Big River-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

2004-2005 EDUCATIONAL

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4 Theatre and Education

5 Theatre etiquette and frequently asked questions

7 Who’s who on the river

8 Meet Mark Twain

10 Meet composer Roger Miller

11 Life on the Mississippi

14 A short history of slavery during the time of Big River

15 Glossary

16 Language in Big River

18 Setting the scene in Big River

19 The history behind the dance in Big River

20 Setting the scene for Big River

21 In the classroom

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Syracuse Stage Big River Study Guide

S y r a c u s e S t a g e2004-05 Study Guide education office: 443-1150 or SyracuseStage.org/education.html 4

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Theatre and Education

"Theatre brings life to life." — Zelda Fichandler

When the first cave dweller got up to tell a story, theaterbegan. Almost every culture has some sort of live per-formance tradition to tell stories. Television and film mayhave diminished the desire for access to theater, but theyhave not diminished the importance. Live theater giveseach audience member an opportunity to connect withthe performers in a way he or she never could with TomCruise or Lindsay Lohan. The emotions can be moreintense because the events are happening right in front ofthe audience.

Ultimately, there is a fundamental difference in the psy-chological responses aroused by electronic media andtheatre because the former presents pictures of eventswhereas the latter performs the actual events in whatamounts to the same space as that occupied by the audi-ence. This difference results in one unique characteristicof theatre: its ability to offer intense sensory experiencethrough the simultaneous presence of live actors andaudience.

"The sole substitute for an experience which we have notourselves lived through is art and literature."

— Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Pedagogically, theatre can be used in a variety of ways.In many respects the teacher in the classroom is muchlike the actor onstage - with an audience (hopefully atten-tive), a script (lesson plan), props and set (classroom set-ting and teaching tools). The environment of the teachingexperience can change day to day, and can be impactedby weather, mood, outside events - in other words, eachday is a unique, active, sensory occurrence, just like aplay.

From this perspective all of what can be taught can betaught theatrically, whether it is having young childrencreating a pretend bank to learn about money, to olderstudents acting out a scene from a play. Theatre providesan opportunity to teach, and any play provides an oppor-tunity to teach more.

"Children, like animals, use all their senses to discover the

world. Then artists come along and discover it the sameway all over again."

— Eudora Welty

Bringing your students to productions at Syracuse Stage,and utilizing this study guide in teaching about the plays,fulfills elements of the New York State core requirements.We know that as educators you are the more qualified todetermine how our plays and study guides blend withyour lesson plans and teaching requirements. We hopethat you find lots of possibilities to cover a variety of dis-ciplines.

As you bring your students to the shows, you might wantthem to examine not merely the thematic elements of thewritten word, but also how production elements explorethese themes. Everything you see on this stage has beencreated specifically for this production - there are no stan-dard sets for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, no codifiedmethod for presenting Big River, no rules for costumingGrapes of Wrath. How, for example, will we representthe mighty Mississippi in Big River? How will the cos-tumes differentiate between characters? Our designersmeet with our directors months before rehearsals start,and shows are built to their specifications, which are inline with their vision of the work. In our detailed studyguides for our school shows, we will try to give you somepreviews of this process, but you might want to explorediscussing all of the design elements with your students asa way of opening the door to the production they will beseeing. You probably know all of the elements that makeup a show, but to recap:

Sets Costumes LightsProps Sound PaintingChoreography Music Casting

And of course, the one thing that is vitally necessary forany piece to be theatre:

AN AUDIENCE

Without this last, most important element, the theatreceases to be. Welcome to Syracuse Stage's EducationalOutreach Programs.


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Questions and Answersand theatre etiquette as well...

Teachers: please speak with your students aboutthe role of the audience in watching a live per-formance. Following are answers to some com-

monly asked questions that you might want to sharewith your students, and some helpful suggestions tomake the day more enjoyable.

When should we arrive? We recommend you arrive atthe theatre at least 30 minutes prior to the performance.Student matinees begin promptly at 10:30 am - we donot hold the curtain. Latecomers will be seated at thediscretion of the Management.

Where do we get off the bus? Busses not staying shouldload and unload on East Genesee Street. Bus parking isavailable along East Genesee Street at the baggedmeters. Parking at bagged meters is for busses only -cars will be ticketed. Please do not park in the CentroBus Stop. You may exit the bus, but have your groupstay together in the lobby.

Where do we sit? Will we have tickets? There are notickets - ushers will direct you to the seats. Studentswill be asked to fill in the rows and not move aroundonce seated. We request that teachers and chaperonesdistribute themselves throughout the students and notsit together. Remember, we have to seat 500 people asquickly as possible, so your help in seating is greatlyappreciated.

What can be brought into the auditorium? We do notallow backpacks, cameras, walkmans, recordingdevices, food or chewing gum. We do not have storagefacilities for these items so it is best if these are left atschool or on the bus.

May we take pictures? Taking photographs or record-ing the performance is illegal, disruptive to other audi-ence members and dangerous to the actors. All cam-

eras and recording devices are prohibited and will beconfiscated.

Is there someplace we can snack or eat? When possi-ble, soda and snacks will be available for sale duringintermission, at a cost of $1.00 (exact change appreciat-ed.) Food is not allowed in the auditorium.

Where are the restrooms? There are restrooms in themain lobby. We ask that students use the facilitiesbefore the show and during intermission only and notduring the show.

What is the audience’s role?

A performance needs an audience. It is asmuch a part of the theater event as ouractors, our designers, our technician andcrew. Each playwright asks you to comeinto the world he or she has created — butthis world is different than television ormovies. The actors need your responses —your laughter, your applause but, as youcan imagine, such things as conversations,cell phones, beepers and other distractionswill disrupt the world that is being created.If any student becomes disruptive to thepoint of interference with the performers orother audience members, a chaperon willbe asked to remove that student.

If you play your part well, the actors canplay their parts well and you both willenjoy the show!

