EDUCATORS STUDY GUI DE ROSES & THORNS (A Tale of Beauty & the Beast) By Bret Fetzer Common Core Anchor Standards addressed through this performance and educators guide include: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W Text Types and Purposes CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL Comprehension and Collaboration CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L Vocabulary Acquisition and Use Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park Education Department education@cincyplay.com 513.345.2242 Mark Lutwak, Education Director Megan Alexander, Education Associate Anita Trotta, Education Associate Kristin Schneider, Community Engagement Coordinator Support for Roses & Thorns (A Tale of Beauty & the Beast) is provided by The Robert and Adele Schiff Family Foundation The Ruth J. and Robert A. Conway Foundation, KeyBank, Target Corporation and Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc. Class Act! is supported by The Scripps Howard Foundation. The Playhouse is supported by ArtsWave, Ohio Arts Council & The Shubert Foundation and NEA. Study guide created by Megan Alexander, Education Associate and Susan Stephenson, Education Intern.
FROM THE DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION I am thrilled that we are able to bring ROSES & THORNS to your school. I irst encountered this script when we premiered it at Honolulu Theatre for Youth about 10 years ago. Two things struck me: First, how true this version rings to the original story and to Jean Cocteau s extraordinary ilm. The deep message that Beauty is only skin deep rings as true and clear today as it ever did. Secondly, the playwright has managed to embrace the melodramatic elements of the original and wrap them in comedy. This version is thoroughly theatrical, comical and entertaining. It either dodges the cliche s or hits them headlong and smashes them, something I think your students will appreciate very much. You know that we tour with very stripped down technical support we don t use lighting design, and we set up our stage in your gym, cafetorium or theatre in under an hour. We tour with minimal setting and costumes. It all falls back on our actors. This script lends itself to an acting company like ours, they love the opportunity to play multiple styles as well as multiple characters. When an audience connects with the performers, something special happens. An empathetic bond forms. Every aspect of theatre the literature, the acting, the choreography, the design contributes to and rests on this bond. As we forge this connection, we in the audience are drawn into a world that has its own rules of time and space. We experience its sensations as if we were there and, most importantly, we share the feelings of its characters as if their experiences were our own. The theatre offers a special kind of experiential learning; it allows us to walk in the shoes of others. We empathize with and feel the characters pride, exhilaration, joy, fear and other strong emotions, even as we are able to sit back and consider the impact of their lives. It is a rich experience that we share from the safety of our seats. This heightened experience is made possible not only by the quality of the script, but by the many aesthetic choices made by all the artists the actors; the scenic, costume, and sound designers; the director; and choreographer. At every moment, they have asked themselves, How can we help tell this story? So, every moment is 100 saturated moments. Our brief time in the theatre contains thousands of hours. It is a powerful experience. I hope your students enjoy the play and afterward are able to discuss not only the story, its characters, and its importance to them, but also the work that brought it into existence. Thanks for bringing your students to see live theatre. Thanks for cultivating the well-rounded citizens of the future. Thanks for helping them imagine the in inite possibilities. Best, Mark Lutwak Director of Education This guide contains writing prompts, discussion questions, and classroom activities. We would love to know how our materials are being used in your classroom. Please share your students work or your own thoughts and suggestions with our education department. Education@cincyplay.com
BEFORE THE SHOW Script We can provide you with a copy of the script for this play before your students see the performance. You may use it to preview the play or have your students read it to themselves or aloud in class. Study Guide This study guide is designed to be used. Please copy and share it with students and fellow teachers. It contains background material, activities, and questions to help strengthen understanding and build connections to the play. Class Act! Workshops Class Act! is a free, single-session classroom workshop (45-60 minutes) led by a professional teaching artist, that uses drama activities to prepare students for a Playhouse touring production. We also can work with students after they see a show to help them connect their experience to the curriculum. To schedule a free workshop contact Megan Alexander, education associate at 513.977.2031. SEEING LIVE THEATRE Please take a moment to prepare your students for the theatre by reminding them: Theatre is live. There are no edits, no CGI, no re-takes. Every moment is real, performed by real living people in front of your eyes. Turn off your cell phone. We welcome discussion about the play, but it is not appropriate to discuss during the play. Please keep chatter and distracting sounds to a minimum. Use the restroom before the show so you don t miss the best parts of the play. Pay attention. Listen! If you miss something, there s no rewind. Theatre is deep. Let it take you in and the payoff is huge. Respect the actors. They can see and hear you. They want you to react, to laugh, to respond. Give them your absolute focus and they will reward you with the best performance they have ever given. We ask that teachers model this behavior for their students. When students see adults talking, reading or using their phones during a play they get the wrong message about respect and focus.
