A Year with Frog & Toad
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A YEAR WITH FROG & TOAD STUDY GUIDE For Educators and Families School Matinees: MARCH 2 – APRIL 5, 2012 Family Performances: MARCH 3 – APRIL 8, 2012 Welcome to Carousel Theatre’s production of A Year with Frog & Toad and its companion Resource Guide for Educators and Families! THEMES Arnold Lobel is one of the great children’s writers and illustrators of our time. Not only is Friendship he a beloved author, he has also achieved critical accolade with his timeless stories and Bravery their themes. Nature Join us as we follow the year of cheerful and popular Frog and his friend, the rather Patience grumpy Toad. Together they explore what it means to be brave, forever great friends, acts of kindness and being comfortable with who you are - not to mention going on Generosity exciting adventures (it’s very important you see)! Kindness We are elated to bring this Self-esteem Broadway show to Granville Island Acceptance on the Waterfront Theatre stage. A Adventure Year With Frog and Toad contains a selection of many of your favourite Lobel stories. Combined they take us into the lively and vibrant world of Frog, TABLE OF CONTENTS Toad and all their friends. (Page) Have any questions? 1. Themes Please give us a shout at 604.669.3410 2. Synopsis 3. About Arnold Lobel A Year with Frog and Toad 4. Classroom Activities Kaylee Harwood as ‘Mouse’ and Todd Talbot as 6. Theatre Etiquette 'Frog' C l Th t 2010 Ph t b Ti M th Theatre Terms 7. Production Credits Interesting Links Based on the children’s stories by ARNOLD LOBEL Books & Lyrics by WILLIE REALE 8. About Carousel Theatre A Year With Music by ROBERT REALE Sponsors Originally presented on Broadway by Bob Boyett, Adrianne Lobel, Michael Contact Us! Gardner, Lawrence Horowitz and Roy Furman. World Premiere at The Children’s Theatre Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Frog & Toad Illustration by Arnold Lobel. Copyright © 1979 by Arnold Lobel. Used with permission by HarperCollins Publishers. The selection may not be re-illustrated without written permission from HarperCollins. A Year with Frog and Toad – TYA is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). Page 1 The Synopsis Our story begins with the coming home of the birds after a long winter away – it’s spring! Frog decides to wake up his friend Toad from hibernation. Once awake, Toad decides to plant a garden; Frog gives Toad some seeds. Toad plants them, but is very impatient and wants them to grow – quickly! He yells at them and stays up all night watching. He soon feels bad for yelling at the seeds and is worried he’s scared them. To make the seeds happy again he dances, sings, and plays music for them. Soon they begin to grow. It’s morning, and everyone is expecting their mail to arrive. Toad is sad, because he never receives any mail. Frog decides to write Toad a letter, and goes home. He asks Snail to deliver it for him. Frog and Toad go to the pond for a swim. Toad is uncomfortable with Frog seeing him in his bathing suit. Frog promises not to look until Toad is in the water. Toad asks Frog to tell Turtle to leave so she won’t see him in his bathing suit. Turtle calls over Mouse and Lizard to come look at Toad. Toad is soon very cold, and eventually leaves the pond - everyone sees Toad in his bathing suit. When Toad brings lunch to Frog he finds Frog is not at home. He has left a note saying he would like to be left alone. Toad is worried that Frog is sad and decides to join him. He rides a log out to the island and accidentally falls in the water getting the sandwiches wet. It turns out that Frog is not sad at all, he’s happy! Frog wanted time alone to think about how happy he is. Together they eat wet sandwiches. Snail is on his way to deliver Frog’s letter to Toad (quick as he can). Frog and Toad are at Toad’s home making dinner. They make cookies for dessert, but can’t help themselves from trying a few. To stop themselves from finishing them they give them to the birds instead. Summer is almost over and colourful leaves are all over the ground. Both Frog and Toad plan a surprise to secretly rake the other’s garden. They each tidy the others garden, but the squirrels are tempted by the neat piles of leaves and jump in them, messing the gardens back up again. Neither finds out about the good deed they’ve done for each other. Meanwhile, Snail is still on his way to deliver Frog’s letter to Toad. It’s now winter, and Frog