Circus Oz Study Guide 1011.Indd
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2010–2011 SEASON SchoolTime Study Guide Circus Oz Friday, October 8, 2010 at 11 a.m. Zellerbach Hall, University of California, Berkeley Welcome to SchoolTime On Friday, October 8 at 11:00 a.m., your class will attend a performance by Circus Oz of Austrailia. Along with traditional circus acts of juggling, tumbling, and balancing,g, Circus Oz performs daring physical feats in their distinctive style, mixedxed with Aussie humor and original live music. Using This Study Guide This study guide is designed to engage your students with the performance and enrich their fi eld trip to Zellerbach Hall. Before coming to the performance, we encourage you to: • Copy the student resource sheet on pages 2-3 and hand it out to your students several days before the show. • Discuss the information on pages 4-7 about the performance and the artists with your students. • Read to your students from About the Art Form on page 8-10 and About Australia on page 12-14. • Assign two or more of the activities on pages 15-17 to your students. • Refl ect with your students by asking them guiding questions, which you can fi nd on pages 4,6,8, and 12. • Immerse students further into the art form by using the resource and glossary sections on pages 17-18. At the performance: Students can actively participate during the performance by: • OBSERVING how the performers use their bodies, and how they work together • NOTICING how the music, lights and sound are used to enhance the acts • MARVELING at the skill, technique and preparation required by the performers • THINKING ABOUT all the ways circus is a theatrical art • REFLECTING on the sounds and sights experienced at the theater. We look forward to seeing you at SchoolTime! SchoolTime Circus Oz | Table of Contents 1. Theater Etiquette 1 2. Student Resource Sheet 2 3. About the Performance 4 4. About the Artists 6 5. About the Art Form 8 6. About Australia 12 7. Learning Activities 15 8. Glossary 18 9. California State Standards 19 About SchoolTime 20 The essence of The Circus is probably diversity “ combined with cooperation— a lesson for the planet. — Circus Oz ” | SchoolTime Circus Oz 1 Theater Etiquette Be prepared and arrive early. Ideally you should arrive at the theater 30 to 45 minutes before the show. Allow for travel time and parking, and plan to be in your seats at least 15 minutes before the performance begins. Be aware and remain quiet. The theater is a “live” space—you can hear the performers easily, but they can also hear you, and you can hear other audience members, too! Even the smallest sounds, like rustling papers and whispering, can be heard throughout the theater, so it’s best to stay quiet so that everyone can enjoy the performance without distractions. The international sign for “Quiet Please” is to silently raise your index fi nger to your lips. Show appreciation by applauding. Applause is the best way to show your enthusiasm and appreciation. Performers return their appreciation for your attention by bowing to the audience at the end of the show. It is always appropriate to applaud at the end of a performance, and it is customary to continue clapping until the curtain comes down or the house lights come up. Participate by responding to the action onstage. Sometimes during a performance, you may respond by laughing, crying or sighing. By all means, feel free to do so! Appreciation can be shown in many different ways, depending upon the art form. For instance, an audience attending a string quartet performance will sit very quietly, while the audience at a gospel concert may be inspired to participate by clapping and shouting. Concentrate to help the performers. These artists use concentration to focus their energy while on stage. If the audience is focused while watching the performance, they feel supported and are able to do their best work. They can feel that you are with them! Please note: Backpacks and lunches are not permitted in the theater. Bags will be provided for lobby storage in the event that you bring these with you. There is absolutely no food or drink permitted in the seating areas. Recording devices of any kind, including cameras, cannot be used during performances. Please remember to turn off your cell phone. SchoolTime Circus Oz | 1 Student Resource Sheet 2 Circusrcus Oz Questi ons to Think About During the Performance • What makes Circus Oz unique? • How is Circus Oz diff erent from a “Big Top” circus? • What skills do the performers need to develop to be part of the company? • What ideas do you think Circus Oz is trying to share through their performance?erformance? What You’ll See You will be att ending the SchoolTime only work on their special skill,skill, performance of Circus Oz’. Known for their high Circus Oz encourages energy and zany sense of humor, members of its members to develop severalseveral the troupe will juggle, balance on tall poles and diff erent skills. It doesn’t matt erer giant see-saws, spin inside a giant wheel, swing if certain feats are usuallyusually on a trapeze high in the air, twist their bodies into thought of as “male” or “female.”