A supplemental resource for intermediate and high school students and teachers SUMMARY TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS BIOGRAPHY DESCRIPTION OF PERFORMANCE NOTES FOR AUDIENCE LANGUAGE WARNING PREPARATORY INFORMATION HISTORY OF D-DAY GLOSSARY OF TERMS POST-SHOW ACTIVITIES RESOURCE MATERIALS SUMMARY BIOGRAPHY At the beginning of the play we meet Isabelle, a ten-year-old PREPARATORY INFORMATION French schoolgirl who is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Jake’s Gift is a multi award-winning one-woman play Julia Mackey first started Allied soldiers for the 60th anniversary ceremonies. As the FOR STUDENTS that tells the story of a Canadian World War II veteran writing at the age of 15 when remembrance commemoration approaches, Isabelle is swept For the students to get the most out of Jake’s Gift, it might be who reluctantly returns to Normandy, France, for the she and her friends decided away with the transformation of her usually sleepy town helpful for them to be familiar with some of the historical 60th Anniversary of the D-Day landings. The play was they wanted to perform a (Bernières sur Mer, a.k.a Juno Beach). Isabelle’s grandmother, references in the play. Below is an explanation of D-Day created after writer and performer Julia Mackey travelled comedy piece at their school’s Grande Isabelle, has taught her much about the war, and Juno Beach, as well as a glossary of terms/phrases to Normandy in June 2004 for the 60th Anniversary carnival talent show. Her short including her own family’s tragic loss, and Isabelle’s sense of that the students can be introduced to prior to seeing the Ceremonies. She spent a week touring the Normandy sketch was so well received gratitude and remembrance towards the Canadian soldiers performance. coast, attending many of the ceremonies and interviewing that she continued writing and becomes evident as the play progresses. Canadian, British and American veterans, as well as tourists eventually realized that she and the local French people. wanted to pursue acting and writing as a career. While chatting with her grandmother in front of their house, Grande Isabelle notices Jake staring out at the water TECHNICAL INFO/REQUIREMENTS After completing a Bachelor of Education Degree at McGill on the shores of Juno Beach. Isabelle begs her grandmother University in Montreal, Julia moved to Victoria, BC, to for permission to go and speak with the old soldier. Grande Set Up Time: 45 minutes pursue acting and writing. In 1995, she began writing and 65 minutes. Isabelle forbids this request, not wanting her to bother the Performance Time: performing short plays for the award-winning company, Performance Space Needs: A drama room or theatre/ soldier with questions about the war. Isabelle ignores this auditorium is preferable; large classroom/multi-purpose Theatre SKAM. Julia has worked as a professional actor order, and once her grandmother is out of sight, Isabelle room/gym. Please have fans turned off for the show. since 1997. Since 2007, she has toured Jake’s Gift to theatres, finds her way over to Jake whose response to her unabashed Technical: 1 small table and chair for Stage Manager festivals, legions and schools across Canada. greeting is less than inviting. Isabelle is not deterred by and access to an outlet for audio equipment. Jake’s Gift was awarded Best New Play (2007), Best Drama, Jake’s grumpy disposition and continues to pester him. Her Best Solo Show and Best Female Performer at the 2007 charm and boldness eventually soften the old soldier and & 2008 Victoria Fringe Festival as well as Best of Fest at an unexpected friendship blossoms over the ensuing three The Fringe Festivals in Edmonton (2008) and Winnipeg days. (2009). Julia currently lives in Wells & Vancouver, BC, with At its heart, this powerful play emphasizes the importance D-DAY AND JUNO BEACH her partner Dirk Van Stralen, an award winning actor, of remembrance and personalizes the story behind one cartoonist, graphic designer and the director of Jake’s Gift. soldier’s grave. In the early morning hours of June 6th, 1944, thousands of ships and planes, carrying thousands of Allied troops, left DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFORMANCE NOTES FOR THE AUDIENCE the southern coast of England, crossed the English Channel and arrived hours later on the coast of Normandy, France. The students will see a one-woman show in which Julia Jake’s Gift is not appropriate for students under grade 5. The Allied troops were made up of soldiers from many Mackey plays four different characters. Jake’s Gift is a Teachers must be in attendance. All cell phones must be different countries, but the majority of soldiers who landed surprisingly funny drama that tells the story of a Canadian turned off and put away. Absolutely no photography or on D-Day were from Britain, Canada and the U.S.A. What WWII veteran named Jake who reluctantly returns to recording is permitted during the performance. ensued was Operation Overlord, the code name for the Allied Normandy, France, for the 60th Anniversary of D-Day. Jake’s forces invasion to free Western Europe from four years of main goal is to find the grave of his eldest brother, Chester, a LANGUAGE WARNING Nazi occupation. To date, it is still the largest offensive Canadian soldier and once promising young musician who The character of Jake uses the expressions “god-damn” & attack in modern day history. 