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CONTENTS Welcome.3 About Hall For Cornwall.4-5 History of Sleeping Beauty.6 Synopsis 7 Character Breakdown.8 Activities. 9-15 Behind the Scenes 16-17 Rehearsal photos 18 2
WELCOME! From the creative team that brought you hit shows Dick Whittington and his Mousehole Cat! ("the most outstanding Christmas Show in the theatre's history" Cornwall Live) and Jack and the Beanstalk, Hall For Cornwall are proud to present another home grown production to enchant and entertain adults and children alike. Edward 'Kernow King' Rowe and Granville Saxton return in this year's Christmas show, Sleeping Beauty, the final chapter in a trilogy of adventures featuring our much loved Cornishman, Kenwyne and his extended family.with magic, music and comedy and some sparkling surprises - it promises to be a 'bewty! A visit to the theatre at Christmas may be a child s first experience of live performance. If that experience is captivating enough, it can leave a lasting impression. At Hall For Cornwall, we are committed to making sure your school s visit to our Christmas Show is a truly magical experience. This Education Pack has been designed as a helpful resource in the classroom to deepen your students understanding and appreciation of a visit to the theatre. You ll find fun activities, useful reference information and creative tasks all centred around our Christmas Show, Sleeping Beauty. You can also download a digital version of this Education Pack from our website. We hope that you enjoy exploring this much-loved tale with your school and we look forward to hearing your thoughts about the show! Please feel free to get in touch with your feedback at helent@hallforcornwall.org.uk Best wishes, The Arts Development Team. 3
ABOUT HALL FOR CORNWALL Hall For Cornwall is the duchy s largest performance venue. More than 180,000 people visiting us each year to see a wide-ranging arts programme that includes theatre, music, dance and comedy. Hall For Cornwall occupies an important Grade II* listed building in the centre of Truro. Built in 1846-7, the original building was the markethouse and civic offices for Truro. Truro was an important market town for many centuries and you can still see the original Truro market motto-stone from 1615, in the Boscawen Street foyer. The building has had many uses in its lifetime: 1846-7 The building was designed by architect Charles Eales, and built from local Carn Brea granite. Opening as a market house and civic halls it included space for 56 butchers stalls! It also housed the police station and jail on the ground floor, and spaces for the council and Stannary Courts above. 1907-12 The building was also used for social uses; as a roller-skating rink in 1907, and a cinema in 1912. 4
1914 A major fire gutted the building. The clock tower collapsed into the market-hall and many city records and documents were lost. The clock tower and roof of City Hall, destroyed by fire in 1914. 1919-27 Concerts and balls were frequently held, and the building was converted into a public hall with a stage for performances. Other uses included a cinema and rifle range! At different times it has been called the County Theatre, Regent Cinema and Theatre, and City Hall Theatre. 1960s-80s Gigs, music contests, amateur dramatics, trade shows and markets were all popular events alongside The Truro Fatstock Show. 1980s 1990 s After many years of deterioration, the building is leased by opera singer Benjamin Luxon. A campaign sees funding gained for the rebuilding of the space as a theatre 1997 Hall For Cornwall opens, presenting a diverse programme of local, national and international high quality drama, musicals, dance, comedy and performance. 5
HISTORY OF SLEEPING BEAUTY Over the years, the classic tale of Sleeping Beauty has influenced, literature, performance, dance and film. Adaptations and retellings include the Grimm Brothers classic fairytale and a three-act ballet, first performed in 1890 with a score written by Tchaikovsky. Walt Disney released an animated Sleeping Beauty in 1950 and then, in 2014 brought Maleficent to the big screen, starring Angelina Jolie and loosely inspired by the original fairy tale. Sleeping Beauty is one of the earliest pantomimes ever to be seen in England, first performed at London s Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 1806 with a version entitled The Sleeping Beauty: A Grand Legendary Melodrama. Another hugely successful interpretation was first performed at Sadler s Wells at Christmas in 1822, entitled The Sleeping Beauty of the Wood. An instant success with audiences, this production