418 West Short StreetLexington, KY 40507

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Our MissiOn tO schOOls, teachers and students The mission of Lexington Children’s Theatre’s Education Department is to provide students of all ages with the means to actively explore the beauty, diversity, complex-ity and challenges of the world around them through the dramatic process. We strive for young people to develop their own creative voice, their imagination and their un-derstanding of drama and its role in society.

Dear Educator,

Lexington Children’s Theatre is proud to be producing our 77th season of plays for young people and their families. As an organization that values the arts and education, we have created this Play Guide for teachers to utilize in conjunction with seeing a play at LCT.

Our Play Guides are designed to be a valuable tool in two ways: helping you prepare your students for the enriching performance given by LCT’s performers, as well as serving as an educational tool for extending the production experience back into your classroom.

We designed each activity to assist in achieving the Kentucky Core Content (KCC) and to integrate the arts with your core curricular subjects.

Teachers are important voices at LCT. We rely heavily on your input. If you have comments or suggestions about our Play Guides, show selec-tions or any of our programming, your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Please respond to the Teacher Re-sponse form following a performance.

We are thrilled that you rely on LCT to provide your students a qual-ity theatrical experience, and we hope this resource aids you in extending our production into your classroom.

LCT’s Education Department

2015-2016 Season Play Guide

Program Review InformationNot only does our programming align with KCC Standards, but this Play Guide as a whole is aligned with the KY Arts and Humanities Program Review under the following demonstrators:

Demonstrator 2: a,c,d Demonstrator 3: a,b,d

Demonstrator 4: d

On stage: September 13-25th, 201510am & 11:45am

What will you

discover?

You may wish to have a discussion with your class about your upcoming LCT experience and their role as audience members. Remind your students that theatre can only exist with an audience. Your students’ energy and response directly affects the actors onstage. The quality of the performance depends as much on the audience as it does on each of the theatre professionals behind the scenes and onstage.

Young audiences should know that watching live theatre is not like watching more familiar forms of entertainment: they cannot pause or rewind us like a

DVD, there are no commercials for bathroom breaks, nor can they turn up the volume to hear us if someone else is talking. Your students are encouraged to listen and watch the play intently, so that they may laugh and cheer for their favorite characters when it is appropriate.

At the end of the play, applause is an opportunity for your students to thank the actors, while the actors are thanking you for the role they played as an audience.

Your Role in the Play

Play SynopsisThe play begins on New Years Eve at the house of Ludwig Bemelmans, author of the Mad-eline books. Mr. Bemelmans’ daughter Barbara enters and hurries her father to come to the party. Mr. Bemelmans embarks on illustrating to both Barbara and the audience the stories of Madeline’s adventures as they come to life onstage.Madeline lives in an old house in Paris that is covered with vines and is a student at a school with eleven other little girls. The school is run by a kind but firm nun named Miss Clavel. Madeline is the smallest and most mischievous of the twelve girls and her first ad venture is going to the hospital to get her appendix removed. She is, of course, proud to have the scar across her stomach. The other girls think Madeline has had a great adventure and they want their appendix out too!Madeline’s adventures continue when Madeline falls into the river Seine and is valiantly rescued by Genevieve the dog. The two become instant best friends! Unfortunately, the Lord and Lady Cucuface, who run the school, have no tolerance for canines. They banish Gen-evieve into the night. Madeline, the girls, and Miss Clavel look all night for Genevieve but cannot find her. Thankfully, she is returned by the kindly policeman, just in time. Geneiveve gives birth to eleven puppies! Now every girl has her own dog.The final episode is about Madeline and a boy named Pepito who moves in next door. Pepito does his best to cause mischief while Miss Clavel has her back turned and Madeline names him the Bad Hat. When Pepito’s antics land him in a cast and a wheel chair he does his best to redeem himself but even this causes a great deal of chaos. Madeline sees his true intentions and befriends him anyway. The play closes with Madeline and all her friends wishing Mr. Bemelmans, Barbara, and the audience a Happy New Year!

Prepare for the Play

KCC’s: WR-E-1.3, AH-E-3.1.41, AH-E-3.1.43

Frère Jacques

Can you speak français or Deutsch?Madeline takes place in France where the official language is French. Ludwig Bemelmans was Austrian where they speak German. Below are some phrases you can learn with your class to get a basic understanding of the differences in the languages spoken in the play. Practice each phrase together and then separately with a friend. See if you can master these simple phrases. Create a small scene using all of the phrases.

