STUDY GUIDE Book by John-Michael Tebelak Music by Stephen Schwartz New Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz A WELCOME NOTE FROM ProDUCER KEN DaVenport It is with great pleasure that I invite you to deepen your experience of the first ever Broadway revival of the legendary rock musicalGodspell . As Stephen Schwartz said to me, “Godspell is essentially about a community of people coming together.” This production has brought together an incredible community of creative theater artists, a spectacular ensemble, and a host of dedicated support staff. I’ve even put together the largest community of producers ever to mount this historic 40th Anniversary production. By experiencing the show as an audience member, engaging in discussion, and sharing the wealth of material available though our website and social media, you’ll become a part of our community. Godspell is one of those rare and unique breeds of shows that allows the company to use its creativity and unique gifts to mold and shape it into what they want it to be. I encourage you to use your own creativity and unique gifts to shape your experiences of Godspell into new ideas, personal discoveries, and memories that will last a lifetime. Ken Davenport WWW.GODSPELL.COM TABLE OF CONTENTS SEE THEE MORE CLEARLY: The story of Godspell - Beginnings and current creation 2 Prepare Ye: Pre-show considerations, questions, audience expectations 3 LOVE THEE MORE DEARLY: Interview with Stephen Schwartz 4-5 Interviews with Hunter Parrish & Anna Maria Perez de Tagle 6-7 By My Side: Connecting with the Godspell community 8 FOLLOW THEE MORE NEARLY: Learn Your Lessons Well - Classroom Activities Teacher Notes & Standards 9 Did You See That?! - Questions for discussion 10-11 ElEmEntary lEvEl All Good Gifts - Celebrating the natural world 12 The Good Samaritan - Connecting the parable to real life 13 Light of the World - Exploration of students & community 14 mIDDlE SChool lEvEl By My Side - Creating community - acting games for group building 15 Light Under a Bushel - Working with idioms 16 We Beseech Thee - Character connections through correspondence 17 hIgh SChool lEvEl Language Arts - Judge Not... - Thematic essay writing 18 Turn Back, O Man - Poetry explication 19 Social Studies - Tower of Babble - The clash of ideas 20 Save the People - Exploring humanitarian efforts 21 visual Arts - Man is a Complex of Patterns - Creating abstract portraits 22 Good Things! - Re-purposing objects to create art 23 Resources 24 Teachers are encouraged to use this guide to elicit student discussion before the show, guide them through aspects of the production, and engage them in activities once they return to the classroom. Our goal is to help teachers utilize the production as a catalyst for student education, collaboration, and inspiration. One of the many themes of Godspell involves people coming together as a community to learn from each other through words and deeds. We hope that your students are inspired by the production and can learn from you, from themselves, and from each other through these activities. Please feel free to copy the materials in this guide to aid you in sparking classroom interest and discussion before and after the performance. Enjoy the show! Written, Edited and Designed Art By David Edward Byrd © 2008 • Photo: Carol Rosegg show studies by Timothy Reid for: www.showstudies.com WWW.GODSPELL.COM ThE STOrY OF THIS IS THE BEGINNING... Godspell began as a student master’s thesis project at Carnegie mellon University in 1970. The original production was a collection of improvised scenes based on the gospel according to St. matthew and music based on traditional hymns created and directed by John-Michael Tebelak. The show transferred for a ten week run to new york City’s la mama Experimental Theatre Club in 1971. Producers interested in opening the show Off-Broadway approached composer Stephen Schwartz about writing new music and lyrics. With a new score, Godspell moved to Off-Broadway where it soon became one of the longest-running Off-Broadway musicals, before moving to Broadway in June 1976. It ended its run in September 1977 with a total run of more than 2,600 performances. The show centers on a group of followers who are called to gather together to create a community following a very loving and knowledgeable teacher. By sharing stories about living good lives and singing about love, joy, gratitude, judgement and redemption, the group of disparate individuals band together with a common purpose to face challenges and obstacles as they are tested along the way. In this innovative 40th anniversary revival, director Daniel goldstein has grounded his vision for the play “in a dilapidated theater” as 10 people come out of a storm “both literally and figuratively.” These characters find “love and community through the teachings of a charismatic individual.” The show is being staged in the round which is new for this musical and contains new arrangements and music from Stephen Schwartz. goldstein describes his creative approach to this work as a “love letter to the theater, to what theater can do.” The ensemble is charged with bringing a range of stories to life for the audience utilizing a host of theatrical devices including vaudeville, puppetry, story theater and varied song stylings. Goldstein says that he’d like the audience to experience through Godspell the “spirit of community and the idea to always treat others as you would have them Art By David Edward Byrd © 2008 treat you.” 2 WWW.GODSPELL.COM PrEPArE YE Ideas for students to consider before seeing the show • Use the information in this guide and the web resources as a starting point to get to know Godspell the musical. It’s always a good idea to have some background information about the play and the subject matter so you can get deeper into the show. The show’s open format has created a wide variety of productions. get your brain thinking about what you’ll experience. • Become a fan of the show on Facebook© and follow the buzz circulating the production on Twitter©. get the inside scoop and find out what’s happening surrounding the show! • Take the opportunity to learn what you can about musical theater. how does this type of theater tell a story? how do the scenes and musical numbers work together? how does the choreography help? Godspell has a very unique open format where scenes, stories and songs flow one into another. how do you think the story of this production will be told in scenes and music? • Take a peek at the discussion questions in the Did You See That?! section of the guide. give yourself an idea of what issues, ideas, and situations the show deals with. get yourself a jump start for the class discussion after the show. • After absorbing all of this important background information, think about what your expectations of the play are. What will you see on stage? What will the story be like? How will the characters interact with each other? How will it begin and end? AUDIENCE Expectations Going to see a Broadway show is an incredibly exciting and entertaining experience. In order to enhance that experience, here are some things to keep in mind: • Take your seat. The show is staged in the round so you’ll have an experience like spectators at a concert! There’s an exciting dynamic as you are aware of the audience fully around the action. you might even see the performers interact with the audience or you may be invited on stage! • Turn off your cell phone. The messages and texts can wait until later - get into the world of the show completely! • Get ready to watch carefully. The wonderful thing about live theater is that it’s happening right there before you! Be sure to soak it all in. • Let the actors do the talking. Feel free to laugh at the jokes and be moved by the drama, but save your commentary for the conversation with the class after the show. • Show your appreciation. When the show is over, applaud for the actors and wait for the curtain call to be over before leaving your seat. To show them your highest praise, give them a standing ovation. 3 WWW.GODSPELL.COM “A-ONE, A-two, A-ONE, two, THREE, foUR!” AN INTERVIEW WITH STEPhEN SChwArTz Stephen Schwartz has contributed music and/or lyrics to Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, The Baker’s Wife, Working (which he also adapted and directed), Rags, Children of Eden and the current Broadway hit, Wicked. He collaborated with Leonard Bernstein on the English texts for Bernstein’s mass and wrote the title song for the play and movie Butterflies Are Free. For children, he has written songs for two musicals, Captain Louie and My Son Pinocchio. For films, he collaborated with Alan Menken on the songs for Disney’s “Enchanted” as well as the animated features “Pocahontas” and “The hunchback of notre Dame” and wrote the songs for the DreamWorks animated feature “The Prince of Egypt.” mr. Schwartz has recently been given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and inducted into the Theatre hall of Fame and the Songwriters hall of Fame. Other awards include three Academy Awards, four grammy Awards, four Drama Desk Awards, and a tiny handful of tennis trophies. What inspired you initially about getting involved in the first production ofGodspell ? was the character who was going to sing the song, Stephen Schwartz: I actually saw the show in an because each of the songs features a different one earlier form performed at an off-off-Broadway of the characters as the lead singer.