and Toad are getting ready to go tobogganing; Toad is afraid. Frog accidently falls off on the way down leaving Toad alone to speed downhill. He takes a wrong turn to a dangerous and bumpy path. When Toad reaches the bottom he is so mad at Frog for leaving him alone, he swears never to talk to Frog again. Snail finally arrives with Frog’s letter to Toad. In the letter Frog tells Toad how he cannot be happy unless his friend Toad is happy. Toad decides to talk to Frog again. Snail, having delivered his letter, is very proud. Christmas Eve has arrived; Toad is in the kitchen and worried because Frog is late. Toad imagines all the terrible things that may have happened to him till Frog arrives. He’s been wrapping Toad’s gift. Toad tells him how worried he has been. Back in hibernation, Frog and Toad are in bed. Spring is nearly here! A Year with Frog and Toad, The Company Page 2 Carousel Theatre, 2010. All photos by Tim Matheson. About Arnold Lobel (From the Educational Paperback Association, Parent’s Choice and Publisher’s Weekly Websites) Best known for his Frog and Toad stories, Arnold Lobel illustrated and/or wrote nearly one hundred books for children. During a career that spanned twenty-six years, Lobel captured the hearts of children in Canada and abroad with his universal stories and endearing artwork. Lobel was born on May 22, 1933, in Los Angeles, CA. In elementary school, Lobel's natural talents helped him gain acceptance among his classmates. "I'd tell stories extemporaneously and children loved them," he recalled. "When I started, I didn't know how they were going to end but they just came out of me," he later added. "And I would draw pictures to go with them." After graduating high school he attended Pratt Institute of Art in New York City, where he focused on illustration. While at Pratt, Lobel met Anita Kempler when they both were involved in production of a play. Soon after graduation in 1955, the couple was married. Lobel worked at various advertising agencies after graduating. His heart wasn't in commercial work, however, so in 1961 he launched a career in freelance illustrating. Lobel first sold drawings for three activity books by Sol Scharfstein; then in 1961 his first picture book illustrations saw print in Red Tag Comes Back. Lobel had discovered his place in life. While creating artwork for other authors in the 1960s, he also wrote and illustrated his own stories. The first of these was the humorous A Zoo for Mister Muster, followed by A Holiday for Mister Muster. Beginning in the l970s, Lobel's work received a long list of awards, including a Caldecott Honor Book award for Frog and Toad Are Friends and a Newbery Honor Book award for Frog and Toad Together. "Somehow in the writing of the manuscript for Frog and Toad I was, for the first time, able to write about myself. Frog and Toad are really two aspects of myself," reflected Lobel in New Books for Young Readers. Readers from all backgrounds can relate to the characters because they belong to no specific time period, age or ethnic group, country or social stratum. In the New York Times Book Review, Eliot Fremont-Smith wrote that Frog and Toad All Year "is elementary--rather vague, gentle, undemanding, supportive -- but in its very modesty it is both appealing and very comforting to young children." Lobel once confided to the Milwaukee Journal that "I write the books for myself," adding: "Sometimes they come out of the truth I find in myself." Discussing when children should be introduced to reading, Lobel said: "It's never too early. At the age of 2 they will be enthralled-- even if you read to them from the telephone book." He went on to note that "Unlike TV, books are something where a child can find a gentleness that he can't find anywhere else. A book is a self-contained, private thing, something on which a child can contemplate." Once he was asked which of his works he favoured, Lobel explained, "My favourite book is always the next one, the one I haven't done yet." Lobel called himself a daydreamer instead of an author or an artist. He would see the pictures in his mind before he would think up the words to go with them. Lobel has said "I cannot think of any work that could be more agreeable and fun than making books for children." He is survived by wife Anita, and children Adrianne and Adam. A new book The Frogs and Toads All Sang was published in 2009. It was created from 10 illustrated rhymes that predated the first Frog and Toad books.