is credited for the importance of Sleeping Beauty becoming a regular part of the British pantomime scene and remains one of the most traditional, and most popular pantomimes staged. Today, the modern retelling of the story tells of the celebration of the christening of the King and Queen s newborn daughter, with seven fairies invited to be Godmothers. Six of the seven fairies bring the gifts of beauty, wit, grace, dance, song and goodness. However, one wicked fairy is mistakenly left off the invite list and, enraged at being forgotten, curses the child with a spell that one day the young princess will prick her finger on a spindle of a spinning wheel and die. One of the good fairies manages to reverse the evil spell but can t lift it completely. Instead of death, upon pricking her finger, the princess will fall into a deep slumber for 100 years only to be awakened by true love s kiss. The Wicked Fairy Godmother is one of the best-known characters in the original Sleeping Beauty tale and was later named Carabosse before becoming Maleficent in Walt Disney s animated version. The Princess has also had name variants, from Talia Briar Rose in the Brothers Grimm version, to Princess Aurora in Tchaikovsky s ballet adaptation. In Disney s version, she is born Aurora but takes on the name of Briar Rose as an alias to hide from the wicked fairy. It is in this rich historical tradition, that we proudly present our own Christmas Show with, of course, a Cornish twist and a sprinkling of Kernow myth, legend and fairy dust! The retelling of our Sleeping Beauty story weaves in some brand new elements and loses some of the clichés of the pantomime tradition, to create a unique and fun show, homegrown and especially made for you, our audience. 6
SYNOPSIS The story begins on a very say day with our hero, Kenwyne, remembering how each Christmas as a little boy, he would climb to the top of Roche Rock with his beloved mother, Flo. In a moment of reflection, Kenwyne decides to climb Roche Rock once again, but as he does a large crack appears which he falls through and finds himself in the magical Kingdom of Llawnroc, which is ruled over by King Mark and his beautiful daughter, Princess Rose. The first person that Kenwyne meets is a beautiful girl that tells him all about the kingdom and admires his Cornish Chough brooch, an old Christmas present from Flo. Meanwhile, the whole land is celebrating Princess Rose s birthday. When Princess Rose was born, an evil was curse laid upon her; if she pricks her finger on anything sharp before her 21st birthday, she will fall into a deep sleep forever. To stop this from happening, Rose has been kept in the castle all her life by her protective father, King Mark and her wicked Auntie, Cara Bosse (who has always secretly wanted to get rid of Princess Rose so that she can be Queen). This wicked Auntie is the next person Kenwyne meets. Cara Bosse sees that Kenwyne s Cornish Chough brooch, whilst beautiful, is very sharp and so she invites him to Princess Rose s birthday party At the party, Kenwyne suddenly sees the girl he met outside the castle, only now she is wearing beautiful clothes and he realises that she is Princess Rose. Whilst dancing together she pricks her finger on his Cornish Chough brooch and falls into a deep sleep. Cara Bosse is delighted, her plan has worked and she is now the next in line to the throne! The distraught Kenwyne suddenly sees a ghostly apparition of his mother, Flo, who tells him that the only way to break the curse is to seek out true love s kiss. Kenwyne heads to Bobby Dazzler s hit TV show, Find Me A Fella to find an eligible bachelor to awaken Princess Rose. Various princes compete to prove their love but the victor is Prince George. Prince George and Kenwyne set off for the castle to find Princess Rose, but on the way Cara Bosse appears and announces that Princess Rose has been kidnapped by Leatherclaw. Kenwyne convinces Prince George that they must go and rescue her. They travel to the deepest, darkest cave in Llawnrock and discover, to their horror, that Leatherclaw is a dragon! The cowardly Prince George is frightened by the dragon but thankfully Kenwyne saves the day and smites him with a sword. Kenwyne and Prince George head back to the castle with Princess Rose. When they arrive, Cara Bosse is furious but can only stand by as Kenwyne urges Prince George to kiss the princess. However, nothing happens she is still asleep! Flo appears again to Kenwyne and helps him to see that he is Princess Rose s true love. Kenwyne tentatively kisses Princess Rose who gradually awakens from her deep sleep. The whole land rejoices and King Mark banishes the wicked Cara Bosse from the kingdom forever. Kenwyne and Princess Rose marry, but Kenwyne yearns to be back in his beloved Cornwall. Princess Rose is keen to join him so they leave the Kingdom of Llawnroc to start a new adventure in Kernow. 7
