! ! EDUCATOR’S GUIDE Northeast Childrens Theatre Company Winter/Spring 2014 ! 3 BBBEFEFOOREREEFORE THTHEETHE SSSHOHOWWHOW::: AAABOBOUUTTBOUT THTHEETHE AAAUTUTHHOORRUTHOR OFOFOF THTHEETHE BBBOOKOOKSSOOKS, AAARNRNOLOLDDRNOLD LLLOBOBEELLOBEL::: Arnold Lobel wrote and illustrated many, many books during his lifetime. His drawings of cats, mice, pigs, and other animals are favorites of children everywhere. Arnold grew up in Schenectady, New York, where he lived with his grandparents. When he was young he was often sick, and missed many days in the kindergarten, first and second grades. When he came back to school in third grade he told stories and drew pictures to illustrate them to enter- tain his classmates. He found this to be a good way to make friends. Arnold once said that taking books out of the library was one of the things he loved to do most when he was a child. As a teenager he was still interested in children's books, and when he went to art school he listed "illustrating" as his main interest. At first most of his work was illustrating other authors' books, but eventually he began to write his own. When he graduated from art school, he married Anita Kempler, and had two children, Adam and Adrianne. (Adrianne Lobel helped create the show you will see, designing the original Broadway sets and helping to shape the show with the composer and lyricist.) Arnold’s first famous book was Frog and Toad are Friends. The book was funny and tender and won immediate acclaim. It was named as a Caldecott Honor book, among other honors. But the Frog and Toad books were just the beginning of a long list of early readers written and illustrated by this talented man. Like the first, they are made up of short chapters and contain lovable and slightly wacky characters! http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp?id=3077 A PPPREREVIEWVIEWREVIEW OFOFOF “A“A“A YYYEAEARREAR WIWITTHHWITH FFFROROGGROG ANANDDAND TTTOADOADOAD””” Frog and Toad are best friends. We meet them as they wake up from their long winter's nap, called hibernation, to begin another year together. Throughout the year they do many fun things like baking cookies, going swimming, flying a kite, and sledding down a snowy hill. Frog is always happy and positive. But Toad can be grumpy, especially when his mailbox is empty. Frog tries to cheer up Toad by writing him a letter and giving it to Snail to deliver A.S.A.P., but doesn’t realize how long the delivery will take! Frog and Toad are joined by the rest of the animal gang and have fun together all year long. Sometimes they are sad and sometimes they get angry, but in the end they always remember that they are best friends who care about each other very much. Frog and Toad on Broadway! A hit on Broadway, A Year with Frog and Toad was nominated for three Tony Awards in 2003: Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score. The show is truly a family affair; the stage musical was adapted from Arnold Lobel’s award winning children’s stories by his daughter Adrianne Lobel, and the book, music, and lyrics were written by brothers Robert and Willie Reale. 4 MMMOREOREORE BBBEFOREEFOREEFORE THETHETHE SSSHOWHOWHOW: KKKEEPINGEEPINGEEPING ITITIT INININ THETHETHE FFFAMILYAMILYAMILY gentlemen — that the actors would wear their An interview with Adrianne Lobel, taken from own faces, not big rubber heads. Then I saw a the StageNOTES study guide who produced Frog and Toad on Broadway. show at the New Victory [theater] when it first opened, and I sat looking at the theater the Adrianne Lobel is the set designer of A Year whole evening thinking: "This is it! This is where With Frog and Toad. She is also the daughter of we must do a musical of Frog and Toad." It was Arnold Lobel, the author of the original Frog and the old vaudeville quality of the house that Toad books. Here she speaks about her relation- helped me come up with the idea for the ship to the characters and her role in developing theatrical adaptation. If you think of it, Frog and the show. Toad are like Fred Astaire (Frog) and Edward Everett Horton (Toad), or Bing Crosby (Frog) and StageNOTESª: It’s been said that you were Bob Hope (Toad). I thought: "a lot of soft shoe — partly responsible for inspiring your father to Babitt and the Bromide–type stuff with old- write the Frog and Toad books. What happened? fashioned scenery, painted legs and drops." And the music could be based on the musicals my ADRIANNE LOBEL: It was sometime in the mid father and I loved from the thirties and forties. -sixties. My family and I were summering by a So when I approached [writer and composer] Wil- lake in Vermont. One day I came in from the lie and Rob Reale, that was what we talked woods with a small animal in the palm of my about. hand. "What a nice frog you have there," said my father. "This is not a frog," I