Missoula Children’s Theatre presents

Introduction

Dear Educator,

As you make plans for your students to attend an upcoming presentation of the Arts for Youth program at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, we invite you to prepare your students by using this guide to assure that from beginning to end; the experience is both memorable and educationally enriching. The material in this guide is for you the teacher, and will assist you in preparing your students before the day of the event, and extending the educational value to beyond the walls of the theatre. We provide activity and/or discussion ideas, and other resources that will help to prepare your students to better understand and enjoy what they are about to see, and to help them connect what they see on stage to their studies. We also encourage you to discuss important aspects of the artistic experience, including audience etiquette. We hope that your students find their imagination comes alive as lights shine, curtains open, and applause rings through Lancaster Performing Arts Center. As importantly, we hope that this Curriculum Guide helps you to bring the arts alive in your classroom!

Thank you for helping us to make a difference in the lives of our Antelope Valley youth.

Arts for Youth Program Lancaster Performing Arts Center, City of Lancaster

What’s inside

Introduction...... 2

Overview of the California Content Standards for Public Schools…………… 3

Theatre Etiquette…………… 4

ABOUT Missoula Children’s Theatre…………… 5

BACKSTORY: The Secret Garden …………… 6 Major Themes …………… 7 Publication History …………… 8 Author’s Biography …………… 9

Suggested Classroom Activities…………… 10

Other Resources…………… 11

PRE-PERFORMANCE

Overview of the California Content Standards for Public Schools

Curriculum Connections English and Literature, Visual Arts, Music, Theater, and Dance.

Applicable California Content Standards Samples Our Arts for Youth program addresses and supports the content standards for the California Visual and Performing Arts (and more) for K-12 education.

Language Arts – Literature

Kindergarten: Reading 3.1 Distinguish fantasy from realistic text. 3.3 Identify characters, settings, and important events.

Grade 2: Listening and Speaking - Organization and Delivery of Oral Communication 1.5 Organize presentations to maintain a clear focus. 1.7 Recount experiences in a logical sequence. 1.8 Retell stories, including characters, setting, and plot. 1.9 Report on a topic with supportive facts and details . Visual and Performing Arts - Theatre

Grade 5: Creative Expression - Development of Theatrical Skills 2.1 Participate in improvisational activities to explore complex ideas and universal themes in literature and life.

Grade 5: Connections, Relationships, Applications – Connections and Applications 5.1 Use theatrical skills to dramatize events and concepts from other curriculum areas, such as reenacting the signing of the Declaration of Independence in history social science.

Grade 5: Connecting and Applying What Is Learned in Theatre, Film/Video, and Electronic Media to Other Art Forms and Subject Areas and to Careers - Careers and Career-Related Skills

5.2 Identify the roles and responsibilities of performing and technical artists in theatre, film, television, and electronic media.

Content standards adopted by the California State Board of Education. For more information, visit: http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/ Theatre Etiquette

• Arrive on time.

• Plan for possible delays in travel and parking. Plan to arrive at least 30 minutes prior to show time.

• Students: Leave recording devices of any kind at home or in your backpack at school.

• Video/audio recording and photography is often prohibited. Attempting to record or photograph during a performance is considered rude to the patrons around you.

• Teachers: Please have your students turn off or silence all personal electronics. Beeps, buzzes and light pollution emanating from personal electronics such as watches, pagers, Bluetooth devices, cell phones, etc. interrupt the performance and spoil the theatre experience.

• Observe the instructions of ushers: The ushers are present to offer assistance, ensure rules are observed and provide guidance in the case of an emergency evacuation. Please show them consideration. You will be asked to exit to the right of the theatre at the end of the performance.

• Be respectful: When entering/exiting the theatre, put your hands in your pockets or behind your back. Talk very quietly. Once seated, do not talk. Keep your feet on the ground. Put your hands in your lap or fold your arms.

• Abstain from eating or drinking inside the theatre: Crackling wrappers and containers and food messes in the auditorium are unwelcome. Food, candy, gum and drinks should never be brought inside the theatre.

• Avoid talking, waving and shouting during the performance: Laughing and applauding are encouraged at appropriate times. Shouting to actors/friends is disrespectful to others. Save personal conversation for after the show. If you must talk, please whisper very quietly.

