Grades PreK - 3S C H O O L T I M E P E R F O R M A N C E S E R I E S • S C H O O L Y E A R 2 0 0 9 - 2 0 1 0

The Great Mummy AdventureThe Paper Bag Players

Passport TO CULTURE

Teacher’s Resource Guide

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Jake & McGraw. . . two unlucky crooksTed Brackett, Jeanne Michels

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2 Passport to culture • The Paper Bag Players

Arts Education and You The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) Arts Education Department presents the 12th season of the Verizon Passport to Culture SchoolTime Performance Series.

With Passport to Culture, Verizon and NJPAC open up a world of culture to you and your students, offering the best in live performance from a wide diversity of traditions and disciplines. At NJPAC’s state-of-the-art facility in Newark, with support from Verizon, the SchoolTime Performance Series enriches the lives of New Jersey’s students and teachers by inviting them to see, feel, and hear the joy of artistic expression. The exciting roster of productions features outstanding New Jersey companies as well as performers of national and international renown. Meet-the-artist sessions and NJPAC tours are available to expand the arts adventure.

The Verizon Passport to Culture SchoolTime Performance Series is one of many current arts education offerings at NJPAC. Others include: • Professional Development Workshops that support the use of the arts to enhance classroom curriculum • Arts Academy school residency programs in dance, theater and literature, and Early Learning Through the Arts – the NJ Wolf Trap Program • After-school residencies with United Way agencies

In association with statewide arts organizations, educational institutions, and generous funders, the Arts Education Department sponsors the following arts training programs: • Wachovia Jazz for Teens • The All-State Concerts • The Star-Ledger Scholarship for the Performing Arts • The Jeffery Carollo Music Scholarship • Summer Youth Performance Workshop • Young Artist Institute • NJPAC/New Jersey Youth Theater Summer Musical Program

Students have the opportunity to audition for admission to NJPAC’s arts training programs during NJPAC’s annual Young Artist Talent Search. Detailed information on these programs is available online at njpac.org. Click on Education. The Teacher’s Resource Guide and additional activities and resources for each production in the Verizon Passport to Culture SchoolTime Series are also online. Click on Education, then on Performances. Scroll down to “Download Teacher Guide in Adobe Acrobat PDF format” and select desired guide.

Permission is granted to copy this Teacher’s Resource Guide for classes attending the 2009-2010 Verizon Passport to Culture SchoolTime Performance Series. All other rights reserved.

To Teachers and Parents The resource guide accompanying each performance is designed • to maximize students’ enjoyment and appreciation of the performing arts; • to extend the impact of the performance by providing discussion ideas, activities, and further reading that promote learning across the curriculum; • to promote arts literacy by expanding students’ knowledge of music, dance, and theater; • to illustrate that the arts are a legacy reflecting the traditional values, customs, beliefs, expressions, and reflections of a culture; • to use the arts to teach about the cultures of other people and to celebrate students’ own heritage through self-expression; • to reinforce the New Jersey Department of Education’s Core Curriculum Content Standards in the arts.

CONTENTSOn Stage 3

In the Spotlight 4

Theater Talk 5

It’s Only a Paper Bag 6

Before and After Activities 7

Teaching Science Through Theater

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Delving Deeper 8

FoundationKid Power!Through energy efficiency and con-servation, kids can help preserve our planet’s rich natural resources and promote a healthy environment.

Tip of the DayDid you know that recycling paper conserves our valuable natural resources? If we all recycled our newspapers, for example, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year! Plus, every ton of recycled paper saves approximately four barrels of oil and 4,200 kilowatt hours of energy.

Made possible through the generosity of the PSEG Foundation.

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Why is The Paper Bag Players one of America’s most distinctive and innovative theater groups? One reason is certainly its costumes. Performers Ted, Laura, Kevin, and Amy wear costumes made mostly of brown paper, grocery cartons, cardboard, and everyday objects. The actors also create drawings before your eyes that change how you see the world. In addition, not only do the performers sing and dance, but they get the audience singing and dancing too! What is truly distinctive about The Paper Bag Players, however, is that the troupe respects children’s imaginations. Whether the stories presented are lively or quiet and thoughtful, they are tales inspired by a child’s everyday experiences.