Frère Jacques is a well-known children’s song in French. There is also an English-language vesion of the song; the first and second lines are switched in the English version. In Madeline the orphans sing Frère Jacques as they get dressed to help pass the time. Below are the lyrics to Frère Jacques, teach them to your class and sing it in a round. One Group should sing the English while the other group sings in French.

ENGLISH Hello

Good-bye Thank you

Please My name is

How are you? Good

FRENCH Bonjour (bohn-dgoor)

Adieu (ah-deeyuh) Merci (mair-see)

S’il vous plaît (SEE voo play) Je m’appelle (dguh MA pell)

Ça va? (sah VAH) Bien (BEE-in)

(note: “dg” is like “dg” in the English word “judge”)

GERMAN Guten tag (GOO-ten tahk)

Tschüß (chew-ss) Danke (dahnk-uh)

Bitte (bit-tuh) Ich heiße (ih hi-suh)

Wie geht’s? (VEE gates) Gut (goot)

KCC’S: RD-E-x.01, AH-E-3.1.41

Texte française: Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques, Dormez vous? Dormez vous?

Sonnez les matines, Sonnez les matines Ding Ding Dong, Ding Ding Dong

English Version: Are you sleeping, are you sleeping?

Brother John, Brother John? Morning bells are ringing, Morning bells are ringing-

Ding Ding Dong, Ding Ding Dong.KCC’s: AH-E-1.23

Rhyme TimeHave your students make lists of words that rhyme (i.e. freeze, sneeze, please, cheese, etc.). Then ask students to write a story using the rhyming words. They can create the stories individu-ally or in groups. Then have students act out the stories for the rest of the class.

Ludwig Bemelmans was born in Austria in 1898. Being an artist ran in his blood, for Ludwig’s father was a painter himself. But, Ludwig’s parents divorced and he went to live with his Mother and her family in Regensburg, Germany. Like many artists, Ludwig had a childhood full of rebel-lion and resistance; he was hesitant to join the family business of hotel management. Neverthe-less, at the age of sixteen he was sent to apprentice with his uncle who owned several hotels in the town. Bemelmans was not suited to the position and was involved in a rather violent dispute with one of the waiters. Bemelmans was given an ultimatum: go to reform school or immigrate to America.

Bemelmans arrived in New York City in 1914 and attempted to hold down a string of parttime jobs. He was not met with any more success in America as he had been in Austria. His career-prospects looked slim, so Ludwig decided to enlist in the US Army. He had trouble adjusting to a life in service, especially given that he was in a foreign country. Bemelmans later wrote a humor-ous memoir about his days as a soldier entitled My War with the United States.

At the end of World War I, Bemelmans had gained his US citizenship and returned to the fam-ily business of hotel and restaurant service. He spent fifteen years in service at the Ritz-Carlton. During this time, he was honing his artistic skills by taking art lessons whenever he could afford them. In addition to his formal training, Bemelmans engaged in slightly less conventional forms of practice as well: drawing caricatures of the restaurant guests on the menus. In 1925 his profes-sion and his passion reconciled when he decorated and became part owner of a restaurant called the Hapsburg House. Around this time he met May Massee who worked for Viking Press publish-ing. She would prove to be a lifelong friend and colleague. In 1934 Viking published Bemelmans first children’s book: Hansi.

In 1935 Bemelmans married Madeleine Freund and they had a daughter named Barbara. The family vacationed on the Isle d’Yeu in France when Barbara was just two. It was here that the first Madeline story began to take shape. Bemelmans was involved in an automobile accident on the island that forced him to spend a few days in the hospital. While there, he was in a room next to a girl who had had her appendix removed, and she proudly showed Bemelmans her scar. With his wife’s name, and his own young daughter’s experience, Madeline was born.

Madeline was published in 1939 and five other books followed. In 1954 Madeline’s Rescue won Bemelmans the Caldecott Award for illustrations. Bemelmans con-tinued to write and illustrate throughout his life. His work is featured in The New Yorker, Vogue and Town & Country. Lud-wig Bemelmans is remembered not only for the Madeline books, but also for his effervescent spirit and his love of life. He died in New York City on October 1, 1962 of pancreatic cancer. He is buried in Ar-lington National Cemetery.

