Gathering Blue, and the Ways in Which Different Characters Have Power Over Each Other

Home , A Summer to Die, Gathering Blue, The Giver

TEACHER RESOURCE GUIDE April 30-May 17, 2013 Winningstad Theatre 2012-2013 1111 SW Broadway

Inside this guide

ABOUT: The Show, Author, and Playwright; The Big Ideas . . . . 2

Oregon Educational Standards ...... 3

Discussion and Writing Prompts ...... 4

Interview with playwright Eric Coble ...... 5

Activities 1. Who Has the Power? — Discuss and diagram the kinds of power and influence in Gathering Blue, and the ways in which different characters have power over each other...... 6

2. Creating the Future — Use current events connected to your social sciences curriculum as ways for students to think about ways that the arts can inspire social change. Students brainstorm artistic responses to issues, and if time, design a poster campaign. . . .7

3. The Singer’s Robe — How do symbols, colors, and patterns tell stories? Students create a square that visually expresses their identity, history, or a story about themselves. Then put the squares together to create a visual history of your class...... 8

4. Laws of the Village — What kind of government controls Kira’s Teacher Info & Important Dates world? How is the village run? Students work in small groups to Friday, March 15, 2013: Full balance due, create new laws and reforms that they think will make the village last day to reduce seats a more pleasant place for its citizens to live...... 9

Friday, April 26, 7pm: Teacher preview Reading List and Online Resources ...... 10

Length: 75 minutes OCT School Services ...... 12

Location: Winningstad Theatre

Based on the book Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry. Adapted by Eric Coble. Co-commissioned with First Stage Children’s Theatre (Milwaukee, WI). Directed by Stan Foote. Teacher resource guide by Allison Davis.

1 About The Big Ideas

• It is important to use compassion and empathy to look The Show beyond surfaces and appearances.

athering Blue, the second book in Lois Lowry’s Giver quartet, • One way to evaluate a society is to examine how it treats G introduces a future dominated by raw human needs and a those who are disadvantaged. massive gulf between those with power and those without. Kira’s leg is twisted and useless—but she is an exceptional weaver. Her • Being different or an outsider can offer a unique and mother has died, leaving her weak and alone in a village that takes special perspective. pity on no one. She is captured by the Council of Guardians to • Cultures use the arts to tell stories, preserve their weave the Singer’s Robe, a precious ceremonial garment depict- history, and articulate their values and ways of life. ing the Council’s version of the history of their world. Her job brings her closer to the inner circle of her repressive government • The arts can be used to enhance our compassion, our and its horrifying secrets. As she weaves the story of the past, humanity, and to create change in our society. can she use her knowledge to help shape the future?.

Gathering Blue is the third world premiere collaboration between Oregon Children’s Theatre and Lois Lowry, and continues our mission of new play development

The Author, Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry is a preeminent voice in contemporary children’s literature, with a canon of more than thirty books for readers of all ages, including the Newbery Medal recipients Number the Stars and The Giver. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader Medal, the Mark Twain Award, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award, which honors an author for their lifetime contribution to young adult literature. Ms. Lowry now divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a 1768 farmhouse in Maine.

The Playwright, Eric Coble

Eric Coble was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and raised on the Navajo and Ute reservations in New Mexico and Colorado. His plays include The Giver, The Storm in the Barn, Bright Ideas, Natural Selection and For Better, and have been produced Off-Broadway, throughout the U.S., and on several continents. Awards include an Emmy nomination, the AT&T Onstage Award, National Theatre Conference Playwriting Award, an NEA Playwright in Residence Grant, a TCG Extended Collaboration Grant, the Cleveland Arts Prize, and three Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Grants.