“female.” unbelievable shapes, and perform other amazing acrobati c feats. Singers and musicians playing live In Circus Oz’s show, acts usually reserved for music add to the fun, as do the troupe’s comedy men—like the Bricksmash, where concrete slabs bits, outrageous costumes, and theatrical lights are broken on the performer’s stomach —are and sound. oft en performed by women. Circus Oz has an equal number of men and About Circus Oz women in the company, and their bodies are all Created in Australia in 1978, Circus Oz diff erent shapes and sizes. When a company took its name from a slang term for Australia – member leaves, instead of fi nding someone “Oz.” All the the performers pitched in to start with the same set of skills, Circus Oz looks for a the company. They sewed their own costumes, performer who has his or her own special talents built their thei show tent and props, and and who is creati ve, friendly and works well with drovedrove their trucks from town to everyone else in the group. Then, they create town.tow Unlike many traditi onal new material around the performer’s skills and circusci companies, there were personality. Circus Oz has performed all over the non “stars.” Everyone in the world—from Broadway in New York, to refugee ensemblee (performance camps in the Middle East, to a glass opera house group)g had an equal role and in the Brazilian rainforest. workedwo together to make the Showing a group of very diff erent people showsh a success. Soon they working together to perform acts that look realized their cooperati on, impossible points out one of Circus Oz’s main teamwork and sense of messages: If people are willing to take risks, equality was central to who cooperate, embrace diff erences and be kind to they were as a company, each other, anything is possible. and to what they believed. While performers in Life in the Circus traditrad ti onal acrobati c companies Circuses can be traced back over 4,000 years, when countries like Greece, China, Egypt and Rome 2 | held events that included horse racing, acrobati cs and clowning. The kind of “big top” events that In 1770, Britain made Australia one of its we think of as circus today started in thethe mid- colonies.colonies. Over thethe next 1001 years, the Briti sh 1700’s in England and featured animall acts, governmentgovernment sent thousandsthousa of male and female acrobats, trick horseback riders, high-wirewire prisoners to live and workwo there. Later, people acts, clowns and musicians. As circuseses movedmoved to AAustralia because, began to tour they needed a large tentnt to like America, it was perform in that could be easily set-up and seen as a land of taken down. opportunity where theyt could make money To make performances more exciciti ng,ng, asas farmers, traders,traders, miners, builders and circuses added theatrical elements likee factoryfactory workers. Unfortunately,U as more lighti ng, sound, backdrops, and more peoplepeople came to Australia,Aust the Aboriginal elaborate costumes and makeup. In thehe peoplepeople suff ered underunde unfair laws that forced last thirty years, many circuses, includinging them to move and tooktook children away from Circus Oz, choose to only have humann their families. ManyMany also died from diseases they performers, because using animals is caughtcaught from the sett lers. thought by some to be cruel. SinceSince then,then, AustraliansAustralian have come to respect About Australia AboriginalAboriginal people and theirthe culture, as well as the Australia is an island conti nent inn didiff erent cultures of peoplepeo from Asia, Europe the southern hemisphere that is the andand thethe MiddleMiddle EastEast whowho have come to live world’s sixth largest country. While there duringduring the last 50 years.ye Today, around 21 there are beaches, reefs, tropical millionmillion peoplepeople livelive in Australia.Austra rainforests, swamps and grassland, mostost of the country is a fl at, dry desert. Since Australiastralia has such a wide variety of climates, it also has many unique and diverse plants andnd animals. The Aboriginal Australians (originalnal inhabitants) were hunters and gatherersers We believe in who believed the earth was sacred. They “ social justi ce and didn’t write, but passed along informati on through their oral traditi ons, which means their culture and a good ti me for all.