418 W. Short Street Lexington, KY 40507

859.254.4546 www.lctonstage.org

Why Mosquitoes BuzzBy Jeremy Kisling. Adapted from the folktale.

Presented on the LCT Main Stage: April 26th - May 2nd

Major Contributors:

PLAY GUIDE

Lexington Children’s Theatre is proud to be producing our 79th 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 Academic Standards (KAS), including the National Core Arts Standards for Theatre. Teachers have important voices at LCT, and we rely heavily on your input. If you have comments or suggestions about our Play Guides, show selections, or any of our programming, your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Please email Jeremy Kisling, our Associate Artistic Director in Charge of Education, atjkisling@lctonstage.org.

Please use the Teacher Response form following a performance. We are thrilled that you rely on LCT to provide your students a quality theatrical experience, and we hope this resource helps you in your classroom.

LCT’s Education Department

Dear Educator -

The mission of our education programming 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, complexity, 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 understanding of drama and its role in society.

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 on stage.

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 you played as an audience.

Your role in the play

What to know - before the show!

Agbara, the great god of all, calls a group of young humans together to tell the story of a creature: Mosquito.

It all started late one day... Nwanko and his wife are out gathering palm nuts to use for their evening meal. The nuts they find are high in a tree, and Nwanko must climb the tree to try and reach the nuts. Along comes Mosquito, who asks the man what he is doing. When he shoos Mosquito away, the palm nuts fall, causing Nwanko’s machete to fall toward his wife, Aja, who must jump to safety.

Aja lands on Python’s tail, startling him, so he runs to hide in the Rabbit’s hole. These events set off a chain reaction of panic in the forest that ends when Monkey shatters Hen’s eggs. Hen and Rooster are so sad that Rooster forgets to wake the sun. After several days of darkness, the animals get anxious and call upon their King, the Lion, to solve the sun’s disappearance. The animals blame one another for the darkness until Python reveals the humans’ involvement. Some of the animals are scared of humans, and Lion calls Agbara to assist in their discovery of the truth.

Mosquito retreats to hide in a nearby tree. When it is determined he is to blame, he cannot speak for fear of Agbara. Agbara strips Mosquito of his voice until he receives forgiveness from all living creatures. “Since you refuse to speak, you will only be able to buzz. I may reconsider reinstating your voice, but only after you’ve gained the forgiveness of all earthly creatures.” Satisfied, Rooster lifts his head and calls the sun. To this day, Mosquito approaches the creatures of the earth asking if Agbara has forgiven him, but almost all earthly creatures find his buzzing annoying and try to eradicate the pesky mosquito.

Play Synopsis

Read Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears: A West African Tale by Verna Aardema to your class. Talk about the animals in the book. Which animals are found in the United States as well as in Africa? Try reading the book to your class while they play the different animals using their bodies and voices. Remember: actors are humans. We don’t walk on four legs or move like animals. So we have to find ways to suggest that we are a specific creature. How would you move if you were pretending to be a mosquito or a monkey? What would a lion or a python sound like?

Becoming An Animal

What to know - before the show!

Make a Sock Puppet!1. Put the sock on your hand so that your fingers and thumb are in the toe and the back of your wrist is in the heel.

2. Push in on the sock toe between finger and thumb to create a mouth.

3. Cut two ovals three inches across and five inches long. Cut a piece of poster board or cardboard (this will be used to create the hard mouth surface) , and the other fabric is the inside of mouth.

4. Glue the fabric oval to the poster board (rigid) oval with white glue. After the glue is dry, fold the oval in half the short way.

5. Put your sock back on your hand. Tuck the mouth oval into the sock and glue or sew in place.

KAS: AH-E-3.1.41, 3.1.42, 3.1.33, 3.1.35 RD-E-1.0.9

Now the fun begins! What your puppet becomes depends on you. Think eyes, ears, noses, fur, feathers, beaks, or whiskers. Now that you have a puppet, here are some guidelines to help you bring your puppet to life. Work in front of a mirror with your puppet. This will allow you to see what the audience sees. Create a specific character for your puppet. Define their likes and dislikes. Try and make your puppet express specific feelings. Make each movement mean something specific.

Always remember – if you are talking, so should your puppet! The puppeteer should always be looking where the puppet is – this helps the audience know where to focus.