2 Oregon Educational Standards

Arts: Create, Present, Perform Social Sciences: Social Science Analysis: Design and implement AR.05.CP.01, AR.08.CP.01 Create, present and perform works strategies…to analyze issues, explain perspectives and of art. resolve issues using the social sciences. AR.05.CP.02, AR.08.CP.02 Apply the use of ideas, technique 5.23 Identify characteristics of an event, issue or problem, and problem solving to the creative process and analyze the suggesting possible causes and results. influence that choices have on the result. 6.22 Gather, interpret, document and use information from AR.05.CP.03, AR.08.CP.03 Express ideas, moods, and feelings multiple sources, distinguishing facts from opinions, and rec- through the arts and evaluate how well a work of art expresses ognizing points of view. one’s intent. 7.25 Analyze evidence from multiple sources. AR.05.CP.04, AR.08.CP.04 Evaluate one’s own work, orally and 8.26 Examine a controversial event, issue or problem from in writing. more than one perspective. 8.27 Examine the various characteristics, causes and effects Language Arts: Literature: Key Ideas and Details of an event, issue or problem. 6.RL.2—8.RL.2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development. 4.RL.3—7.RL.3 Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

Social Sciences: Civics and Government: Understand and apply knowledge about governmental and political systems, and the rights and responsibilities of citizens. 5.13 Describe and summarize how colonial and new states’ governments affected groups within their population. 5.14 Compare and contrast tribal forms of government, mon- archy, and early American colonial governments. 6.17 Compare and contrast early forms of government via the study of ancient civilizations. 7.16 Describe the role of citizens in various governments in the Eastern Hemisphere. 7.17 Compare and contrast early forms of government via the study of early civilizations in the Eastern Hemisphere. 8.14 Explain rights and responsibilities of citizens. 8.21 Analyze important political and ethical values such as freedom, democracy, equality, and justice.

3 Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts

1. Why do you think Katrina has the courage to stand up to the 16. After meeting her father, why does Kira choose to stay in her villagers and save Kira when she’s born? village? Would you have made the same choice?

2. When Kira is orphaned, she is threatened with death by 17. How do you think Kira will change her village? How do you Vandara and brought before the Council of Guardians to plead think she will create these changes? Make some predictions her case. Describe the strength that she displays in front of about what will happen after Gathering Blue ends. the Council. Are there other times in Gathering Blue in which she acts strong or courageous? Explain. Writing Prompts 3. How do the villagers treat their children? How is this different 1. Write a letter from Kira to her father, or from her father to Kira, from Kira’s upbringing? that is set after the end of Gathering Blue. 4. How is Kira an outsider in her society? Do you think that there 2. Write a description of what you think the Guardians want Kira are good things about being an outsider? Explain. to weave into the Singer’s Robe. Be specific. Next, write a 5. Describe Matt and Kira’s relationship. How do they help each description of what kind of design Kira might weave. How are other? What does each person offer the other? these visions different?

6. Why do you think Annabella tells Kira that there are no 3. Imagine that five years have passed since the end of Gathering beasts? When Kira asks Jamison about this, how does he Blue. Make some predictions about what has happened to respond? Do you think that incident is connected to Kira, Matt, Thomas and Jo over those years. Annabella’s death? 4. What art form would you choose to use to tell your own 7. Compare and contrast the differences between the ways that history or story, and why? the villagers live and the Guardians live. What does this tell 5. Look up the definition of ‘dystopia.’ Do you think Gathering you about this society? Blue meets the criteria for a dystopian society? Support 8. How do the Guardians treat Kira? At what point in the story your answers. does Kira realize she isn’t really free? What do you think is the 6. Do readers ever find out what happened during the Ruin? List definition of freedom? what you do know from the book. Next, research an ancient 9. What do Kira, Thomas, and Jo all have in common? What are civilization on the internet or at the library: the Maya, the the Guardians trying to get them to do? Aztec, the Ottoman Empire, the Celts, etc. and write about how they lived and whether or not that ancient culture 10. Kira refers to blue as the color of freedom. What do you think experienced some kind of catastrophe like a Ruin. blue represents in the play? Is it significant that it’s missing from Kira’s world? Explain. 7. Gathering Blue is a novel written from Kira’s perspective that contains her inner monologue. How does that choice impact 11. What is the difference between having a skill and being the book? What do you think the book would be like if another an artist? character’s inner monologue was also included? Choose a 12. What is the purpose behind the Gathering? What is the role scene from the book and rewrite it from another character’s of the Singer? What is the purpose of the Singer’s robe point of view (Jamison, Matt, Jo, Thomas, Kira’s father, etc.). and staff? 8. How do you think an internal monologue, which is not spoken 13. What do you think happened during the Ruin? aloud, could be incorporated into a play onstage? Brainstorm a list of ways that playwright Eric Coble and director Stan 14. Do you think the Guardians present a truthful version of what Foote could incorporate Kira’s thoughts in such a way that the happened during the Ruin? Why or why not? audience can understand what she’s thinking.

