Circus Oz Study Guide 0809.Indd
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2008-2009 Season SchoolTime Study Guide Circus Oz Friday, February 6, 2009 at 11 a.m. Zellerbach Hall, University of California, Berkeley Welcome to SchoolTime! On Friday, February 6 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 performancermance 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 — 30th Birthday Bash! | 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 — 30th Birthday Bash! 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 — 30th Birthday Bash! | 1 2 Student Resource Sheet CCircusircus 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 While performers in performance of Circus Oz’ 30th Birthday Bash! in traditi onal acrobati c Zellerbach Hall. Known for their high energy and companies only work on zany sense of humor, members of the troupe will their special skill, Circus OzOz juggle, balance on tall poles and giant see-saws, encourages its members ttoo devedeveloplop spin inside a giant wheel, swing on a trapeze high several diff erent skills. ItIt doesn’tdoesn’t mamatt erer in the air, twist their bodies into unbelievable shapes, and perform other amazing acrobati c if certain feats are usually thought feats. Singers and musicians playing live music of as “male” or “female.” In Circus Oz’s add to the fun, as do the troupe’s comedy bits, show, acts usually reserved for men—like the outrageous costumes, and theatrical lights and Bricksmash, where concrete slabs are broken on sound. the performer’s stomach —are oft en performed by women. About Circus Oz Circus Oz has an equal number of men and Created in Australia in 1978, Circus Oz women in the company, and their bodies are all took its name from a slang term for Australia – diff erent shapes and sizes. When a company “Oz.” All the the performers pitched in to start member leaves, instead of fi nding someone the company.p They sewed their own with the same set of skills, Circus Oz looks for a costumes,costum built their show tent performer who has his or her own special talents andand props, and drove their and who is creati ve, friendly and works well with truckstr from town to town. everyone else in the group. Then, they create UnlikeU many traditi onal new material around the performer’s skills and circusc companies, there personality. Circus Oz has performed all over the werew no “stars.” Everyone in world—from Broadway in New York, to refugee thethe ensemble (performance camps in the Middle East, to a glass opera house group)gr had an equal role and in the Brazilian rainforest. workedw together to make the Showing a group of very diff erent people show 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. andan to what they believed. 2 | Life in the Circus The Aboriginal Austrailians (original inhabitants)inhabitants) were huntershunte and gatherers who Circuses can be traced back overr 4,000 believedbelieved the earth was sacred. They didn’t years, when countries like Greece, China,ina, EEgyptgypt write, but passed alongalong informati on through and Rome held events that included horsehorse their oral traditi ons,ons, which means their racing, acrobati cs and clowning. The kindkind culture and traditi ons of “big top” events that we think of ass were passed along by circus today started in the mid-1700’s telling stories. in England and featured animal acts, acrobats, trick horseback riders, high-wirewire In 1770, Britain acts, clowns and musicians. As circuseses made AustraliaAustralia oneone of its colonies. Over began to tour they needed a large tentnt to thethe next 100 years, the Briti sh government perform in that could be easily set-up and sentsent thousands of malem and female prisoners taken down. to live and work therthere.e Later, people moved to AustraliaAustralia because,because, likelik America, it was seen To make performances more exciciti ng,ng, asas a land of opportunity wherew they could make circuses added theatrical elements likee moneymoney as farmers, traders,traders miners, builders and lighti ng, sound, backdrops, and more factory workers. Unfortunately,Unfortun as more people elaborate costumes and makeup. In thehe camecame to Australia,Australia, the AboriginalAbo people suff ered last thirty years, many circuses, includinging underunder unfairunfair lawslaws thatthat forcedfo them to move and Circus Oz, choose to only have humann took children away fromfrom their families. Many performers, because using animals also died from diseases theyt caught from the is thought by some to be cruel. sett lers.lers. About Australia SSinceince then,then, AustraliansAustralian have come to respect Australia is an island conti nent inn thethe AboriAboriginalginal people and ththeir culture, as well as the southern hemisphere that is the world’sd’s ddiiff erent cultures of pepeopleo from Asia, Europe sixth largest country. While there are aandnd thethe MiddleMiddle EastEast whowho have come to live beaches, reefs, tropical rainforests, there durinduringg the last 50 years.y Today, around 21 swamps and grassland, most of the mmillionillion peoplepeople livelive in Australia.Aus country is a fl at, dry desert. Since Australia has such a wide variety of We believe in climates, it also has many unique and diverse “ social justi ce and plants and animals.