150 000 troops would land on was killed during the Battle of Normandy in 1944. “what the hell?” in the play. “Bull-shit”, “pissed off” & “smart- the Normandy coastline, which had been divided into five ass” are also each used once. sections, each given a code name by the Allied commanders. 2 jake’s gift study guide © julia mackey 3 ABOVE: The Juno Beach Centre, opened on June 6th, 2003, at Courseulles-sur-Mer, commemorates the Canadian liberation efforts and is a memorial to the lives lost. (photo by: Julia Mackey) These five code names were: Omaha Beach and Utah Beach LEFT: Canadians who were killed on D-Day, and in the initial days of the (US Troops), Gold and Sword Beach (British Troops) and Juno Battle of Normandy, are interred at the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Beach, where Canadian Troops landed. Cemetery. The grave pictured is Chester Hebner’s (Jake’s brother in the play); a Canadian student’s commemorative card can be seen bottom Juno Beach was situated between Sword Beach and Gold right of the headstone. (photo by: Julia Mackey) Beach. Juno Beach was approximately 8 KMs long stretching from Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer on the east to Courseulles-sur-Mer D-DAY OBJECTIVE on the west. Juno Beach was known as the Canadian beach as it was assigned to the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division After Omaha Beach, Juno was the most heavily defended of (with the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade). the five landing sites. German General Wilhelm Richter was in charge of the 716th Division guarding Juno beach. The The first wave of Canadian Infantry to land on Juno Beach German soldiers had 11 heavy batteries (a unit of guns, men were comprised of the following regiments: The Queen’s & vehicles) of 155 mm guns and 9 medium batteries of 75 TOP: Wounded soldiers lying on Juno Beach awaiting transfer to Own Rifles, The North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment, mm guns at their disposal. Additionally, pillboxes (partially casualty clearing station, Normandy, France, 6 June, 1944. Le Régiment de la Chaudière, The Regina Rifles, The Royal enclosed concrete forts) and other fortifications were present ABOVE: The same bunker as it appeared in 2004. Winnipeg Rifles and The Canadian Scottish. all along the beach. These were most concentrated in the Courseulles-sur-Mer region. The Juno seawall was twice the height of Omaha’s, and the sea was heavily mined. 4 jake’s gift study guide © julia mackey 5 The aerial bombardment of Juno Beach in the days leading Canadian troops were scheduled to land on Juno Beach at VOCABULARY AND TERMS USED IN JAKE’S GIFT up to D-Day did not cause significant damage to the German 7:30 AM, following the aerial bombardment, but they were The Allies: Nazism: fortifications. Naval bombardment ran from 6:00 AM to forced to postpone the landing by fifteen minutes because of 7:30 AM. It included everything from battleship barrages bad weather. None of the Allied assault divisions, including The term used to describe the countries that officially The body of political and economic doctrines held and to fire from tanks and artillery sitting on transport ship the 3rd Canadian Division, managed to secure their D-Day opposed Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Europe. The main Allied put into effect by the Nazis in Germany from 1933 to 1945 decks, and destroyed only 14 percent of the German bunkers objectives, although the Canadians came closer than any forces were comprised of Britain, Canada, USA, Russia (then including the totalitarian principle of government; (controls guarding the beach. Bad weather delays gave the Germans other Allied formation. By day’s end, Canada suffered 1074 the U.S.S.R) France, Poland as well as another 20 countries all aspects of its citizen’s lives, with a single charismatic half an hour to regroup between the start of the aerial casualties, 359 of these were fatal, and thousands more world-wide. leader as the ultimate authority); predominance of especially Germanic groups assumed to be racially superior, bombardment and the landing of Canadian troops. Canadian soldiers would lose their lives in the ensuing two Beny sur Mer Cemetery: months it would take to liberate France.