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Britain's Best Recruiting Sergeant

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Britain's Best Recruiting Sergeant BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT TEACHER RESOURCE PACK FOR TEACHERS WORKING WITH PUPILS IN YEAR 3 – 6 BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT RUNNING FROM 13 FEB - 15 MAR 2015 WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A MAN? Little Tilley’s dreams are realised as she follows in her father’s footsteps and grows up to become Vesta Tilley, a shining star of the music hall whose much-loved act as a male impersonator makes her world-famous. War breaks out and she supports the cause by helping to recruit soldiers to fight for king and country, but has she used her stardom for good? And is winning the most important thing? The Unicorn commemorates the centenary of World War One and the 150th anniversary of Vesta Tilley’s birth in this feisty, song-filled and touching look at the life of Vesta Tilley (1864 – 1952), who was nicknamed Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant and led the way for female stars in music hall entertainment. Page 2 BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT CONTENTS CONTEXT INTRODUCTION 4 A SUMMARY OF THE PLAY 5 THE PLAY IN CONTEXT 7 INTERVIEWS WITH THE CREATIVE TEAM 9 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES PRE-SHOW WORK 1. MUSIC HALL ACTS - STOP AND SHOW 13 2. CREATING MUSIC HALL ACTS 15 3. PUBLICITY POSTCARDS 17 4. PRESENTING! CREATING THE COMPERE 18 5. A NIGHT AT THE MUSIC HALL 20 6. CAN I ASK YOU SOMETHING? 21 7. HERE’S MY ADVICE - WRITING TO VESTA/HARRY 23 POST-SHOW WORK 1. FIVE MOMENTS 24 2. WHAT MADE THE PLAY MEMORABLE FOR YOU? 25 3. THE RECRUITMENT CAMPAIGN 27 4 ALGY AND VESTA - EXTENDED SEQUENCE (5 Parts) 28 RESOURCE ONE - THE COMPERE’S SPEECH & MUSIC HALL NAMES 33 RESOURCE TWO - NEWSPAPER HEADLINES 34 RESOURCE THREE - RECRUITMENT POSTERS FROM WWI 35 Page 3 BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT CONTEXT INTRODUCTION Welcome to the resource pack for Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant for teachers working with children in Years 3 to 6. Joy Wilkinson’s play brilliantly brings to life the world of music hall in the 1900s and the real life character of Vesta Tilley, a male impersonator and music hall superstar. Vesta was a child performer and wanted to be the first and the best at whatever she did. When she develops her act as a male impersonator, she challenges assumptions about what girls can and should be capable of. When war breaks out in 1914, Vesta uses her fame for the war effort; she develops an act where she impersonates a soldier and sings patriotic songs, which she then performs at recruitment rallies and encourages the young men to sign up to fight there and then. The play will be full of the songs, fun and images of the music hall, but intercut with moments that bring the reality of the war to life and ask us to consider what these young men really are signing up for. Hundreds of thousands of young men joined the army in 1914, proud to fight for king and country, this play begins to question what happens when the optimism and patriotism at the start of war gives way to the reality of four years of fighting and hundreds of thousands of young men’s lives lost. These resources will support teachers in contextualising the play for their class before coming to the theatre, so that young audiences can tune in to the performance. The classroom activities can be used before and after your visit as ways of exploring themes, stories and characters relevant to the play. The resources do not take an objective led approach; however, teachers will be able to establish links to the relevant curriculum objectives for their particular year group and adapt them for their particular educational setting. Vesta in and out of drag Page 4 BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT – CONTEXT SUMMARY OF THE PLAY The play begins with four year old Matilda creating shows with her dolls and her dog, Fathead. Her father, Harry, is a music hall act and Matilda wants to follow in his footsteps and go on the stage. She eventually persuades him to let her have a go and her first performance is a huge success. After this Matilda and Harry go on tour together and soon she is earning £5 per week – a huge amount of money at this time. Five years later Matilda feels she needs to change her act as there are lots of younger music hall acts coming up behind her. Matilda wants to be the best, she can’t be the youngest act in the music hall, so she comes up with another idea; she’s going to be a male impersonator. Matilda decides to give herself a stage name; looking around her for inspiration she sees a box of Swan Vesta matches. She decides her name will be Vesta Tilley. Vesta’s success grows; she goes to work in London where she meets the famous Dan Leno, the best panto dame in the business. They get ready for their acts alongside each other; Vesta putting on a wig and beard to become a man, Dan donning a skirt and eyelashes to become a woman. One day a mother brings her young son, Algy, to see Vesta’s act. He’s sure he’s going to hate it: So let me get this straight, mother – this next act is a girl pretending to be a boy? I don’t get it, what’s meant to be good about that? I hate girls, they’re boring. I’d rather see a man getting shot out of a cannon. But when he sees the act he loves it. Vesta becomes a huge success; she tours to America, she earns £1000 a week and she sells Vesta Tilley merchandise to her fans. The play then jumps to 1914 and Vesta is now an established music hall star. With the outbreak of the First World War, Vesta has to decide what to do; should she stop singing, dancing and making jokes? Or do what her father, Harry suggests: This war could be the best thing that ever happened for you. Play a soldier. All those young men. Take the mick, but give it a twist. Be the first, be the best. Vesta goes on performing and one day, after singing a song about ‘Burlington Bertie’ – a rich young man from Kensington who gives up his luxuries to join the army, Algy is now a young man and still a big fan of Vesta. Watching her soldier act, he decides he must join up. When there are symptoms of war like alarm And Burlington Bertie sees his brothers in arms, Altho’ absentminded he does not forget That Englishmen always must pay off a debt He drops all his pleasures, the polo, the hunt And just like the rest he is off to the front. Page 5 BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT – CONTEXT Vesta realises that she can have a real impact through her act; as she can persuade young men to join up and fight. So Vesta dresses as a soldier and sings new songs which persuade the young men that being a soldier is the right thing to do: I’ll be like a recruiting sergeant. They sign up with me then they go off to fight. The King will love me. The other acts will hate me. I’ll be the first and the best. At the end of her act, Vesta invites the young men in the audience to come up on stage and sign up there and then. It’s all right, it’s all right now, There’s no need to worry anymore. Who said the army wasn’t strong? They soon found out they were wrong. Algy, now a soldier in the trenches, writes to Vesta asking her to come to France and give a concert for the troops to boost morale. Vesta has no time; she is busy making a film of what life is like for the soldiers with very realistic sets. And of course, a film can reach thousands more people than a live show. With more letters coming back from the front, Vesta starts to get glimpses of the reality of the war. When a letter from Algy’s mother tells Vesta that her son dead, she is forced to think about the implications of what she does when she recruits young men to go and fight. Vesta finds herself afraid of the dark and afraid of her dreams, but on stage she feels herself, the self who is determined to win. The play ends with Vesta as an old lady, looking back on her life and the choices she has made. Page 6 BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT – CONTEXT THE PLAY IN CONTEXT Vesta Tilley was born Matilda Powles in 1864 in Worcestershire. Her father was a stage comic and manager of a music hall in Nottingham. With no cinema, television or radio, music halls in the 1860s and 70s were hugely popular places of entertainment, with shows that would include a mix of acts, popular songs, comedy and speciality performances – a little like the range of performances you might see on Britain’s Got Talent today. Matilda first went on the stage aged four, and after a few years of success as a child singer, she developed her new act as a male impersonator. She changed her stage name to Vesta Tilley and her success grew. By the age of 11 she was supporting her whole family with her earnings – with 12 siblings this was quite impressive.
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