Teacher Resource Guide A Circle Theatre Company Production Produced by Erin Theriault Directed by Linda Novak Fridays, December 2 & 9 at 7:30pm. Saturdays, December 3 & 10 at 2:30pm and 7:30pm. Sundays, December 4 & 11 at 2:30pm educate | entertain | enrich Guide to the Guide With gratitude and appreciation to First Stage Theatre at www.Firststage.org for m uch of the content and spirit of this guide. Synopsis.............................................. 3 Meet the Characters……………….... 3 Our very best of the season to you and yours as you prepare to About the Author ............................... 4 enjoy Circle Theatre Company’s The Best Christmas Pageant Pre-Show Activities…….…………... 5 Ever, where the town’s absolute worst kids somehow steal the Recommended Reading….…………. 5 best parts in the annual church Christmas pageant! Amidst For Teachers: Curriculum connections trials and thievery, bullying and laughter, prejudice and tears, Before or after the play everyone learns a little something about the true meaning of Christmas. This year, our select Circle Theatre (High School) HISTORY Company invites the elementary-aged Circle Theatre Kids to Christmas Fast Facts………….…… 6 join us in presenting this much-loved classic. Christmas Pageants . ….…….. 15 Exploring the Christmas Story ….. 16-20 The enclosed Teacher Resource Guide is full of enrichment materials and activities spanning elementary and some middle LANGUAGE ARTS school. They were designed and / or compiled by First Stage Poetry: My Five Christmas Senses …. 7 Theatre and Circle Theatre Company to help educators and parents discover connections within the play. Benchmarks Christmas Traditions........................... 10 through 5th grade may be satisfied by much of what is within Carols from the Play ………………. 10 these pages. Please, use them in whatever capacity you wish to satisfy benchmarks in your homeschool curricula; bring home SCIENCE year-round truths; expand your child’s knowledge of Extinguish a Fire ………. 11 “Christmas Facts” through Circle’s Extension week or, ART celebrate a fresh way of looking at Christ’s inclusive love for Ornaments ………………………… 13 us all. For more information about other arts/educational HUMANITIES/SOCIAL STUDIES opportunities available through Circle Theatre Company, Christmas Traditions. ………. 8 including our Circle Theatre Kids (Elementary), and Circle Meeting Needs Fair Planner............... 19 Studio Players (Middle School), please check out CURTAIN CALL www.circlechristianschool.org. Post-Show Discussion Questions ...... 28 Who Said It? ........................................29 Answers Who Said It. .. .. 30 Theatre Etiquette/terms/stages .… 31-33 Standards sample met by guide……....34 Circle School of Arts Info …………. 36 2 Setting the Stage: Synopsis When the 6 Herdman kids - considered the terror of teachers, parents, and students- show up at the auditions and manage to snatch the major roles in the pageant, everyone is convinced that this Christmas pageant -- if it is presented at all - will be “the worst Christmas pageant ever.” Their father disappeared years earlier and their mother works two shifts at the shoe factory to support her family while the kids run wild. How the bullied town kids, their parents, and those “horrible” Herdmans respond to the challenges of the season and the Pageant make for a much-loved Christmas tale. As the spirit of the season comes alive in the Herdmans, the audience learns that things are not always what they seem and all discover that there are still lessons to be learned from the story of the stable in Bethlehem. Meet the Characters FATHER (Bob Bradley) – solid family man MOTHER (Grace Bradley) – Classic motherly figure, director of the pageant BETH BRADLEY – The narrator, strong voice and presence, 12-14 MRS. ARMSTRONG – woman, managerial in voice and manner MRS. SLOCUM – pleasant; motherly woman MRS. CLARK -- adult MRS. CLAUSING – adult MRS. McCARTHY – a younger, less imperious version of Mrs. Armstrong IMOGENE HERDMAN – loud, bossy, crafty, 11-12 RALPH HERDMAN – ragged, scroungy, slouching manner, touch of adolescent cool, 13-14 ALICE WENDLEKEN –prim, proper, pain in the neck, 10-14 REVEREND HOPKINS FIREMAN ANGEL CHOIR/CHOIR MEMBERS BABY ANGELS SHEPHERDS NARRATORS CHARLIE BRADLEY – traditional kid brother, 8-9 LEROY HERDMAN – tough, sure of himself, 10-11 CLAUDE HERDMAN – tough, combative, 9-10 OLLIE HERDMAN – looking for trouble, Claude’s usual partner in crime, 8-9 GLADYS HERDMAN – small, wiry, feisty, 7-8 MAXINE – 10-11 ELMER HOPKINS – 12-13 HOBIE – 9-10 DAVID – 8-9 BEVERLY – 7-8 SHIRLEY -5-6 JUANITA – 5-6 DORIS – 9-10 3 About the Author & Playwright Taken directly from: http://usawrites4kids.drury.edu/authors/robinson/ Barbara Robinson I grew up in a southern Ohio river town – Portsmouth and that small town atmosphere has affected most of my writing. My mother, widowed when I was three years old, taught school for forty-nine years in that