The title piece of The Paper Bag Players’ new show, The Great Mummy Adventure, is the tale of two unlucky crooks that travel to Egypt in search of a mummy named Shirley and her legendary treasures. In this exciting presentation, audience members become movie extras and play such roles as the voice of the mysterious mummy’s curse

and the crowd at an airport. So… get ready for your close up!

In addition to The Great Mummy Adventure, The Paper Bag Players will present several other short musical stories, told with humor, sing-along songs and, of course, props made of paper bags and boxes.

The Postman’s Dream is the story of a mail carrier who takes a nap and dreams he is a butterfly delivering the mail. His dream becomes so real that the letters he carries become brilliantly colored wings.

In When Winter Stayed Too Long, Winter just will not go away. Sun tries to argue and battle with Winter but is tricked into being covered by a cloud. Luckily, crafty Tropical Wind is able to melt the ice and blow away the cold so that Winter finally exits, and Spring is able to arrive.

For Ants in My Pants, a play in two parts, the empty stage is magically transformed into a beautiful park. The actors throw bright beach balls in

large arcs across the stage – and at the audience! But, when the performers sit down on their paper bag blanket to enjoy a picnic, Laura finds she has ants in her pants. Kevin knows how to help her, though. He must get the audience to sing and dance those ants away.

Uh, oh! In Amy’s Chicken, a story with many laughs and surprises, Amy has lost her pet chicken, and the audience must help the perplexed girl find her poultry.

While drawing with ink and paint on an easel, the Paper Bag Players relay the story of Lady in the Storm about a lady who is enjoying a peaceful day when a bad storm suddenly disturbs her.

In Prints, the performers paint on a 12-foot easel to the rhythm of the music. The piece concludes with crescendos of sound and color. The Paper Bag Players’ inspired, lighthearted theater, featuring ridiculous situations, will give young audiences a glimpse of just how far art, imagination and creativity can take them.

Passport to culture • The Paper Bag Players

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The Mummy named Shirley!

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In the SpotlightThey’re in The Bags

The Paper Bag Players is one of the most highly acclaimed children’s theater groups in the nation. In the 50 years that it has been creating and performing, it is the only children’s theater to have received the Village Voice Off-Broadway Theater Award (the OBIE). The troupe has also received awards for excellence from the American Association for Theater and Education, American Theater Wing, New York State Artists, the Broadway Theater Institute, and Children’s Theater Foundation.

The members of The Paper Bag Players need to be able to act, sing, dance, and be comedians, acrobats and clowns all in one, and they must be incredibly imaginative, versatile musicians or artists. And here they are:

In his 22 years as a Paper Bag Player, Ted Brackett, now the troupe’s artistic director, has played the 10-foot tall lady as well as the Plumber in Fix My Leak, the Peddler in Wizard Oil and the Broom in Lost and Found. He has also worked with the troupe’s founder (and artistic director until this season), Judith Martin, developing scripts and designing sets and props.

Laura Canty-Samuel has been featured in Paper Bag productions as a meatball, a bathtub, a cat, a tree, a princess, and a youngster who successfully negotiates the release of her teacher and herself from a ransom- seeking alligator! She is also the co-founder and current artistic director of Azddak Performances, the producer of her one-person show, Sunday Best, which was selected for the 2009 New York City International Fringe Festival.

regional theater appearances include roles in Big River, Into the Woods, The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Fantasticks, and The Music Man. He also toured as Sam the Postman in Sesame Street Live 1…2…3 Imagine!

This season will be Jonathan Peck’s second year as The Paper Bag Players’ scenic artist. Invited to be an artist-in-residence in 2004 at the Art Center of South Florida in Miami Beach, Peck received the prestigious South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual Art in 2007. He maintains a studio in Brooklyn, NY.

Also on stage (all the time) is composer and music director John Stone who accompanies the action on his electric keyboard. Before joining The Paper Bag Players in 2004, Stone collaborated with choreographers Brian Brooks, Kun-Yang Lin, Elizabeth Higgins, and Rachel Cohen. He is artistic co-founder and music director of the modern dance group Ariane Anthony and Company, and he has received grants from Meet the Composer and the W.K. Rose Fellowship. His music was recently performed in New York City at Merkin Concert Hall and at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery.

