Annabel Drudge Study Guide

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Syracuse Stage is committed to providing students with rich theatre experiences that explore and examine what it is to be human. Research shows that children

who participate in or are exposed to the arts show higher academic achievement, stronger self-esteem, and improved ability to plan and work toward a future goal.

Many students in our community have their first taste of live theatre through Syracuse Stage’s outreach programs. Last season more than 30,000 students from across New York State attended or participated in the Bank of America Children’s Tour, Backstory performances, artsEmerging, the Young Playwrights Festival, and our Student Matinee Program.

We gratefully acknowledge the corporations and foundations who support our commitment to in-depth arts education for our community.

Lori Pasqualino as “Annabel” in the 2010 Bank of America Children’s Tour:

Annabel Drudge... and the Second Day of School. Photo by Michael Davis

Children’s Tour

Student Matinee Series

General Educational Outreach Supporters

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EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH AT SYRACUSE STAGE

The Bank of America CHILDREN’S TOUR brings high-energy, interactive, and culturally diverse performances to elementary school audiences

The BACKSTORY Program brings history to life, as professional actors portray historical figures in classrooms and other venues

artsEMERGING takes students on an in-depth exploration of our mainstage season using a multi-cultural, multi-arts lens

The YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL challenges students to submit original ten-minute plays for a chance to see their work performed at Syracuse Stage

Timothy BondProducing Artistic DirectorSyracuse Stage and SU Drama

820 E Genesee StreetSyracuse, NY 13210

www.SyracuseStage.org

Director of Educational Outreach Lauren Unbekant (315) 443-1150

Manager of Educational Outreach Kate Laissle (315) 442-7755

Group Sales & Student Matinees Tracey White (315) 443-9844

Box Office (315) 443-3275

BY LAUREN U NBEKANT

CONTENTS

Production InformationTeaching TheatreLetter from the PlaywrightAbout the Play and Key IssuesContextSources and ResourcesSyracuse Stage Season Info

4. 5. 8.9.

11. 15.16.

DRAMASYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

PRESENTTHE BANK OF AMERICA CHILDREN’S TOUR

SCRIPT DRAMATURGY BYKyle Bass

SCENIC DESIGN BYMeggan Camp

SOUND DESIGN BYJonathan Herter

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Andrew Garrett

COSTUME DESIGN BYDevon Ritchie

STAGE MANAGER Sarah Bozenhart

Jillian WipferRachel TowneKeith Caram

Thomas Countz

Supporting the arts is a main priority of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, which is why we are so excited to partner with Syracuse Stage on this exciting project. Through innovative programs such as this one, we can effectively encourage the children in our community to embrace the arts at an early age. Bank of America is pleased to support such an important program and hopes children throughout the greater Syracuse area will take full advantage of it.

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BYLauren Unbekant

ANNABEL DRUDGEIMA DRUDGEPHILLIP DRUDGENANA DRUDGE

FEATURING

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“Theatre brings life to life.”Zelda Fichandler

Founding Artistic DirectorArena Stage, Washington DC

When the first cave-dweller got up to tell a story, theatre began. Almost every culture has some sort of live performance tradition

to tell stories. Television and film may have diminished the desire for access to theatre, but they have not diminished the importance.

Live theatre gives each audience member an opportunity to connect with the performers in a way he/she never could with actors on a television or movie screen. The emotions can be more intense because the events are happening right in front of the audience.

Audience

A few reminders...

BE PROMPTGive your students plenty of time to arrive, find their seats, and get situated.

RESPECT OTHERS’ SPACERemind your students not to bump/kick the people around them, or their chairs.

GOOD NOISE, BAD NOISEInstead of instructing students to remain totally silent, you should discuss the dif-ference between appropriate responses (laughter, applause, participation when re-quested) and inappropriate noise (talking, cell phones, etc).

STAY WITH USPlease do not leave, or allow students to leave, once a performance has begun, ex-cept in absolute emergencies.

Etiquette

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SYRACUSE STAGE ANNABEL DRUDGE STUDENT STUDY GUIDE

TEACHINGTHEATRE

Any piece of theatre is comprised of multiple art forms. As you explore An-nabel Drudge with your students, examine the use of:

INQUIRY How are each of these art forms used in Annabel Drudge?

