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 values the arts and education, we have created this Play Guide for teachers to utilize in conjunction with seeing a play at LCT. Our Play Guides are designed to be a valuable tool in two ways: helping you prepare your students for the enriching performance given by LCT’s performers, as well as serving as an educational tool for extending the production experience back into your classroom. On stage: September 13-25th, 2015 10am & 11:45am We designed each activity to OUR MISSION TO SCHOOLS, TEACHERS AND STUDENTS assist in achieving the Kentucky Core Content (KCC) and to integrate the The mission of Lexington Children’s Theatre’s Education arts with your core curricular subjects. Department is to provide students of all ages with the means to actively explore the beauty, diversity, complex- Teachers are important voices ity and challenges of the world around them through the at LCT. We rely heavily on your input. dramatic process. We strive for young people to develop If you have comments or suggestions their own creative voice, their imagination and their un- about our Play Guides, show selec- derstanding of drama and its role in society. tions or any of our programming, your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Program Review Information Please respond to the Teacher Re- Not only does our programming align with KCC sponse form following a performance. Standards, but this Play Guide as a whole is aligned with the KY Arts and Humanities Program Review We are thrilled that you rely on under the following demonstrators: LCT to provide your students a qual- ity theatrical experience, and we hope Demonstrator 2: a,c,d this resource aids you in extending Demonstrator 3: a,b,d our production into your classroom. Demonstrator 4: d LCT’s Education Department Play Synopsis The play begins on New Years Eve at the house of Ludwig Bemelmans, author of the Mad- eline books. Mr. Bemelmans’ daughter Barbara enters and hurries her father to come to the party. Mr. Bemelmans embarks on illustrating to both Barbara and the audience the stories of Madeline’s adventures as they come to life onstage. Madeline lives in an old house in Paris that is covered with vines and is a student at a school with eleven other little girls. The school is run by a kind but firm nun named Miss Clavel. Madeline is the smallest and most mischievous of the twelve girls and her first ad venture is going to the hospital to get her appendix removed. She is, of course, proud to have the scar across her stomach. The other girls think Madeline has had a great adventure and they want their appendix out too! Madeline’s adventures continue when Madeline falls into the river Seine and is valiantly rescued by Genevieve the dog. The two become instant best friends! Unfortunately, the Lord and Lady Cucuface, who run the school, have no tolerance for canines. They banish Gen- evieve into the night. Madeline, the girls, and Miss Clavel look all night for Genevieve but cannot find her. Thankfully, she is returned by the kindly policeman, just in time. Geneiveve gives birth to eleven puppies! Now every girl has her own dog. The final episode is about Madeline and a boy named Pepito who moves in next door. Pepito does his best to cause mischief while Miss Clavel has her back turned and Madeline names him the Bad Hat. When Pepito’s antics land him in a cast and a wheel chair he does his best to redeem himself but even this causes a great deal of chaos. Madeline sees his true intentions and befriends him anyway. The play closes with Madeline and all her friends wishing Mr. Bemelmans, Barbara, and the audience a Happy New Year! 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. Prepare for the Play Can you speak français or Deutsch? Madeline takes place in France where the official language is French. Ludwig Bemelmans was Austrian where they speak German. Below are some phrases you can learn with your class to get a basic understanding of the differences in the languages spoken in the play. Practice each phrase together and then separately with a friend. See if you can master these simple phrases. Create a small scene using all of the phrases. ENGLISH FRENCH GERMAN Hello Bonjour (bohn-dgoor) Guten tag (GOO-ten tahk) Good-bye Adieu (ah-deeyuh) Tschüß (chew-ss) Thank you Merci (mair-see) Danke (dahnk-uh) Please S’il vous plaît (SEE voo play) Bitte (bit-tuh) My name is Je m’appelle (dguh MA pell) Ich heiße (ih hi-suh) How are you? Ça va? (sah VAH) Wie geht’s? (VEE gates) Good Bien (BEE-in) Gut (goot) (note: “dg” is like “dg” in the English word “judge”) KCC’S: RD-E-x.01, AH-E-3.1.41 Frère Jacques Frère Jacques is a well-known children’s song in French. There is also an English-language vesion of the song; the first and second lines are switched in the English version. In Madeline the orphans sing Frère Jacques as they get dressed to help pass the time. Below are the lyrics to Frère Jacques, teach them to your class and sing it in a round. One Group should sing the English while the other group sings in French. Texte française: English Version: Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques, Are you sleeping, are you sleeping? Dormez vous? Dormez vous? Brother John, Brother John? Sonnez les matines, Sonnez les matines Morning bells are ringing, Morning bells are ringing- Ding Ding Dong, Ding Ding Dong Ding Ding Dong, Ding Ding Dong. KCC’s: AH-E-1.23 Rhyme Time Have your students make lists of words that rhyme (i.e. freeze, sneeze, please, cheese, etc.). Then ask students to write a story using the rhyming words. They can create the stories individu- ally or in groups. Then have students act out the stories for the rest of the class. KCC’s: WR-E-1.3, AH-E-3.1.41, AH-E-3.1.43 Meet the Author Ludwig Bemelmans was born in Austria in 1898. Being an artist ran in his blood, for Ludwig’s father was a painter himself. But, Ludwig’s parents divorced and he went to live with his Mother and her family in Regensburg, Germany. Like many artists, Ludwig had a childhood full of rebel- lion and resistance; he was hesitant to join the family business of hotel management. Neverthe- less, at the age of sixteen he was sent to apprentice with his uncle who owned several hotels in the town. Bemelmans was not suited to the position and was involved in a rather violent dispute with one of the waiters. Bemelmans was given an ultimatum: go to reform school or immigrate to America. Bemelmans arrived in New York City in 1914 and attempted to hold down a string of parttime jobs. He was not met with any more success in America as he had been in Austria. His career- prospects looked slim, so Ludwig decided to enlist in the US Army. He had trouble adjusting to a life in service, especially given that he was in a foreign country. Bemelmans later wrote a humor- ous memoir about his days as a soldier entitled My War with the United States. At the end of World War I, Bemelmans had gained his US citizenship and returned to the fam- ily business of hotel and restaurant service. He spent fifteen years in service at the Ritz-Carlton. During this time, he was honing his artistic skills by taking art lessons whenever he could afford them. In addition to his formal training, Bemelmans engaged in slightly less conventional forms of practice as well: drawing caricatures of the restaurant guests on the menus. In 1925 his profes- sion and his passion reconciled when he decorated and became part owner of a restaurant called the Hapsburg House. Around this time he met May Massee who worked for Viking Press publish- ing. She would prove to be a lifelong friend and colleague. In 1934 Viking published Bemelmans first children’s book: Hansi. In 1935 Bemelmans married Madeleine Freund and they had a daughter named Barbara. The family vacationed on the Isle d’Yeu in France when Barbara was just two.