origins for musical rhythm: humans imitated animals in dance, which led them to alter their own natural rhythms to mimic those of the animals around them; and humans also chipped stone tools, which can be done far more efficiently when it is done in rhythm. Since humans have formed stone tools for about two million years, musical rhythm may be part of human biological evolution.

Joseph Jordania, in his 2011 book Why do People Sing? Music in Human Evolution suggested another way that music may have been incorporated into human evolution: people developed rhythmic music to defend themselves against large predators, after they descended from the safer tree branches to more dangerous ground. According to Jordania, rhythmic music can put humans into a battle trance in which they do not feel fear or pain, do not question orders from the group leader and are willing to sacrifice their lives for the group. As evidence, he points out that rhythmic music has often been used to train soldiers and inspire them during combat. Still today, soldiers use rhythmic chants in training and often listen to heavy rhythmic rock music in combat.

Clearly, music can bring us an enormous variety of intense emotional responses. But musicals still seem strange to some people. We do not, by and large, spontaneously burst into song when we speak to each other, nor even when we fight or fall in love or die. Or do we? Diana Deutsch, professor of psychology at University of California, San Diego, has demonstrated a very close relationship between speaking and singing. While working on the spoken commentary for a recording, she listened to the phrase “sometimes behave so strangely” repeatedly, and noticed that after a number of repetitions, the phrase sounded as though it had been sung rather than

spoken. Later she included this illusion in her CD Phantom Words and Other Curiosities, in which she demonstrates that speech can be

perceived as song, not by transforming the sounds in any way or adding accompaniment, but simply by repeating a phrase several

times over.

Despite all these advances in research, we do not completely understand how and why music moves us or where it comes from. But, clearly, music can move us: get us dancing to its beat, bring us to the heights or depths of emotion, persuade us to buy something, lead us to fall in love, or awaken a lifelong longing for a magical world “somewhere over the rainbow.”

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TRUE TORNADO STORIESTornadoes on the Soccer Field! by Nicole Gordon

It was a hot, steamy day for an afternoon soccer game. I was 10 years old and forgot to bring my soccer shoes along, so the coach made me play goalie in sandals. My team was ahead by a few goals. From where I stood in the net, bored and sweating, I had a perfect view of thunderclouds swelling on the horizon.

The game was held at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minnesota. It was a flat expanse of plains with nothing but a few parking lots and drainage ditches. The longer the game went on, the darker the sky got. Thunderstorms can blow in quickly on summer days, but even so, we were surprised at how soon the first raindrops fell. By half-time it was pouring and lightning strikes were close enough to our field that the referee temporarily stopped the game.

I was huddling with my teammates in a canvas tent by the side of the field when we saw a funnel forming at the bottom of the clouds. Before we realized what has happening, a tornado was spiraling down from the sky, spinning tight and fast toward the ground. The tornado touched down on the soccer field. A few miles away, another twister was also dropping from the clouds.

In a flurry of flying lawn chairs, wet blankets and soccer bags, parents grabbed their kids and ran in different directions. My family’s car was several fields away and there was no good shelter nearby and no time to think. We ran to the nearest drainage ditch.

We crouched just above the ditch water, worried about lightning strikes, and watched the tornado come closer until it was just across the field and the grass flew in its wake. I could see every detail of its twisting body. We ran across the next field and ducked into another ditch.

We ran from ditch to ditch three times, planning our routes and sprinting through the wind. I remember being scared but also thinking that the tornadoes were the most amazing things I’d ever seen.

And then, in the same way it came, the tornado shrank and melted back into the sky into wisps of cloud. The rain stopped and the clouds loosened. The sun came out and dried our clothes as we walked to the car, cold and tired but happy to be safe and grateful for what we’d just seen.

Xenia, Ohio Tornado – April 3, 1974 by Rick Hoag

On that fateful day, I was a young boy of 8 years old. That afternoon I was around the corner playing with some neighbor kids. I thought I could hear my father calling me, so I ran back to the house. I got through the door just in time to answer the ringing phone. It was my mother. She told me she heard a bad storm was on the way. She told me to make sure the garage door was shut and to stay inside. After I hung up the phone, I settled down to watch the Dennis the Menace TV show. To this day I can


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vividly remember the electricity going out. I looked out the large picture window in the living room and didn’t have a clue as to what I was looking at.

Dad was asleep on the couch, so I woke him up to look. Dad looked and said to get into the bathroom. We sat on the floor. Dad had his back to the door and his feet pushing against the wall opposite the door. I remember that as soon as we sat down, the windows broke. Glass blew under the door, and the sound was tremendous. I know it really didn’t take too long for the tornado to go past, but I do remember the conversation we had in the process. I could feel the cool air rushing under the floor through the crawlspace vents. I asked if we were flying. He said he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t think we were. He said the house was tearing apart. I asked him how he knew. He said he just knew it was.

