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. illustrations. The prevailing wisdom of the Like most good things that time held that learning should have happened in my life, The be more accessible and less Phantom Tollbooth came about discouraging. The aim was that because I was trying to avoid no child would ever have to doing something else. It was confront anything that he or she 1958, and after three years in didn’t already know. the Navy, I returned to New York But my feeling is that there City to work as an architect. I is no such thing as a difficult had also received a grant to do word. There are only words a book on cities for children. I you don’t know yet — the kind started with great energy and of liberating words that Milo enthusiasm until I found myself encounters on his adventure. waist-deep in stacks of 3-by- 5 note cards, exhausted and Today’s world of texting and dispirited. This is not what I tweeting is quite a different wanted to do. place, but children are still COURTESY OF NORTON JUSTER the same as they’ve always In order to stop thinking been. They still get bored and about cities, I had to start confused, and still struggle thinking about something to figure out the important else. I had been an odd child: questions of life. quiet, introverted and moody. Little was expected from me. Well, one thing has changed: As Everyone left me alone to many states eliminate tolls on highways, some children may wander around inside my own never encounter a real tollbooth. head. When I grew up I still felt like that puzzled kid — Luckily there are other routes disconnected, disinterested and to the Lands Beyond. And it is confused. There was no rhyme possible to seek them, and fun or reason in his life. My thoughts to try.

5 The Phantom Tollbooth WED | MAR 20 | 2019 TEACHING GUIDE DREAMCATCHERS The Role of Music in The Phantom Tollbooth Lesson 1 Grades 5 - 6 Objectives (Extensions 3 - 4) Students will: • be introduced to the composer’s job; • listen and observe the music in the show The Phantom Tollbooth; NMCCSS • Discuss how the music helps the action, setting, and defines characters. ELA-Literacy.RL.7 ELA-Literacy.SL.2 Materials • The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster NCAS • Optional: question sheet from this lesson MU:Re7.1 Procedure 1. Read the book. 2. Introduction: Charlie Gilbert is the composer of the music for The Phantom Tollbooth. His music underscores the action of the story, and helps the performers tell the tale without words. One of the ways a composer helps to tell the story is to create musical “themes” or melodies that occur again and again throughout the play. 3. Explain that during the show they will be asked to observe and listen for answers to musical questions such as: • When you see the play, concentrate on finding the theme music for Milo. • Is there a theme for Tock the Watchdog? What about for the Princesses Rhyme and Reason? • Did you notice any recurring melodies for other characters? • Can you name the instruments that were used for Milo’s theme? 4. Explain that the composer also creates songs to help us understand the characters and to move the action along. For example, have them listen for Milo’s song in the beginning of the play and see how it helps us to understand his point of view. 5. The music in a performance can often indicate a new setting. Listen for the changes in the music when Milo arrives in the Lands Beyond; Milo and Tock arrive at Dictionopolis; Milo, Tock, and Humbug travel into the Forest of Sight; and when Milo returns home. 6. Were there other musical setting changes that the students noticed? 7. The composer has an important job in setting the mood or atmosphere of a play by the music he creates. For example, when Milo meets King Azaz and the Mathemagician the music is very different than when he meets the Princesses Rhyme and Reason. Ask the students: • Have you ever seen a scary movie or been to a haunted house? • Describe the music you heard. How did the music help make the movie or experience scary? • Have you ever been to a circus and heard happy carnival music? What if you heard that music when you were at school? What would you think was happening? 8. What was the mood of the music at the end of the play? 9. When your students watch a musical, television or a movie, are they aware of all the music in the background? Invite them to pay attention and report back on their experience.

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6 The Phantom Tollbooth WED | MAR 20 | 2019 TEACHING GUIDE DREAMCATCHERS Extensions/Modifications • Activity 1. Get the entire class up and away from their desks. Play a piece of music and ask everyone to move or dance with how the music makes them feel. Does it make you want to sneak around? Look for something? Skip? Does it make you feel sleepy? Angry? Scared? After a minute or so, play a different piece of music with a vastly different mood. Switch at least one more time. Discuss. • Activity 2. Ask your students to recall a personal experience (for example, a family vacation or the first day of school). Ask one student to tell his/her story to the class. After he/she is finished, have the same student retell the same story. This time, play a dynamic track of music (preferably instrumental) to underscore the story. Ask the class how this music affected the story. When you attend the performance, encourage your students to pay attention to the music, and remember how the music created different moods within the piece.

Assessment • Quality of participation

7 The Phantom Tollbooth WED | MAR 20 | 2019 TEACHING GUIDE DREAMCATCHERS Silent Communication Games Lesson 2 Grades 3 - 6 Objectives Students will: NMCCSS • communicate ideas and feelings without using words ELA-Literacy.SL.2 Materials NCAS • A large open space where students may move freely TH:CN10.1 Procedure 1. In The Phantom Tollbooth, the actors were able to communicate ideas and feelings without using words. Discuss with the students how the actors let the audience know what was happening, even when they weren’t using their voices. Use any or all of the following activities to explore the possibilities of communicating without speaking: 2. INVISIBLE OBJECT: Imagine you are holding a very heavy bowling ball. Pass it around the circle without speaking and without dropping it! Think about how you have to stand to hold a heavy object, what your muscles feel like, how slowly you have to move. Give prompts like, “Be ready for it! It’s heavy. Make sure your neighbor has it before you let it go!” When it’s gone all the way around, try passing around a very light feather, a hot potato, a live frog. (“Don’t let it get away!”) Don’t say what it is you are passing, have the students guess based on how you handle the imaginary object. 3. WITHOUT WORDS: Ask students to think of actions or gestures they use to communicate. For example, can they think of ways to act surprised using only their faces? Can they say something without using any words? Without speaking, try saying: Hello! Yes! No! I’m sleepy. I’m scared. I’m going to sneeze. It’s over there. I love you. I don’t know. I’m hungry. Go away! Come here! That’s funny! Where are you? My stomach hurts. What other ideas can they communicate? 4. TABLEAU: Now try to communicate a larger idea as a group. Still without talking, your students will have to create a tableau, or a frozen picture, of a place or activity of your choosing. They should try to do different things from each other. For example, if the activity is recess, not everyone should be playing kickball. If one person freezes to indicate one activity, a second person can react to that movement rather than imitate it. You should see people frozen in mid-run, sitting and laughing together, throwing a ball, etc. Try the following: a. At recess b. In the desert c. Having a picnic d. Getting ready for school e. At the Word Market. 5. HOW DO YOU MOVE? Make a space in the classroom for the students to move freely. Tell the students they are standing on a towel on a very hot beach and in order to get to the ocean they must walk across the scalding hot sand. Ouch! How do they move across the space? Other suggestions for environments to move through: a. A hot sidewalk covered with chewed bubble gum b. A frozen pond c. A very steep hill d. A pond scattered with stepping stones e. The surface of the moon f. A big pool filled with Jell-O. 6. MORE MIME: Extend the space exploration to include other imaginary activities: a. Carefully paint a door. After finishing, open the door and step through it without getting any paint on your clothes. Does the next person through the door know the paint on it is wet? b. Build a snowman. The teacher should be able to tell how big the snowman is by how the student uses the space, or how cold it is where they are. c. Eat an ice cream cone on a hot day. Can you do it before it melts? If you eat it too fast, do you get brain freeze? d. Rake leaves into a large pile. Admire the size of the pile, make sure no one is looking, and then jump into it. 7. TO CONCLUDE, ask the students to list the ways they saw one another communicate without using words (through facial expressions, movement, gesture).

8 The Phantom Tollbooth WED | MAR 20 | 2019 TEACHING GUIDE DREAMCATCHERS Romance in Lower Mathematics. San Questions Bonus Fransico: Chronicle Books; First Edition, to Engage Explorations 2000. Juster, Norman. Alberic the Wise and Other & Connect EXTENSION ACTIVITIES Journeys. New York: Yearling; Reprint edition, 2010. Do you think there is a The author has admitted that the lesson that the play wants Mathemagician’s code has no “solution.” WEBSITES you to learn? If so what is Have the students suggest possible it? messages that fit the pattern of this code. Pixton Lesson Plan: The Phantom Tollbooth Explore known codes, such as Morse code, Here is a simple summary of the main and demonstrate designing codes using What are a couple of new characters including drawings and teacher symbols, numbers, and letter substitutions. things that you learned guide. today? Explain how the Navajo Code Talkers were instrumental in WWII. Students can design The Phantom Tollbooth a code and then write a message to another How would the story The text of the book by Norman Jester, classmate to solve, or rewrite a list of change if it were to be told including illustrations by Jules Feiffer. spelling or vocabulary words in their code. from a different view point? A Sense of Nonsense! Present each small MEDIA What is something that group of students with a collection of The Phantom Tollbooth. Directed by stood out to you about the colorful words clipped from magazines—the Chuck Jones. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 1970. play? more, the better! Be sure to include verbs, (1:30:00) Live Action/Animated Film. nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. As students What about the play was sort through the words, their task is to give different from the book? an order to the mixed-up words. Using Which did you prefer? glue sticks and their own written words About the Why? as needed, younger students may create sentences while older students can enjoy Company writing poems or stories. The teacher may Why do you think Milo was choose a theme or topic, or students can Enchantment Theatre Company creates sad and bored? create their own through the relationships original theatre for young audiences and they discover among the words. They can families. The imaginative telling of new Do you think Milo will still add a few of their own words to fill in any and classic fables, myths, and legends be bored by everything? blanks, but should largely rely on the words set to classical or original music inspires, What lesson did he learn you’ve found. challenges, and enriches their audience from his experience? – onstage, in the classroom, and in the community. ETC deeply believes in the What are cool activities you transformative power of theatre and and your friends do to cure Resources that all children should have a chance to boredom? experience the joy and wonder of live BOOKS theatre. Their unique style of performance Do you naturally think more Juster, Norman. The Phantom Tollbooth: includes expressive masks, life-sized in words or numbers? Is Norman Juster. Maryland: Recorded Books, puppets, magical illusion, music, movement, one more important than Inc, 1993. and pantomime. This style is accessible the other? to all children and encourages everyone Juster, Norman. Illustrated by Jules – regardless of age and language barriers If the story kept on going, Feiffer. The Odious Ogre. New York: Michael – to explore creative worlds, awaken Di Capua Books/Scholastic, 2010. what do you think would imaginations, and engage with others in happen? Juster, Norman. The Dot and the Line: A experiencing a live theatrical production.

9 The Phantom Tollbooth WED | MAR 20 | 2019 TEACHING GUIDE DREAMCATCHERS The Schooltime Series is a proud member of About the Schooltime Series The Popejoy Schooltime Series brings national and international touring companies and performers to Albuquerque. Each company is selected with youth and family audiences in mind, and our repertoire reflects the cultural diversity of our global

community. The Schooltime Series includes new plays, familiar stories, literary works, The Popejoy Schooltime biographies, mythologies, folktales, science shows, music, dance, and puppetry. These Series is supported in part professional performing artists create entertaining educational experiences designed by awards from: to encourage literacy, creativity, communication, and imagination. The Dreamcatchers Teaching Guides By their nature, the arts engage students in learning through observing, listening, and moving, offering learners various ways to acquire information and act on it to build understanding. They also offer a natural way to differentiate instruction as the arts offer multiple modes of representation, expression, and engagement. Additionally, the arts provide an authentic context in which students solve problems. By engaging in learning in one subject, learning in another subject is reinforced and extended, and vice versa. These guides introduce students to what they will see, a basic vocabulary associated with the show, fun facts, vetted resources, and activities providing a connection between the arts and classroom curriculum. Popejoy Hall Popejoy Hall is New Mexico’s premiere nonprofit venue for the performing arts and entertainment. Our mission is to provide access to the performing arts for all New Mexicans. House Policies & Etiquette The inside of a theatre where the audience sits is called a “house” and to get along, have fun, and enjoy the shows, there are rules to follow. Schooltime is a wonderful opportunity to learn how good behavior in a live theater is different from watching The Eugene & Marion Castiglia Popejoy television. For guidelines to practice with your class and chaperones, including safety, Children’s Schooltime special needs, food and drink, backpacks, cell phones, photography, recordings, and Endowment more, go to schooltimeseries.com/house-policies. The Popejoy Schooltime Education Endowment Dreamcatcher Credits

Selected materials provided by Enchantment Theatre Company , Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary, Scholastic, Reading is Fundamental, and other resources noted in this guide.

POPEJOY HALL: UNIVERSITY FOUNDED ~ COMMUNITY FUNDED