A more in-depth discussion about The Paper Bag Players, its history and its creative team, can be found online at njpac.org. Click on Education, then on Performances. Scroll down to “Download Teacher Guides in Adobe Acrobat PDF format” and select Resources for The Great Mummy Adventure.

Last year, Amy Walsh played a mind-boggling range of roles including a bossy bar of soap, a quick-thinking fir tree and a singing Arctic explorer. In The Great Mummy Adventure, she plays the title role, that of the mysterious mummy named Shirley. Walsh has acted in regional productions of Urinetown, A Christmas Carol and Chicago. She is thrilled to be returning to the company for her second season. A Paper Bag Player for 13 seasons, Kevin Richard Woodall has played many roles including Woodchopper in Tree Angel, Spring in When Winter Stayed Too Long, Bully in Big Bully, and Alligator in That’s Good. His

Passport to culture • The Paper Bag Players

Composer and musician John Stone at the electric piano

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5Passport to culture • The Paper Bag Players

artistic director - the person who oversees the production, chooses the material and brings together the work of the author, set designer, musicians, actors, technicians, and others.

composer - the person who creates original musical themes for the scenes in a production and/or writes the production’s score.

dialogue - the conversation in a play between two or more characters.

ensemble - a group of actors who work collaboratively to develop, rehearse and perform a production and equally share responsibilities within the performance.

finale - the last musical number in a production, usually quite elaborate.

music director - the person who supervises all the music in a production. musical score - the complete music for a production, showing all parts for the instruments, including voice.

musical theater - a genre of theater that uses singing and dancing in addition to dramatic action to tell a story.

performer - a person who takes part in a production by saying lines, singing or dancing.

props - items used on stage to help create a sense of place such as a photograph, a flag or a map; the belongings used by a character on stage such as a purse, a hand mirror or a sandwich.

punch line - the humorous last part of a joke.

scene - a division of a production, usually part of an act.

scenery - painted canvas mounted on wooden frames, drops, cutouts, etc. used in a theater to represent the location or environment where the action takes place.

script - the written text detailing what happens, including what is to be said, during a play or performance. set - the arrangement of scenery and props on stage.

Mummy is the Word

To enrich their live performance experience of The Great Mummy Adventure, students should have some idea of the following terms:

movie extras - actors who perform in the group scenes of a movie.

mummy - a body preserved for thousands of years.

curse - a foretelling of evil.

Egypt - a North African country with a fabulous ancient history.

pharaohs - the kings of ancient Egypt.

season - a period of time during the year that has a certain kind of weather.

tropical wind - a very hot wind in a place where lush green plants can grow.

easel - a frame for supporting an artist’s work.

Theater Talk

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Winter won’t go away!Ted Brackett

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Did You Know?

It’s Only a Paper Bag Before The Paper Bag Players…there had to be paper bags.

We do not actually know who had the good idea to paste two sides of paper together to carry things, but the idea became popular during the 19th century, and it was not long before people started imagining ways to improve the design of the simple paper bag.

We do know that, in 1852, Francis Wolle (1817-1893) of Bethlehem, PA (a teacher, a principal of a young ladies’ seminary and an ordained clergyman) patented the first device for making paper bags. At about the same time, Margaret “Mattie” Knight (1838-1914), a young girl in Maine, was making sleds and kites for her brothers. When she was 12 years

old, she worked in a textile mill, where she saw first hand the injuries that could be caused when a part of a person’s body was caught in the heavy machinery. To rectify the problem, Knight created a device that would stop the machine when that happened. By the time she was a teenager, her invention was in wide use.

Knight’s success spurred her to continue inventing. Just after the Civil War, she decided that paper bags could hold more if they had square bottoms, so she experimented with a machine that would cut, fold and paste bag bottoms to the sides of the paper. She patiently designed thousands of models. Knight then prepared to file a patent application, but she discovered that a man named Charles Annan was filing for a patent on a design suspiciously similar to hers. Annan had, in fact, seen Knight’s machine and copied it. Annan claimed that Knight, being a woman, couldn’t possibly understand the paper bag machine. Knight only had to produce her designs and notes to prove that

she was the true designer of the paper bag machine. Victory in hand, she founded the Eastern Paper Bag Company in 1870 and went on to patent nearly 90 inventions.

