EDUCATOR GUIDE Story Theme: Home, Sweet Home Artist/Organization: Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Discipline(s): Musical Theater (Percussion) SECTION I - OVERVIEW ......................................................................................................................2 SECTION II – CONTENT/CONTEXT ..................................................................................................3 SECTION III – RESOURCES – TEXTS……………………………………………………………..6 SECTION III – VOCABULARY……………………………………………………………….........9 . SECTION IV – ENGAGING WITH SPARK ...................................................................................... 10 Still image from SPARK story, 2006 SECTION I - OVERVIEW EPISODE THEME INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES Home, Sweet Home • To introduce students to the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, to the performer Jared “Choclatt” SUBJECT Crawford and the process of opening a new show Musical Theater, Percussion • To give students hands-on opportunities to explore rhythm and percussion GRADE RANGES • To invite students to create art from personal K-12 and post-secondary experience • To introduce students to the histories of musical CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS theater, of drumming in urban music, and of street Theatre, Music, Language Arts, Social Studies performance OBJECTIVE EQUIPMENT NEEDED To introduce students to the Lorraine Hansberry SPARK story about “Hit It!” on DVD or VHS and Theatre’s world premiere of “Hit It!”- virtuoso related equipment drummer Jared “Choclatt” Crawford’s Computer with Internet access, navigation software, autobiographical musical set to urban music from speakers and a sound card, and a printer the 1930’s to the present. Audio music player such as a CD or MP3 player, cassette deck, or record player STORY SYNOPSIS Optional: A camera, and video recorder and player Jared “Choclatt” Crawford was a street percussionist performing outside of New York’s Broadway MATERIALS NEEDED theaters until he was discovered by tap star Savion Open space for circle and group activities Glover and cast in the hit show, “Bring in da Noise, Rhythm sticks and other basic percussion Bring in da Funk.” In 1985, the Lorraine Hansberry instruments Theatre was founded with a vision to promote 4 Chairs multicultural theatre and to showcase works by Objects to use as instruments African American artists. SPARK follows the Pencils, pens and paper Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s mounting of Resource books (see Resources) Crawford’s show, “Hit It!” from rehearsal to Possibly also: magazines, pictures or colored paper opening night as the Hansberry’s Artistic Director, (for montage) Stanley E. Williams, directs this ambitious show for the theater’s 25th anniversary season. Intelligences Addressed Bodily-Kinesthetic - control of one's own body, INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES control in handling objects • Individual, partner and group rhythm-based Interpersonal - awareness of others' feelings, activities emotions, goals, motivations • Individual and group writing Intrapersonal - awareness of one's own feelings, • Individual student drawing emotions, goals, motivations • Individual student research Spatial - ability to manipulate and create mental images in order to solve problems Logical-Mathematical - ability to detect patterns, See more information on reason deductively, think logically Multiple Intelligences at www.kqed.org/spark/education. 2 SPARK Educator Guide – Lorraine Hansberry Theatre – “Hit It!” SECTION II – CONTENT/CONTEXT CONTENT OVERVIEW To close their 25th anniversary season, the Lorraine "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk" as well as to Hansberry Theatre chose a musical extravaganza, join the cast as a featured performer. Jared "Choclatt" Crawford's wildly percussive autobiographical journey "Hit It!" which celebrates Opening on Broadway in 1996, "Bring in 'da Noise, the drum-infused music of Big Band sounds, Latin Bring in 'da Funk" traced centuries of African styles, rhythm and blues, soul and today's hip-hop American history through evocative music and masters. Spark goes behind the scenes as the star, dance. The show had a nearly three-year run, then director, cast and crew of "Hit It!" prepare for its Crawford moved on to create and star in "Keep world premiere. Bangin'," a critically acclaimed musical featuring different drumming styles from around the world. The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre was founded in 1985 by artistic director Stanley E. Williams and executive In "Hit it!" Crawford took his own coming-of-age director Quentin Easter. Named for Lorraine story and created a musical under the direction of Hansberry, the first African American woman to Williams, with choreography by Antonio Naranjo. have a play produced