When things calmed down, we opened the door. The odd feeling I had, looking up the street from inside what once was my hallway, is still with me today.

Tornado Facts

• Tornadoes form where warm moist air is trapped underneath a layer of cold, dry air. As the moist air rises, it cools, forming clouds and thunderstorms. If the conditions are right, the rapidly rising air will spin around a central funnel, at speeds sometimes exceeding 250 miles per hour—tornado winds are the fastest winds on Earth. A funnel cloud becomes a tornado the moment it touches the ground.

• Tornadoes can last from several seconds to more than an hour. Most tornadoes last less than 10 minutes. The longest-lived tornado was probably the Tri-State Tornado in 1925 which may have lasted as long as three-and-a-half hours.

• Tornadoes are known to carry heavy objects, such as cars, up to a mile; lighter objects, like books and clothing, up to 20 miles; and really light objects, like paper, up to 200 miles. A strong tornado can pick up a house and move it down the block.

• Every tornado has a unique color, sound and shape.• Tornadoes have been reported in every state in the U.S. and also in every season. Each year, about

a thousand tornadoes touch down in the United States, far more than any other country. Nebraska, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas make up Tornado Alley, where tornadoes strike regularly in the spring and early summer.

• Popularly known as twisters, tornado is derived from the Spanish words “tronada” meaning “thunderstorm” and “tornar” meaning “to turn.”

• The chances of a tornado hitting your house are about one in ten million. However, if you do see a tornado or hear that one is coming, you should get inside and go in the basement or a room without windows. Stay as low as possible. Whatever you do, don’t go out to see the tornado. If you can’t get inside, lie down in the lowest place you can find, like in a ditch.

Stories excerpted from: The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research – Web Weather for Kids –

http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/index.html

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At the beginning of Seattle Children’s Theatre’s The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy feels that, except for Toto, she’s all alone in the world. Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are too busy trying to save baby chicks to listen to her problems. The farmhands, Zeke, Hickory and Hunk, give her some advice but they are also too busy to really help her. After the tornado whisks her away to Oz, she needs to find her way home. Glinda the Good Witch points her in the right direction, but Dorothy sets off on her big journey with Toto as her only companion.

Luckily, she soon finds some valuable companions. First Scarecrow, then Tin Man and Cowardly Lion join her, each with a reason of his own to travel to the Emerald City and see the Wonderful Wizard. Bit by bit, a team is born. And each member of the team plays a special part. Dorothy leads the team with encouragement, compassion and determination to succeed. Scarecrow may not think he is a thinker, but he comes up with some of the best ideas. Tin Man thinks he has no heart, but he is patient and kind. Cowardly Lion may not roar with confidence, but he does whatever he needs to do to protect Dorothy at every turn. And let’s not forget Toto—Dorothy’s best friend, he has the good sense to trust his senses when it comes to sniffing out a fake Wizard.

When team members struggle, the others step in to support them. Dorothy and Cowardly Lion fall asleep in the poison poppy field, but Scarecrow and Tin Man aren’t affected by the poppies and are able to call for help. Glinda finds them all and brings the snow that breaks the poppies’ spell. Every time Tin Man starts to rust, his friends are ready with the oil can to loosen him back up. They have to take care of each other if they want to get where they are headed.

They also never even imagine leaving one of their team members behind. The flying monkeys scare them all and take Dorothy and Toto away, but as soon as Tin Man and Cowardly Lion put Scarecrow back together, all three head off to get their friends back. And once they get to the Witch’s castle, no matter how frightening she may be, they are going to find a way to get in there and rescue Dorothy, with brave Toto leading the way.

Our heroes have skills and personalities that fit together like pieces of a puzzle. As they become a strong team, they find within themselves the things they thought the Wizard could give them. They trust each other, are loyal to each other and they never give up. Those are all qualities you need in any team to make it successful—whether your team is on the field, in a classroom, at home or in the Land of Oz.

WE’RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD – TEAM DOROTHY

An illustration by W.W. Denslow fromThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz

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WORDS & PHRASES THAT MIGHT BE NEW TO YOUI’m doing something right now honey so just keep out of our hair. – stop bothering us

We got a parcel of lumber to haul from town before the weather turns.parcel of lumber – bundle of wooden boardsturns – changes

Here, here, what’s all this jabber-wapping when there’s work to be done? – foolish, useless talking

It’s just a rib, Dorothy. – friendly joke

Get that wagon hitched up and Zeke you go feed those hogs before they worry themselves into anemia! – get upset and make themselves sick

You always get yourself into a fret over nothing. – make yourself worried about

Oh please, Professor, why can’t we go with you and see all the Crowned Heads of Europe? – Kings and Queens

Oh, fiddle-faddle! – nonsense

Too much of a stuffed shirt. – person who thinks they are very important

Come to think of it, forty winks wouldn’t be a bad idea. – a short nap

Well, bust my buttons! Why didn’t you say that in the first place? That’s a horse of a different color!bust my buttons – what a surprisea horse of a different color – something completely different

You clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk! – dark, gloomy

And you, Scarecrow, have the effrontery to ask for a brain—you billowing bale of bovine fodder!

effrontery – shameless boldnessbillowing bale of bovine fodder – bulging bundle of cattle food (It’s a lot more fun the way the Wizard says it, isn’t it?)