Why are they used?

How do they help to tell the story?

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Plot What is the story line? What happened before the play started? What does each character want? What do they do to achieve their goals? What do they stand to gain/lose?

Character Who are the people in the story? What are their relationships? Why do they do what they do? How do their age/status/etc affect them?

Language What do the characters say? How do they say it? When do they say it? Do they speak to one character differ-ently than another? Why?

Music How do music and sound help to tell this story?

Spectacle What visual elements support the play? This could include: puppets, scenery, costumes, dance, movement, and more.

Theme What ideas are wrestled with in the play? What questions does the play pose? Does it present an opinion on those questions, or leave it to the audi-ence to decide?

SIX ELEMENTS OF DRAMA that playwrights are mindful of to this day:

Most (but not all) plays begin with a script — a story to be told and a blueprint of how to tell it. In his famous treatise, The Poetics, the

ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle outlined

Other Elements:Conflict/Resolution, Action, Improvisation, Non-verbal communication, Staging, Humor, Realism and other styles, Metaphor, Language, Tone, Pattern and repetition, Emotion, Point of view.

ACTIVITY At its core, drama is about characters working toward goals and overcoming obstacles. Ask students to use their bodies and voices to create characters who are: very old, very young, very strong, very weak, very tired, very energetic, very cold, very warm. Have their characters interact with one another. Give them an objective to fulfil despite their environmental obstacles. Later, recap by asking how these obstacles affected their characters and the pursuit of their objectives.

WRITING (see below)VISUAL ART/DESIGN (see next page)MUSIC/SOUNDDANCE/MOVEMENT

TEACHINGTHEATRE

TheArtofTheatre


TEACHINGTHEATRE

LINE can have length, width, texture, direction and curve. There are 5 basic varieties: vertical, horizontal, di-agonal, curved, and zig-zag.

SHAPE is two-dimensional and encloses space. It can be geometric (e.g. squares and circles), man-made, or free-form.

FORM is three-dimensional. It encloses space and fills space. It, too, can be geometric (e.g. cubes and cylin-ders), man-made, or free-form.

SPACE is defined and determined by shapes and forms. Positive space is enclosed by shapes and forms, while negative space exists around them.

COLOR has three basic properties: HUE is the name of the color (e.g. red, blue, green), INTENSITY is the strength of the color (bright or dull), VALUE is the range of lightness to darkness.

TEXTURE refers to the “feel” of an object’s surface. It can be smooth, rough, soft, etc. Textures may be ACTUAL (able to be felt) or IMPLIED (suggested visually through the artist’s technique).

Most plays (including Annabel Drudge) utilize designers to create the visual world of the play through scenery, costumes, lighting, and more. These artists use ELEMENTS

OF DESIGN to communicate information about the world within the play and its characters

APPLIED LEARNING Have students discuss these elements BEFORE attending Annabel Drudge and ask them to pay special attention to how these elements are used in the production’s design. Whether your students are observing a piece of visual art like a painting or a piece of performance art like a play, allow them first to notice the basic elements, then encourage them to look deeper into why these elements are used the way they are.

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Lauren UnbekantDirector of Educational Outreach

Sincerely,

Dear Educator,I am very excited to present this year’s Chil-dren’s Tour, Annabel Drudge. . .and the 2nd Day of School. Produced as a collaboration between the Syracuse University Department of Drama and Syracuse Stage, this play is very near and dear to my heart.

Creating the prickly, grumpy, absolutely lov-able character of Annabel Drudge and her whacky family has been a labor of love. I wanted to make sure that even in their zani-ness these characters were believable to a young audience.

Through this story I believe your students will have the opportunity to empathize with Anna-bel’s struggle to fit in and maybe discover how they can help others in their school environ-ments who are feeling out of place.

A LETTER FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT

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ABOUT THEPLAY:

STORY & ISSUES

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“If all you see is the disability... you might

be missing a lot. People with disabilities

are just people.” - Meredith Vieira NBC News

EXPLORING THEMES In the beginning of the play Annabel does not want to be special because it makes her feel like she doesn’t belong. By the end of the show, Annabel has changed her perspective about what “special” means. Discuss how a word can be used both POSITIVELY and NEGATIVELY. Have the students write journal entries describing how they are unique. Allow them to explore the negatives but, like Annabel, encourage them to focus on the positives.

