Study Guide created for the Pollyanna Theatre Company ...€¦ · Pollyanna Theatre Company. These are the talented people who helped create RAPUN-ZEL: JUDY MATETZSCHK-CAMPBELL, Ph.D.

“...Your True Gift Is Not Your Hair. It Is Your Heart.”

Parables and Fairy Tales

RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY by Lou Clark

sert with his arms stuck

high over his head. When

Samson and Rapunzel

meet they realize they

must help one another to

make it out of the desert.

Their journey together

helps them discover that

the true meaning of their

gifts extend far beyond

their long, beautiful

tresses.

Samson believes his hair

gave him strength. Rapun-

zel believes that her hair

might just be holding her

back. But both have

dreams that take their

imaginations into the

stars. See what happens

when two very unlikely

friends join forces to

make their dreams come

true.

RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR

DAY is freely adapted

from the stories of Rapun-

zel and Samson. In the

play, fairy tale and par-

able collide to bring this

unlikely pair once gifted

with beautiful hair to-

gether in a barren, food-

less, sun-scorched world.

The Witch sends Rapunzel

to the desert after catch-

ing her with Prince Bobby

in the tower. Rapunzel

thinks she is being pun-

ished but the Witch is

really sending her to fulfill

her fate to save the starv-

ing kingdom as predicted

by Mr. Frog, the frog of

destiny.

At the same time, Samson

destroys the sacred tem-

ple of his enemies and is

cursed to wander the de-

leading to a happy ending.

What results when these two

genres collide? A play that

involves fantastic characters,

in fantastical situations, which

demonstrates the power of

people working together to

change the world.

RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY is

adapted from the parable of

Samson and Delilah and the

popular Rapunzel fairy tale.

But, what is the difference be-

tween a parable and a fairy

tale anyway?

A parable is a simple story

used to illustrate a moral or

spiritual lesson. In Samson and

Delilah we learn of God’s love

for us despite our frailties.

A fairy tale is a story, usually

for young children, involving

fantastic forces and beings

engaged in improbable events

Inside This Study Guide:

Cast & Crew 2

Educational Objectives 2

Pre-Show Discussion & Activities 3

Summary of Samson & Delilah and Rapunzel

3, 5

Post-Show Discussion Questions & Activities

4-5

Resources 5

Thank you to our Sponsors 6

RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY premiered on July 18, 2012 at the Long Center’s Rollins Studio Theatre, Austin, TX.

Study Guide created for the Pollyanna Theatre Company Production

Creating A

Hopeful Culture

Prince Bobby and Rapunzel

in rehearsal.

Study Guide Created By

Kathy Blandin, PhD

Teaching Fellow in Theatre

Piedmont College

Demorest, GA

Because the early childhood curricu-

lum is a spiral, each of these skills is

the foundation for further success in

Grades 3, 4, and 5 where the TEKS

repeat and expand these basic

skills. While the activities in this

guide are written for second grade

students, they can easily be ex-

panded and enriched to serve stu-

dents through Grade 5.

RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY and the

activities in this study guide will re-

inforce the following objectives and

student expectancies:

SECOND GRADE ENGLISH LAN-

GUAGE ARTS AND READING

2.1

2.3 B & C

2.6 A & B

2.8

2.18 A

2.30

SECOND GRADE FINE ARTS/ART

2.2 A, B & C

2.3 A

2.4 A & B

SECOND GRADE FINE ARTS/

THEATRE

2.1 A, B, C & D

2.2 A, B, C & D

2.3 A, B, C & D

2.5 A, B, C & D

Who’s Who In RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY?

Page 2 RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY by Lou Clark

her son Elias, and their three

“fierce” dogs. Ia has worked with Pol-

lyanna for 11 years and has a BFA in Act-

ing from Texas State University.

Continued on page 6

Educational Objectives/TEKS

Theatre is the most collaborative of art

forms (which means that it takes lots of peo-

ple to make a play). We are lucky to have

many of the best theatre artists in Austin at

Pollyanna Theatre Company. These are the

talented people who helped create RAPUN-

ZEL:

JUDY MATETZSCHK-CAMPBELL, Ph.D.

Director

As the Director of RAPUNZEL Judy worked

with the actors, designer, and crew to bring

life to the playwright’s words. When she

isn’t directing, Judy travels the country to

work as Dramaturg for the most notable

Theatre for Youth playwrights. Judy is the

founding Artistic Director of Pollyanna and

holds a PhD in Theatre-Text Criticism from

UT-Austin.