replied. "This is a SN: What was your approach to the visual design toad." And I explained all of the differences in of the show? appearance and life style between these two amphibians. Not long after that the first Frog AL: I didn’t want to take the book illustrations and Toad book was born! I like to think I planted and stick them on the stage. My father’s water- the seed of their creation in my father’s head. colors were limpid; they looked loose, but they’re not easy. I studied his work very carefully, so I’d SN: When did you decide to make the Frog and have to warm up my hand to do his work, which Toad books into a musical? is very fluid and facile, in the best sense. AL: It has been in my head for a long time. Of all SN: Do you think your father would be happy my father’s books, these seemed to lend with the musical? themselves best to dramatization. Most of his books have one eccentric character — usually an AL: I certainly hope so. I think he would be animal of some kind who tends to live alone and tickled to know that I did it. I know he would has encounters with others but not long love that it played on 42nd Street — though he relationships. Frog and Toad have the strongest never did see the rejuvenation of the block. And and most developed relationship. I envisioned the he was a great fan of [actor] Mark Linn-Baker show as an intimate vaudeville-style musical [who is also Lobel’s husband] so he would have with jazzy thirties-style sound. The songs, like liked to see Mark as Toad. He was a big theater my father’s writing, should not condescend to fan and somewhat of a frustrated actor himself. I children but should have an articulate cleverness was scared at first that I might be selling his soul and a sophistication that would appeal to down the river. But I really think he’d be children and their parents. thrilled. SN: Could you discuss the process of adapting Frog and Toad for the stage? AL: Being a visual person, I think I started with what I thought the show should look like. I knew I wanted Frog and Toad to look like elegant 5 MMMOROREEORE BBBEFEFOOREREEFORE THTHEETHE SSSHOHOWWHOW QQQUIUICCKKUICK RRREFERENCE GGGUUIIDEDEUIDE: SSSTTORORIIEESSTORIES TOTOTO RRREAEADDEAD (S(S(SORORTTEEDDORTED BYBYBY BBBOOKOOKOOK))) Each of the songs and scenes in A Year With Frog and Toad corresponds directly to a story from the Frog and Toad books. These stories are strung together to fill the year that passes during the show. Below you will find a list of the books in the Frog & Toad series and the stories within each book that will be enacted in the show. (All books written by Arnold Lobel) Frog and Toad Are Friends Frog and Toad Together Spring, A Swim, The Letter The Garden, Cookies Frog and Toad All Year Days With Frog and Toad Down the Hill, The Surprise, Christmas Eve The Kite, Shivers, Alone 6 THEMES TO FOLLOW: FFFRIENDSHIP (PA S(PA STANDARD 1.2, 1.5)1.2, 1.5) WHAT MAKES A GOOD FRFRIEND?IEND?IEND?IEND? SStudenttudent Activity Sheet Answer the following questions about a good friend of yours. My good friend’s name is____________________________________________________________. My good friend is___________________________________________________________________. My good friend and I like to_________________________________________________________. My good friend and I have fun when_________________________________________________. My good friend and I laugh when____________________________________________________. My good friend and I go_____________________________________________________________. My good friend helps me with _______________________________________________________. My friend is like me in these ways:___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________. My friend is different from me in these ways__________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________. Other words that describe my good friend are_________________________________________. In the space below, draw a picture of your friend. 7 TTTHEHEMMEEHEME TOTOTO FFFOLOLLLOOWWOLLOW: F: FRIENDSHIP SSSUGGESTED AAACTCTIVITIVITYYCTIVITY; SSSTORYBOARDS (P(PAA(PA STANDARDS 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 9.1) Give your students copies of the images below. Now have the students pair off and choose an image from the storyboard. Beginning in the same position as the characters (in a frozen image), invite them to enact or create another frozen image of what they think may happen next. Allow the im- provisations to run 2-5 minutes, guiding the students as necessary. SSSUGGESTED AAACTCTIVITIVITYYCTIVITY: WWWHATHATHAT MMMAKESAKESAKES AAA GGGOODOODOOD FFFRIERIENNDDRIEND? (PA((PPAA SSSTANDARDS 1.3, 1.6, 9.1) Invite the class to give examples of things that good friends to together. As the students share, note some of the activities or key terms of the board.