• Do not exit the auditorium during the performance except in the case of emergency: If you must leave, please wait for an appropriate break in the performance. Teachers, please arrive early enough to escort students to the restroom prior to the start of the show.

• Do not get onto the stage or place items on the edge of the stage: To ensure the safety and security of performers and audiences, this behavior is strictly prohibited unless expressly permitted by a performer or staff member.

• Dispose of garbage in proper receptacle: Help preserve a pleasant environment by depositing all debris in appropriate receptacles.

• Extend common courtesy and respect to your fellow audience members: Civility creates a comfortable and welcoming theatre experience for all.

• Bring very small children only to age-appropriate performances: Small children easily become restless at programs intended for older children, and may cause distractions.

ABOUT Missoula Children’s Theatre

Missoula Children’s Theatre, based in Missoula, Montana, was founded in 1970 by Jim Caron, who continues to serve as Executive Director. Jim and Music Director Michael McGill created the eight original musicals that are currently touring with thirty teams of MCT Tour Actor/Directors – including The Secret Garden.

The local cast auditions for the show on Monday and rehearse for just a few short days. You will be amazed by what they have accomplished. Nearly 55,000 young people will participate as performers in the Missoula Children’s Theatre International Tour Project this season. Nearly 1,100 communities in all 50 states, 6 Canadian territories and provinces and 16 countries will be visited!

Missoula Children's Theatre (MCT), the nation’s largest touring children’s theatre, has been touring extensively for over 35 years from Montana to Japan, and will visit nearly 1,200 communities this year with 36 teams of Tour Actor/Directors. A tour team arrives in town with a set, lights, costumes, props and make-up-- everything it takes to put on a play...except the cast. The team holds an open audition and casts 50-60 local students, grades K-12, to perform in the production. The show is rehearsed throughout the week and one student performance and one public performance is presented on Friday. The team also presents three educational enrichment workshops at local schools during their residency.

All MCT shows are original adaptations of classic children’s stories and fairytales . . . a twist on the classic stories that you know and love. Creativity, social skills, goal achievement, communication skills and self-esteem are all characteristics that are attained through the participation in this unique, educational project held during National Arts Education Month. MCT's mission is the development of life skills in children through participation in the performing arts. BACKSTORY: The Secret Garden

Conceived and Written by Michael McGill; Music and Lyrics by Michael McGill

The Secret Garden, an original Missoula Children’s Theatre rendition, is a joyful retelling of a story of hope and celebration and all good things in life. Mistress Mary Quite Contrary embarks on a journey from India to her uncle’s home in England. Along the way she makes friends with the hilarious Canadian Geese and the colorful Giant Bugs that Rock! In time she learns to appreciate everything around her, including the Moor Animals and the helpful Fireflies. Add to that a good healthy dose of caring, and what happens? Colin, Martha, Archibald - well the whole household - begin to enjoy the return of health and happiness in a garden carefully tended…until it blossoms once more.

The Original Story of The Secret Garden The Secret Garden is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was initially published in serial format starting in the autumn of 1910, and was first published in its entirety in 1911. It is now one of Burnett's most popular novels, and is considered to be a classic of English children's literature.

Plot: Mary Lennox, a 10-year-old girl, is born in India to wealthy British parents. She is unwanted by her mother and father, and taken care of primarily by servants, who pacify her as much as possible to keep her out of the way. Spoiled with a temper, she is unaffectionate, angry, rude and obstinate. A cholera breakout in the manor kills Mary's parents and many servants. She is discovered alone but alive after the house is abandoned. She is sent to England to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven.

At first, Mary is her usual self, sour, disliking the large house, the people within it, and most of all the vast stretch of moor, which seems scrubby and gray after the winter. She is told that she must stay confined to her two rooms and that nobody will bother much with her and she must amuse herself. Martha Sowerby, her good-natured maidservant, tells Mary a story of the late Mrs. Craven, and how she would spend hours in a private rose garden. Later, Mrs. Craven was killed by an untimely accident, and Mr. Craven had the garden locked and the key buried. Mary is roused by this story and starts to soften her ill manner despite herself. Soon she begins to lose her disposition and gradually comes to enjoy the company of Martha, Ben Weatherstaff, the gardener, and also that of a friendly robin redbreast to whom she attaches human qualities. Her appetite increases and she finds herself getting stronger as she plays by herself on the moor. Martha's mother buys Mary a skipping rope in order to encourage this, and she takes to it immediately. Mary's time is occupied by wandering about the secret garden and a strange crying that can sometimes be heard around the house which the servants ignore or deny.