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SEASON SPONSORS

James A. ClarkProducing Director

Robert MossArtistic Director

Big RiverThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

PRESENT

DIRECTED BY

Robert Moss

SCENIC DESIGN

Troy HourieCOSTUME DESIGN

Elizabeth Hope Clancy andJessica Ford

LIGHTING DESIGN

A. Nelson Ruger

SOUND DESIGN

Jonathan HerterSTAGE MANAGER

Stuart Plymesser

BOOK BY

William HauptmanADAPTED FROM THE NOVEL

BY

Mark Twain

MUSIC AND LYRICS BY

Roger Miller

CHOREOGRAPHED BY

Anthony SalatinoMUSICAL DIRECTION BY

Dianne AdamsMcDowell



Huckleberry Finn remains true to the characterfrom Mark Twain’s stories. He’s smart, a littlerebellious and full of spunk.

Jim is the other lead character. He’s a runaway slave.

Before Huck leaves his home, the audience meets his Pap,the dreary bible-thumping Miss Watson and WidowDouglas. The audience also meets Huck’s friends, TomSawyer and other village boys.

Along the river, Huck and Jim encounter two con artists,the Duke and the King. Huck also finds a moment ofromance with Mary Jane Wilkes and her all-too trustingfamily.

The actors will double and triple cast to bring more than35 characters to life.

On the Big RiverWho’s Who in Huck Finn’s adventures

Mark Twain’s characters come tolife in this story that captures therhythms, sounds and spirit of life inthe 1840s on the big river. Huckruns aways from his drunken father,Widow Douglas and Miss Watson,and escapes down the MississippiRiver on a raft. There he meets upwith Jim, a runaway slave.

Propelled by the songs of countrymusic legend Roger Miller, Jim andHuck negotiate the river’s many perils — thieves, romance and otherchallenges.

Plot Summary

Did you know?

Actor John Goodman (Roseanne, Monsters Inc. and Oh Brother Where ArtThou) got his first big break in acting playing Pap in the Broadway premier ofBig River. He can be heard on the original cast recording in his solo,”Government.” After appearing in Big River, Goodman went on to small partsin movies before getting his big break with Roseanne four years later.

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American writer, journalist, humorist, who wona worldwide audience for his stories of youth-ful adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry

Finn. Sensitive to the sound of language, Twain intro-duced colloquial speech into American fiction. InGreen Hills of Africa, Ernest Hemingway wrote: "Allmodern American literature comes from one book byMark Twain called Huckleberry Finn..."

Clemens was born inFlorida, Missouri, of aVirginian family. He wasbrought up in Hannibal,Missouri. After his father'sdeath in 1847, Twain wasapprenticed to a printerand wrote for his broth-er's newspaper. Twainworked later as alicensed Mississippi river-boat pilot (1857-61),adopting his name fromthe call ('Mark twain!' -meaning by the mark oftwo fathoms — a watermeasurement) used whensounding river shallows.The Civil War put an endto the steamboat trafficand Clemens moved toVirginia City, where he edited Territorial Enterprise fortwo years. On February 3, 1863, 'Mark Twain' was bornwhen he signed a humorous travel account with thatpseudonym.

In 1864 Twain left for California, and worked in SanFrancisco as a reporter. He visited Hawaii as a corre-spondent for The Sacramento Union, publishing letterson his trip and giving lectures. He set out on a worldtour, travelling in France and Italy. His experienceswere recorded in 1869 in The Innocents Abroad, which

gained him wide popularity, and poked fun at bothAmerican and European prejudices and manners.This success as a writer gave Twain enough financialsecurity to marry Olivia Langdon in 1870. Between1876 and 1884 he published several masterpieces, TomSawyer (1881), which the author originally intended foradults, and The Prince and the Pauper (1881), in whichEdward VI of England and a little pauper change places.

From the very beginning of his journalistic career,Twain made fun of the novel and its tra-ditions. He believed that he lacked theanalytical sensibility necessary to thenovelist's art, although he enjoyed mag-nificent popularity as a novelist. He fre-quently returned to travel writing - manyof his finest novels were thinly veiledtravelogues.

Huckleberry Finn (1884) was first con-sidered adult fiction. It painted a pictureof Mississippi frontier life and wasintended as a sequel to Tom Sawyer.

One of Twain's major achievements isthe way he narrates Huckleberry Finn,following the twists and turns of ordinaryspeech, his native Missouri dialect.

In the 1890s Twain lost most of his earn-ings in financial speculations and in thedownturn of his own publishing firm. To

recover from the bankruptcy, he started a world lecturetour, during which one of his daughters died. Twaintoured New Zealand, Australia, India, and South Africa,and returned to the U.S.

The death of his wife and his second daughter dark-ened the author's later years, which is seen in his writ-ings and his posthumously published autobiography(1924). Twain died on April 21, 1910.

www.mtwain.com/

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On the MississippiMark Twain



FictionA Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's

CourtA Double Barreled Detective StoryA Horse's TaleAdventures Of Huckleberry FinnAdventures Of Tom SawyerExtract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to

HeavenThe Gilded AgeThe Mysterious StrangerThe Prince and the PauperThe Tragedy of Pudd'nhead WilsonThose Extraordinary TwinsTom Sawyer AbroadTom Sawyer, Detective

Non-Fiction A Tramp AbroadChristian ScienceInnocents AbroadIs Shakespeare Dead?Life On The MississippiRoughing It

Short Story/EssayAt The Appetite-CureExtracts From Adam's DiaryA Helpless SituationThe Californian's TaleA Telephonic Conversation

Enough to fill a LibraryThe works of Mark Twain

A lie can travel halfwayaround the world whilethe truth is putting on itsshoes.

