418 West Short Street What will you Lexington, KY 40507 discover? 859.254.4546 FAX.254.9512 Dear Educator, 2015-2016 Season Play Guide Lexington Children’s Theatre is proud to be producing our 77th season of plays for young people and their families. As an organization that val- ues the arts and education, we have created this Play Guide for teachers JUNIE B. to utilize in conjunction with seeing a IN play at LCT. Our Play Guides are designed to be JINGLE BELLS a valuable tool in two ways: helping BATMAN SMELLS you prepare your students for the en- February 9-12, 2016 riching performance given by LCT’s performers, as well as serving as an 10:00am and 11:45am educational tool for extending the OUR M ISSION TO S CHOOLS, Program Review production experience back into your TEACHERS AND S TUDENTS Information classroom. The mission of Lexington Not only does our pro- We designed each activity to assist in Children’s Theatre’s Edu- gramming align with achieving the Kentucky Core Content cation Department is to KCC Standards, but this (KCC) and to integrate the arts with provide students of all ages play guide as a whole is with the means to actively your core curricular subjects. aligned with the KY Arts explore the beauty, diver- and Humanities Pro- Teachers are important voices at sity, complexity and chal- gram Review under the LCT. We rely heavily on your input. If lenges of the world around following demonstrators: you have comments or suggestions them through the dramatic about our Play Guides, show selec- process. We strive for Demonstrator 2: a,c,d tions or any of our programming, your young people to develop Demonstrator 3: a,b,d their own creative voice, thoughts are greatly appreciated. their imagination and their Demonstrator 4: d Please respond to the Teacher Re- understanding of drama sponse form following a performance. and its role in society. We are thrilled that you rely on LCT to provide your students a quality the- This play guide is sponsored by atrical experience, and we hope this resource aids you in extending our production into your classroom. LCT’s Education Department Play Synopsis Thunder rolls through the valley on the night John Henry, a steel driv- ing man, is born with a hammer in his hand. Growing up, John feels the sweet ring of hammer against steel in his blood and knows he is destined to drive steel for the C&O Railroad Company. He heads down to the docks, hoping he can work his way up the Mississippi. He meets O’Brien, challenges him to a cotton rousting race and wins passage up river on the Captain’s boat. En route to Louisville, they navigate disastrous weather and John’s steel driving skills save the boat from destruction. Once they arrive, John learns he has only one day to get to Cincinnati before the C&O crew heads out to West Virginia. His wish for speed is granted when he meets a man with a horse named Thunderbolt. John wins a bet by outracing Thunderbolt, and in return, gets to ride the horse all the way to Cincinnati. Arriving just in time, John makes the acquaintance of the C&O crew’s Captain McDaniel, and is set to driving spikes with his new part- ner, the lovely Polly Ann. John and Polly make fast friends, and work for months building track through the Kanawah Valley. At the moment John Henry sees the sight of The Big Bend Tunnel, he knows he has reached his destiny. John and his crew set to slowly drilling through the mountain of solid rock. Reinforcement soon arrives in the form of a steam drilling machine, threatening to put the crew out of work. John challenges the machine to a race, in hopes of saving their jobs. His mighty hammer drills, long after the machine shuts down, until he breaks through the mountain. Then John Henry, utterly ex- hausted, lays down and dies as he was born: with his hammer in his hand. Your Role in the Play You may wish to have a discussion with your class about your upcoming LCT experience and their role as audience members. Remind your students that theatre can only exist with an audience. Your students’ energy and response directly affects the actors onstage. The quality of the performance depends as much on the audience as it does on each of the theatre professionals behind the scenes and onstage. Young audiences should know that watching live theatre is not like watching more familiar forms of entertainment; they cannot pause or rewind us like a DVD, there are no commercials for bathroom breaks, nor can they turn up the volume to hear us if someone else is talking. Your students are encouraged to listen and watch the play intently, so that they may laugh and cheer for their favorite characters when it is appropriate. At the end of the play, applause is an opportunity for your students to thank the actors, while the actors are thanking you for the role they played as an audience. Before the Play Exploring the Origin of Folk Tales The Legend of John Henry is based on truth, but the story we know today has gone through many changes since its origin. Scholars have found that there really was a steel-driver named John Henry or John Hardy, and contests between steel-drivers were common, though there is no evi- dence of a contest between a man and a steam drill. In the library, ask each student to fi nd a folktale that has more than one version. Read the different versions and compare them. What changes between the stories? What do the stories have in common? What elements stand out as the most important points? Do research on the tale to fi nd out the facts behind the story. What re- ally might have happened to inspire this folktale? KCC: RD-E-1.0.8, RD-E-2.0.8, SS-E-2.1.2, SS-E-5.1.1 Create Your Own Folk Tale Have each student create their own folktale about someone they know. Have them begin by gathering the following kinds of facts about the person. 1. Facts you know about this person 2. Abilities or dastardly deeds 3. An event or action that becomes legendary Next, extend the facts into a larger than life context. 1. Hero or heroine 2. Powers, capacities, lies 3. Metaphoric time and place Then, have the students write a one or two page tale based on the newly created hero or heroine. Finally, have them draw a picture from the story or design a statue commemorating their character. KCC: WR-E-1.3, SS-E-2.1.2, WR-E-1.4 Travel by Railroad Have students make maps of the railroads that crossed the U.S. in the 1800’s. Mark the important stops along the way, as well as which lines were used more com- monly for passenger travel and which were used for freight. What signifi cance did the trains have for people living at that time? Have students accompany their maps with a fi rst-person account of traveling between two cities by train. What was the station like? Did they (as a passenger) eat or sleep on the train? How much luggage could he or she bring? What did he or she do to pass the time? What sort of scenery could be seen out the window? How fast was the train? Have students share their accounts with the class. KCC: WR-E-1.3, SS-E-5.1.2, RD-E-4.0.6, SS-E-4.1.4 COPY PAGE Around the Bend The Legend of John Henry takes place in West Virginia and tells the story of the creation of The Big Bend Tunnel. Although it can be diffi cult to pinpoint the exact birthplace of many folktales, some stories are better known in certain states or regions. Read through the following list of American folktales and the area(s) of the country with which each tale is usually associated. On the map below, mark the areas with a different color for each tale. Which regions of the country are brought together by similar folktales? How have folktales spread through the U.S.? Annie Oakley - Ohio Calamity Jane - Missourri, Dakotas, Arizona Davy Crockett - Tennessee, Texas Febold Feboldson - Nebraska, plains states Jim Bridger - Wyoming, Montana Joe Magarac - Pennsylvania John Henry - West Virginia, Alabama Johnny Appleseed - Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio Mike Fink - Ohio, Mississippi River Molly Pitcher - Pennsylvania Old Stormalong - Massachusetts, Atlantic Ocean Paul Bunyan - Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota Pecos Bill -Texas, New Mexico Sacajawea - Dakotas, Idaho KCC: RD-E-4.0.6, SS-E-2.1.1, SS-E-4.2.2, SS-E-4.4.2, SS-E-4.2.1 Slue-Foot Sue - Texas John Henry: Tracing the Legend John Henry’s competition with the steam drill at Big Bend Tun- nel near Talcott, West Virginia has been preserved in song, or more specifi cally a ballad. However, variations in each version of the ballad has raised the question of who John Henry really was or if he existed at all. For some reason, the steel-driving hero was often confused with John Hardy, a song about a black outlaw who has hanged at Welch in 1894, after killing a man in a gambling dispute in the Shawnee coal camp. Even W.A. MacCorkle, the former governor of West Virginia, mixed up the two men.