So − now the paper bag had a square bottom and could hold several items. All that was left to do was to make it easy to fold and stack. That happened in 1883, when Charles Stilwell designed the first machine to produce paper bags with pleated sides. Subsequently, with the advent of American supermarket in the 1930s, the demand for the paper bag skyrocketed.

There are many things to do with paper bags, but don’t forget - you can also use them to help create plays just like The Paper Bag Players do. When The Paper Bag Players began in 1958, former Artistic Director Judith Martin admits, “I was horrified at the idea of using paper. When we began to use [it] on stage, however, the children loved it…They found it so funny.” And - 50 years later, they still do.

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Very large paper bags painted to look like people.

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In the ClassroomTeaching Science Through Theater (K-8)

By Sharon J. Sherman, Ed.D.

Theater provides children with new experiences and allows them to see the world in different ways. Creative thought and the power of words bring imaginative new life to familiar objects, and a darkened theater can be transformed into a spatial canvas where new ideas germinate. A theatrical performance is also a wonderful way to introduce the concept of light, as objects are often illuminated, creating a sparkling world of drama and motion that captures the imagination.

In accordance with New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Science Standards, kindergartners should investigate light energy using one or more of their senses. Have the youngsters look for shadows on the playground at different times of the day and under different weather conditions. Then, ask them to create simple dramatizations to present their findings.

First and second graders learn that an object can be seen when light strikes it and is reflected to a viewer’s eye. If there is no light, objects cannot be seen. When light strikes substances and objects through which it cannot pass, shadows result. In the classroom, have the children apply a variety of strategies to collect evidence that if there is no light, objects cannot be seen. Have them present their evidence by acting out the relationship between a light source, a solid object and the resulting shadow. They should use variations of locomotor and nonlocomotor movement. (A locomotor movement involves moving from one place to another like running and sliding. A nonlocomotor movement is performed while remaining in one spot without going anywhere. Examples of non-locomotor movements are twisting, bending and swaying).

Third and fourth graders learn that light travels in straight lines. When light travels from one substance to another (air and water), it changes direction. Ask the students to create an improvisation to explain what happens when light travels from air into water. Fifth and sixth graders learn that light travels in a straight line until it interacts with an object or material. Light can be absorbed, redirected, bounced back, or allowed to pass through. They also learn that the path of reflected or refracted light can be predicted. Seventh and eighth graders learn that light energy from the sun is Earth’s primary source of energy, heating Earth’s surfaces and providing the energy that results in wind, ocean currents and storms. Have your students produce scripted scenes to illustrate these concepts. Sharon J. Sherman, Ed.D. is Dean of the School of Education and Professor of Teacher Education at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ. The Teaching Science Through the Arts content of this guide is made possible through the generous support of Roche.

Before the Performance1. “Paper Bag Puppets” is an arts integrated resource from Verizon’s Thinkfinity.org. This lesson from Enchanted Learning provides instructions for creating paper bag animal puppets including frogs, pigs, raccoons, dogs, cats, rabbits, mice, and pandas. Once they have made their puppets, have the youngsters perform impromptu skits for each other. enchantedlearning.com/crafts/puppets/paperbag/index.shtml (1.2)*

2. Supply each student with crayons and paper. Play a peaceful recording such as Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade or selections from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Ask the students to draw or color anything they wish in response to the music. (1.1, 1.2)

After the Performance1. How many of the stories in The Great Mummy Adventure do the students remember? Can they describe each one? Once you recognize a story from their descriptions, write its title on the board. Ask the students to name the characters in the story. How did the story begin? How did it end? How did the story progress to its ending? (1.3, 1.4)

2. Discuss the definitions in “Theater Talk” on page 5 of The Teacher’s Resource Guide for The Great Mummy Adventure. What sort of props did the performers use in each story? Who were the characters in each story? Can they describe the scenery in each story? What did the music director do? Did the music enrich the various plays? If so, why? (1.3)

*Number(s) indicate NJ Core Curriculum Content Standard(s) supported by the activity.

