Nothing seems to interest young Milo not his toys, not his friends, and especially not school. But when a mysterious tollbooth appears in his room, he discovers a world of inspiration! Welcome to Cuesheet, a performance guide published by the Education Department of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. This Cuesheet is designed to help you enjoy the performance of The Phantom Tollbooth. Look for the castle for topics of discussion or activities you may want to do with other students, friends, or family. What s in Cuesheet? Destination: The Castle in the Air, pages 2-3 Based on the book by NORTON JUSTER Music by ARNOLD BLACK Lyrics by SHELDON HARNICK Adapted for the stage by NORTON JUSTER and SHELDON HARNICK The Game of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, foldout poster Journey to the Theater and Beyond, back page
Main Characters Milo a boy too bored to have fun Tock a dog with an unusual alarm clock Demons evil spirits Whether Man the character who welcomes people to the Land of Expectations Lethargarians creatures who live in the Doldrums Princess of Sweet Rhyme a princess who likes to rhyme Princess of Pure Reason a wise princess Azaz king of Dictionopolis, a land where words rule Mathemagician king of Digitopolis, a land where numbers rule Word Vendors people who sell words in Dictionopolis Miners workers in the Numbers Mine in Digitopolis Milo s Journey n the musical, Milo thinks every day is boring. He doesn t get excited about anything not even hanging out with friends. Suddenly a mysterious tollbooth appears in his room. A voice from the tollbooth convinces Milo to go on an adventurous journey and Milo decides to visit the Castle in the Air. But before he can visit, he must persuade the King of Digitopolis and the King of Dictionopolis to make peace after years of fighting. Then he must rescue two kind and wise princesses. Will Milo succeed? Writing Your Journey In the play, Milo travels to places he has never seen or heard of before. Before he left for his journey, he didn t know what to expect. During his journey, he learns many new things. Do you remember a time when you traveled to a place you d never been to before? How did you feel on the way to the new place? What did you expect? Write one to two sentences describing how you felt as you were traveling, then draw yourself on the way to your destination. Next write one to two sentences about what you learned on your journey. It Takes Brains and Bravery Phantom Tollbooth explores several themes. To rescue the princesses, Milo must outwit the King of Digitopolis, face the demons who live in the Mountains of Ignorance, and climb up a dangerous, 2,000-step stairway. Three themes in the musical are: the power of thinking overcoming fear heroism Write a brief paragraph about a time when: a) you solved a problem by using your wit, b) you had to be brave even though you were scared, and c) you did something heroic, such as helping a stranger.
From Page to Musical Stage The story of the musical comes from the book titled The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. To adapt a book into a play, playwrights use dialogue and action to tell a story. They often have to add new characters and situations to make the story come alive on stage. Try your hand at adaptation. Choose a scene in a favorite book and bring the scene to life by improvising with a couple of friends or classmates. Choose someone to be a narrator to tell parts of the story that couldn t be expressed in dialogue. After you have improvised the scene, write down the dialogue you came up with. Writing Lyrics In a musical, playwrights work with people who compose music and write lyrics words that are sung to music. Try adding lyrics to the dialogue you wrote. You can think of lyrics as poetry set to music. Write four to six lines that rhyme. Next tap a steady beat while you read your lines aloud. To be able to set lyrics to music, the words should have a consistent meter or rhythm. Vocabulary adapt to change or modify dialogue words spoken in conversation by the characters in a play doldrums feeling down in the dumps improvising performing without practicing first musical a play that tells a story through dialogue and songs narrator a person in a play who comments on the action on stage outwit outsmart someone by being clever theme subjects or topics of discussion that appear over and over again in literature and other works of art
Guess That Lyric Read the song lyrics below and look over the list of characters on page 2. Before the performance, guess which character sings each of the lyrics. During the performance, listen for these lines and see if your guesses are right. From eight to nine we take our morning nap. Then we lounge until half past. Should I try to be a hero when I know it s do or die? Can I really face a demon? Am I brave enough to try? It s more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be! So Much to See At the end of the musical, the voice of the Tollbooth tells Milo, There are many lands you ve still to visit and wonderful things to see. Draw or describe an imaginary land that you would like to visit. What does it look like? Who or what lives there? Anything is possible! An Attentive Audience In a theater, you are the audience. Being an audience member in a theater is different from watching movies and television. In a theater, the actors are in the same room with you. To do their best, performers need you to watch and listen closely. The cast of The Phantom Tollbooth is made up of seven actors who play more than 40 different characters. During the performance, watch how the actors portray these many roles. Resources You may want to... Read: Juster, Norton. Illustrations by Jules Feiffer. The Phantom Tollbooth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961. Go online: www.cre8tivedrama.com Stephen A. Schwarzman Chairman Michael M. Kaiser President Darrell M. Ayers Vice President, Education Theater at the Kennedy Center is presented with the generous support of Stephen and Christine Schwarzman. Additional support for the Kennedy Center Performances for Young Audiences is provided by the U.S. Department of Education, The President s Advisory Committee on the Arts, the Estate of Joseph R. Applegate, Chevy Chase Bank, The Clark Charitable Foundation, Alma and Colin Powell, and Aaron and Sondra Drutz. The Phantom Tollbooth Cuesheet Editor and Art Director: Cathy Lips Writer: Theresa Sotto Design: The Kirwan Company, Inc. Cuesheets are produced by ARTSEDGE, a program of the Kennedy Center Education Department. For more information about the performing arts and arts education, visit our Web sites: www.kennedy-center.org/education www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org Questions, comments? Write us at cuesheets@artsedge.kennedy-center.org. 2007 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The U.S. Department of Education supports approximately onethird of the budget for the Kennedy Center Education Department. The contents of this Cuesheet do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