Synonyms:appropriate,best, certain, characteristic, chief, choice, defined, definite, designated, determinate, different, earmarked, especial,exceptional, exclusive, express, extraordinary, festive, first, gala, individual, limited, main, major, marked, memorable, momentous, out of the ordinary, particular, peculiar, personal, primary, proper, rare, red-letter, reserved, restricted, select, set, significant, smashing, sole, specialized, specific, uncommon, unique, unreal, unusual

–noun 8. a special person or thing. 9. a train used for a particular pur-pose, occasion, or the like. 10. a special edition of a newspaper. 11. Theatre . a spotlight reserved for a particular area, property, actor, etc.: Give me the coffin special. 12. a temporary, arbitrary reduction in the price of regularly stocked goods, esp. food; a particularly worthwhile offer or price: The special this week is on sirloin steaks. 13. Television . a single program not forming part of a regular series.

Origin: 1175–1225; ME (adj.) < L speciālis of a given species, equiv. to speci (ēs) species + -ālis -al1 ; see especial

spe·cial

[spesh-uhl]

–adjective 1. of a distinct or particular kind or character: a special kind of key. 2. being a particular one; particular, individual, or certain: You’d better call the special number. 3. pertaining or peculiar to a particu-lar person, thing, instance, etc.; dis-tinctive; unique: the special features of a plan. 4. having a specific or particular function, purpose, etc.: a special mes-senger. 5. distinguished or different from what is ordinary or usual: a special occasion; to fix something special. 6. extraordinary; exceptional, as in amount or degree; especial: special importance. 7. being such in an exceptional degree; particularly valued: a special friend.

Annabel Drudge had a very bad first day at her new school... and she’s not going back. “Not with another 179 days left to go.” Her ever positive par-ents Phillip and Ima Drudge try to convince Annabel that she is special and will find friends who won’t care that she wears a leg brace. Annabel doesn’t want to be “special,” she just wants to fit in. With help from her Nana, a midnight journey to Istanbul and a pair of magical slippers, Annabel discovers just how special she is.

Synopsis


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ABOUT THEPLAY:

Color & Design

In Annabel Drudge

COLOR is a focus element of the overall design. Have students discuss how color was used in the play and then... WHY? Offer examples of other art that uses color to manipulate focus or create a certain feeling (the art work below is a good example of both COLOR and LINE).

Element of Focus:

COLOR

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)“Starry Night” (1889)

Find this coloring template at:http://www.supercoloring.com/pages/starry-night-by-vincent-van-gogh/

ACTIVITY Have students recreate a famous work of art (or color in a replica like the one shown below) using a completely dif-ferent color palette. How would the work of art change if you use pinks and yellows? Reds and oranges? Shades of black and white? Only greens? Explore further how color connects to emotion by giving students an adjective (i.e. happy, sad, confused, peaceful, hot, cold) and have them use color to create a work of art that evokes those emotions.

http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/

Maria Claudia Cortes (Rochester Institute of Technology M.F.A. in computer graphics design) has been receiv-

ing widespread praise for her thesis project, an animated Web site titled Color in Motion. The project received Best of Category honors in the I.D. Magazine 2004

Student Design Review competition, it was featured by Communication Arts Magazine in the 2004 Interactive Design Annual, and also made the pages of the Decem-ber 2004 issue of Proyecto Diseno, the leading design

magazine in Cortes’ home country, Colombia.


is derived from the Greek words photos (“light”) and graphein (“to draw”) The word was first used by the scientist Sir John F.W. Herschel in 1839. It is a method of recording images by the action of light, or related radiation, on a sensitive material.

PhotograPhy

On a summer day in 1827, Joseph Nicephore Niepce made the first photographic image with a camera obscura. Prior to Niepce people just used the camera obscura for viewing or drawing purposes not for making photographs. Joseph Nicephore Niepce’s heliographs or sun prints as they were called were the prototype for the modern photograph, by letting light draw the picture. Niepce placed an engraving onto a metal plate coated in bitumen, and then exposed it to light. The shadowy areas of the engraving blocked light, but the whiter areas permitted light to react with the chemicals on the plate. When Niepce placed the metal plate in a solvent, gradually an image, until then invisible, ap-peared. However, Niepce’s photograph required eight hours of light exposure to create and after appearing would soon fade away.

