The Phantom Tollbooth

DPOPEJOYR SCHOOLTIMEEAM SERIESC TEACHINGATC GUIDEH EGRADESR 3S - 6 The PhantomTollbooth Dreamcatchers Teaching Guides align with the Common Core Standards. Standards “In order to live free and happily you must sacri- Addressed By fice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice.” Attending the - RICHARD BACH Performance ‘‘ NMCCSS Synopsis ELA-Literacy.SL.2 Norton Juster’s fantastical The Phantom Tollbooth begins with an introduction to the NCAS: story’s hero: “There was once a boy named Milo who didn’t know what to do with TH:Re9.1 himself — not just sometimes, but always.” One day a mysterious tollbooth appears in Milo’s room and having nothing better to do, he drives his toy car through it. To his astonishment and increasing delight, he finds himself in a peculiar new world, where everyone he encounters is literally an embodiment of their name, from the ticking watchdog Tock, to the loveable but nonsensical Humbug. Milo soon finds himself on an eventful and dangerous quest: he is tasked with rescuing the Princesses Rhyme and Reason, who, in the war between words and numbers, have been banished to the Castle in the Air. Along the way he meets Azaz the Unabridged, the king of Dictionopolis, his brother the Mathemagician, the ruler of Digitopolis, and Faintly Macabre, the not-so-wicked Which. Milo travels through the Forest of Sight where he experiences different Points of View, accidentally leaps to the Island of Conclusions and travels through the Mountains of Ignorance, where he must escape its Demons in order to save the Princesses. With the help of his steadfast companions, he perseveres and brings Rhyme and Reason home, restoring peace to the realm. Along the way something magical happens to Milo; he discovers the delights of friendship, curiosity and knowledge, and that life — his own life — is filled with endless possibilities. Enchantment Theatre Company is thrilled to bring this captivating story to the stage. Using puppets, masks, magic, inventive scenic effects and original music, the wonder and adventure of the story comes alive. Join us at Popejoy as we journey along with Milo to the Lands Beyond and discover that with humor, good friends and a little bit of courage, anything is possible. 2 The Phantom Tollbooth WED | MAR 20 | 2019 TEACHING GUIDE DREAMCATCHERS follow the story. Original music and songs Vocabulary composed by Charles Gilbert especially harrowing - very distressing or upsetting for this production add to the drama and homograph - a word that is spelled like atmosphere. another word but that is different in origin, PUPPETS: Some of the characters in meaning, or pronunciation (“bow” for a the story are played by actors wearing part of a ship and “bow” for a weapon masks and costumes. Other characters— that shoots arrows) the Spelling Bee, Alec Bings, and the homonym - a word that is spelled and Gelatinous Giant—are played by puppets. pronounced like another word but is ROD PUPPETS (manipulated by sticks) different in meaning (The noun “bear” and and HAND PUPPETS will be the primary the verb “bear”) puppet devices you’ll see. pendant homophone - a word that is pronounced SCENERY: Most of the scenery will be like another word but is different in metropolis— a very large or important projected onto three screens across the meaning, origin, or spelling (“to,” “too,” city and “two”) stage – so you’ll see Milo’s bedroom, the mirage— something (such as a pool of cities of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, water in the middle of a desert) that is idiom – a commonly used phrase where and the lands Milo travels through – all the words sound like one thing but seen and appears to be real but that is not projected on these screens. There will also mean something else; e.g., piece of cake actually there (meaning something easy) be some scenery pieces to help create monotonous — used to describe the environment of the play such as the something that is boring because it is illusion — something that looks or seems Tollbooth, Dr. Dischord’s lab table, and the different from what it is; something that is always the same house of the Giant-Midget-Fat-Thin Man. false or not real but that seems to be true oxymoron- a combination of words that or real have opposite or very different meanings (“open secret”) peculiar— not usual or normal; strange rummage— to search for something especially by moving and looking through the contents of a container or a place wistful— thinking about simpler or emotional times in one’s past, often with some sadness Fun Facts About the Show In our production of The Phantom Tollbooth we use a number of different theatrical devices to bring the story to life. LIGHTING: Special theatrical lights will Here are some of the things you and your help create the mood and the world of the students can expect to