15. What terrible thing does Kira realize during the Gathering, and why is she so upset?

4 Interview with playwright Eric Coble

How did you become involved in theater writing is in trying to follow Lois Lowry’s style. She has a par- and playwriting? ticular way with dialogue that is not exactly my own, so to tell her I’ve been telling stories since I was in pre-school. I wrote and story, I try to tell it using the words and rhythms she would. I like drew my own comic books all the way through middle-school, this, as it lets me pretend to be someone else for a while. learning how to write dialogue and work on timing and suspense without even knowing I was doing it. Then in high school I started Can you talk a little bit about your writing acting in plays, loved that, did that right through college where I process? How do you get started? How do you keep going if you get stuck? How do you also started writing plays. I found out I love creating the whole revise your work? world of the play, and when my children were born it became easier for me to stay home with them and write (while trying to When I’m working on an original script (not an adaptation like keep an eye on them…) than to run off to audition as an actor. I Gathering Blue), getting started is the hardest part for me. I some- was lucky enough to find some theaters (like OCT) who would times dread a blank sheet of paper (I write all first drafts long hand, produce my work, and I’ve been able to make a living at it for then type them in as a second draft – just my peculiarity). I start about 15 years now. with the questions I asked earlier: what does this person want? How are they trying to get it? I start writing dialogue and see Do you have a favorite character in Gathering where it goes. Frequently, about a page or two into a scene, some- Blue, and why? thing totally unexpected will come out of the character’s mouth It was really fun to write Matt; he’s such a ball of uncivilized and that delights me and shows me why I’m writing this scene and energy. I loved finding out how Kira could show her strength. where it might lead next. Vandara is a GREAT way to start the story and fun to write. And Sometimes I plan out a whole play before starting to write, but finding ways to lay in Jamison’s true motives and keep him human recently I’ve just had an opening idea, or a few scenes, which I was a great challenge. They’re all very rich and layered. write and let it lead me to the end. Kind of scary, but kind of thrilling (when it’s working. Kind of frustrating when it’s not, but I keep The novel Gathering Blue contains a great deal going). If I get too stuck, I switch to another scene with different of Kira’s internal thoughts and reflections on her society. How did you work this inner characters, or the same characters in different situations. I think monologue into the script so that the audience it’s important to write SOMETHING every day, even if it turns out knows what she’s thinking and feeling? to be nothing you can ultimately use. Writing is a muscle that needs to be worked regularly, to be ready when you need it. I This was a great challenge, both for this show and The Giver. revise a little bit along the way, but usually not anything major until Since we spend all of both books inside the minds of the lead I’ve completed a first draft and heard it out loud with friends. Only characters, what does that look like on the outside for an audi- then do I kind of begin to know what I’ve created and how to make ence? Much of it is in her dialogue, what she chooses to say and it do even more of what I hope it will do. how she says it, as well as a dream sequence or two. I think we learn a lot just from watching her react to the others around her. Do you have any tips for young people We can fill in the gaps of what she must be thinking, as we do interested in writing plays? with characters in so many stories. Write, write, write! Every day if possible. Write until you develop You also adapted The Giver for the stage. your voice, your individual voice that sounds not-quite-like-any- Both plays are set in worlds very different one-else. And then keep writing, cause that’s when it gets really from our own. Do you find it challenging to good. The more you do, not only will your best work get better, but adapt novels set in these dystopian settings? even your bad work will get better, so when you’re having a bad Does it change your style of writing? writing day you may still come up with something great. But that only comes with practice. Go see plays! Figure out how they work. I’ve written several original plays that are set in not-so-nice Get to know actors and directors who will help bring your words to futures, so I don’t have a fear of living in those worlds for a few life. Keep writing even when it seems like nobody wants to see or hours at a time. The way I tell the story is the same. What do the hear or read what you’re creating. ALL writers feel like this some- characters want? What are they willing to do to get it? To create times. You just have to keep going in the dark, trusting, writing good drama, those are the questions writers need to ask about something YOU want to see. Eventually you’ll find someone else people who lived 500 years ago, live today in your neighborhood, who wants to help make that world come to life. Keep at it. or live 1000 years in the future. The only change in my style of

