TheatreWorksS I L I C O N V A L L E Y

THEATREWORKS FOR SCHOOLS

CLEMENTINEin the Lower 9

By Dan DietzMusic by Justin Ellington

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“...one of the lessons of the storm has been thatwe can't just continue to operate in our owninsular worlds and not have a wider perspective.We're all related now, so there's a need for us towork together, because otherwise none of us aregoing to survive...”Ashley Sparks, ArtSpot Company Member in New Orleans

OUR PARTNERS IN EDUCATIONTheatreWorks thanks our generous donors to the Education Department, whose financial support enables us to

provide in-depth arts education throughout Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the 2010/11season alone, we served over 23,000 students, patients, and community members, making almost 90,000

educational interactions.

Foundations

Avant! FoundationCrescent Porter Hale Foundation

The Leonard C. & Mildred F. Ferguson FoundationMission City Community Foundation

Palo Alto Weekly Holiday FundPalo Alto Community Fund

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Dodge & Cox Investment ManagersIntero FoundationLockheed Martin

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TargetUnion Bank

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS• For Teachers 4• For Students: The Role of the Audience 5• For Students: Why do this production? 6

ABOUT THE STORY & THEMES• Interview with Clementine Playwright, Dan Dietz 7–8• Clementine Plot & Meet the Creative Team 9• Agamemnon Plot & The Father of Tragedy 10

CONTEXT• The Greeks’ Tragic Drama 11• Aristotle’s Definition of Tragedy 12• A Brief Katrina Timeline 13• Geography of New Orleans 14• The Path of Katrina 15–16• Of Myths and Gods 17• The Role of the Chorus 18• New Orleans: A City with a Case of the Blues 19–20• Making the Set of Clementine 21–22

RESOURCES• Resources and Additional Reading 23–24• STUDENT/Student Matinee Evalutation• TEACHER/Student Matinee Evalutation

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HOW TO USE THIS STUDY GUIDEThis guide is arranged in worksheets. Each worksheet or reading may be used independently or in conjunction with others to serve your educational goals. Together, the worksheets prepare students for the workshops, as well as seeing the student matinee of Clementine in the Lower 9 produced by TheatreWorks, and for discussing the performance afterwards.

Throughout the guide you will see several symbols:

Means “Photocopy Me!” Pages with this symbol are meant to be photocopied and handed directly to students.

Means “English Language Arts.” Pages with this symbol feature lessons that are catered toCalifornia State English Language Arts standards.

Means “Theatre Arts.” Pages with this symbol feature lessons that are catered to California State Theatre Arts standards.

Means “Social Studies.” Pages with this symbol feature lessons that are catered to California State Social Studies standards.

FOR TEACHERSThe student matinee performance of Clementine in the Lower 9 will be held on October 27, 2011 at 11:00 am at the

Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. The play is approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes long, includingintermission. The play will be followed by a discussion with actors from the show.

Student audiences are often the most rewarding and demanding audiences that an acting ensemble can face. Since wehope every show at TheatreWorks will be a positive experience for both audience and cast, we ask you to familiarizeyour students with the theatre etiquette described on the “For Students” pages.

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All the work that goes into a production would mean nothing if there wasn’t an audience for whom to perform. As the audience, you are also a part of the production, helping the actors onstage tell the story.

When the performance is about to begin, the lights will dim. This is a signal for the actors and the audience to putaside concerns and conversation and settle into the world of the play.

The performers expect the audience’s full attention and focus. Performance is a time to think inwardly, not a time toshare your thoughts aloud. Talking to neighbors (even in whispers) carries easily to others in the audience and to theactors on stage. It is disruptive and distracting.

There is no food allowed in the theatre: soda, candy, and other snacks are noisy and, therefore, distracting. Pleasekeep these items on the bus or throw them away before you enter the audience area. There are no backpacks allowedin the theatre.

Walking through the aisles during the performance is extremely disruptive. Actors occasionally use aisles and stairwaysas exits and entrances. The actors will notice any movement in the performance space. Please use the restroom andtake care of all other concerns outside before the show.

Cell phones and other electronic devices should be turned off before the performance begins. When watch alarms, cell phones, and pagers go off it is very distracting for the actors and the audience. Please do not text during the performance, as it is distracting to the audience members around you.