CONTEXT:Photography

FAMOUS FIRST

Camera Obscura:Camera = Latin for “room”Obscura = Latin for “dark”

ACTIVITY CREATE a CAMERA OBSCURA

http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/pringles_pinhole.html

empty Pringles® chip can marker ruler X-Acto knife or utility knife

thumbtack or pushpin masking tape aluminum foil scissorsbright sunny day

Supplies:

STEP 1Take the plastic lid off the Pringles® can and wipe out the inside. (Save the lid!)

STEP 2Draw a line with the marker all the way around the can, about 2 inches up from the bottom. Have a grown-up cut along that line so the tube is in two pieces.

STEP 3The shorter bottom piece has a metal end. With the thumb-tack, make a hole in the center of the metal.

STEP 4We’re going to use the plastic lid as a screen. If your lid is clear, you may need to apply a piece of wax paper, white tis-sue paper, or vellum to the lid to act as a translucent screen. Put the plastic lid onto the shorter piece. Put the longer piece back on top. Tape all the pieces together.

STEP 5To keep light out of the tube, use a piece of aluminum foil that’s about 1 foot long. Tape one end of the foil to the tube. Wrap the foil all the way around the tube twice, then tape the loose edge of the foil closed. If you have extra foil at the top, just tuck it neatly inside the tube

STEP 6Go outside on a sunny day. Close one eye and hold the tube up to your other eye. You want the inside of the tube to be as dark as possible-so cup your hands around the opening of the tube if you need to.

Look around your yard through the tube. The lid makes a screen that shows you upside-down color pictures!

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KEY ISSUE:Bullying

INQUIRY In what way does Annabel Drudge feel bullied? How does she initially plan to handle being bullied? Who changes Annabel’s mind and how? What would you do if you were Annabel?

Content above is courtesy of The Cleveland Playhouse and *education.com

The Effects of BullyingAlmost 30 percent of teens in the United States are estimated to be involved in bullying as either a bully, a tar-get of bullying, or both. Researchers have found that bullying is the worst among young teens and that boys are more likely to engage in physical bullying, while girls more often bully each other emotionally. Those who arethe victims of either type of bullying can suffer from a number of negative effects. People who feel isolated because of being bullied sometimes cannot cope with the situation and feel as if they are helpless. Depression, anxiety and antisocial behavior are more common among those who are bullied, as is alcohol and drug use. Some people who are bullied may even resort to violence against themselves or others.

Four strategies for teachers and parents to pass on to kids who witness bullying...

1. Stop! You’re Bullying!Most bullies stop bullying within 10 seconds, when someone tells him or her to stop. A child oryouth who witnesses bullying is very likely to make a positive difference simply by sayingsomething like, “What you’re doing is bullying and it isn’t fair!” or “If you don’t stop I am goingto report you!” It is important, however, that the witness keeps his/her own safety in mind too.

2. Support the VictimIf the witness feels uncomfortable saying something to the bully, then he/she may choose to focuson supporting the victim instead.

3. Reduce Attention to the BullyResearch indicates that bullies need an audience, and that passively watching, which may seemharmless, actually encourages the bullying to continue. If the witness feels uncomfortableintervening in a bullying episode, then he/she can help by just walking away.

4. Report the Bully.Tell witnesses that they should report any bullying they see to a responsible adult such as ateacher, principal, playground supervisor, or bus driver.

BULLYINGThroughout the history of the United States, bullying among children and teen-agers has been considered a normal and expected part of growing up. Only in re-cent years have people really started to consider the damage that is done by bul-lying and the lasting effects it can have for those who suffer from it.



BULLYINGWhat is Bullying?

Facts

Bullying is very complex and does not just mean a bigger person hitting a smaller person. According to the National Bullying Prevention Center, bullying is when a person or student is emotionally or physically harmed by another person or student. Bully behavior includes what is called an “imbal-ance of power” when a person with more power or social capital, such as being physically stronger or more popular, tries to hurt a person with less power. By doing this the person with more power normally hopes to feel more powerful by taking someone else’s power away.