BACKSTORY, Continued

While exploring the gardens, Mary comes across a badger hole and finds a key belonging to the untended garden. She chances to ask Martha for garden tools, which Martha has delivered by Dickon, her twelve-year- old brother. Mary and Dickon take a liking to each other, as Dickon has a soft way with animals and a good nature. Eager to absorb his gardening knowledge, Mary reluctantly lets him into the secret of the garden, which he agrees to keep.

That night, Mary hears the crying again. She follows the noise and, to her surprise, finds a small boy her age, living in a hidden bedroom. They discover they are cousins: he is the son of her uncle; his mother died in childbirth, and he suffers from an unspecified problem with his spine. Mary visits every day that week, distracting him from his troubles with stories of the moor, of Dickon and his animals and of the garden. It is decided he needs fresh air and the secret garden, which Mary finally admits she has access to. Colin is put into his wheelchair and brought outside into the garden, the first time he's been outdoors in years.

While in the garden, the children are surprised to see Ben Weatherstaff looking over the wall on a ladder. Startled and angry to find the children there in his late mistress' (Colin's mother's) garden he admits he believed Colin to be a cripple. Colin stands up out of his chair to prove him wrong and finds that his legs are fine, though weak from disuse.

Colin spends every day in the garden, becoming stronger. The children conspire to keep Colin's health a secret so he can surprise his father, who is traveling and mourning over his late wife. As Colin's health improves, his father's mood does as well, and he has a dream of his wife calling him into the garden that makes him immediately pack his bags and head home. He walks the outer wall in memory but hears voices inside, finds the door unlocked and is shocked to see not only the garden in full bloom with children in it, but his son running. The servants watch as Mr. Craven walks back to the manor, and all are stunned that Colin runs beside him.

Major themes: Great Maytham Hall Garden, Kent, England, provided the inspiration for The Secret Garden. The garden is the book's central symbol, inspired by Burnett's interest in Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science theories. The secret garden at Misselthwaite Manor is the site of both the near-destruction and the subsequent regeneration of a family. Using the garden motif, Burnett explores the healing power inherent in living things.

Maytham Hall in Kent, England, where Burnett lived for a number of years during her marriage is often cited as the inspiration for the book's setting. Burnett kept an extensive garden, including an impressive rose garden. However, it has been noted that besides the garden, Maytham Hall and Misselthwaite Manor are physically very different. BACKSTORY, Continued

Publication history: The Secret Garden was first serialized, starting in autumn 1910, in The American Magazine, a publication aimed at adults. The entire book was first published in the summer 1911 by Frederick A. Stokes in New York, and by Heinemann in London. Its copyright expired in the United States in 1987, and in most other parts of the world in 1995, placing the book in the public domain. As a result several abridged and unabridged editions were published during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Working title: The book's working title was Mistress Mary, in reference to the English nursery rhyme Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.

Public reception: Marketing to both adult and juvenile audiences may have had an effect on its early reception; the book was not as celebrated as Burnett's previous works during her lifetime.

The Secret Garden paled in comparison to the popularity of Burnett's other works for a long period. Tracing the book's revival from almost complete eclipse at the time of Burnett's death in 1924, Anne H. Lundin noted that the author's obituary notices all remarked on Little Lord Fauntleroy and passed over The Secret Garden in silence.

With the rise of scholarly work in children's literature over the past quarter-century, The Secret Garden has steadily risen to prominence, and is now one of Burnett's best-known works. The book is often noted as one of the best children's books of the twentieth century. Barbara Sleigh's Jessamy (1967) is reading the book on the train as the novel begins.

Dramatic adaptations: The first filmed version was made in 1919 by the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation with 17 year old Lila Lee as Mary, and Paul Willis as Dickon, but the film is thought lost.