— Mark Twain

Big River Awards on Broadway

Tony AwardsBest Musical Best Book of a Musical Best Original Score Best Featured Actor in a

Musical — Ron Richardson [winner]

Best Scenic Design Best Costume Design Best Lighting Design Best Direction of a Musical

1985 Theatre World Award Cast: Patti Cohenour [winner]

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Roger MillerA country legend

One of the most multifaceted talents countrymusic has ever known, Roger Dean Miller lefta musical legacy of astonishing depth and

range. He became a struggling honky-tonk singer andsongwriter and first hit Nashville in 1957. There heblossomed into a country-pop superstar in the 1960swith self-penned crossover hits like “Dang Me” and“King of the Road.” In 1965–66 he won elevenGrammy awards. Two decades later, he received a 1985Tony award for his score for Big River. In between tri-umphs, Miller kept friends and fans in constant stitchesas his extemporaneous wit proved almost as famous ashis music.

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, January 2, 1936, Miller wassent to live with an uncle in Erick, Oklahoma (“popula-tion 1500, and that includes rakes and tractors,” heliked to joke), when he was three years old. He grew upin Erick, working the family farm and dreaming of a dif-ferent life. As a teenager enamored of Bob Wills andHank Williams, Miller would drift from town to town inTexas and Oklahoma, trying to land nightclub work as acountry singer. Drafted during the Korean War, he wassent to Fort McPherson in Atlanta, where he played fid-dle in a Special Services outfit called the Circle AWranglers.

After his discharge, Miller headed to Nashville. Whileworking as a bellhop, he wormed his way into the localmusic community. He was first hired to play fiddle inMinnie Pearl’s road band, then, in about the spring of1957, he struck up a friendship with George Jones.Jones introduced him to Pappy Daily and Don Pierce ofStarday Records. Miller’s first single, “My Pillow” wasreleased on Starday in the fall of 1957. In the mean-time, Jones and Miller had co-written some songs,including “Tall, Tall Trees,” which Jones released in1957 to little response, but which Alan Jackson wouldtake to No. 1 nearly forty years later.

In 1958, Miller was hired to front Ray Price’s CherokeeCowboys. Miller suggested Price cover “Invitation to theBlues,” a Miller song that took off under Rex Allen’s ver-sion. Released as the B-side of Price’s 1958 smash“City Lights,” “Invitation to the Blues” rose to No. 3 onthe charts, giving Miller his first major success in thebusiness.

Signed to Tree Publishing as a staff writer in 1958,Miller began to see his tunes recorded by such stars asErnest Tubb, Jim Reeves, and Faron Young. (He alsoserved for a time as Young’s drummer.) Though he had

continued torecord forStarday andthen Decca,he had no suc-cess as anartist until hesigned withRCA in 1960.His first RCAsingle, “YouDon’t WantMy Love,”became his

first Top Fortyhit. It was followed a year later by his first Top Ten,“When Two Worlds Collide,” which he had written withhis friend Bill Anderson.

Miller’s RCA career never quite panned out, though,and by 1963 he was ready to quit Nashville to pursuean acting career in Los Angeles. He had made guestappearances on The Jimmy Dean Show and the TonightShow, and his humor had been well received. Late thatyear, when his RCA contract ran out, he was picked upby Smash Records. The subsequent recordings madeRoger Miller a star. Out of those off-the-cuff 1964 ses-sions came “Dang Me.”

A #1 smash on the country charts, “Dang Me” was alsoa Top Ten pop hit, as were four more of the Smash sin-gles. The most famous was “King of the Road,” a mil-lion-seller. With his exceptional wordplay and jazzlikedelivery, he was able to compete with the Beatles andthe Rolling Stones and continued to record into the1970s. In 1974, he provided soundtrack music for theWalt Disney movie Robin Hood.

Big River was, in Miller’s own eyes, the crowningachievement of his career. Rejuvenated by its success,he maintained an active career through the remainderof the decade. He died of cancer on October 25, 1992.Three years later he was inducted posthumously intothe Country Music Hall of Fame.

www.countrymusichalloffame.com/inductees/roger_millerl

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Photo courtesy the Country Music Hall of Fame



Life on the MississippiThe 1840s

John Tyler made history by becoming the first vicepresident to succeed to the office of president onthe death of his predecessor in 1841. The prec-dent Tyler set — moving into the office and assum-ing the title and role of President — carried through

until the 1960s.

Under his administration the government championedland development, distributing profits from land sales,raising tariffs for road, canal and other infrastructureimprovements and allowed squatters to buy publicland.

This development had perfect timing because the1840s, due to the potato famine in Ireland and politicalunrest in many parts of Europe, was also a time of greatimmigration.

Land ownership was the theme of the 1840s. The U.S.dreamed of expansion and the first covered wagonscrossed the Oregon Trail through the Rockies as theconcept of Manifest Destiny took root in the Americanconscious. To the north of where Huck and Tom live,the United States quarreled with Canada over land. Tothe South, the area of Texas remained a constant politi-cal — and sometimes military — struggle.

Texas remained an area of struggle because of the ques-tion of slavery. The United States was hesitant to annexit as a state, because the addition of another state couldtip the balance of non-slave states and slave states.Texas became a state in 1845.

The division was of such concern to Southern states thatin 1841, South Carolina passed a law prohibiting blackcotton workers and white cotton workers from lookingout the same window.

The debate over slavery carried into the 1848 election,which focused on the split between the North and theSouth. Zachary Taylor, a military hero, won the election.

http://www.nv.cc.va.us/home/nvsageh/Hist121/Part4/1840s.html

Did you know?

Horseracing was the most popular spectator sport.

The term millionaire was popularized in the newspa-pers.

During the 1840s panorama-type painting became pop-ular. Rolled canvas would be unfolded as the story wastold. John Banvard's Mississippi River series was 3 mileslong and depicted 1200 miles of scenery.

By executive order, Martin Van Buren established theten-hour workday in 1840, for federal employeesengaged on public works. In 1842 the ten-hour work-day was adopted by several states at the urging ofnewly formed trade unions and workers parties.