FOLD HERE FOLD HERE FOLD HERE On the set for the city of Dictionpolis, one fourth of the stage will be full of vendors. Two fifths of the stage will be full of advisors to King Azaz. What fraction of the stage will be full of vendors and advisors? How many proper nouns are in the following lyrics from The Phantom Tollbooth? We have mountains like Olympus. We have planets like Mars. We have Betelgeuse And Vege And a million other stars! A set designer wants to build a backdrop for a stage. To build the backdrop, he will line up several square panels of wood. The stage is 51 feet long and the square panels are 3 feet wide each. How many panels does the designer need to cover the length of the stage? The script for The Phantom Tollbooth is 65 pages long. The actors playing young Azaz and The Mathemagician must appear on the stage 4/13 of the way into the script. On what page of the script do they appear? The school bus picks up Milo at 7:20 a.m. It takes him 10 minutes to get dressed, 15 minutes to eat, and 5 minutes to walk to the bus stop. What time should he get up? When playwrights adapt a book for the stage, which of the following statements are NOT true: a. Playwrights can make up new characters. b. Playwrights add new dialogue. c. Action is used instead of words to tell parts of the story. d. A narrator is used to tell parts of the story. e. All of the above are true. Milo eats 3 cups of Subtraction Stew and Tock eats 4 cups. Two cups equals 1 pint, so how many pints of stew did Milo and Tock eat all together? Pick the correct suffix to complete the sentence below. Is Milo cap of climbing the Mountains of Ignorance to save the princesses, Rhyme and Reason? a. ful b. able c. less d. tion If you are in charge of writing words for songs in a musical, what is your job? a. lyricist b. director c. actor d. editor Answer: a. lyricist Answer: b. able Answer: 3-1/2 pints Answer: e. All of the above are true. Answer: 6:50 AM Answer: page 20 Answer: 17 panels Answer: 4 Olympus, Mars, Betelgeuse,Vege Answer: 13/20 Ask your teacher or parent for instructions on how to play the game. Or, go to: www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org/phantomtollbooth Each monster who lives in the Mountains of Ignorance has a bad habit. For example, the Demon of Insincerity does not say what he really feels. In one minute, list as many names for demons with bad habits as you can. The player with the longest list wins. Congratulations! You made it to the Castle in the Air! Tock tells Milo a story about the princes of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis. Try to memorize Tock s lines below like an actor would learn lines for a play. The player who memorizes the lines first wins 1 point. One little prince had a gift for words; one had a gift for numbers. But each prince grew overly proud of his own exceptional gift, which caused, in time, I m sorry to say, a deep and serious rift. How many words can you think of that rhyme with Tock? Write them on your paper. The player with the most words after 1 minute wins 1 point.
FOLD HERE FOLD HERE FOLD HERE On the set for the city of Dictionpolis, one fourth of the stage will be full of vendors. Two fifths of the stage will be full of advisors to King Azaz. What fraction of the stage will be full of vendors and advisors? How many proper nouns are in the following lyrics from The Phantom Tollbooth? We have mountains like Olympus. We have planets like Mars. We have Betelgeuse And Vege And a million other stars! A set designer wants to build a backdrop for a stage. To build the backdrop, he will line up several square panels of wood. The stage is 51 feet long and the square panels are 3 feet wide each. How many panels does the designer need to cover the length of the stage? Answer: 17 panels Answer: 4 Olympus, Mars, Betelgeuse,Vege Answer: 13/20 Ask your teacher or parent for instructions on how to play the game. Or, go to: www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org/phantomtollbooth Each monster who lives in the Mountains of Ignorance has a bad habit. For example, the Demon of Insincerity does not say what he really feels. In one minute, list as many names for demons with bad habits as you can. The player with the longest list wins.
The script for The Phantom Tollbooth is 65 pages long. The actors playing young Azaz and The Mathemagician must appear on the stage 4/13 of the way into the script. On what page of the script do they appear? The school bus picks up Milo at 7:20 a.m. It takes him 10 minutes to get dressed, 15 minutes to eat, and 5 minutes to walk to the bus stop. What time should he get up? When playwrights adapt a book for the stage, which of the following statements are NOT true: a. Playwrights can make up new characters. b. Playwrights add new dialogue. c. Action is used instead of words to tell parts of the story. d. A narrator is used to tell parts of the story. e. All of the above are true. Milo eats 3 cups of Subtraction Stew and Tock eats 4 cups. Two cups equals 1 pint, so how many pints of stew did Milo and Tock eat all together? Pick the correct suffix to complete the sentence below. Is Milo cap of climbing the Mountains of Ignorance to save the princesses, Rhyme and Reason? a. ful b. able c. less d. tion If you are in charge of writing words for songs in a musical, what is your job? a. lyricist b. director c. actor d. editor Answer: a. lyricist Answer: b. able Answer: 3-1/2 pints Answer: e. All of the above are true. Answer: 6:50 AM Answer: page 20 Congratulations! You made it to the Castle in the Air! Tock tells Milo a story about the princes of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis. Try to memorize Tock s lines below like an actor would learn lines for a play. The player who memorizes the lines first wins 1 point. One little prince had a gift s; one had a gift for
How many words can you think of that rhyme with Tock? Write them on your paper. The player with the most words after 1 minute wins 1 point.
for word numbers. But each prince grew overly proud of his own exceptional gift, which caused, in time, I m sorry to say, a deep and serious rift.