5 Who Has the Power?

Overview

Kira’s society is often ruthless, with those who have power wield- “They just gave us ing it over those without. Students diagram the characters and social classes in Gathering Blue and discuss ways in which differ- power, and now it’s ent characters have different kinds of power over one another. time to use it.” Grade Level 4-8

Standards Instructions Language Arts: Literature: Key Ideas and Details 6.RL.2—8.RL.2 Determine central ideas 1. Prep: Prepare small work groups if needed. Distribute blank or themes of a text and analyze their paper and markers for charting. development. 2. Prompt: Have students reflect on the social structure of Kira’s 4.RL.3—7.RL.3 Analyze how and why individuals, events, village. Who is the least powerful? Who is the most powerful? and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. 3. Power: Independently or in small groups, have students dia- Length gram this social structure as if they are drawing a food chain, 20-30 minutes placing the least powerful groups of the society at the bottom (the inhabitants of the Fen, children, the weak, ill or disabled) Materials and the most powerful groups at the top (the elderly, the Markers or colored pens Guardians, etc). Are there groups in between? Where do the characters (Kira, Jamison, Thomas, Jo, Matt, Annabella, Paper and pencil Vandara, etc.) fit into this chain? Have students label characters’ places on their diagrams.

4. Reflect: Ask students to reflect on why and how different characters have power over others (for example, Vandara has power over others in the village because she’s physically strong, Annabella is powerful because of her intelligence and defiance, etc.). Have students compare and contrast two different characters, and examples of their power in the story. Do the characters they’ve chosen use their power for the greater good of others, or for self-serving purposes? Are there different ways to have power over others? Students can either reflect on these questions in discussion or written response.

6 Creating the Future

Overview 2. Prompt: With students, discuss the following quotation from Gathering Blue: The three of them—the new little Singer who The Guardians in Gathering Blue use art to pass down the history would one day take the chained Singer’s place; Thomas the that keeps the population of their society in check. Students talk Carver, who with his meticulous tools wrote the history of the about these arts, and why Kira realizes that she and the other art- world; and she herself, the one who colored that history—they ists in the story can create a new future. Next, they look at current were the artists who could create the future (p. 212). Ask stu- events in the news or issues you’ve been studying in your social dents why these arts are so powerful and have the ability to sciences curriculum, and brainstorm ways that an art form could create change. What kinds of change do they think Kira imag- help change such problems or issues. If you have time, use these ines for her village? ideas and writing as a jumping-off point for a visual arts project in which students can create a poster about an issue of their choice. 3. Get Current: Allow time for students to examine the news materials you’ve prepared. Either independently or in small Grade Level groups, ask them to choose one issue raised in these materials (for example, world hunger, a war or political disagreement, 5-8 environmental conservation, animal rights, freedom of speech).

