Introduction

Mythical, magical, fantastical, idealistic, romantic, delightful, awe-inspiring – fairy tales have been childhood staples for many generations and similar versions of many of the most common stories appear in countries all around the world.

A fairy tale is a folkloric story, often with many magical creatures in it. Most fairy tales revolve around the ‘good versus evil’ battle, where the good always find ways to overpower the bad and emerge victorious.

However, many of the stories reflect the times and attitudes prevalent when they were written, and can seem very outdated today. The stereotypes presented in fairy tales can be limiting for children today, reenforcing perceptions of male and female roles that have evolved since the tales were first written.

Fairy tales can play a powerful role in shaping children’s perspectives about themselves and others, such as how males and females are “supposed” to behave, by reinforcing traditional ideals of femininity such as beauty, innocence and passivity.

These activities will further explore the themes and experience of watching Far ​ Away From Me, but also explore other common fairy tales with which children ​ are familiar. The show is inspired by the classic fairy tale The Princess & The Pea ​ but is in a contemporary setting. Many of the established conventions and ideas in the original story are questioned and reimagined.

The activities have been selected and adapted from our full classroom activity pack which links to aspects of the primary school curriculum. If you would like further activities you can download the full document for free here or check out ​ ​ part 1 of our at-home activities to accompany the show here. ​ ​

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About the Show:

Far Away From Me is a theatre show for ages 6+ by Amy Conroy, inspired by The ​ ​ Princess and the Pea and infused with the wild energy of aerial performance, ​ dance music and great storytelling.

Kevin is a little prince at least that’s what his mum tells him. …

Kevin likes the idea of this, of being a prince on a horse, a beautiful brown horse with a white splotch down his nose, and galloping across the kingdom. His kingdom.

From his bedroom behind the eighth door, on the eighth floor of a tall building (one of eight in a row), Kevin’s towering imagination takes him on some high-flying adventures. But there’s a storm coming and he needs to decide what’s real and what’s not real as his fast paced fantasies land with a spectacular bump right there on his bed.

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Activity 3: The News Report

What other ways can you tell the story?

1. Think of a fairy tale, and imagine if that story happened today. What would a news report, based on your fairy tale, sound like?

2. Write a news report, no more than 10 sentences, based on your fairy tale. Make sure to include the most important facts. You could watch RTÉ news2day for an example of a news report.

3. Perform your news report to whoever is at home with you. With your grown-up’s permission, you could even record it and send it to your friends or share it with us at The Ark!

4. Try out different news reports with different fairy tales.

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Activity 4: Crafty Characters

Part 1: Stock Characters

Think about the characters you often find in fairy tales. Do they fit any of the common stereotypes often found in these stories? For example:

The Feeble Father: He is dominated by his wife, often his second wife, the ​ stepmother to his children (see below – the evil stepmother) and as a result doesn’t stand up for or protect his children.

The Evil Stepmother: She attacks her stepchildren out of jealousy or natural ​ wickedness. She is often punished in horrific ways.

The Damsel in Distress: She is beautiful, innocent, and passive. Usually ​ someone or something attacks her and her response is to wait until she is rescued. She is usually rewarded for her good behaviour through marriage to a Prince.

The Handsome Prince: He is usually the hero who stumbles upon the Damsel in ​ Distress and saves her. If he is not a Prince, he is often a hunter and skilled with a sword.

The Witch: An old and ugly woman who punishes the innocent and is seen to be ​ cruel and wicked.

1. Can you draw pictures of some of these stock characters? What do they look like?

2. As a frozen statue, can you become one of these characters? What kind of gesture represents each of the above characters?

3. What does it feel like to become these characters?

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Part 2: Hot-Seating

Ask someone at home to do this activity with you.

Find out more about some of the characters from the stories - you are going to take on the role of one of the characters they played in the scene.

1. Choose characters which fit into the above stereotypes – here are some examples:

● the Damsel from Sleeping Beauty ​ ● the Prince from Cinderella ​ ● the Feeble Father - the father from Hansel and Gretel ​ ● the Evil Stepmother from Snow White ​ ● the Witch or Enchantress from Rapunzel ​

2. Sit in front of your partner. Your partner is going to ask you questions in order to find out as much as they can about your character. You might ask questions such as:

● What did you do in the story? ● How do you feel about what happened in the story? ● What do you think about the other characters in the story? ● What do you think the other characters think about you? ● How do you feel about what happened? ● What do you think will happen next? ● What do you think will happen for your character in the future?

3. You can imagine that one of you is a talk show host, and the character is a guest on the show. What kind of questions would you ask? You could also imagine that you are interviewing the character for a special news report. If there are more people at home, you can do this in small groups. For example, a talk show host could interview the two ugly sisters, asking them about what they think of Cinderella.

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We’d love to know how you get on with these at-home activities. Please let us know by asking a grown-up to email us at [email protected] or tag us ​ ​ @TheArkDublin and using the #TheArkAtHome with your drawings, photos or ​ ​ ​ anything you’d like to share!

Activities created by Joanna Parkes Cover images: The Ark/Aad. Photographs by Ros Kavanagh Illustrations by Eimhin MacNamara

The Ark’s Far Away From Me classroom activity pack was supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies ​ ​ Director/Employee Designated Gift Fund

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