Physical bullying can include hitting, kicking, and shoving. This aggression can either be done in an obvious way, such as in front of a teacher, or in a hidden way, such as hidden on a playground. Emotional bullying can include name calling, using bad words toward a person, gossiping, or ex-cluding people on purpose from games or groups. These actions are intentional on the part of the aggressor. Children should understand that if they feel emotionally or physically harmed, then the situation is bullying.

In 2011, two-thirds of middle school faculty and staff reported that they witnessed bullying fre-quently in their schools. A few years earlier, 89% of middle school students interviewed had wit-nessed an act of bullying, and 49% said they had been a victim of a bully. In 2009, 20% of high school students reported being bullied at school during the previous twelve months. The National Association of School Psychologists estimates that over 160,000 students miss school each day be-cause they fear being bullied.

Preventing bullying in our schools will not be a quick fix nor does it have a simple solution. In the best schools, every adult, no matter the position or job title recognizes and accepts the responsibil-ity of role model and educator. Every adult takes the matter of bullying seriously, and sees it as a responsibility to prevent it when possible and to intervene if it arises. If students see the adminis-tration standing up to bullies, they too can become empowered to stand up to bullies on their own.

Information from The Bully Project and Embrace Civility13

As parents and students, as teachers and members of the

community, we can take steps -- all of us -- to help prevent bully-

ing.

President Barack Obama


Self-Portrait, 1943 From the Sandor Family Collection

used with permission of (Art)n Laboratory (Art)n

Margaret Bourke-White June 14, 1904 - August 27, 1971

She wrote six books about her in-ternational travels. She was the premiere female industrial photographer, getting her start in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Otis Steel Company around 1927.

First Life magazine cover from 1936 with photo of Fort Peck Dam’s spillway (© Margaret

Bourke-White/TIMEPIX)

WOMEN IN PHOTOJOURNALISM

CONTEXT:Photography

Polaroid photography was invented by Edwin Land. Land was the American inventor and physicist whose one-step process for develop-ing and printing photographs created a revolu-tion in photography - instant photography. Edwin Land’s patent for the Polaroid camera allowed the photographer to remove a developingprint after the picture had been snapped. Edwin Land founded the Polaroid Corporation to manufacturer his new camera. The first Pola-roid camera was sold to the public in Novem-ber, 1948.

INSTANT HISTORY

Margaret Bourke-White began to study photography as a hobby while a very young woman. She developed the styles and tech-niques that she needed for various formats on her own. Her father was also some-what of a camera enthusiast and he exposed her to the wonders of the photographic lens as a youngster.

Margaret is a woman of many firsts. She was a forerunner in the newly emerging field of photojournalism, and was the first female to be hired as such. She was the first photographer for For-tune magazine, in 1929. In 1930, she was the first Western photographer allowed into the Soviet Union. Henry Luce hired her as the first female photojournalist for Life magazine, soon after its creation in 1935, and one of her photographs adorned its first cover (November 23, 1936). She was the first female war correspondent and the first to be allowed to work in combat zones during World War II, and one of the first photographers to enter and document the death camps. She made history with the pub-lication of her haunting photos of the Depression in the book You Have Seen Their Faces, a collaboration with hus-band-to-be Erskine Caldwell.

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SOURCES

RESOURCES&LEARN MORE...

TEACHING THEATRE/ARTS ArtsWork.com http://artswork.asu.edu/arts/teachers/resources/theatre1.htm ChildDrama.com http://www.childdrama.com/lessons.html Educational Theatre Association http://www.edta.org/publications/teaching.aspx Kennedy Center http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/3917/ Viola Spolin http://www.spolin.com/ Princeton Online Art Lesson Plans http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/Files/elements.htm Color Study http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/

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PHOTOGRAPHY/HISTORY Women in History http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/bour-mar.htm US Army Corps of Engineers Library http://www.usace.army.mil/History/hv/Pages/066-LIFES_First_Cover.aspx About.com

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpolaroid.htm

http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/stilphotography.htm Pinhole History http://photossu.blogspot.com/2009/01/pinhole-history.html

ADDITIONAL SOURCES http://thesaurus.com

http://dictionary.reference.com

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Annabel Drudge Study Guide

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