A new literary genre (detective and mystery stories) wascreated in 1841 when Edgar Allan Poe introduced TheMurders in the Rue Morgue.

Cheap publishing because of low postal rates for news-papers and improvements in printing, allowed newspa-pers to print novels in newspaper format, forcing pub-lishers to produce cheap paperbacks. Emma DorothyEliza Nevitte (E.D.E.N.) Southworth, who wrote 60 nov-els and many short stories, published The Wife's Victoryand the sequel The Married Shrew in The National Era.Her stories, based on true events, dealt with the role ofwomen in society.

Poets, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Balladsand Other Poems, Evangeline), flourished.

The issues in education at this time did not differ muchfrom the issues of today. Bilingual education for thechildren of German immigrants was mandated by thecity of Cincinnati, Ohio after the recently arrivedGerman population demanded it.

kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/19thcentury1840.htm

Noteable inventions of the 1840s:1840: Ship w/subwater machinery: John Ericsson 1840: artificial fertilizer: Justus von Liebig 1842: Anaesthesia: Crawford Long 1843: Typewriter: Charles Thurber 1844: Telegraph: Samuel Morse 1845: Portland cement: William Aspdin 1845: Double tube tire: Robert Thomson 1846: The ice cream freezer

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Mississippi River

The word, Mississippi probably comes from acombination of Chippewa words (mici andzibi) meaning "great river" or "great water." It

was first written as "Michi Sepe" by Lieutenant Henri deTonti traveling with the explorer La Salle.

The Mississippi and its tributaries drain almost all theplains between the Appalachian Mountains and theRocky Mountains. Its drainage basin is the third largestin the world, exceeded in size only by the watershedsof the Amazon and Congo Rivers. The drainage basincovers 1,247,300 square miles (3,230,490 square kilo-meters) in 31 states and two Canadian provinces. Thisarea encompasses the nation's most productive agricul-tural and industrial regions. The Mississippi is thenation's chief navigable water route. Barges and tow-boats on the Mississippi River system carry sixty percentof the agricultural goods, industrial products, and rawmaterials transported on inland waterways.

The Mississippi River and its valley also support manykinds of animals and plants including freshwater fishes,birds, deer, raccoons, otters, mink, and a variety of for-est trees. But pollution from agriculture and industryseriously threaten the life of the Mississippi.

With its source Lake Itasca at 1475 feet above sea levelin Itasca State Park in northern Minnesota, the river fallsto 725 feet just below Saint Anthony Falls inMinneapolis. The Mississippi is joined by the IllinoisRiver and the Missouri River at Saint Louis, and by theOhio at Cairo, Illinois. It runs through, or borders, tenstates in the United States — Minnesota, Wisconsin,Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee,Mississippi and Louisiana — before emptying into theGulf of Mexico about 100 miles (160 km) downstreamfrom New Orleans. A raindrop falling in Lake Itascawould arrive at the Gulf of Mexico in about 90 days. The river is divided into the upper Mississippi, from itssource south to the Ohio River, and the lowerMississippi, from the Ohio to its mouth near NewOrleans. The upper Mississippi is further divided intothree sections: the headwaters, from the source to Saint

Anthony Falls; a series of man-made lakes betweenMinneapolis and St. Louis; and the middle Mississippi,a relatively free-flowing river downstream of the conflu-ence with the Missouri River at St. Louis.

A series of 27 locks and dams on the upper Mississippi,most of which were built in the 1930s, is designed pri-marily to maintain a nine-foot channel for commercialbarge traffic. The lakes formed are also used for recre-ational boating and fishing. The dams make the riverdeeper and wider but do not stop it. No flood control isintended. During periods of high flow, the gates, someof which are submersible, are completely opened andthe dams simply cease to function. Below St. Louis theMississippi is relatively free-flowing, although it is con-strained by numerous levees and directed by numerouswing dams.

The mouth of the Mississippi River has shifted repeated-ly over time. Since a canal was built in the early nine-teenth century, the river has been seeking theAtchafalaya River mouth, some 60 miles (95 km) fromNew Orleans. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers main-tains a massive system of locks to keep the river in itspresent course.

Other changes in the course of the river have occurredbecause of earthquakes along the New Madrid FaultZone, which lies near the cities of Memphis and St.Louis. Three earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, estimatedat approximately 8 on the Richter Scale, were said tohave temporarily reversed the course of the Mississippi.

www.nps.gov/miss/features/factoids/

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Fun FactsLength of theMississippi River:3,705 kilometers(2,302 miles) Area of Basin: 3.2 million squarekilometers (1.2 mil-lion square miles). 41% of the contermi-nous United States 1/8 of North America Population along theMississippi Corridor:12 million peoplelive in the 125 coun-ties and parishes thatborder theMississippi River. Amount of waterdischarged to theGulf: 612,000 cubicfeet per second Provides habitat for: 241 fish species 37 mussel species 45 amphibians 50 mammals 40% of the nation'smigratory birds

www.epa.gov/msbasin/index.htm#facts

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/statesbw/mrstates/ms.shtml

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To understand Big River, students must alsoknow the history of slavery in the UnitedStates. So much of the musical’s dramatic

action comes from Jim’s journey to freedom.

Slavery has played a central role in the history of theUnited States. It existed in all the English mainlandcolonies and came to dominate productive relationsfrom Maryland southwards. Most of the FoundingFathers were large-scale slaveholders, as were eight ofthe first 12 presidents of the United States. Debate overslavery increasingly dominated American politics, lead-ing eventually to the nation's only civil war, which inturn finally brought slavery to an end.

After emancipation, overcoming slavery's legacyremained a crucial issue in American history, fromReconstruction following the Civil War to the CivilRights Movement a century later. Slavery came to theUnited States through Dutch traders. As the economyimproved for Europeans, there were not enough peopleof European descent to work to build the U.S. economy.To meet the need for workers, landowners turned toAfrican slaves.

