What to expect at the BCPA?
When you enter the lobby you see a very elegant entrance with a dual staircase and period 1920’s neoclassical design elements. The lobby will afford students a “wow” factor when they walk inside the building. There will be usher staff directing students to the proper staircase to enter the theater and if you look up, a beautiful mobile hanging from the center of the ceiling. This mobile was created as part of our “Mobilizing the Community” art project and designed by SchoolSculptures founder Kevin Reese. Students from area schools helped shape, cut, and place the mobile pieces.
A live performance is very different from a movie. Unlike at the movies, the audience at a live performance can make a difference in the quality of each performance. An audience that pays attention will encourage the performers to give their best without distractions. We hope you will give your full support and attention to the performers and here’s how you can do that.
To be a good audience member, a person needs to: Be open to new sights and sounds Let go of expectations and preconceived notions Be willing to suspend belief Focus attention on the stage You might even want to wear special “dressed up” clothes.
Save your conversation until after the performance. Remember that live performers can see and hear you from the stage. It’s very distracting to the performers and audience if you talk during the performance.
Who are the people with the name tags? What do they do? The ushers are present to help your bus driver find a parking space, to help your class find seats, and to help make the performance as enjoyable as it can be for your class. In case of any kind of emergency, the ushers will help guide your class to safety. Please follow the instructions of the ushers at all times.
What are some of the “rules” that need to be followed while you are at the BCPA? 1) Turn off cell phones and electronic devices. 5) Do not eat, drink or chew gum in the theater. 2) Do not put your feet on the back of the seats. 6) Please do not wear a hat inside the theater. 3) Please use the restroom before the performance. 7) Never throw anything in the theater. 4) Cameras and video are not allowed during a show.
Lights will dim indicating that the performance is beginning. This tells the audience to stop conversation and focus their attention on the stage. A person will come out and make an announcement before the performance begins with any special instructions for that show.
Respect the hard work of the performers. You may not enjoy every live performance you see. Nevertheless, we hope you will recognize that each performance requires a tremendous amount of dedication and practice on the part of the performers and those who work backstage making it all happen.
Give a standing ovation if you really enjoyed the performance. If you really enjoyed the performance, you are welcome to stand and applaud during the curtain call. This is called a standing ovation, and is reserved for performances you feel are truly outstanding!
AlphaBet Soup Productions
Entertaining & Educating Children of All Ages Since 1987!
PO Box 85 Lombard, IL 60148 | (630) 932-1555 |www.absproductions.com
STUDY GUIDE
Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Communication, Music & Dance, Teamwork, Family Values
Dear Educator,
As an organization that values the arts and education, we have created this Study Guide as a resource for teachers. Our Study Guides are designed to be a valuable tool for teachers in two ways: helping you to prepare your students and enriching and extending their performance experience.
Our goal is to serve principals, teachers and students in their pursuit of Illinois State Standards and to integrate the arts with your core curricular subjects. -- The ABS Team
Mission Statement: About Us:
AlphaBet Soup Productions exists to provide Chicago - Winner of the 2008 Illinois Theatre Association Award area youth, teachers, and their families a theatrical for Excellence in Theatre for Young Audiences experience that will entertain, inspire, and educate through our professional theatre company. - Winner of two National Children's Theatre Awards for the scripts Beauty and the Beast & The Jungle Book
Pre-Performance Questions
1. How many of you have experienced a live theater performance? What performance did you see?
2. What are some of the differences between going to the theater and watching television or going to a movie?
A. Theater features live on-stage actors. They have spent many weeks rehearsing for the performance. B. The audience is a very important part of the performance. Appreciation and enthusiasm for the performers is shown by close attention and participation and applause at the proper times. The success of the play often depends on the
audience.
C. The theater is a very special place. Its atmosphere is entirely different from your home where the television is always available.
D. It is easy to identify with live actors. You can see how they use their bodies and voices to convey different emotions. E. Actors wear clothing and make-up to help create the impression of the characters they play. F. There is much more to most live performances than actors. Special sets, effects, lighting, music, costumes, and of course, the audience add to the total experience.
3. Introduce your students to the following theatrical terms:
Box Office • Reserved Seats • Acts & Scenes • Producer • Program • Overture • Spotlights
• Costumes • Props • Director • Stage • Curtain Call • Stagehand • Lobby • Usher •
Musical Theater • Orchestra Pit • Proscenium arch • Playwright • Scenery • Makeup • Actor
• Balcony • Play
4. Discuss the role of the audience and proper theater etiquette.
A. Arrive on time so that you do not miss anything and so that you will not disturb the rest of the audience while trying to get comfortable in your seat. After the lights go out finding your seat is very difficult.