SYNOPSIS The father of three daughters has invested all his money with a Sea Captain. Before he leaves home, he asks each girl what gift she would like him to bring her. Tulip asks for jewelry, Daffodil a puppy, and Rose asks for a single rose. Father arrives in town with his horse, Mulch, to ind that his share of the treasure from the Sea Captain s voyage was lost at sea. Saddened, they head back into the forest to return home, but they are stopped by howling wolves. An eerie servant rescues them, takes them to a mysterious castle, feeds them, and bestows on them the gifts that the girls have requested. Father realizes he does not have a rose for Rose, so he picks one from the garden. A horrible Beast appears and threatens to kill him for this theft, but sets him free on the condition that one of his daughters take his place. When he arrives home, Father gives his daughters the gifts and tells them of his meeting with the Beast. Rose, the ever-dutiful daughter, agrees to go into the forest thinking that Father s imagination has run wild. She soon discovers there really is a Beast and is given a room in his palace. Rose begins to care for the Beast and soon loses track of time. Two months pass by and she realizes that she has not been home. With permission from Beast and a promise to return in seven days, Rose goes back home to ind things have not gone well without her. She takes up her former role in the household, begins doing chores again, and soon loses track of time. At the last minute, she realizes that the Beast is dying without her and that she has loved him all along. In the end she returns, declares her love, and the horrible-appearing Beast becomes a handsome Prince. Run time: approximately 1 hour. Optional & variable Q&A with cast to follow. THE WORLD OF THE PLAY Did you ever play house, cops and robbers or another make-believe game when you were younger? When we play these games we pretend that things and people are different than what they actually are. Maybe your best friend became a princess or your baby brother became the family dog, or you became the ruler of your own world and had to ight off three headed bats with laser eyes! The technical term for this pretending is called suspension of disbelief. It is like being allowed to hit the pause button on reality and fully commit to another world. You are suspending (holding/stopping) your disbelief (not believing). When you watch play, you suspend your disbelief in order to accept what the actors are doing on stage as being real in your imagination and in the context of the story. The enchantment of this story comes from the way the actors transform from character to character and from scene to scene. You will see our cast of ive play male and female roles, talking animal characters, and even personify objects such as a door and a clock. The simple set is designed to move quickly and is used in different ways to indicate different scenes. In addition, they do not have lights to help show the time of day where we are, so the actors work extra hard, and demand that we use our imagination to follow along. Prepare to let your imagination take you on a journey. Anything is possible when we enter the world of a play.