LOU CLARK

Playwright

Lou is a playwright, director, educator, pro-

ducer, actor and Native New Englander who

has lived and worked in New York,

Seattle, New Mexico and most re-

cently Arizona. She is the author of

more than 10 plays and also enjoys

directing.

ANDREW PERRY

Stage Manager

In every play someone has to keep

track of all the details and that some-

one is Andrew, who has been the

Pollyanna production Stage Manager

since 2007. He enjoys playwriting

and has a BFA in Theatre and Stage

Management from Texas State Uni-

versity.

IA ENSTERA LAYADI

Set & Costume Designer

Ia created the place where the play

happens and the colorful costumes

that the characters wore. Ia lives

in Austin with her partner Stacy,

Cast of RAPUNZEL from left to right: Jacob

Trussell, Julie Linnard, Michelle Keffer,

Aaron Alexander, and Toby Minor.

“As the magic of fairy tales requires,

we are off for our next adventure…”

Witch

Sleeping Beauty and Snow White

(both suffer a curse which can only

be broken by a kiss from a prince)

Depending on the age of the children you could do

this activity as a large group or divide the chil-

dren into small groups and allow them to each

create a story. Each story must have a clear

beginning, middle, end; have a moral or message

(like a parable); and a happy ending (like a fairy

tale).

Audience Behavior

It is also important to discuss appropriate audience

behavior with the children before coming to the

theatre so they are prepared.

Stay seated.

Stay still.

Stay quiet.

“Keep your thoughts in your head

until after the show!”

Before going to see RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY

you may want to discuss the following questions

and engage in the activities as an introductory

experience for the children in your care:

Rapunzel, the Fairy Tale

What do you know about the story Rapunzel?

(Go over the summary of the story if the chil-

dren are not familiar with it.)

The story of Rapunzel is a fairy tale. What is

a fairy tale? (A fairy tale is a story, usually for

young children, involving fantastic forces and

beings engaged in improbable events leading to

a happy ending.)

What other fairy tales do you know?

Samson and Delilah, the Parable

What do you know about the story Samson and

Delilah? (Go over the summary of the story if

the children are not familiar with it.)

The story of Samson is a parable. What is a

parable? (A parable is a simple story used to

illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson.)

Based on the summary for Samson and Delilah,

what is the moral/lesson to this story?

Rapunzel’s Bad Hair Day, the Play

What do Rapunzel and Samson have in common?

(Long hair)

The play we will be seeing takes two characters

from different stories who have something in

common, and imagines what might happen if

they lived in the same story. Let’s do the same

thing and create our own story. Here are some

fairy tale characters with things in common that

you could use for this activity:

Goldilocks and Hansel (both sneak

into homes that do not belong to

them)

The Wolf from Red Riding Hood and

the Wolf from The Three Pigs

Pre-Show Discussion and Activities

Page 3 RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY by Lou Clark

Costumes tell us a lot about a character.

Looking at the costume drawing above,

make a list of

traits for each character.

For example, is the Witch mean or nice

based on the costume?

Samson & Delilah Samson was the strongest man in Israel and hated by the Philistines. The Philistines bribed Samson’s love, Delilah, to discover the secret of Samson’s strength. Using her powers of seduction and deception, Delilah discovered that the secret to Samson’s strength was his hair. If his hair were cut, he would lose all strength. While Samson slept on her lap, Delilah shaved off the seven braids of his hair. Subdued and weak, Samson was captured.

Rather than killing him, the Philistines preferred to humiliate him by gouging out his eyes and subjecting him to hard labor in a Gaza prison. As he slaved at grinding grain, his hair began to grow, but the careless Philistines paid no attention. And in spite of his horrible failures and sins of great consequence, Samson's heart now turned to the Lord. He was humbled. He prayed to God—a first—and God answered.

During a special holiday the Philistines gathered in Gaza to celebrate. As was their custom, they paraded Samson

Summaries for the Original Samson & Delilah and Rapunzel

into the temple to entertain the jeering crowds. Samson braced himself between the two central support pillars of the temple and pushed with all his might. Down came the temple, killing Samson and all of the people in it. Through his death, Samson destroyed more of his ene-mies in this one sacrificial act, than he had previously killed in all the battles of his life. Rapunzel A lonely couple, who want a child, live next to a walled garden belonging to witch. The witch catches the man sneaking into her garden and accuses him of theft. He begs for mercy, and the old woman agrees to be lenient, on condition that the then-unborn child be surrendered to her at birth. Desperate, the man agrees. When the baby girl is born, the witch takes the child to raise as her own, and names the baby Rapunzel. Rapunzel grows up to be the most beautiful child in the world with long golden hair. Continued on page 5

Post-Show Activity: Surrealist Collages

lots of different colored paper to work with so they can explore color as well as composi-tion in this activity.