same small town, and her major (indeed, only) extravagance was books. I grew up with, and quickly adopted, the notion that reading was the only way to fill up every scrap of loose time you could snatch. I had the benefit, as well, of a wide variety of aunts and uncles and cousins, plus the extended family so common to small town life – the neighbors, friends, teachers, bus drivers, mailmen, local heroes, and even a local blacksmith...great stuff to feed the imagination. I began writing very early – poems, plays, stories – and just never quit. I attended local schools and then, being both book-struck and stage-struck, found a college – Allegheny College – where I could satisfy both passions. I’ve been a short story writer, with some 40-50 stories in McCall’s, Ladies’ Home Journal, Redbook, etc.; a playwright; an occasional poet, and finally and most happily, an author of children’s books...happily, because there’s no greater audience than boys and girls who read books and demand that those books be the most exciting, the most mysterious, the most touching, the funniest...the Best. I live and write in a suburb of Philadelphia, and I have two daughters – Carolyn, who is a nurse, and Marjorie, who is a sixth grade teacher and at home now with my grandchildren Tomas and Marcos, and all these people read books like crazy! 4 Pre-show Activities 1. The church Christmas pageant is a tradition for the Bradley family, and many other families in the church community. What are some holiday traditions your family, church, or school participate in every year? If you could create a new holiday tradition for your family, church, or school, what would it be, and why? 2. Being in a Christmas pageant is similar to being in a play. Have you ever been in a play or pageant before? If so, what was the most exciting part about being in a play? If not, would you like to be in a play or pageant some day— why, or why not? 3. The holiday season is a time for giving to others. Many times during the Christmas season we are encouraged to give of our time, talents, or treasures to those who are less fortunate than we are. This holiday season, what are ways you can selflessly give of your time, talents, or treasures to others in need? 4. There are a number of different Christmas carols sung throughout the Christmas pageant. What are Christmas songs that you know, and what are some of your favorites to hear and sing? More stories about how Christmas can cause a change of heart… Other books by Barbara Robinson: The Best School Year Ever; and The Best Halloween Ever A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens My Brother Louis Measures Worms: And Other Louis Stories by Charlotte Zolotow It’s a Wonderful Life by Philip Van Doren Stern The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss A Midnight Clear: Family Christmas Stories by Katherine Paterson Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Robert L. May 5 Christmas Fast Facts History Classroom Information Each year, 30-35 million real Christmas trees are sold in the United States alone. There are 21,000 Christmas tree growers in the United States, and trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold. Today, in the Greek and Russian orthodox churches, Christmas is celebrated 13 days after December 25th, which is also referred to as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day. This is the day it is believed that the three wise men finally found Jesus in the manger. In the Middle Ages, Christmas celebrations were rowdy and raucous—a lot like today’s Mardi Gras parties. Christmas wasn’t a national holiday in early America—in fact Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the country’s first Christmas under the new constitution. Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States on June 26, 1870. The first eggnog made in the United States was consumed in Captain John Smith’s 1607 Jamestown settlement. Poinsettia plants are named after Joel R. Poinsett, an American minister to Mexico, who brought the red-and-green plant from Mexico to America in 1828. The Salvation Army has been sending Santa Claus-clad donation collectors into the streets since the 1890s. Rudolph, “the most famous reindeer of all,” was the product of Robert L. May’s imagination in 1939. The copywriter wrote a poem about the reindeer to help lure customers into the Montgomery Ward department store. Construction workers started the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree tradition in 1931. Taken from: http://www.history.com/content/christmas/fast-facts 6 Five Christmas Senses Language Arts/Art Student Worksheet Adapted from: http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LA5ChristmasSensesPoemPK.htm8 Activity 1. Begin by sharing the following poem with students. If possible, write this poem on the board or on chart paper, so students can follow along with your reading, and refer back to it later in the lesson.