Standards 4. Discuss: Ask students to discuss in groups or journal about Social Sciences: Social Science Analysis: Design the following questions: and implement strategies…to analyze issues, • What issue did you choose and why? explain perspectives and resolve issues using the social sciences. • What is your position or what do you believe about 5.23 Identify characteristics of an event, issue or problem, this issue? suggesting possible causes and results. 6.22 Gather, interpret, document and use information from • How could you use an art form to further your position? multiple sources, distinguishing facts from opinions, and rec- What kind of art would you choose? ognizing points of view. 7.25 Analyze evidence from multiple sources. Extension 8.26 Examine a controversial event, issue or problem from If you have time, allow access to paper, art supplies, markers, more than one perspective. paints, collage supplies, and invite students to create a poster or 8.27 Examine the various characteristics, causes and effects other visual work designed to illustrate the issue they chose and of an event, issue or problem. the potential for change.

Length 30-45 minutes “The guardians with Materials their stern faces had no Paper and pencil

Newspapers, magazines, or other sources with articles about cur- creative power. But they rent events had strength and cunning, Optional: large art or poster paper, colored pencils, markers, paints, collage supplies, or other art materials and they had found a way

Instructions to describe the future they

1. Prep: Gather some newspapers or magazines with articles wanted, not the one that about local, national or international current events, or prepare a collection of articles about a topic connected to your could be.” social sciences curriculum.

7 The Singer’s Robe

Overview Instructions

The Singer’s robe, which Kira has been chosen to repair and 1. Prep: Prepare all art materials in advance. weave, tells the story of the history of her people. Students create individual collages/visual arts pieces that tell about their personal 2. Prompt: Discuss the Singer’s robe with students. What is its history or identity, that are then combined into a large classroom purpose? What is depicted in the woven fabric? Discuss the piece. Students also create accompanying artist’s statements purpose of preserving history in this way. Why has Kira been that explain their work. charged with caring for the robe, and what is she expected to do? Does Kira have a different idea about what she might do? Grade Level 3. Weave: Explain to students that they’ll be creating a square 4-8 for a larger ‘classroom robe’ that depicts your classroom’s identity, history, and community. Encourage students to Standards brainstorm images, symbols, patterns, and colors that depict Arts: Create, Present, Perform their personal stories, identities and histories. Use collage or AR.05.CP.01, AR.08.CP.01 Create, present and art materials and allow students time to create their squares. perform works of art. 4. Reflect: Ask each student to draft an artist’s statement, AR.05.CP.02, AR.08.CP.02 Apply the use of explaining their choices in creating their square, and what dif- ideas, technique and problem solving to the creative process ferent colors, images, symbols, words, or patterns represent. and analyze the influence that choices have on the result. AR.05.CP.03, AR.08.CP.03 Express ideas, moods, and feelings 5. Display: Use the squares to create a larger ‘woven’ history through the arts and evaluate how well a work of art expresses in your classroom by attaching them to a large piece of one’s intent. butcher paper. AR.05.CP.04, AR.08.CP.04 Evaluate one’s own work, orally and in writing. Length “This robe contains the Varies entire story of our world Materials Magazines and newspapers for collage (either bring in or ask stu- laid out in thread. dents to bring magazines in for a class collection) We must keep it intact. Other art materials: markers, paints, scraps of colored paper, other collage materials, ribbon or mixed media, etc. More than intact.” Scissors

Glue sticks

Large squares of paper (one per student)

Length of butcher paper

8 The Laws of the Village

Overview Instructions

What kind of society does Kira live in? What kind of government is 1. Prep: If needed, assign students to small groups in advance of in charge, and how do her fellow villagers treat one another? In the activity. this activity, students work in groups to create laws and reforms for Kira’s village, along with consequences for infractions. 2. Prompt: Ask students what they think of Kira’s village. Do they Students should be thinking about how law and reform can make think it would be a pleasant place to live? How are conflicts a society a better place to live, citizens’ responsibilities, and their solved? Do students think the village could be reformed? existing knowledge of government and its responsibilities. What kind of government rules this society? Explain to students that they will be working in small groups to decide on Grade Level laws to govern Kira’s home village using their existing knowledge of government and the rights and responsibilities of 5-8 citizens.