For older children, have them create a collage in the style of Max Ernst (above). Simply provide the children with a magazine picture of some sort of environment (a room or out-door setting) and then give them catalogues and magazines to cut up. Their cut up im-ages will be glued to the environment pic-tures.

Another Surrealist artist who worked with collage was Jean Arp (see artwork at left). Arp wanted to see what would happen when he left artistic im-pulses to chance, so he would rip up paper and allow it to fall freely on to another larger paper. Then he would glue the small paper to the bigger paper. This is called a Chance Collage. Engage children in the creation of their own surre-alist collage.

For younger children, have them create a Chance Collage (right). Be sure to give them

After seeing RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY discuss

the following questions with the children in your

care.

How did the play differ from the original stories

of Samson & Delilah and Rapunzel?

The character Mr. Frog is called “the frog of

destiny” in the play. What does that mean?

Can you think of any other characters from

How does the Witch in RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR

DAY compare to the witches in the other sto-

ries? The witch in the play is good, what other

stories have good witches? Why are these good

characters still called witches?

Before we saw the play we learned that a

parable is a story with a lesson or moral. What

is the lesson in RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY?

stories that you know who can predict the fu-

ture? (Some examples are the witch’s mirror from

Snow White and the Severn Dwarves, Professor

Dumbledore from Harry Potter, and the Wicked

Witch in the Wizard of Oz). What are some

similarities and differences between these char-

acters?

What other stories have witches as a character?

Post-Show Discussion Questions

Page 4 RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY by Lou Clark

RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY takes two unrelated

stories and brings them together to create a brand

new fantastic story. In art and literature this is

called surrealism. Surrealism is defined as “the

practice of producing fantastic or incongruous

imagery in art, literature, film or theatre by means

of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions or combi-

nations.” The result was to make the familiar seem

strange.

Introduce the concept of surrealism with the fol-

lowing discussion/activity:

Show the children Max Ernst’s Une semaine de

bonte, (A Week of Kindness), 1934 (shown at

right). What do you see in this artwork? What

word would you use to describe this artwork?

Why do you suppose the man has a wreath

around his legs? Why do you suppose the

woman has wings? Surrealist artwork often feels

like a dream. If this artwork is a dream, what

is happening in the dream?

This artwork was created by Max Ernst, an

artist that was a part of the Surrealist move-

ment. Define surrealism. He created it by cut-

ting up catalogues and putting different pictures

together.

Post-Show Activity: Surrealism in Art and Theatre

short Rapunzel's braided hair and casts her out into the wilderness to fend for herself. When the prince calls that night, the witch tricks him and he leaps from the tower in despair and is blinded by the thorns below.

For months the Prince wanders through the wastelands of the country. One day, as Rapunzel sings while she fetches water, the prince hears Rapunzel's voice again, and they are reunited. When they fall into each others' arms, her tears immediately restore his sight. The prince leads her to his kingdom, where they live happily ever after.

When Rapunzel reaches her twelfth year, the witch shuts her away in a tower in the middle of the woods. When the witch visits Rapunzel, she stands beneath the tower and calls out:“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair.” Upon hearing these words, Rapunzel would wrap her long, fair hair around a hook beside the window, dropping it down to the witch who would then climb up the hair to Rapunzel's tower room. One day, a prince rides through the forest and hears Rapunzel singing from the tower. Entranced by her ethereal voice, he searches for the girl and discovers the tower, but is naturally unable to enter. He returns often,

listening to her beautiful singing, and one day sees the witch visit, and thus learns how to gain access to Rapunzel. When the witch is gone, he bids Rapunzel let her hair down. When she does so, he climbs up, makes her acquaintance, and eventually asks her to marry him. Rapunzel agrees. Together they plan a means of escape, wherein he will come each night (thus avoiding the witch who visited her by day), and bring her silk, which Rapunzel will gradually weave into a ladder. Before the plan can come to fruition, however, Rapunzel foolishly gives the prince away when she asks the witch why it is easier for her to draw up the prince than her. In anger, the witch cuts

Resources Used In This Study Guide

Summary of Rapunzel Continued...

props. Finally, share the plays with the whole

group. Allow the children to reflect on each

play by asking them to describe what they

liked and ask questions about what they

didn’t understand.