B. It is easier for you (and the rest of the audience) to see and hear the performance if you stay in your seat and listen very carefully.
C. In this theater you are not allowed to eat or chew gum. Not only does it ruin the theater, but it also distracts from your concentration. D. Try your best to remain in your seat once the performance has begun. In long performances, there will be an intermission. There is no intermission in a
performance of AlphaBet Soup Productions since they are less than one hour in
length.
E. Although you may wish to say something to the actors while they are on stage, you need to hold your thoughts. You may disturb their concentration.
F. Sing or participate if and only if you are invited to do so. Your participation is often very important.
G. Listen to how the music sets the moods and affects your own feelings.
H. Show the cast and crew your appreciation for their hard work with applause. Do this when you like a song or dance or joke at the end of the show.
About The Snow Queen History : x The Snow Queen is a classic fairy tale written Hans Christian Anderson first published in December of 1844.
x The story was originally written in Danish and has since been translated into hundreds of different adaptations.
x The most notable adaptation is the highly acclaimed Disney movie Frozen released in 2013.
About Hans Christian Anderson:
Hans Christian Anderson was a Danish author known for his plays, travelogues, novels, and poems. However, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales.
Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, and have become culturally embedded throughout the world. All of his stories present various lessons and themes that have been used as teach tools for centuries.
Some of his most famous fairy tales include The Emperor's New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, and many more.
His stories have inspired ballets, both animated and live-action films, and plays.
Post-Performance Questions
1. MUSIC
Was music used in the performance? Was it live or recorded? How could you tell? When was the music used? Why? Did it help develop the plot? What types of music was used, or was different types used?
Can you describe how different kinds of music would make you have different kinds of feelings?
When a play is a musical, an actor must have additional skills. Can you name some?
A musical costs much more to produce. Can you name some additional expenses? (i.e. orchestra members and director, a practice piano, a choreographer, etc.)
2. SETS
Describe the sets used in the play you just saw. What props or details were used to suggest specific times or settings? How could lighting be changed to create a mood, season, time of day, etc.? What materials might have been used in building the sets? How were the sets and props moved on and off the stage? Describe a simple scene (a day in school, a trip to the mall, a ride in the car or on the bus), ask students to describe a basic set for the scene.
3. COSTUMES
What would you need to know to create costumes for a play (Historical research, sewing, theatrical effects, etc.)?
Why is the right costume important to the character in the play?
4. DANCE
Describe the kind of dancing, if any, in the play. How is it different from the kinds of dancing that the class might know? What purposes could dance have in a play?
5. PRODUCTION
Make a list of all the personnel needed for a play. (director, actors, musicians, author, designers-set, costumes, lights & sound, stagehands, choreographer, producer, etc.)
Reading Standards for Literature Key Ideas and Details
1. With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text. 1. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text. 2. With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details. 2. Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding.
Coloring Page for The Snow Queen
Art & Writing Activity for The Snow Queen x Draw a picture of you favorite part of the story. Write what happens in that part of the story.
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Thinking of Themes
Objective: Using The Snow Queen, students become familiar with recognizing themes in a story.
Materials: Various adaptations of The Snow Queen. Vocabulary: Theme, Plot, Characters, Setting
Lesson: Discuss the meaning of theme?
A theme is an underlying message meaningfully created and connected to the story's plot, characters, and setting.
Ask students to take five minutes to think about the theme of the story in The Snow Queen
Think about what message the author was trying to send to the reader. Students can then share their opinions about the theme(s) of The Snow Queen. Themes will vary from students to student. Point out that sometimes a book is read for the first time and the reader forms an idea of the initial theme. Later, the same book is read again and a different theme emerges depending on the maturity of the reader.
Ask students to choose a particular theme and draw a picture of the scene in which the theme is best articulated to the reader.
Next, students should write a summary explaining the theme, how it is exemplified in the story, and what is drawn on the picture. Ask students to share their summaries and illustrations with the class.
Illinois Reading Standards for Literature Key Ideas and Details Grade 2- Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
Grade 3 Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
Writing Standard- Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.
Be a Dramatist
The Snow Queen was first written as a story by Hans Christian Anderson. When stories are written down, we are told them by the writer; when we see a play, stories are told by living characters on the stage in dialogue form.
Dialogue form is where you only write what is actually spoken by the people or characters in the story. Playwrights give the actors dialogue that tells us the story and lets us know all that we need to know so that we can follow the action.