Ludwig and Madeleine Bemelmans

Paris, 1939

Meet the Author

COPY PAGE

Où se trouve Geneviève?

Clue One [La Defense]:This part of Paris is modern and new,A giant steel arch is now your first clue.

Clue Two [Sacré Cœur]:The sacred heart that’s on top of a hillA church with white domes this second clue’ll fill.

Clue Three [La Tour Eiffel]:To learn of the place for clue number threeFind the tallest place in all of Paris (said: pear-ee)

Clue Four [Notre Dame]:Tall, gothic arches with statues galore This old, old cathedral is clue number four.

Clue Five [La Seine]:This mighty strong river keeps Paris afloatFor clue number five, you’ll be needing a boat.

Clue Six [The Old House]:And after your journey to home you will windTo your old house in Paris all covered in vines.You searched high and low and now something more:The little lost puppy is at your front door!

At this point, you can have students draw a picture of Genevieve waiting at the Old House. As an extension, have students create a frozen picture of Madeline and Genevieve reunited.

KCC’s: RD-E-2.0.6, RD-E-4.0.6, RD-E-4.0.7, SS-E-4.1.1, AH-E-3.3.41

Where has Genevieve gone? You and your students must help Madeline search all of Paris! Use this activity to teach your class the basic layout of Paris and five of its most important landmarks. For this activity you will need the following: 1. A copy page of the following copy page for each student/group in your class. 2. Crayons or markers (you may have your students color the map.)Write the following locations on the board: - La Defense - La Tour Eiffel - La Seine - Sacre Coer - Notre Dame - The Old House.Read the following clues out loud to the class. After each clue have students guess/discuss what location is being described. Once they have identified the picture that fits the clue have them write the appropriate label on their maps.

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Extend the Experience Create Your Own Masterpiece

Like the pictures that Mr. Bemelmans creates in the play, making your own frozen pictures (or tableaux) with your body is a great way to tell a story. Divide your class into small groups and have them use their bodies to create a frozen pic-ture together using one of the following prompts. Then have each group share their picture with the class, and see if the audience can guess the story.1. A favorite moment from Madeline.2. A series of three frozen pictures illustrating an important event from the beginning, middle and end of the play.3. Extend the experience! Have students research a painting from a french artist and recreate the painting! KCC’s: AH-E-3.1.41, AH-E-3.1.35, AH-e-3.1.41, AH-E-4.1.31

Write A New Adventure Ludwig Bemelmans died in 1962, but Madeline lives on forever in his books. Break your class in to small groups and have them create a new adventure for Madeline and her friends. What would happen is Madeline and her friends visited your town? What land-marks would they see? What attractions must they visit? Who do they encounter? Write a fun adventure and illustrate your stories and share with the class!

KCC’s: AH-E-4.1.41, AH-E-4.1.42, WR-E-1.3

Talk to the AnimalsDuring the play Madeline befriends two animals, a mouse named Jean-Pierre, and a tiger named Isabel. She communi-cated with these two creatures as if she was talking to one of the other girls or Miss Clavel. Imagine you could talk to your animals. What would they say to you? What questions would you want to ask them? If you don’t have a pet, then choose your favorite zoo animal and imagine what they would say to you. Once you have figured out what you want to say, write your conversation out in a brief scene to share with the class!KCC’s: AH-E-3.1.41, AH-E-3.1.5, AH-E-3.1.41, AH-e-4.1.31

Suggested Reading

LCT Teaches in your School!Let LCT’s professional artists bring their extensive experience into your classroom. An LCT residency pro-gram is designed to offer young people the opportunity to learn in a dynamic, fun and challenging way. LCT tailors a residency to the needs of your students, curriculum and budget. We offer residencies that range from a single visit to a month-long intensive program.

Performance Workshops - Two-week intensive unit culminating in a performance. LCT provides all scripts, costumes, props and scenery.

Empathy in Action - This residency is a week-long residency with a focus on anti-bullying and tolerance.

Playwriting - Students will work to develop their creative writing skills through an interactive writing program.

Science and Art - Students can explore a variety of scientific con-cepts using drama. Experience the wonders of nature, animals, bugs, weather, plants, recycling, or the rainforest through the use of role-play, movement and pantomime

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Call 254-4546 x233 or x226 TODAY!

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