Silence whippersnapper! – rude child

You, humbug! – impostor, fake

I take pleasure at this time in presenting you with a small token of our esteem and affection. – symbol of our respect for you

Child, you cut me to the quick! – hurt me deeply

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Show Dorothy and Toto the way to the Emerald City and help them meet their friends along the way.

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The _______ of _______, by ______ Adapt Dorothy’s story from The Wizard of Oz by filling in the blanks with the appropriate type of word to create a new adventure. Don’t just tell the story you already know – make it your own. Once you have made your own story, ask a friend (or friends) to choose the word, without showing them the story, while you write the words they choose. Then switch!

My three friends and I wanted to ____________ (verb) to ____________ (place) to

meet ____________ (an important person), who could help me get home, give Sam a

____________ (noun), give Taylor a ____________ (noun), and give Logan ____________

(personality trait). However, wicked Wendy wanted to steal my ____________ (noun), so she

tried to stop us. First, she enchanted some ____________ (plural noun) to make them throw

____________ (plural noun) at us. Next, she threw ____________ (plural noun) at us. Then she

made a field of ____________ (adjective) ____________ (plural noun) that made us

___________ (adjective). Luckily, ____________ (person) saved us with his/her ____________

(adjective) ____________ (plural noun) and we were on our way.

We finally arrived and met ____________ (the same person of importance), who would

only help us if we brought back Wendy’s ____________ (noun)! On our way to Wendy’s

____________ (adjective) house, I was taken away by a pack of ____________ (plural animal).

____________ (adverb ending in -ly), my friends are very talented. Taylor used her

____________ (noun) to encourage the group to rescue me. Logan used his ____________

(noun) to lead them through ____________ (place). Sam used his ____________ (noun) to get

them safely to me. But Wendy almost ____________ (past tense verb) Sam with

______________ (noun)! So I ____________ (past tense verb) a ____________ (noun) on her,

and she ____________ (past tense verb)! We successfully brought her____________ (noun)

back to ____________ (the same important person). My friends got their ___________ (plural

noun), and I went home to ____________ (place).

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BOOKLIST

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For Children & Young Adults:

Fiction:BreadcrumbsAnne Ursu

The Talent Show Dan Gutman

The WizardJack Prelutsky

The Mighty Miss MaloneChristopher Paul Curtis

Where the Mountain Meets the MoonGrace LinAfter hearing stories of the Old Man in the Moon and his ability to change one’s fortune, Minli sets off on a quest to find him, meeting many magical creatures along the way.

Nonfiction:Tornado! The Story Behind These Twisting, Turning, Spinning, and Spiraling StormsJudith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin

Imagine That! Poems of Never-WasJack PrelutskyA selection of poems selected by Jack Prelutsky that celebrate magical and mythical creatures such as the Jabberwock and the Bugle-Billed Bazoo.

For Adults Working With Children & Young Adults:

What to Read When: The Books and Stories to Read with Your Child, and All the Best Times to Read ThemPam Allyn

Weather Projects for Young Scientists: Experiments and Science Fair IdeasMary Kay Carson

Booklist prepared by Lupine Bybee Miller,Seattle Public Library System

We’d love to know what was helpful to you as you read and used this guide. Please fill out and return this short survey to us. We appreciate your feedback.

1. For which play/plays did you use the Educator Resource Guide?□ Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat □ The Edge of Peace□ Danny, King of the Basement □ Adventures with Spot□ The Wizard of Oz □ Crash□ Dot & Ziggy

2. Was it easy for you to find and download the Educator Resource Guide? □ Very □ Somewhat □ Not very □ Not at all

3. On a scale of 1 – 5 (5 being the highest), how useful was the Educator Resource Guide?□ 1 □ 2 □ 3 □ 4 □ 5

4. What did you use from the Educator Resource Guide?

5. Is there something you would like to see included in the Educator Resource Guide that wasn’t here?

6. Which of the following best describes you? I teach:□ Preschool □ Elementary school □ Middle school □ High school □ Home school

Other Comments:

THANK YOU!

MAIL to: or EMAIL: or FAX: Seattle Children’s Theatre [email protected] 206.443.0442201 Thomas Street Seattle, WA 98109Attention: School Shows

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SCT Educator Resource Guide

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