Here is an extract from The Snow Queen. See if you can turn it into a play script in dialogue form. What things can you leave out of the story? What things do you have to add to make it make sense and be interesting?
"Kai and Gerda looked at the picture-book full of beasts and of birds; and it was then--the clock in the church-tower was just striking five--that Kai felt such a cold feeling in her heart.
Gerda was fearful, for she thought it might have been a piece of glass from the magic mirror."
What are the problems encountered by the dramatist when adapting a story for the stage? Which bits of the passage were easiest to adapt?
Which did you find were the most difficult?
Illinois Writing Standards
3b Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations.
Be an Actor
Actors have to be good at remembering – remembering their lines and remembering their moves. They also have to be able to change the way they talk and move to play different roles – with lots of people watching too! Some of our actors in our play have to play multiple different parts! Actors must also be good at speaking and singing clearly so that the audience can always hear what they are saying – otherwise they won’t be able to follow the story!
x Choose a character from The Snow Queen and make a list of words to describe them.
- How do they talk? How do the walk? Are they young or old?
- Are they smart? Silly? Friendly? Grumpy?
x Try walking around the room as each of these character types. How does playing a character make you walk differently? Now give them a voice – how do they talk?
x Improvise little scenes then see if you can swap characters and play the scenes again. How does it change?
Which character do you find it easier to be?
Illinois STATE GOAL 26: Through creating and performing, understand how works of art are produced.
Understand the tools of body, mind, voice and simple visual/aural media and the processes of planning, practicing and collaborating used to create or perform drama/theatre.
Fairy Tale Adaptations Advanced Activity
The story The Snow Queen is a very well known Fairy Tale written by Hans Christian Anderson.
Other Hans Christian Anderson stories include… The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, Thumbelina, and The Princess and the Pea.
Review the elements of a Fairy Tale (characters, setting, events and moral) with students.
Pre-writing Suggest that the students divide a piece of paper into two columns. In the first column, they should list the elements of a Fairy Tale; in the second column, they should list the characteristics of their chosen Fairy Tale that reflect these elements. Drafting Suggest that the students refer to their charts as they write their first drafts. Revising Students should work in pairs as they revise their drafts. Proofreading Remind students to check spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and word usage.
Work with students to develop a checklist or chart outlining the elements of a Fairy Tale and the outcomes desired when writing a Fairy Tale.
Updating a Fairy Tale
Review with students the Fairy Tales they have read. Before students proceed with writing steps, discuss different ways in which each Fairy Tale might be updated (for example, The Emperor's New Clothes might be set in a modern-day shopping mall). As students present their ideas for updating the story, write these ideas on the board to help the students who may have more difficulty imagining these Fairy Tales in a modern setting.
Prewriting Tell students to make these entries on a planning list: Characters (for example, a cat and a dog) Setting (for example, a vacant lot) Events (for example, a dog encounters a cat who has a piece of meat) Moral (for example, pick on animals your own size) Encourage students to follow the order of the original Fairy Tale or the order of events they listed and to begin writing a first draft.
Drafting Direct students to follow the order of the original story or the order of events they listed and to begin writing a first draft. Revising Have students pair up and help revise each other’s drafts, using the checklist or chart created with the help of the teacher. Proofreading Students should check spelling, capitalization, punctuation and word usage.
Writing an original Fairy Tale Using the stages of the writing process, have students write an original Fairy Tale that teaches one of the following morals: x Pride leads to a fall. x Don’t count your chickens before they x The grass is always greener on the hatch. other side. x Honesty is the best policy. x The early bird catches the worm. x You can’t judge a book by its cover. x Haste makes waste. x Look before you leap.
Before they begin writing, have students choose one of the Fairy Tales and determine the point or moral that it tries to make. If necessary, narrate a Fairy Tale with animal or human characters involved in the situation in which the moral applies. Remind students that the action of the plot leads up to the lesson of the moral.
When students complete the writing process for their Fairy Tale, have them split up into small groups to perform them. The author of each story should serve as the narrator, with other students portraying the key characters. Allow time for the students to rehearse.
Have students perform their Fairy Tales for the class!
Illinois Reading Standards for Literature
Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text. 26.B.2b Drama: Demonstrate actions, characters, narrative skills, collaboration, environments, simple staging and sequence of events and situations in solo and ensemble dramas. 26.B.2d Visual Arts: Demonstrate knowledge and skills to create works of visual art using problem solving, observing, designing, sketching and constructing.