Standards 3. Brainstorm: Divide students into groups. Each group should Social Sciences: Civics and Government: draft a list of laws that citizens of the village must follow (stu- Understand and apply knowledge about gov- dents should draft between five and ten laws). Students ernmental and political systems, and the should also discuss ideas for punishment if citizens break rights and responsibilities of citizens. these laws and brainstorm ideas for mediating disagreements 5.13 Describe and summarize how colonial and new states’ between citizens. governments affected groups within their population. 4. Present: Have each group present their laws to the class. 5.14 Compare and contrast tribal forms of government, mon- Note any similarities or recurring laws that occur across archy, and early American colonial governments. groups. What kind of society and style of government did 6.17 Compare and contrast early forms of government via the each group envision? study of ancient civilizations. 7.16 Describe the role of citizens in various governments in the Eastern Hemisphere. 7.17 Compare and contrast early forms of government via the “Something happens when study of early civilizations in the Eastern Hemisphere. 8.14 Explain rights and responsibilities of citizens. I work with the threads. 8.21 Analyze important political and ethical values such as freedom, democracy, equality, and justice. They seem to know Length things on their own, and 45 minutes my fingers simply follow.” Materials Paper and pencil

9 Reading List Dystopian Novels Young people with special or uncanny talents The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. In the year 241, twelve-year- Cam Jansen: The Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds by David A. old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run Adler; illustrated by Susanna Natti. A fifth-grader with a photo- to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to graphic memory and her friend Eric help solve the mystery of the glimpse Unknown Regions. stolen diamonds.

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. To free herself from an upcoming From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler; [written and arranged marriage, Claudia, the daughter of the Warden of illustrated by] E.L. Konigsburg; with a 35th anniversary afterward Incarceron, a futuristic prison with a mind of its own, decides to by the author. Having run away with her younger brother to live in help a young prisoner escape. the Metropolitan Museum of Art, twelve-year-old Claudia strives to keep things in order in their new home and to become a changed Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix. In a future where person and a heroine to herself. the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke has lived all his twelve years in isolation and fear on Savvy by Ingrid Law. Recounts the adventures of Mibs Beaumont, his family’s farm, until another “third” convinces him that the gov- whose thirteenth birthday has revealed her “savvy”--a magical ernment is wrong. power unique to each member of her family--just as her father is injured in a terrible accident. The Giver by Lois Lowry. Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trent Lee Stewart; illustrated shared by only one other in his community and discovers the ter- by Carson Ellis. After passing a series of mind-bending tests, four rible truth about the society in which he lives. children are selected for a secret mission that requires them to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, Protagonists with artistic gifts where the only rule is that there are no rules. The Chalk Box Kid by Clyde Robert Bulla; illustrated by Thomas B. Nerd Camp by Elissa Brent Weissman. For ten-year-old Gabe, the Allen. Nine-year-old Gregory’s house does not have room for a Summer Center for Gifted Enrichment is all that he dreamed it garden, but he creates a surprising and very different garden in an would be, but he must work hard to write about the fun in letters to unusual place. Zack, his cool future stepbrother, without revealing that it is a The Invention of Hugo Cabret: a Novel in Words and Pictures by camp for “nerds.” Brian Selznick. When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, Strong female protagonists meets a mysterious toyseller and his goddaughter, his undercover Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm. As the only girl in a life and his biggest secret are jeopardized. Finnish American family of seven brothers, May Amelia Jackson resents being expected to act like a lady while growing up in The Fantastic Journey of Pieter Bruegel by Anders C. Shafer. For Washington state in 1899. over two years in the mid-1500s, Pieter Bruegel keeps a journal of his trip from his home in Antwerp, The Netherlands, to Rome, Alanna: the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce. Eleven-year-old where he studies art before returning home again. Alanna, who aspires to be a knight even though she is a girl, dis- guises herself as a boy to become a royal page, learning many Mozart: The Boy Who Changed the World With His Music by hard lessons along her path to high adventure. Marcus Weeks. At 5 years old, he composed a minuet. By six, he was performing for royalty. The compelling story of Wolfgang Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. Bored with traditional Amadeus Mozart is a timeless tale of musical genius, its rewards, palace life, a princess goes off to live with a group of dragons and and its pitfalls. soon becomes involved with fighting against some disreputable wizards who want to steal away the dragons’ kingdom.