What to bring with you:IntrospectionCuriosityQuestionsRespectAn open mind

What to leave behind:JudgementsCell phones, etc.BackpacksFoodAttitude

FOR STUDENTSTHE ROLE OF THE AUDIENCE

http://www.buzzaboutcharity.com/make-it-right-lower-ninth-ward-new-orleans-katrina/new-orleans/

But Clementine isn’t just a retelling of the events of 2005. It’s the story of

a family—what it lost, whatit found, and what it

kept hidden.

That family’s tale,steeped heavily in New Orleans culture and undeniablyimpacted by Katrina, isinspired by ancient

mythology. It is storytellingat its best—making theunfamiliar seem familiar,humanizing both the mythand the story that is now an

unforgetable part ofAmerican history.

All of us know that theatre is a unique way to tell a story, to watch characters interact without the hinderance of ascreen, and to spark ideas we might have never thought of before. For many of us, we remember what happenedin New Orleans in the Summer of 2005 and for others of us, it might be a part of history that needs a little bit of

an explanation. Sometimes it is hard to understand the emotional gravity of a historical event and theatre can be agreat way to understand not just what happened, but also how people felt.

One of theatre’s lofty purposes is to hold up a mirror to society, giving audiences a clearer view of the world beyond their own personal experiences. This October, TheatreWorks patrons will be transported to New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward to experience firsthand the sorrows and hopes of a family attempting to recoverfrom Hurricane Katrina. Though six years have passed, the heart-wrenching newscasts, stories, and images are fresh in our minds. As Clementine begins, memories of the media’s coverage of Katrina resurface in our minds, and are then given a human face by the powerful story that unfolds.

It is not unusual for playwrights to punctuate their stories with actual historical events. TheatreWorks audiences may recall the woeful announcement of JFK’s assassination in Caroline, or Change, and just earlier this season, Fly By Night centered around the great blackout of 1965. In both cases, however, the productions were more than forty years removed from the events depicted. While these events no doubt live in the memories of many of our patrons, their presence in the plays serve more to anchor the story to a particular moment in the past. In the case of Clementine, Hurricane Katrina brings the play into the here and now.

If Clementine in the Lower 9 were merely a recounting of the events of Hurricane Katrina, it might indeed be seen as old news. After all, it’s not as if there haven’t been a plethora of other natural disasters in the news recently. But Clementine isn’t just a retelling of the events of 2005. It’s the story of a family—what it lost, what it found, and what it kept hidden. That family’s tale, steeped heavily in New Orleans culture and undeniably impacted by Katrina, is inspired by ancient mythology. It is storytelling at its best—making the unfamiliar seem familiar, humanizing both the myth and the story that is now an unforgettable part of American history.

FOR STUDENTSWHY WE ARE DOING THIS PRODUCTION

By Katie Dai, TheatreWorks Editorial Staff

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Q&A WITH THE PLAYWRIGHTPlaywright-in-Residence and Education Administrator Jake Arky sat down to ask Clementine in the Lower 9 author Dan Dietz about updating a Greek tale, what the audience will take away from his play, and the blues.

Why the Greek mythology overlay?

Once I knew that I wanted to write a play about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina I found myself struggling to figure out how to do justice to the size of the wreckage. Not just the physical wreckage of a city that was trying to rebuild after the disaster and people trying to rebuild their homes and all the trash and everything else, but

also the emotional size. The emotional wreckage. That's when I started to think about the ancient Greeks. For me, theancient Greek dramatists have an amazing ability to write about a big social problem—like war, famine, one's responsibility to society—but they always had the ability to couch that larger issue within the story of a single family.And so they were able to keep it very big and very human. It could be about gods and goddesses and larger than lifethings, but it could also be, as is the case in Agamemnon, a woman saying to her husband: "How could you do that toour family?"

What do you hope teenagers might take away from this experience?

I think one of the things that's nice about the play is that not only are there, say, middle age people on stage, butthere are also teenagers on stage. I hope the play is truly able to truthfully depict what happens when young peoplecome face-to-face with problems that seem too big to handle. You find yourself suddenly learning what it means to bean adult. How to approach problems as an adult for the first time in your life. Adult-sized problems...a lot of timesthose problems are, at least in part, shielded from you when you are younger, but there's a certain point where everyone winds up having to learn to face adult-sized problems.