The transatlantic slave trade produced one of the largestforced migrations in history. From the early 16th centu-ry to the mid-19th century, between 10 and 11 million slaves performed numerous tasks, from clearing the for-est to serving as guides, trappers, craftsmen, nurses, andhouse servants, but they were most essential as agricul-tural laborers and most numerous where landownerssought to grow staple crops for market. The most impor-tant of these crops consisted of tobacco in the upperSouth (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina) and rice inthe lower South (South Carolina and Georgia).

By the mid-18th century American slavery had acquireda number of distinctive features. Well over 90 percentof American slaves lived in the South. Southern slave-holders took an active role in managing their humanproperty. They controlled every aspect of their slaves’lives, often providing poor shelter and food, leaving

many children malnourished. The slave owners consid-ered their property to be a lesser type of human andmany broke up families as they sold children or fathersto other plantations.

As the idea of American democracy grew and the rightto vote grew among the white population, more andmore people questioned slavery.

States in the north began to outlaw slavery. Two signifi-cant measures dating from 1787 included theNorthwest Ordinance, which barred slavery from theNorthwest Territory (which included much of what isnow the upper Midwest), and a compromise reached atthe Constitutional Convention that would allowCongress to outlaw the importation of slaves in 1808. The division of the country was mostly complete by the1830s but each time a state joined the union, thedebate rose again. Fueled by a surging world demandfor cotton, the South and new Southwestern statesremained devout in their reliance on slavery. Yet thenumber of whites who owned slaves declined from 35percent to 26 percent between 1830 and 1869.

There were a few slave uprisings but they were quicklydefeated. About 1,000 slaves per year managed toescape to the North during the late antebellum period(most from the upper South).

During the 1840s and 1850s Southern spokesmenincreasingly based their case for slavery on social argu-ments that contrasted the harmonious, orderly, reli-gious, and conservative society that supposedly existedin the South with the tumultuous, heretical, and merce-nary ways of a North torn apart by radical reform, indi-vidualism, class conflict, and—worst of all—abolition-ism. Insisting that Southern slaves were treated far betterthan Northern wage laborers, proslavery ideologuesdeveloped a biting critique of free-labor capitalism("wage-slavery") as cruel, exploitative, and selfish, andpointed to the degraded condition of supposedly freeBritish paupers and Irish peasants.

— Nichole Gantshar based onan essay by Peter Kolchin

www.africana.com/archive/articles/tt_269.asp

Slavery in FocusA short history of slavery in the 19th century

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Abolitionist: Someone who was opposed to slavery.(Act I)Barlow-Knife: This pocket knife was manufactured inSheffield, England, specifically for export to theStates from the late eighteenth century to the earlytwentieth century and is known as a "Barlow" afterone of the earliest and most famous makers. (Act I)Borneo: An island near Malaysia. (Act II)Cussing: Swearing (Act I)Delirium tremens: When someone is going throughwithdrawal from alcohol, they can hallucinate andshake uncontrollably, also called tremors. Huck ismispronouncing the word tremors. (Act I)D’bloon: A Spanish gold coin (Act I)Fetched: Retrieved, picked up (Act I)Flatheads: An insult meaning someone of inferiorintelligence. (Act II)Greenhorns: An insult directed toward newcomers. Itis derived from a young animal whose horns havejust begun to grow. (Act II)Humbug: Something designed to deceive and mis-lead, a willfully false, deceptive, or insincere person.(Act II)Jakes: Police (Act I)Lean-to: shed (Act I)Menagerie: Group of animals (Act I)Notion: mental image or idea (Act I)Phrenology: A practice thought to be a “science” inthe 19th-century. Invented by the theories of Austrianphysician Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828) that sincethe skull grew around the brain, you could tell ahuman’s personality and intellegence by the bumpsand shapes of the skull. A phrenologist would readsomeone’s skull. (Act II)Rakafratchits: Rascal, slang (Act I)Seegar: cigar (Act I)Shinnied: slid (Act I)Simpleton: Someone lacking in intelligence. (Act II)Tar and feather: This act of public humiliation(which did involve hot tar and poultry feathers)dates back to the time of King Richard I of England.The point was to run someone out of town and markthem so anyone who met them would know theirsentence. (Act II)Thicket: Overgrown area full of shrubs and weeds.(Act I)Towpath: A path along a canal, originally used byanimals towing boats. (Act I)Trotline: A baited line left in the water, used to col-

lect shellfish. (Act I)Wit’s end: A popular phrase used to describe thestate of a problem. It was so bad it had driven you to“wit’s end,” the end of your intelligence.

River Rhetoric

Bank: The land along the river’s edge Basin: The entire tract of country drained by a riverand its tributaries.Bayous: Any of various usually marshy or sluggishbodies of water. Bluffs: A high steep bank or cliffBreakwater: An offshore structure (as a wall) protect-ing a harbor or beach from the force of waves Channel: The deeper part of a river, harbor.Dam: A barrier preventing the flow of water or ofloose solid materials.Erosion: An area where the soil has been washedaway by rain or flood.Headwaters: The source of a stream.Levee: An embankment for preventing flooding, ariver landing place. Lock: An enclosure (as in a canal) with gates at eachend used in raising or lowering boats as they passfrom level to level.Lore: The space between the eye and bill in a bird orthe corresponding region in a reptile or fish.Meander: A turn or winding of a stream.Meltwater: Water derived from the melting of iceand snow. Oxbow: A bend in a river resembling an oxbow (thecurved collar that goes around cattle.)Reservoir: An artificial lake where water is collected.Rip-rap: A foundation or sustaining wall of stonesthrown together without order on an embankmentslope to prevent erosion.Sediments: Material deposited by water, wind, orglaciers. Silt: A deposit of sediment in a river.Slough: A place of deep mud or mire. Spit: A small point of land, especially of sand orgravel running into a body of water.Watershed: A region or area bounded peripherallyby a divide and draining to a specific body of water.