on Broadway, the company The show's book (the text and narrative of the strove to showcase the work of African American production) is made up of poems by "Bring in 'da playwrights and give voice to an underrepresented Noise, Bring in 'da Funk" writer Reg E. Gaines that population in Bay Area theater. pay homage to jazz history and Manhattan's African American heritage. The book also includes story Williams and Easter felt that the Bay Area's rich segments from Crawford's life written by André C. variety of cultures wasn't visible on the stages of Andrée (Crawford's father and a regular performer at mainstream theaters. Convinced that these theaters the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre). were underestimating theatergoers' desire to see plays representing diverse cultural experiences, they As Crawford's character takes a magical ride through produced work by playwrights such as Ntozake the subways of New York, each subway stop Shange and August Wilson and commissioned new represents a different style of percussion-driven works by local writers. Their belief has been urban music. The audience follows him on an validated by an audience that consistently fills the odyssey through the history of drumming, from the 300-seat theater and that considers the Lorraine Big Band sounds of Chic Webb, Max Roach, Cab Hansberry Theatre a beloved and integral part of the Calloway and Buddy Rich to the Latin styles of Tito Bay Area cultural scene. Puente, Mongo Santamaria and Celia Cruz. Crawford also covers rhythm and blues/soul legends Al Green, At the age of 3, Choclatt Crawford began playing Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin as drums. At the age of 12, he found his singing voice. well as hip-hop performers Sheila E., Grand Master Performing in subway stations and on the sidewalks Flash, Doug E. Fresh and Run-DMC. of New York City, Crawford became one of the New York Bucket Drummers. Crawford caught the attention of Broadway producer George C. Wolfe and tap-dancing prodigy Savion Glover. The two asked him to choreograph the on-stage percussion for 3 SPARK Educator Guide – Lorraine Hansberry Theatre – “Hit It!” ensemble wove together the spontaneous, THE BIG PICTURE instinctively-inspired rhythms of “free jazz.” In music today, we see the drummer’s role vary from Drumming in popular music time-keeper, to equally interactive ensemble member, Crawford has noted that “Hit It!” took inspiration to the virtuoso percussive solo’s featured in “Hit It!” from African ancestors who for centuries used the drum to communicate over long distances. These “talking drums” imitated the rising and falling Street Performers rhythmic patterns of speech. Drums were also an Reported to have entertained the public since the important part of African ceremonial and religious days of ancient Egypt and Greece, street performers functions that could include rituals, dance and story- worked the pavements as minstrels (entertainers who telling. Thought to originate in West Africa (present- performed a repertoire of music, storytelling, day Nigeria and Ghana) the “talking drum” spread juggling and acrobatics) during Europe’s Middle to America and the Caribbean during the slave trade. Ages. Street performing, or “busking” as it is known in Europe, was first documented in the United States The influence of African and Latin drum traditions in the 1700’s when New York newspapers began was later seen in American jazz. Unlike the piano or printing articles about street performers. Laws and violin, there is no large body of composed work for registered complaints from that time concerning the drum, nor is there a standardized notation key or vendor songs and cries also document the thriving tuning system. Created in a primarily street performance scene. improvisational manner, jazz drumming and the role of the drummer evolved over the past century. In the Around 1900, immigrants in New York helped boost early 1900’s, a drummer’s part in a typical New the popularity of street performances. Music from Orleans jazz band was to keep the music’s many different cultural styles and traditions came to momentum going by playing patterns that clearly be heard on the streets, from German marching outlined the piece’s beats and forms. Drummers also bands, to Italian organ grinders (called “hurdy infused musical shifts in mood and energy with gurdies”) to singers and banjo players. Artists like dynamism and excitement, but primarily the Eddie Cantor, George Burns and Irving Berlin drummer’s job was to “keep the time” for the band as emerged from these humble beginnings. a whole. This time-keeper role continued for drummers in the swing bands of the 1920’s and ‘30s. In 1935, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia made it However, in the 1940’s, alto saxophonist Charlie illegal to perform on the city’s streets. Undaunted by Parker traded the smooth rhythms