KAS: VA:Cr2.3.2, VA:Cr2.1.3, TH :Cr3.1.3b, TH :Pr4.1.4b

What to know - before the show!

Africa is rich with folk tales and proverbs. In the evening, people would gather around a fire and call upon each other to tell stories. It is through this oral tradition that African people learn and maintain their culture and respect the cultures of others. Below are some African and American proverbs that share a similar lesson. We included a few examples and left a few for you to discuss with your students. After you have discussed proverbs, have your students bring in some of their family sayings and write your own.

AFRICAN AND AMERICAN PROVERBS

African: If you play with a cat, you must not mind her scratch. American: You have to take the bad with the good.

African: Evil knows where evil sleeps. American: It takes one to know one.

African: All sunshine makes desert. American:

African: Time destroys all things.American:

African: He who hunts two rats catches none. American:

African: If you are hiding, don’t light a fire. American:

African: When one is at sea, he doesn’t quarrel with the boatman. American:

African Proverbs

KAS: SS-E-2.1.1, 2.1.2 WR-E-1.3

How to grow - after the show!

Mistrust

What’s your tale of mistrust? All the confusion in Why Mosquitoes Buzz could have been avoided if only the animals stopped and talked to each other about what was happening. Instead they let their fear and mistrust get in the way. Can you think of a situation when anger or frustration could have been avoided if only people stopped and talk about the problem instead of blaming someone else? Tell or write a story about someone who is too stubborn, scared, or vain to listen to someone who is trying to help them.

KAS: TH:Cr2.1.4a, TH:Pr6.1.4, WR:3.3.a, WR:4.3.d

How to grow - after the show!

ResponsibilityIn Why Mosquitoes Buzz, Rooster is responsible for waking the sun each day and Monkey is given the job of being the forest watchman. Do you have special jobs, chores, or duties to perform at your house? What happens if you do not do your job? Talk about responsibility and what it means. Make a list of all the different things you are responsible for each day. Write a short story and draw a picture of what might happen if you did not take care of your responsibility. There may be people counting on you to do a job. If you don’t, what might happen?

KAS: WR:3.3.a, WR:4.3.d, VA:Cr1.2.2

How to grow - after the show!What to Read Next

LCT teaches in YOUR school!

The Village of Round and Square Houses by Ann Grifalconi In the village of Tos in Central Africa, we discover the story of why women live in round thatchroofed huts while men live in square shaped houses designated in the aftermath of a volcano releasing its full fury upon the village.

The Talking Eggs: A folktale from the American South by Robert San Souci Down in Louisiana, sisters Rose and Blanche are very different: Blanche’s sweet nature pays off when she helps an old woman with magical powers.

Anansi does the Impossible by Verna Aardema AnansiA small spider sets out to reclaim all the stories of the world from the Sky God, armed only with his wits.

The Elephant’s Child by Rudyard Kipling A long time ago, when elephants still sported short noses, curiosity drives a child elephant to ask the crocodile what he eats for dinner. A tug-of-war results in the elephant’s new and improved elongated trunk.

How Snake Got His Hiss by Marguerite Davel This fanciful book tells of how snake gets his shape and sound through run-ins with other species. It ends with an altercation with an elephant that results in his current shape.

Zzzng! Zzzng! Zzzng!: A Yoruba Tale by Phillis Gershator As all things on earth are finding mates, Mosquito is told over again that she is too small and weak to marry, but she gets revenge on those who refuse her. She even continues to bite and buzz after she finds a mosquito mate!

The Day Ocean Came to Visit by Diane Wollestein Long ago, when Sun and Moon still lived on earth, they invited their new friend Ocean to visit their home. They discover when she comes that they are ill prepared for her visit.

Misoso: Once Upon a Time from Africa retold by Verna Aardema Twelve African tales speak of justice and revenge, greed and generosity, sly trickery, and off-the-wall silliness with humor and flair.

Would you like to see some of these play guide activities modeled in your classroom?

Book a workshop for your class with one of LCT’s teaching artists! In our pre-show workshops, our teaching artists will engage students in acting skills and themes from the play through drama activities. In our post-show workshops, students will extend their play-going experience by strengthening their personal connection to the play and deepening their understanding of the themes and characters.

Call us at 859-254-4546 x226 to book a pre or post-show workshop for your class!

To learn more about Lexington Children’s Theatre and our programming for your school visit: www.lctonstage.org/for-educators/in-school-experiences/