Additional Before and After activities can be found online at njpac.org. Click on Education, then on Performances. Scroll down to “Download Teacher Guide in Adobe Acrobat PDF format” and select desired guide.

Arthur Ryan ……………..........................…………………………………………………………………….Chairman Lawrence P. Goldman ………..................…………………………………..President & Chief Executive Officer Sandra Bowie………………….....................……………………………………..Vice President for Arts Education Sanaz Hojreh ……………..................….……………………………..Assistant Vice President for Arts Education Donna Bost-White……......................….……………………………….Director for Arts Education/Special Projects Jeffrey Griglak………......................……………….………………………………..……..Director for Arts Training Verushka Spirito……......................…………………………………………...Associate Director for Performances Ambrose Liu………………........................……………………………………....Associate Director for Residencies Caitlin Evans Jones………….......................………………………………….…Associate Director for Residencies Faye Competello……………........................…………………………………....Associate Director for Arts Training Mary Whithed………....................………..………………………………….....Program Coordinator for ResidenciesJoanna Gibson.......................................................................................Manager of Wachovia Jazz for Teens Laura Ingoglia…………..............................................…................………......Editor of Teacher’s Resource Guide

Writer: Mary Sheeran

Editor: Laura Ingoglia

Design: Pierre Sardain, 66 Creative, Inc. 66Creative.com

NJPAC Guest Reader: Lauren Glassman

Curriculum Review Committee: Judith Israel Mary Louise Johnston Amy Tenzer

Copyright © 2009 New Jersey Performing Arts Center All Rights Reserved

One Center Street Newark, New Jersey 07102Administration: 973 642-8989Arts Education Hotline: 973 353-8009artseducation@njpac.org

NJPAC wishes to thank Michael Oakes of The Paper Bag Players for assistance in preparing this guide.

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Delving Deeper Acknowledgmentsas of 8/05/09

Passport to culture • The Paper Bag Players

For even more arts integration resources, please go to Thinkfinity.org, the Verizon Foundation’s signature digital learning platform, designed to improve educational and literacy achievement.

Books for Teachers

McCully, Emily Arnold. Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. What Can You Do With a Paper Bag? Inspired by works of art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Chronicle Books, 2001.

Websites

The Paper Bag Players - thepaperbagplayers.org

Paper Bag Masks - ehow.com/how_5083095_make-paper-bag-mask.html

Things to Do With Paper Bags - Scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3747157

Paper Bag Scrapbook - scrapbook-crazy.com/paper-bag-album-instructions.html

Paper Bag Puppet - wikihow.com/Make-a-Paper-Bag-Puppet

Additional resources can be found online at njpac.org. Click on Education, then on Performances, then on Curriculum Materials. Scroll down to “Download Teacher Guide in Adobe Acrobat PDF format” and select desired guide.

NJPAC Arts Education programs are made possible by the generosity of: Bank of America, Allen & Joan Bildner & The Bildner Family Foundation, The Arts Education Endowment Fund in Honor of Raymond G. Chambers, Leon & Toby Cooperman, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, Amy C. Liss, McCrane Foundation, The Merck Company Foundation, Albert & Katharine Merck, The Prudential Foundation, The PSEG Foundation, David & Marian Rocker, The Sagner Family Foundation, Schering-Plough, The Star-Ledger/Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, Surdna Foundation, The Turrell Fund, Verizon, Victoria Foundation, Wachovia, The Wal-Mart Foundation and The Women’s Association of NJPAC.

Additional support is provided by: C.R. Bard Foundation, Becton, Dickinson & Company, The Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation, Bloomberg, Chase, The Citi Foundation, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Veronica Goldberg Foundation, Meg & Howard Jacobs, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, The MCJ Amelior Foundation, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The George A. Ohl, Jr., Foundation, Pechter Foundation, PNC Foundation on behalf of the PNC Grow Up Great program, The Provident Bank Foundation, E. Franklin Robbins Charitable Trust, Roche, TD Charitable Foundation, Target, The United Way of Essex & West Hudson, Lucy and Eleanor S. Upton Charitable Foundation, Andrew Vagelos, The Edward W. & Stella C. Van Houten Memorial Fund, and The Blanche M. & George L. Watts Mountainside Community Foundation.