10 Other books by Lois Lowry Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry. Anastasia’s tenth year has some Online Resources good things like falling in love and really getting to know her grand- mother and some bad things like finding out about an impending Lois Lowry’s official website and blog baby brother. www.loislowry.com

Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry; illustrated by Middy Thomas. A Recent New York Times Magazine profile of Lowry most unusual new student who loves to be the center of attention www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/magazine/lois-lowry-the- entertains her teacher and fellow second graders by telling abso- childrens-author-who-actually-listens-to-children. lutely true stories about herself, including how she got her name. html?pagewanted=all

A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry; illustrated by Jenni Oliver. Scholastic’s Online Reading Club features an online Thirteen-year-old Meg envies her sister’s beauty and popularity. discussion in which Lowry herself answers young people’s Her feelings don’t make it any easier for her to cope with Molly’s questions. strange illness and eventful death. www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/ lois-lowry-interview-transcript Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. In 1943, during the German occu- pation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be Publisher’s website for the Giver quarter. brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend www.hmhbooks.com/thegiverquartet from the Nazis. The Huffington Post interviews Lowry, who reflects on Provided by: dystopian novels, banned books, and more. www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/lois-lowry-the- giver-son_n_1940969.html

11 OCT School Services Teacher Preview Night and Workshops Educational Theatre Program Book your tickets, then mark your calendar to join us for the preview night for Gathering Blue and observe OCT’s final dress The Educational Theatre rehearsal. Professional development workshops are offered Program is a collaboration throughout the year. RSVP by contacting [email protected]. between Oregon Children’s Theatre and Kaiser Perma- nente, offering engaging In-School Residencies theatrical productions promoting healthy life choices to schools and communities for FREE. Loud and Clear Loud and Clear is a four week program designed to help students Now Booking for Winter/Spring 2013: meet standards in public speaking. An experienced OCT instruc- Texting the Sun tor leads students through theater exercises which demonstrate This relevant, thought-provok- proven techniques of oral presentation. Students receive clear, ing production spotlights the constructive feedback in this experiential and positive learning challenges of navigating our environment. For more information, log on to www.octc.org/ media-saturated reality. News schoolservices/loudandclear. cycles, advertising campaigns, social sites, video games, cell Read, Write, Act phones, and instant messaging Over five weeks, students learn to adapt a piece of written litera- all compete for our attention. ture into a story for the stage. Work with our instructors to select Texting the Sun explores the the book you want to work with and determine learning goals. dilemmas posed by this relentless barrage of media influences Students read the book, dramatize key scenes that tell the story, through the eyes of adolescents. and create scripts. The residency culminates in a staged reading. For more information, visit www.octc.org/schoolservices/ FREE! Created for Grades 6-8 readwriteact. Tours February 5 – April 12, 2013 To book your performance, visit www.etpnorthwest.com. Teacher Liaisons

OCT invites teachers who have an interest in theater arts to join the OCT Teacher Liaison Program. OCT seeks to develop relation- All field trips performed at ships with teachers who are willing to be an arts advocate at their school, provide colleagues with information about OCT and offer Hatfield Hall input on OCT programs. Liaisons are invited to special events throughout the year and receive behind–the-scenes information. 1111 SW Broadway If you are interested in joining the OCT Teacher Liaison network, please email [email protected].