Most definitions from Merriam-Webster Online, www.m-w.com

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Here’s what two professors at Ferris State Universityhave written about the use of the word. The originalessay is seven pages long. Here is an edited version:

The etymology of nigger is often traced to the Latinniger, meaning black. The Latin niger became the nounnegro (black person) in English, and simply the colorblack in Spanish and Portuguese. In early modernFrench niger became negre and, later, negress (blackwoman) was clearly a part of lexical history. ... It is like-ly that nigger is a phonetic spelling of the whiteSouthern mispronunciation of Negro. Whatever its ori-gins, by the early 1800s it was firmly established as adenigrative epithet. Almost two centuries later, itremains a chief symbol of white racism.

Social scientists refer to words like nigger, kike, spic,and wetback as ethnophaulisms. Such terms are thelanguage of prejudice — verbal pictures of negativestereotypes. Howard J. Ehrlich, a social scientist, arguedthat ethnophaulisms are of three types: disparagingnickname; explicit group devaluations ("Jew him down,"or "niggering the land"); and irrelevant ethnic namesused as a mild disparagement ("Irish confetti" for bricks

thrown in a fight). All racial and ethnic groups havebeen victimized by racial slurs; however, no Americangroup has suffered as many racial epithets as haveblacks: coon, tom, savage, picanniny, mammy, buck,sambo, jigaboo, and buckwheat are typical. Many ofthese slurs became fully developed pseudo-scientific,literary, cinematic, and everyday caricatures of AfricanAmericans. These caricatures, whether spoken, written,or reproduced in material objects, reflect the extent, thevast network, of anti-black prejudice.

The word nigger carries with it much of the hatred andrepulsion directed toward Africans and AfricanAmericans. Historically, nigger defined, limited, andmocked African Americans. It was a term of exclusion,a verbal justification for discrimination. ... No otherAmerican ethnophaulism carried so much purposefulvenom.

Americans created a racial hierarchy with whites at thetop and blacks at the bottom. ... Every major societalinstitution offered legitimacy to the racial hierarchy.Ministers preached that God had condemned blacks to

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Political LanguageArtistic choices in Big River

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Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885 and set the story some 40 to 45 years prior.The heinous practice of slavery was part of America at that time as was an egregious degree of racial preju-dice. The word most often associated with the legacy of slavery and accompanying racism is the highly con-troversial word "nigger." Twain used the word in his book to accurately reflect the time, place, and peopleabout which he was writing. When the book was adapted for the stage and turned into a musical in the1980s, the creators and producers chose to remain faithful to Twain's work and used the word in the play'sdialogue. When Big River was selected to be our holiday, family presentation this season, Artistic DirectorRobert Moss elected to change the word to "slave" because of the number of small children and familiesexpected to attend. The use of Twain's original language, however truthful to the time, requires a degree ofdiscussion and context not entirely provided by the production alone. As Syracuse Stage's production of BigRiver is intended primarily as a family entertainment, Mr. Moss feels the audience will be better served byusing less potentially offensive and incendiary language.

What do you and your students think?

Some have argued that the word "nigger" is offensive no matter the context, even if the writer is AfricanAmerican, as for example playwright August Wilson. For that same reason, some have urged that HuckleberryFinn be banned from schools and libraries. What do you and your students think?



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be servants. ... The entertainment media, from vaude-ville to television, portrayed blacks as docile servants,happy-go-lucky idiots, and dangerous thugs. The crimi-nal justice system sanctioned a double standard of jus-tice, including its tacit approval of mob violence againstblacks.

... In 1939, Agatha Christie, the popular fiction writer,published a novel called Ten Little Niggers. Later edi-tions sometimes changed the name to Ten Little Indians,or And Then There Were None, but as late as 1978,copies of the book with the original title were beingproduce. ...

The racial hierarchy, which began during slavery andextended into the Jim Crow period, has been severelyeroded by a civil rights movement, landmark SupremeCourt decisions, a black empowerment movement,comprehensive civil rights legislation, and a generalembracing of democratic principles by many Americancitizens. Yet, the word nigger has not died. The relation-ship between the word nigger and anti-black prejudice is symbiotic: that is, they are interrelated and intercon-ected, yet, ironically, not automatically interdepedent.In other words, a racist society created nigger and con-tinues to feed and sustain it; however, the word nolonger needs racism, at least brutal and obvious forms,to exist. Nigger now has a life of its own.

One of the most interesting and perplexing phenomenain American speech is the use of nigger by AfricanAmericans. ... The usage, as a term of endearment, isespecially problematic. "Zup Niggah," has become analmost universal greeting among young urban blacks.When pressed, blacks who use nigger or its variantsclaim: it has to be understood contextually; continualuse of the word by blacks will make it less offensive; itis not really the same word because whites are sayingnigger (and niggers) but blacks are saying niggah (andniggaz); and, it is just a word and blacks should not beprisoners of the past. These arguments are not convinc-ing. Brother (Brotha) and Sister (Sistha or Sista) areterms of endearment. Finally, if continued use of theword lessened its sting then nigger would by now haveno sting. Blacks have internalized the negative images

that white society cultivated and propagated aboutblack skin and black people. This is reflected in periodsof self- and same-race loathing. The use of the wordnigger by blacks reflects this loathing, even when theuser is unaware of the psychological forces at play.Nigger is the ultimate expression of white racism andwhite superiority, irrespective of the way it is pro-nounced. It is a linguistic corruption, a corruption ofcivility. Nigger is the most infamous word in Americanculture. Some words carry more weight than others. Atthe risk of hyperbole, is genocide just another word?Pedophilia? Obviously, no: neither is nigger.

