Study Guide For All Patrons About the Author & Story 1 About the Play’s Director 2 Going from Page to Stage 2-4 Themes to Discuss & Write About 5-6 Did you know??? 6 Theatre Etiquette 11 Performance Evaluation 12 Especially for K-5 Patrons 1,2,3 Iguana Math 7 Seeking Hidden Words 8 For Middle School Patrons Creating Your Own Just So Story 9 Tiger eats 4.68 Antelopes! Jungle Word Problems 10 Information to Grow Students’ Understanding & Appreciation of The Jungle Book About Rudyard Kipling and his Stories Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was a newspaper. born in Bombay, India (called Mumbai now) He found, to to British Colonial parents. He and his sister his surprise, Alice, who was three years younger, spent upon seeing the majority of their time being raised by once familiar Indian nannies, hearing stories in their native Indian sights language and exploring the bustling street and sounds, markets. Kipling began to speak his nanny’s that native language better than English which led to his words, whose parents deciding to send him away “home” meanings he to England to be educated when he was six. could not remember, But Kipling never forgot the sights, sounds came (and smells!) of the busy city and its many tumbling out different kinds of people such as Anglos, of his mouth! He began to learn so much Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Jews that about the people, who welcomed him to inspired the tapestry of his writings. the country, that he wrote Tales from the While studying in England, young Rudyard Hills, which became a hit in Britain. had to stay with a woman named Mrs. Kipling became a celebrity with his book’s Holloway who was so mean that she success and moved to America, where he wouldn’t let him read and often bullied him. met his So Kipling had to disguise the fact that he wife was reading so much by dragging furniture Carrie. on his bedroom floor so it would sound like Not long he was playing instead. after Still, he continued to Kipling dream of the sounds, moved, textures and ideas he wrote of India. Since his The family could not Jungle afford to send Book. His him to college, father, he returned to his who was birthplace at the a museum 1 age of 17 and began curator work as a writer at and art teacher in India, did the Josephine. He especially always loved writing original illustrations for The for children, and even wrote a second Jungle Jungle Book and several Book! of his son’s other books. He continued to write and publish right Though the story of up until his death at the age of 71, but not Mowgli and his animal before earning the Nobel Prize in Literature in friends is among his 1907. He traveled the world, and though his most famous works, personal life was often marked by tragedy, his Rudyard Kipling was work continued to be imbued with a sense of a prolific poet and adventure, humor and wonder. novelist; he wrote many different This play is a brand new version of Jungle books like Book is faithful to Rudyard Kipling’s original Barrack-Room depiction of the law and power of the jungle, Ballads and his filled with famous characters who believe Just So Stories. in the integrity of a community. While the famous Disney cartoon – with its goofy, The Just So Stories singing Baloo the Bear and lisping Kaa – is explained why funny and musical, the original story has an animals look the elegance of language and sense of mystery way they do, and that WQ has tried to recapture on the stage. Kipling loved reading Be prepared to open up your imagination for them to his daughter a new -- non-Disney -- experience in the lush jungles of India! About the Director Gay H. Hammond is Director of WonderQuest and Resident Dramatist of the Gainesville Theatre Alliance. Repeat WonderQuest patrons will recognize her as the playwright who directed and penned the script for last year’s Mermaid Song and as the lady who gives away a T-shirt to some lucky student at each performance. Ms. Hammond has been working in theatre for over 35 years and, in that time, has written 35 plays, both for young and general audiences. She loves children’s literature (she is really good at reading a story and making different voices for all the characters!) and she loves to write plays for children. Some of her favorite plays include Sophie and the Pirates, Sleeping Beauty, Stone Soup and Alice in Wonderland. She loves to play with words and is also the long- time Wordsmith and Emcee for the Hall County Literacy Spelling Bee! Ms. Hammond originally adapated The Jungle Book for the stage 10 years ago, and hopes the play will encourage children and their parents to take a look at Kiplings original stories -- because he wrote LOTS of them long before the Disney company ever made a movie. Reading the original stories helps us create pictures in our minds of just how things should look, and reading aloud is a great thing for families to do together. Read below to learn how our designers consulted the 2 book and Ms. Hammond’s script to create the world of the jungle. Creating the transformation from story book to deepest, darkest India So, once the decision is made about what One aspect of taking the story from page play to do, what next? How does the play to stage is designing scenery that helps go from storybook to a make-believe world the audience to feel like they are looking on stage? How do scenery, costumes and into a LIVE storybook. WonderQuest was character accents, posture and body language fortunate that as part of the University of help you understand the story? North Georgia and Brenau University, there are students with design skills to help create the story visually. UNG senior Emma Hoffbauer has already won numerous awards for her work regionally, and created the Jungle Book design after reading the script and talking with the director, She then began researching jungles in India and similar environments. Emma created a set that has lots of different levels, where different groups of “animals” will gather, and numerous ways for actors to enter and exit the story -- some entrances will be surprising to you! Here are some of Emma’s research pictures for The Jungle Book -- can you see where she may have been inspired to create the design that is painted on the floor? 3 We have two professionals collaborating on costume design this year; women who have been collaborating all of their lives! Isabell and Moriah Curley-Clay are twins who do both costume and scenic design for many Atlanta theatres as well as for film and TV. Isabell and Moriah begin their design process with a thorough reading and analysis of the script to determine who all the characters and and what their relationships to one another. One question they ask ourselves is “what is really going on” for the key moments that pop out t as having a strong significance in the story, and then think about what we can do with the design to highlight thosoe moments. They also talk with with directors and choreographers about how do the costumes need to function. For something like Jungle Book requiring lots of animal movement, the costumes are designed to be either loose or snug but stretchy. The colors often relate to the designers’ emotional reaction to the characters, but are also created to contrast with the set. Isabel and Moriah NEVER look at other designers work for their productions, because they don’t want someone else’s work to be in their mind while they are creating. Even if you don’t mean for them to images get stuck in your head and you can subconsciously end up copying elements of what you’ve seen. Isabel and Moriah Curley-Clay created drawings, called renderings, of all the costumes, which are used by the costume shop to purchase fabric 4 and sew costumes that are tailored to the exact measurements of the actors. Ideas to DISCUSS & WRITE about BEFORE the play Teachers: You can combine your language your family? How is the leader in your family like arts studies with preparation for the play by Akela, keeping the family fed and safe? discussing and having your students write about some of these themes of The Jungle Book and a a a Rudyard Kipling. This would be especially valuable after having read (or listening to) some of the short stories that make up the Jungle Book rather than the movies! Good listening here: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=lEGFZ7bCxmw a a a One theme in The Jungle Book is about the importance of family. Mowgli is adopted by a The monkey’s names in our play (Rudyard Kipling pack of wolves and they really treat did not give the monkeys names in his original him as one of their own -- an stories), Zolu, Stargha and Guag, mean “mouth, adopted brother whom ears and nose” in Hindi, an Indian language? This they love and trust. Akela, choice of names refers to the old saying “see no the father wolf and evil; hear no evil; speak no evil” which is often head of the pack, depicted using monkeys. Does your name have a teaches Mowgli meaning? If you were writing this story, what are and the other cubs some names you could choose for the monkey trio to work together to show they belong together and are silly? to find food and stay safe.