CHARACTER BREAKDOWN Traditionally, Sleeping Beauty features a set of stock characters who interact with the audience as they tell the story on stage. These include the hero, the Dame, the heroine, the comic, the villain and the sidekick. Can you guess which of the characters below fits these stock character types? KENWYNE KING MARK BOBBY DAZZLER YOUNG FLO CARR BOSSE PRINCESS ROSE PRINCE GEORGE PRINCE PIERRE SYMBOL LEATHERCLAW ENSEMBLE Our hero a true Cornishman. He is endearing, earnest and unfailingly honest, but quite often gets the wrong end of the stick. Despite his larger than life persona, he lacks self-belief. The King of the Kingdom of Llawnroc and Princess Rose s father. He is a doting father but embarrassingly over-protective. A cheesy, popular TV Game Show host. He is the celebrity personality everyone loves. Kenwyne s mother, early 30 s. She appears only to Kenwyne as a spirit and guiding light. King Mark s sister. She is Machiavellian and wishes to take her rightful place as the Queen of the Kingdom of Llawnroc. Our Sleeping Beauty, a devoted daughter upon who a curse has been placed. She yearns for adventure. The typical hero good-looking, debonair, charming but a coward with self-esteem issues. An over-confident French Prince. The pretentious pop singer, formerly known as Prince. A large, deadly, fire-breathing dragon. Villagers, guards, TV show assistants. 8
ACTIVITY Describe the character worksheet See if you can guess the characters from the pictures and use as many adjectives to describe them as you can. What do they look like? What is their mood? 1) This character is: 2) This character is: 3) These characters are: 9
ACTIVITY Wordsearch Hidden in this grid are some words about Sleeping Beauty. See if you can find them all KENWYNE ROSE SLEEPING CHOUGH CARABOSSE ROCHE BEWTY DRAGON C A R A B O S S E S E N Y W N E K U Y L B E W T Y R O C H E A R L W Q H A F O E E T Y Y G R S I Y P P G Y U J U I H F I Y I O E H E Q L V N W H D R A G O N M G C Q W F B R O S E B 10
ACTIVITY Poetry An acrostic poem is a poem in which the first letter or word of each line spells out a message. Try writing an acrostic poem using the word Leatherclaw L E A T H E R C L A W A limerick is a poem where the first 2 lines rhyme, the second 2 lines rhyme and the final line rhymes with the first 2. Try to write a limerick beginning with the line There was a young princess named Rose 11
ACTIVITY Writing a Review A critic is someone who comes to see a show and then writes a review, telling people what was good about the show and whether or not it was enjoyable. Here s some tips about how to write a good review Tell people the name of the show, where it s on and when Give a brief outline of the story What was your response? Was it enjoyable? Why? Comment on the design, lighting, costume, direction Which performances were your favourite and why? What did other people in the audience think of the show? Following these guidelines, try writing a review of Sleeping Beauty. Think about what you saw and heard and how that made you feel. There is no right or wrong way to write a review, be honest about what you thought of the show but always remember to be fair and constructive with your critique. *If you are working towards gaining an Arts Award, you will be required to write a review and share it. Please let us know if we can help you this. 12
ACTIVITY Set Design A team of designers work together to create the world that we see on stage. They will each have a different focus; lighting, costume, set, sound. Sleeping Beauty has a lot of different sets which are usually made up from painted scenery to show different locations in the scenes. Some of these locations include Roche Rock Topmost turret of the castle Dragon s lair Write a paragraph to describe one of the locations in Sleeping Beauty. Think about the colours, what you can see on stage and whether there are any props 13
ACTIVITY Costume Design The role of a Costume Designer is to make the costumes that the actors wear on stage. They will read the script and then discuss with the Director how they think the show should look visually. They need to consider colours, textures, shapes, moods and materials. Complete these tasks to see what it is like to be a Costume Designer. 1) We associate different meanings and feelings with different colours and this is a very important part of costume design. Fill in the table below with words that you associate with each colour Colour Red Black Green Gold Blue Purple White Meaning 2) Choose your favourite character from Jack and the Beanstalk. Write down 5 words that you think describe that character a) b) c) d) e) 3) Pick 3 colours that best suit your character 14