After a period of relative dormancy, the word nigger hasbeen reborn in popular culture. It is hard-edged, street-wise, and it has crossed over into movies such as PulpFiction (1994) and Jackie Brown (1997), where itbecame a symbol of "street authenticity" and hipness.Denzel Washington's character in Training Day (2001)uses nigger frequently and harshly.

... Poetry by African Americans is also instructive, asone finds nigger used in black poetry over and overagain. Major and minor poets alike have used it, oftenwith startling results: Imamu Amiri Baraka, one of themost gifted of our contemporary poets, uses nigger inone of his angriest poems, "I Don't Love You." Theshocking reality is that many of these uses can be heardin contemporary American society. Herein lies part ofthe problem: the word nigger persists because it is usedover and over again, even by the people it defames.Devorah Major, a poet and novelist, said, "It's hard forme to say what someone can or can't say, because Iwork with language all the time, and I don't want to belimited." Opal Palmer Adisa, a poet and professor,claims that the use of nigger or nigga is "the same asyoung people's obsession with cursing. A lot of theiruse of such language is an internalization of negativityabout themselves."

— Dr. David Pilgrim, Professor of Sociology, and Dr. Phillip Middleton, Professor of Languages

and Literature, Ferris State University.


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Creating Huck’s WorldScene design in Big River

Director Bob Moss andscene designer TroyHourie turned to artist

George Caleb Bingham whenthey talked about their ideas ofbringing Mark Twain’s ideas tothe stage. They liked howBingham captured life in the1840s along the Mississippi.

Bingham, who lived 1811-1879,was born in Virginia and movedto Franklin, Missouri, in 1819.He often retreated to a bluffnear his family’s farm where hestudied life on the MissouriRiver. At 16, he was apprenticedto a cabinetmaker which led tohis becoming a sign painter. Bythe time he was 22, Bingham was traveling the river, painting portraits in a vigorously drawn and linear style, withstrong color applied in large areas, a manner that he probably acquired from the ancestral portraits he had seen insettlers' homes.

His art was appreciated locally, but Bingham realized that hemust move from Missouri in order to become a better artist. Hestudied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and moved toWashington in 1840, to paint portraits. He returned to Missourifor the 1844 presidential election.

The artist then began the series of genre pictures of river life thatled to his being regarded as the historian of Jacksonian democ-racy. His river painting focused on the world of men. The menare never at work, but dance, make music, play cards, fish, orhold conversations. They relax against generalized river back-grounds that recede mistily and glow smokily in the distance.His paintings present a composition based on the pyramid, itsbase being the lower horizontal. His foreground figures standquite free and are sharply delineated. He laid out his composi-tions carefully, and drew his figures from life, realistically andoften humorously, using friends for models and changing faces to suit his needs. In crowded political canvases, hisfigures are grouped in horizontal planes in alternating bands of light and shade. His finest work, done between1845 and 1855 when he painted the people and country he loved best, is fresh and vigorous, truthful and enthusi-astic.

Courtesy Troy HourieA model of the set for Big River

Bingham’s 1847 painting Flat Boatsman PlayingCards.



Choreographer Anthony Salatino based his creations for Big River on folk dance, clogging and the choreog-raphy of Alvin Ailey. Here’s information on some of the dance that inspired him.

Born in Rogers, Texas, on January 5, 1931, Alvin Ailey was introduced to dance by performances ofthe Katherine Dunham Dance Company and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. He began his trainingwith LesterHorton andwhen the greatmodern dancechoreographerdied, Ailey, at

23, became the artistic direc-tor of Horton’s company. Hewas not a success and wenton to dance in New YorkCity, on Broadway and in tel-evision. Ailey said his “blood memo-ries” of Texas with its tradi-tion of blues, spirituals andgospel helped him create hisearly work. A great exampleof these influences can beseen in one of his best knownworks, Revelations. Early inhis life when the civil rightsmovement began to escalate,Ailey found himself in a posi-tion to express its drama intheater and choreography. Dance critic JenniferDunning wrote dance wasfor Ailey "a way to communicate with whoever turned up to see his work, whether he was speaking about thepower of the blues in black lives, the beauty of those lives, or, indirectly, about how it might feel to be an uglyduckling.” He created 79 ballets throughout his lifetime and in 1972 formed his own company, which bears his name. In1988, Ailey was named a Kennedy Center honoree for his life’s work. Though he died in 1989, the Alvin Aileycompany continues to this day. Alvin Ailey II, its junior company, has performed in Cazenovia.

Dancein Big River

Clogging has its roots in folk dance, including Scottish step dancing, from a number of the countries around theBritish Isles. The style became popular in the 19th century amid English mill workers. They tapped out elaboraterhythms on floors and cobblestone streets with their wooden-soled shoes. As the dance moved into America, ittook on other influences from the Mexican Norteno, Eastern European polka and the African-American buckdance. Each style varies the posture, downbeat stamp and flip of the weight-bearing foot. Clogging helped givebirth to tap dancing.

Alvin Ailey

Paul Kolnick, photographer

Members of Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in Revelations

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Royal NonesuchThe Duke’s nonsense

The Duke’s version of Hamlet’s soliliquy comes straight from Mark Twain and can be found in Chapter 21 of thebook. It is a hodgepodge of various Shakespeare lines, a poem by Robert Browning, bits of Virgil’s Aeneid andTwain’s humor. It starts off from Hamlet: To be, or not to be and then breaks away from Shakespeare for a merryjaunt through any line of classic poetry or prose the Duke can remember. He knew much of his audience wasuneducated and wouldn’t know the difference.An activity for honors English students would be to identify as many sources as possible for the various lines. Theycan do so in your school library, or on the Internet through:

Hamlet 3.1.64-98To be, or not to be: that is the question:Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes,When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life,But that the dread of something after death,The undiscover'd country from whose bournNo traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,And enterprises of great pitch and momentWith this regard their currents turn awry,And lose the name of action. — Soft you now!The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisonsBe all my sins remember'd.