CAST JAY HOBSON Father/Wolf 2/Door/Rabbit/ Beastess CLAIRE SIMBA Rose OLLIE CORCHADO Tulip/Sea Captain/Wolf/Beast/ Prince CHRISTOPHER RICHARDSON Daffodil/Wolf/Sailor/Servant/ Clock/Mirror LAURIE ROBERTS Mulch/Thorn/Handsome/ Moneylender ARTISTIC/PRODUCTION STAFF Director... MARK LUTWAK Assistant Director... JOHN MUETHING Set Designer... KENTON BRETT Costume Designer... GORDON DEVINNEY Sound Designer... JEREMY LEE Prop Master... ANNA GOLLER Choreographer... KARI-LEE SUTHERLAND Production Manager... PHIL RUNDLE/AMANDA POWELL Technical Director... VERONICA BISHOP Stage Manager... TRACY HOIDA
ONE STORY MANY VERSIONS The fairytales and folk tales we know and love began in many different forms and were passed down from generation to generation through hundreds of storytellers, until an author wrote down the story and published it to a reading audience. The tale of Beauty and the Beast is actually quite different. This story did not begin as folklore, but as a novel, irst written and published by Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740. She was in luenced by other fairytales published not long before her, including those of fellow French author, Charles Perrault (Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and others). Her original tale of Beauty and the Beast has many elements of folklore, but was more for adults than children of the time. Villeneuve s long novel was abridged by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont whose shorted version was included in an anthology of fairytales for children in 1756. This version was widely distributed, translated into English and read all over Europe. Beaumont s version is used as the source for many of the adaptations we have available today. To date there have been numerous adaptations and retellings of Beauty and the Beast. Everything from children s picture books to teen novels to adult thrillers tell the tale of a beautiful girl who falls in love with a beastly man. Most well known is Disney s animated ilm which has been turned into a popular Broadway musical. However, it was a French ilm director who took the story to new level of humanity, one that is explored in our production as well. Jean Cocteau directed La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) in 1946. The movie starred French actors and appeared in black and white with what we would now consider antiquated special effects. But for its time it is a masterpiece. The major change from the original literature occurs in the inal moments of the ilm. Belle sees the Beast transform into a handsome prince, but is disappointed. She has grown to love the Beast for what he is and responds to his beauty with I shall have to get used to it. It is in this context that we bring you Bret Fetzer s take on this famous tale. The beauty and ugliness in this story, and in the world, are often hidden. It is up to us to ind what lies beneath. Discussion Questions: Villeneuve s story was very liberal for her time. Having a strong female character who makes her own choices was not common in the literature of 1740. Yet, in 2014 we might ind her ending cliche d or shallow. Sometimes the context of a story is just as important as the story itself. Why do you think Cocteau altered the ending for his ilm? Think about how that ending would have been viewed by its contemporary (post-war) audience. What does it say about Cocteau s point of view? How is the story of Beauty and the Beast meaningful to you as a student in 2014? After seeing the play, discuss your reaction to the play. The playwright wrote for a modern youth audience. Discuss elements of the play where you found that to be true.
THEATRICAL ELEMENTS Theatre is a collaborative art form; many artists work together to create a play. The script provides all the basic information from which all the other artists work. The playwright worked on this play for many years. The play was irst produced in 2001 at the Honolulu Theatre for Youth under the title Beauty and the Beast. The actors learn the lines and invent the behavior that makes them believable. Our actors rehearsed for eight hours a day, six days a week, for four weeks for this production. The actors in this production are all members of the Bruce E. Coyle Acting Intern Company, a professional internship for young actors. The set designer plans the environment of the performing space. This play takes place in many locations. Our scenery is built by carpenters and other artisans in the Playhouse shop. A challenge of designing for a touring show is keeping the set small enough that the actors and stage manager can assemble it quickly. The costume designer researches, plans and designs clothing that help us understand the world of the play and the characters. The costumes are built, found, and altered by the members of our costume shop. Some of the costumes for this play were purchased however, they all required altering to match the designer s vision and to it these actors. The sound designer is responsible for all of the recorded sound that you hear, including music that he may have composed. The director works with all of the other artists to coordinate their work. He has an overall vision of the play, and works to make sure that everyone tells the same story in the same style. He works with the actors in rehearsal to decide where and how to move and speak the lines. The stage manager schedules rehearsals, helps the director keep track of everything, and then runs the show once it has opened she calls the cues, which determine when every new sound occurs and when and how the scenery is moved. For this touring production she also is in charge of running the set up, break down and transportation of each performance. Set design for Accidental Friends 2012/13 touring play. Discussion Question: How did the various designers, playwright, actors, and theatre staff support the play with their work. Cite speci ic examples from the play or script. (See page 3 of this guide for information on how to obtain a script). Writing Prompt: Pretend you are a theatre critic who is reviewing the show. Write a newspaper review answering the following questions: Did you like it? Was it funny? Was it sad? Was the story interesting? Did the story make sense? What there anything special about the play? Were the actors believable? Choose two technical elements and explain how they helped or detracted from the play. Would you recommend the play to others? Why or why not?
CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS Integrate the ARTS into Your Classroom Use the following activities and project ideas to support core standards in your classroom. Costume Design Have students work in groups or as individuals to design their own costume for the Beast that can show the transformation from Beast to Prince on stage. Encourage them to include details such as how the costume would function (zippers, buttons, masks). This project targets close script analysis, critical thinking, and collaboration skills. Personi ication Monologues Some of the characters in this play are personi ications. Create your own personi ied character to tell a story. Have students write a monologue as the teacher s desk, the whiteboard, or a pencil. Have them act out their monologues for the class or for a partner. Prompts could be: A day in the life, Guess what I am, or Worst/Best day ever as the object. This project targets irst person point of view, luency, cause and effect, and attention to details. Hot Seat Have a student speak from the perspective of a character from the play. The rest of the students will ask questions. (Example: to the Beast: Are you and Rose still friends?; To Tulip: How could you treat your sister that way?) The actor must stay in-role and answer as truthfully as they can knowing what they know from the play and the inferences they can make. Have them experiment with character voices and movement as they answer. This project targets identifying character traits, inference skills, and drawing conclusions from a text. For ordinary beauty could not easily take the place of the terrible beauty that won her heart. Jean Cocteau The End When Jean Cocteau, director of the 1946 film went to the premiere of his film, he paid special attention to the audience s reaction near the end of the show. He noticed that the people who saw his movie felt the same disappointment his leading lady did when Beast turned into the handsome Prince. It is said that a famous actress at the time, Greta Garbo, even moaned Give me back the Beast! as the movie ended. Discussion Question: Why does Rose think the Beast was more handsome before he changed? Why are Rose, Cocteau, Fetzer, and other audiences sad to see the Beast become a handsome prince? Do you feel the same way? Why or why not? Rewrite the ending of the play or the ending of Beaumont s short story. Debate the new endings as a class. Whose is the right way to end the story; Fetzer s, Beaumont s, yours, or someone else s? This project targets persuasive thinking, speaking and listening. Vocabulary From the Script CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI..4 Craft and Structure merchant riffraff gesture trinkets thorn bridle fragrant specula on countenance generous
AFTER THE SHOW Story Use these questions as discussion or writing prompts. Is this play a work of iction or non- iction? How do you know? What is the setting of the play? Compare and contrast the three sisters, Tulip, Daffodil and Rose. How are they different? How are they the same? List the major plot points of the story. What is the major con lict? Was the captain telling the truth about Father s treasures? Why or why not; how do you know? Why does the necklace bite the Moneylender? Why do Tulip and Thorn see monkeys and lizards in the mirror instead of their re lections? Production What did the opening dance tell you about the show? There are 19 characters and only 5 actors so the actors had to play more than one role. How did each actor show that he or she was switching to a new character? Did you ind this effective? Theatre is sometimes done in a campy style which means that serious moments or lines become funny because they are exaggerated or over-done. Can you think of some examples from the show? What surprised you about this production? Was there anything used or done in a unique way that really impressed you? Themes Thoughtful Choice vs. Instinct and Desire When the Beast apologizes for wanting to eat the rabbit, Rose told him that there was nothing to forgive and he did as his heart demanded. What do you think Rose means by this? Think of a time when you reacted on instinct. Did you get mad and throw something? Did you yell because you were scared? Natural reactions can be important to our safety in some situations, but as humans we have the ability to think and control our actions if we put in the effort. Just as the Beast chose to be kind to Rose, and not to eat that rabbit, we can make choices to be kind and patient as well. Perceptions Think about the puppet shows the Beast and Rose put on in the play, each from their point of view. What do they say about how each character feels about the situation they are in? How does their perception compare to what is actually going on in the story? How do their perceptions of each other change? How do our perceptions of each other change as we get to know someone? Think of someone in your school or neighborhood. What was your irst impression of them? Has it changed since you ve gotten to know that person? In what ways? Appreciation Rose shows appreciation for even the smallest of things. Use your memory or the script to count just how many times she expresses gratitude or notices the beauty around her. Start a gratitude journal in your own classroom.
Name Grade School Cause and Effect Directions: Draw a picture and write a short caption of 3 different examples of cause and effect you remember from the performance of Roses and Thorns. Example: Cause Father plucks a rose from a mysterious garden. Effect The Beast appears and threatens to kill him.