In 1949, MGM filmed the second adaptation with Margaret O'Brien. This version was mostly in black-and- white, but the sequences set in the restored garden were filmed in Technicolor.

The book was adapted into several different television serials for the BBC: an eight-part serial in 1952, an eight-part serial in 1960. The seven-part TV serial made by the BBC in 1975 has been released on DVD.

In 1987, Hallmark Hall of Fame filmed a TV adaptation of the novel .

In 1993, American Zoetrope produced a British drama film.

BACKSTORY, Continued

In 1994, ABC produced an animated version of The Secret Garden.

In Japan, NHK produced and broadcast an anime adaptation of the novel in 1991-1992 titled Anime Himitsu no Hanazono (アニメ ひみつの花園). The 39-episode TV series is surprisingly unavailable in the English language, but has been dubbed into several other languages including Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Tagalog.

Stage adaptations of the book have also been created. One notable adaptation is a musical which opened on Broadway in 1991 at the St. James Theatre and ran for 709 performances. The production was nominated for seven Tony Awards, winning Best Book of a Musical and Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Daisy Eagan as Mary, at eleven years old is the youngest girl ever to win a Tony. Frankie Michaels is the youngest person to ever win a Tony at age ten for his performance in the Broadway musical Mame in 1966).

In March 2013, a new operatic adaptation by composer Nolan Gasser and librettist Carey Harrison will premiere in a production commissioned and produced by San Francisco Opera, in collaboration with Cal Performances.

To coincide with the centenary of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel, Dorset, England-based Angel Exit Theatre Company toured a new production of The Secret Garden from January to April 2012. The Arts Council funded show, co-produced by Dorchester Arts, had its premiere at the town’s Corn Exchange in January 2012.

Author’s Biography Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 – 29 October 1924) was an English playwright and author. She is best known for her children's stories, in particular The Secret Garden (winner of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1959), A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Frances Eliza Hodgson lived in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. When her father died, the family was forced to sell their home and move to Salford. When she was sixteen, the family emigrated to Knoxville, Tennessee. There she began writing to help earn money for the family, publishing stories in magazines at the age of nineteen. In 1872 she married Swan Burnett. They lived in Paris for two years, where their two sons were born, before returning to the United States to live in Washington D.C. There she began to write novels, the first of which That Lass o' Lowries, was published to good reviews. The publication of Little Lord Fauntleroy in 1886 made her a popular writer of children's fiction. She wrote and helped to produce stage versions of Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess.

Suggested Classroom Activities

Grades K-8

If students are familiar with the story of The Secret Garden, have them put on short, abridged skits of The Secret Garden. They could bring in props and costume pieces from home. Have the students write a poem about the characters in the play, the garden, the boy Colin, etc. Create a mural that reflects a GARDEN theme, or the show. Display it in your classroom. Be creative! Decorate the classroom walls with thematic creations from each student. Have a “dress-up” day where students come dressed as a character from the story. The Secret Garden was based in England and has several adaptations. Read and talk about stories from cultures around the world. Read and discuss the original story or different cultural versions (as listed above). Contrast and compare Frances Hodgson Burnett’s story of The Secret Garden with the Missoula Children’s Theatre adaptation. Have an essay contest to write a new ending or twist to the Frances Hodgson Burnett’s version of The Secret Garden.

Grades 5-8 The original novel deals with feeling unloved, death, and finding new life through friendships and nature. Have a discussion about humans and the healing powers of nature.

Definitions

Rendition: version of a musical, theatrical or literature piece; an interpretation or performance of a piece of music or drama

Abridged: to shorten something; to shorten a text, e.g. by cutting or summarizing it

Contrary: conflicting; not at all in agreement with something; opposite.

Moor: wild area of countryside; a large uncultivated treeless stretch of land covered with bracken, heather, course grasses, or moss.

Character’s to Know

Mistress Mary Quite Contrary – the main character who was born in India to British parents Colin – Mary’s cousin Martha – Mary’s maidservant Archibald – Mary’s uncle Canadian Geese Giant Bugs Moor Animals Fireflies

Study GuideCreated by: Lancaster Performing Arts Center Staff

Other Resources: Content of links on the internet change continually. It is advisable that teachers review all links before introducing them to students. mctinc.org wikipedia.org