In addition to visual art, the Surrealists also cre-

ated theatre. One of the goals of surrealist theatre

was to put dreams on the stage. Or, put another

way, to ask “What if…” and then stage the an-

swer. Guide children to create their own surrealist

theatre by following these steps:

Create a 10 X 10 graph. Ask the children to

think of 10 animals and list each animal on

the x-axis of the graph. Then ask the children

to think of 10 household objects and list each

item on the y-axis of the graph.

Put the children in pairs and ask them to

pick a graph coordinate (i.e. 4,3). The animal

and item at that coordinate are the subject of

their Surrealist play.

Now help them create the title for their play

by putting the animal and item into a “What

if…” question. For example, if the animal is

a zebra and the item is a coffee maker then

the “What if…” question and the title of

their play might be, “What if zebras drank

coffee?”

Next allow each pair time to brainstorm a

short story (3 minutes) which answers the

“What if…” question. Then have them

dramatize their story using costumes and

The summary for Samson & Delilah was adapted from www.about.com/christianity.

The summary for Rapunzel was adapted from The Annotated Brother’s Grimm by Maria Tatar.

Definitions taken from dictionary.com.

Surrealist activity ideas adapted from www.caloudraregionalgallery.org.au/PDF/Surrealism_Information.pdf

Surrealist activity ideas adapted from www.arts.unco.edu/ciae/resources.tools%20for%20teaching%20artistic%20inquiry.pdf

Some images found on Hekman Digital Archives

Post-Show Activity: Creating Surrealist Theatre

Page 5 RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY by Lou Clark

The Surrealist Play The Gas Heart,

1921, by Tristan Tzara

TOBY MINOR

Actor playing Prince Bobby/Young

Boy

Toby received his BA training from New

Mexico State Univ. and is a certified Ac-

tor Combatant with the SAFD (Society of

American Fight Directors). He has been

in several productions with Pollyana as

well as various theatres around Aus-

tin. Toby is represented by DVA talent

agency.

JACOB TRUSSELL

Actor playing the Frog

In addition to playing the Frog here at

Pollyanna Jacob recently completed a

TV pilot called Disenchanted. He has

received multiple awards and nomina-

tions for his work and is a graduate of

the St. Edwards University acting pro-

gram.

Continued from page 2

DON DAY

Lighting Designer

Don made sure we could see everything

by designing lights for this production.

In fact he helps set the mood through

lighting for plays at Southwestern Uni-

versity’s theatre, the Austin Playhouse,

and Hyde Park Theatre. Don has a de-

gree in lighting from UT Austin and is

Pollyanna’s resident Lighting Designer.

BRETON CHRISTOPHERSON

Sound Designer

Breton created all the sound and music

which helped create the world of the

play. Breton is a sound designer and

musician living in Austin. He is origi-

nally from Denver, CO and has a degree

in business and technology from the

University of Colorado.

AARON ALEXANDER

Actor playing Samson

Aaron is excited to be playing Samson

and working with Pollyanna again. He’s

especially happy for his son to get an-

other chance to see him perform! He was

last seen in at Pollyanna in Pattern Na-

tion: Waves.

MICHELLE KEFFER,

Actor playing Rapunzel/Rapunzel’s

Mom

Michelle is thrilled to be playing Rapun-

zel, one of her many film, television, and

theatre performances here in the Austin

area. She has been working with Poly-

anna for five years and has a degree in

theatre from Kent State University.

JULIE LINNARD

Actor playing the Witch

Julie loves playing the Witch and work-

ing with Pollyanna again! She earned her

BFA in Acting from Sam Houston State

Univ. and then moved to NYC where she

worked in costumes for many Off-

Broadway theatres. But, Austin is home

and she’s glad to be back.

RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY Cast and Crew Continued...

We’d like to thank our sponsors, without whom we wouldn’t be here!

3710 Cedar Street Box 9

Austin, TX 78705

512-743-7955

The founders of Pollyanna Theatre Company believe in the power of the arts to bring much needed joy and hope into the lives of young people as well as into the life of the child that is alive inside each of us regardless of our age. And no other character we know embodies this timeless power of optimism better than Eleanor Porter’s timeless little girl, Pollyanna.

This project is funded and supported in part by a grant from the Texas Commission for the Arts, The National Endowment, and the

City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division believing an invest-ment in the arts is an investment in Austin’s future.