Duke’s speech, Act IITo be, or not to be: that is the bare bodkinThat makes clamity of so long life;For who would fardels bear, till Birnam Wood do come

to DunsinaneBut that the fear of something after deathMurders the innocent sleep.And makes us rather sling the arrows of outrageous

fortuneThan fly to others that we know not of.There’s the respect must give us pause:Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou

couldst;For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,And the quietus which his pangs might take,In the dead waste and middle of the night, when

churchyardsYawn in the customary suits of solemn black,But that the undiscovered country from whose bourne

no traveler returns,Breathes forth contagion on the world,And like the poor cat in the adage,Is sicklied o’er with care,Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.But soft you, the fair Ophelia, nymphOpe not thy ponderous and marble jaws,But get thee to a nunnery — go!

www.languid.org/cgi-bin/shakespeare shakespeare.about.com/library/bl100a.htmwilliams.az.us/writers/library/shakespeare/concordance.html www.bartleby.com/70/



How does Big River reflect some of the political themes of the 1840s?

What does the musical show you about how people were valued? Were all white men treated the same? What wasthe role of women in this society? What could anyone do to change their situation?

Why is the Mississippi river so important to people? What did it provide? How did it influence people’s lives?

Why do you think Mark Twain set his story in Missouri? Howwould it be different if it had taken place in Central New Yorkalong the Erie Canal?

How is your life different from Huck and Tom’s?

Some people feel that race relations in America today are stillinfluenced by the legacy of slavery. What is that legacy? How doesit relate to Big River? In small groups, collect newspaper and maga-zine articles, music lyrics, poems, excerpts from books, artworkthat expresses how America is still affected by slavery today. Do ashort oral or multimedia presentation on your findings.

Gerry Brenner, in his essay “More Than a Reader's Response: ALetter to 'De Ole True Huck'” (in A Case Study in CriticalControversy: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, edited by GeraldGraff and James Phelan, Boston: Bedford Books, 1995) pretendsJim has read Huck Finn and written a response in which he sets therecord straight. Pretend you are Jim and write your reaction to BigRiver.

How do the songs help move the action along? How would BigRiver be different if there were no songs? Would it change yourreaction to the characters?

Why do you think the characters of Huck, Tom and Jim haveremained popular for so many years? Do you think people will stillread this book 100 years from now?

What are some key geographical features in the Mississippi region of the United States, specifically in Missouri?You may discover physical (mountains, land forms, flora, fauna, etc...) and cultural (cities, human-made structures,tourist attractions, specific cultures, etc...) geographical information.

What aspects of life on the Mississippi did Mark Twain depict in his writings? How has the Mississippi River beenutilized in the past, and how is it utilized in the present? Why was Mark Twain's life when he lived along theMississippi so significant to his writings? How has the setting been important in other novels by Mark Twain? What might Mark Twain's life have been like while being raised in Hannibal, Missouri, along the Mississippi River?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/teachers/huck/section6.htmlhttp://tamiscal.marin.k12.ca.us/staff/Risa/twain.html

Questions for DiscussionIn

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More resources

Web sites

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/teachers/huck/etext.lib.virginia.edu/twain/huckfinn.htmlhttp://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/huckcen/huckcentg.html (California study guide on censorship)www.online-literature.com/twain/life_mississippi/www.mtwain.com/www.marktwainmuseum.org/lemur.cit.cornell.edu/~jules/Mark_Twain.htmlwww.elmira.edu/academics/ar_marktwain.shtmlschool.discovery.com/schooladventures/slavery/world.htmlwww.africana.com/archive/articles/tt_269.aspwww.mith2.umd.edu/mcpshistory/berlin_bibliography.htmlhttp://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/index2.html

Here are some Web sites to show your students more of the work of George Caleb Bingham:www.artunframed.com/bingham.htmwww.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWbirdking.htmwww.oldprintshop.comwww.mystudios.com/bios/George_Caleb_Bingham.html

Articles and Books

Gay, Robert M., “The Two Mark Twains,’’ in the Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 166, December 1940, pp. 724-26.

Kaplan, Justin, Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography, Simon & Schuster, 1983, pp. 233-34, 272, 292, 378.

Long, E. Hudson, Mark Twain Handbook, Hendricks House, 1957, p. 23.

Neider, Charles, "Introduction," in The Autobiography of Mark Twain.

Resources on the river

www.42explore2.com/missriv.htmwww.time.com/time/reports/mississippi/opener.htmlen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Riveralabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/MississippiRiver/www.lessonplanspage.com/Geography3.htm (activities for grades 2-4)www.lexington1.net/lv/oges/hp.nsf/Files/clrutter/$FILE/Mississippi+River.html



Web Quest for high schools

www.frionaisd.com/webquests/renner176.htm

Your task is to explore different controversial elements in the novel. You will divide into different groups: onegroup will explore the contemporary criticisms of Huck Finn; another group will explore modern criticisms of thenovel; a third group will examine racism both from a historical perspective and a modern perspective; the fourthgroup will examine stereotypes; and the last group will analyze the novel as satire. After you have completed yourtasks, you will create one of the products listed in the next section.

Ideas for constructed response/document based question activities

To help your students prepare for state testing, you can use Big River or George Caleb Bingham’s paintings as abasis for constructed response question or document based question assignments. Below are a few suggestions, orstarting points, for you to create your own assignments.

What can your students tell about life in the 1840s from a painting by George Caleb Bingham? What can your students tell about life in the 1840s from watching/reading Big River or Huck Finn?What can your students tell about education and literacy in the 1840s from the Duke’s “Hamlet” speech?What can yout students learn about life on the Mississippi and its role in commerce from Big River?After you see Big River, what did the costumes tell your students about the men and women’s different roles in

1940s society?

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Photo courtesy of Elmira CollegeMark Twain’s summer house in Elmira.

Documents

Big River-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn