The Jefferson Performing Arts Society Presents

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Table of Contents

Teacher’s Notes………………………..……………………..……..3

Standards and Benchmarks………………………………….…..4

Background…………………………………….………………………5

JPAS Art, Math and Costumes: The Geometry of Night ……………………….……..… 9

Additional Resources………………………………….……….….42

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Teacher’s Notes A Midsummer Night’s Dream Ballet Set to music by Felix Mendelssohn Based on the play by William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a two-act ballet choreographed to Felix Mendelssohn’s music to Shakespeare’s play of the same name.

The ballet features performances by many local ballet students and an international cast of guest artists. Nukri Mamistvalov (of the Republic of Georgia) will dance the role of Oberon. Kimberly Matulich-Beck (a ballerina who is from and who trained here in New Orleans) will play Titania. Frederick Rocas (from the Philippines) is Puck.

Ballet, by definition, is “dance that tells a story”; so there will be no words used by the players. Their faces, gestures and steps will convey the plot.

Enjoy!

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L o u i s i a n a Educational Content Standards and Benchmarks The arts facilitate interconnection. They provide tangible, concrete opportunities for students and teachers to explore academic concepts. The arts are even more critical now with the introduction of Louisiana Common Core. Common Core is replacing the system of Grade Level Expectations and Standards and Benchmarks previously used to measure student achievement. Here is some background information on Louisiana Common Core:

COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Academic standards define the knowledge and skills that students are expected to learn in a subject in each grade. In 2010, Louisiana adopted Common Core State Standards in English language arts and math. The Common Core State Standards define what students need to learn in reading, writing and math in each grade to stay on track for college and careers. Please visit this site for more information: http://www.louisianabelieves.com/academics/louisiana-student-standards- review

All Common Core connections were retrieved from: http://www.louisianabelieves.com/docs/default-source/academic- standards/la-student-standards---k-12-ela.pdf?sfvrsn=2 http://www.louisianabelieves.com/docs/default-source/academic- standards/la-student-standards---k-12-mathematics.pdf?sfvrsn=4

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Background

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The Story:

Just as the Shakespeare play was originally written, the ballet weaves three stories into one, and therefore there are really three casts: the Fairy Kingdom, the Athenians and the “Mechanicals”.

In world of the fairies (popularized in English Victorian mythology), there is Oberon (a king of fairies) and Titania (a queen of a separate fairy domain). Oberon has a side-kick by the name of Puck, who is a mischievous sort, and he is surrounded by sprites (also denizens of the fairy world). Titania is attended to by four primary fairies: Peaseblossom, Mustardseed, Cobweb and , as well as a corps of other fairies. She has been given an Indian changeling (a little human boy) as a gift of thanks from one of her worshipers.

Oberon, who sees the boy attending to Titania, wants the boy to be his servant, and he therefore schemes to persuade Titania to give the boy to him. His plan includes having Puck turn a man into a mule, and putting Titania under a spell so that she falls in love with the beast.

In the world of the Athenians, there are three couples: Theseus (the king of Athens), who is engaged to Hippolyta (a queen from a neighboring kingdom); Lysander and Hermia (who are in love and want to marry, but cannot, because Hermia is engaged by her father’s decree to another); and Demetrius (who is the young man engaged to Hermia) and Helena (who is in love with Demetrius).

Oberon, seeing the distress among the young lovers, tries to help them out by having Puck enchant the young men with the pollen of a magical flower, so that they would each love the correct girl. Puck gets confused, and only makes things worse. He unwittingly causes both men to fall for the same girl, Helena, who does not understand their change of heart and thinks that they are simply making fun of her. Eventually, Puck corrects his mistake, and they all join in marriage.

The third cast is that of the “Mechanicals”, a group of six craftsmen who are planning to put on a play for their king’s entertainment on the occasion of his wedding feast. Truthfully, they are not very smart, and the play (Pyramus and Thisbe, a tragedy and the ancient Greek version of the story Shakespeare later

6 | P a g e penned under the title “Romeo and Juliet”) seems more of a comedy. It is one of the mechanicals who is transformed into a donkey.

The Music:

The music for the ballet was composed by Felix Mendelssohn, a popular German composer of the 19th century. The work was really a lifetime’s work for Mendelssohn. He wrote the overture/prologue of the ballet when he was only seventeen years old. The rest of the score was written at various times during his lifetime, mostly as incidental music to be performed during productions of the stage play.

Others wrote music for the same purpose, but Mendelssohn has been said to be the only composer whose work was worthy of Shakespeare. The most famous passage in the score is probably the familiar “Wedding March”, which, in the ballet for student audiences, will be heard at the end of the show.

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Lesson Plan

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Art, Math and Costumes: The Geometry of Night Insects

By Karel Sloane-Boekbinder

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Ballet features several characters that are nocturnal insects, notably and fireflies. Costume designers use many things as their inspiration to design and create character costumes. This inspiration also requires research. Inspiration for costumes can come from research of particular time periods, vintage photographs, paintings, genres of visual art and the works of particular costume designers. The time in history and place can greatly influence the artistic choices a costume designer makes.

In preschool, students learn about shapes. They learn how to identify them by appearance. As an example, a shape made of straight lines with four equal sides is a square, a shape made of three straight lines is a triangle, a shape made of curved lines is a circle and so forth.

In this lesson, we will expand on students’ understanding of shapes by investigating them through the lens of ballet and costume design. Students will explore the history of ballet costumes, the use of tulle to create ballet costumes, information on two nocturnal insects and use mathematical concepts to create their own nocturnal costume designs.

Begin by explaining to students that they will be using math they already know (their knowledge of shapes) to learn about ballet costumes and characters featured in A Midsummer Night’s Dream Ballet. Display Ballet Costume History where the information can be viewed by the whole class, such as on an ELMO or SMART Board. As a class, review and discuss the information. Next display The Fascinating History Of Tulle where the information can be viewed by the whole class, such as on an ELMO or SMART Board. As a class, review and discuss the information.

Explain that in A Midsummer Night’s Dream Ballet several of the dancers portray nocturnal insects. The ballet costumes the dancers wear reflect the type of nocturnal insect