see: story. MASKS: In the show, the actor who plays ADAPTATION: To adapt a book into a Milo doesn’t wear a mask but the rest of play, playwrights use dialogue and action the actors will wear masks to help them become characters such as the Kings to tell a story rather than words on a page. and Princesses, Faintly Macabre, and Dr. They often have to add new characters Dischord. Other actors will wear dog or and situations to make the story come bug masks to help them become Tock alive. Singing, music, and dancing are lure — to cause or persuade (a person and Humbug. important elements in developing the or an animal) to go somewhere or to do MIME: Mime is acting without speaking story and portraying the emotions of something by offering some pleasure or or making any noise. In The Phantom characters. It is a genre of theater in which gain Tollbooth, many of the performers act out the audience is willing to suspend their macabre— involving death or violence the story with their bodies and gestures, disbelief in the magic of the stage. In in a way that is strange, frightening, or but they do not speak. musicals, playwrights work with people unpleasant WORDS AND MUSIC: There is recorded who compose music and write lyrics. medallion— a piece of jewelry in the narration spoken by Susan Sweeney These are just some of the simple crucial shape of a medal, usually worn as a throughout the show to help the audience steps to make a book come alive on stage! 3 The Phantom Tollbooth WED | MAR 20 | 2019 TEACHING GUIDE DREAMCATCHERS BROOKLYN MUSEUM COLLECTION Theatrical mask, Java, Indonesia, 19th century. Introduction to Masks and Puppets In this production of The Phantom mythological figures recognizable to a In the early days of Bunraku, the Tollbooth, actors wearing masks portray contemporary audience, preserving a greatest playwrights preferred writing some of the characters. Though masks rare and beautiful culture. Though used for puppets rather than for live actors! are rare in American contemporary differently in every culture, the mask Puppets are similar to the mask in their theatre, they have been used since the universally facilitates a transformation fascination and power. We accept that very beginnings of theatre. The early of the actor and the audience. this carved being is real and alive, and Romans used enormous masks that In Enchantment’s productions we we invest it with an intensified life of exaggerated human characteristics sometimes include very large or very our own imagining. Thus, puppets can and enhanced the actor’s presence in small characters in our stories, so we take an audience further and deeper the huge amphitheaters of their day. use puppets to portray them. Similar into what is true. Audiences bring more Greek theatre used masks that were to masks, puppets also have a long of themselves to mask and puppet human scale to designate tragic and and esteemed history. They have been theatre because they are required to comic characters. Masks were used in used to represent gods, noblemen, and imagine more. Masks and puppets live the early Christian church starting in the everyday people as well as animals in a world of heightened reality. Used 9th century and were revived during and mythical creatures. In the history with art and skill, they can free the actor the Renaissance in Italy with Commedia of every culture puppets can be found, and the audience from what is ordinary Dell’ Arte. Theatre throughout Asia from the tombs of the Pharaohs to and mundane, and help theatre do what has used masks to create archetypal the Italian marionette and the English it does at its best: expand boundaries, characters, human and divine. In Punch and Judy. The Bunraku Puppet free the imagination, inspire dreams, Balinese theatrical tradition, for Theatre of Japan has been in existence transform possibilities, and teach us example, masks keep ancient and continuously since the 17th century. about ourselves. 4 The Phantom Tollbooth WED | MAR 20 | 2019 TEACHING GUIDE DREAMCATCHERS Norton Juster Norton Juster is an American focused on him, and I began academic, architect, and popular writing about his childhood, writer. He is best known as which was really mine. an author of children’s books, Not everyone in the notably for The Phantom publishing world of the 1960s and Tollbooth The Dot and the embraced The Phantom . This summary is from a Line Tollbooth. Many said that it 2011 interview with National was not a children’s book, Public Radio. the vocabulary was much too The Phantom Tollbooth was the difficult, and the ideas were first book I had ever written beyond kids. To top it off, they and my first collaboration with claimed fantasy was bad for the cartoonist Jules Feiffer, children because it disorients who provided the marvelous them.

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