4) Use the colours that you have chosen to design a costume for your character in the space below. We d love to see your finished costume designs so please send them to Arts Development, Hall For Cornwall, Back Quay, Truro, TR1 2LL with your name and school labelled. 15
BEHIND THE SCENES an interview with the director How does this version of Sleeping Beauty differ to the traditional tale and what inspired you to write it? Largely our version of Sleeping Beauty contains most of the facets of the traditional tale. There is a Princess, there is a curse, she does get put into an endless sleep and she does need to be awoken by true love s kiss - where our story differs is that we have got an unconventional leading man to save the day. One of our, (Richard Healey and myself) key inspirations for this story was to weave in the characters that we have developed over the past two Christmas shows (Dick Whittington and his Mousehole Cat and Jack and the Beanstalk) into the narrative. This is very much the third part of a trilogy of shows and we wanted to end the story of Kenwyne and Auntie Flo in style. Over the past two years Kenwyne has been a comic foil who goes on the adventure with his Mum and helps the lead protagonists to overcome adversity. This year it is very much his time to shine. Do you have a particular favourite moment in this year s Christmas Show? I m writing this as we are about to go into technical rehearsals, so there are still a few bits that we ve yet to see work, but there are lots of favourite moments. The ballroom scene at the end of Act One is pretty special, it just keeps building to what I think will be a pretty spectacular (and ridiculous) finale. The Leatherclaw sequence in Act 2 is the most ambitious we ve attempted in any of the shows and arguably in HFC s Christmas show history - if that works (as I hope it should) it will be epic. But aside from the spectacle and the comedy moments there are some genuinely touching moments. We all really love the characters and how the format has developed over the three years and want this to be a fitting send off for them - so if the ending lands, I think that will ultimately be the cherry on the cake for me. 16
What was the most challenging thing about directing Sleeping Beauty? Because of the nature of these shows and the short rehearsal time, the directing work happens way in advance of rehearsals. We started work in February, wrote the majority of the show in June and have been planning and getting bespoke props and set made since late July, so I suppose one of the key challenges is balancing my workload over the months leading up to the rehearsals starting. Then the other big challenge is how short and regimented the actual rehearsals are - we only have two weeks and during that time the actors need to learn songs and choreography as well the staging of scenes - so Kim (choreographer), Richard (Musical Director) and I need to really plan our time - you also have to make staging decisions much more quickly than I might normally. I quite enjoy the pressure. How do you prepare your actors before they perform? Every day they do a good physical and vocal warm up and I like to do a lot of games and exercises to get people working as a team. I come from a background of ensemble theatre making and I like to encourage a playfulness and togetherness in the playing style - which I believe makes for a more exciting show. If the cast have a genuine playfulness between them, then it is infectious and engaging for an audience. How does directing a Christmas Show different from other theatrical performances/genres? As previously mentioned, it s a quicker process, so decisions need to be made quickly and confidently. It s a genuinely mixed audience from very small children right up to Grandparents and has to work for all. We try and write the script so that it can be understood by five-year olds but has enough humour and in jokes that can be appreciated by adults. I also try and bring some genuine theatrical spectacle to the show. The playing style is quite specific - it has to be heightened enough to be seen in a big auditorium but real enough for people to buy into and engage with the characters. 17
IN REHEARSAL We hope that you enjoyed the performance and we look forward to seeing you again soon! 18