I hope high school students get the chance to watch two teenagers,both of whom are struggling with big situations that in some waysseem beyond their control. Drugs, the legacy of drug addiction andabuse, a family coping with disaster. [I hope] they see that there is away through. There is a way to work yourself through these kinds ofproblems.

Why did you decide to have an interracial family whogoes on this journey?

Part of it was just setting it in New Orleans. There is just such a mix ofcultures and races in New Orleans and I wanted to do justice to that.But I also felt like race became part of the discussion after Katrina in abig way. I can't remember who it was who said "George Bush doesn'tcare about black people”? Kanye West! That's it. That statement, I feel

referring to people as 'looters' when maybe they were just trying to get safe drinking water for their families. Thingslike that. The whole issue of the aftermath of that particular disaster is intrinsically tied up with race in America.And so I didn't see how I could write about the aftermath of Katrina without at least bringing race into the mix.

(Continues on page 8)

“I hope the play is able to truthfully depict what happens whenyoung people come face-to-face with problems that seem too bigto handle. [I hope] they see that there is a way through. There is away to work yourself through these kinds of problems.”Dan Dietz, playwright, Clementine in the Lower 9

Kanye W est’s quote on Television during the afterm ath ofKatrina “George Bush doesn’t care about black people!”

But at the same time knowing how polarizing these kinds of discussions can be, I wanted to make racepart of the texture of the play as opposed to people getting into big, political arguments about raceitself. I wanted race to be part of the environment and part of the fabric of the family and have the conflictscome out of that instead of trying to create some lame set-up that would allow the characters to talk overtlyabout race. I wanted race to be part of the discussion in a more subterranean kind of way, instead of on thesurface.

What are some of the themes you hope are discussed by the students on the ride backto school?

Cycles of drug abuse, violence, things like that. How do you break a cycle? If your family or your community is caught in a cycle, a damaging cycle of behavior, whatever that maybe, whether it is drug related or relatedto violence or kinds of abuse—how do you break that cycle? What is required? I hope they also talk aboutwhat kinds of stresses families and communities undergo after a massive disaster.

Why did you decide to change the ending from the Aeschylus' version of Agamemnon?

I didn't really know when I started writing what the ending was going to be, but by the time I got there I realized that this family becomes a microcosm of New Orleans itself. It becomes a representative of the cityand struggles of people there. And I just had to ask myself: what do I want to leave the city with? Do I wantto leave the city with any hope of being able to rebuild or do I want to leave the city with something morebleak? And I decided that I couldn't leave this family or this city without at least the tiniest little glimmer ofhope. That things could get better if they just keep fighting and keep struggling. I didn't want it to be somekind of sugar-coated ending because people are still struggling in New Orleans and neighborhoods are stilltrying to come back six years later. But I did want to offer at least a glimmer of hope that things can get better if you keep working.

What do you hope that the music says which your characters cannot say?

I think to me, in part, the music is the voice of the city, the city of New Orleans. The thing about the blues isthat it lifts you up while it lays you down at the same time. It's a way to lift yourself out of the pain you arefeeling by embracing the pain you are feeling. I think that's one of the beautiful things about the blues: itdoesn't try to deny the pain you are going through when times are hard. It actually embraces that pain, but itturns it into music which lifts you up and out of that pain at the same time. I feel like the role I wanted themusic to play was to be that voice that constantly seeks to embrace the reality of whatever struggle you'regoing through while allowing you to continue with that struggle by lifting you up just a little bit.

“Blues music is such an incredible way for people to take ownership over a bad situation. Even if it's hard, you can atleast have ownership over that struggle and you feel a little bit less of a victim and a little bit stronger—if you can singabout the problems that you're having.”Dan Dietz, Playwright, Clementine in the Lower 9

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CLEMENTINE: THE PLOT

Clementine in the Lower 9 is a world premiere play by playwright Dan Dietz, which blends a classic Greek mythwith a modern-day tragedy as a family tries to break a cycle of abuse in the wreckage of Hurricane Katrina. Likea heart-wrenching blues song, it involves laughter, loss, and the internal drive to keep going in the wake of a

great loss and a world turned upside down.

The chorus, a blues musician, sets the scene: Nine months after Katrina flooded the city of New Orleans,Clementine and her teenage son, Reginald, have started rebuilding their home in the Lower Ninth Ward.Clementine has been waiting for her musician husand, Jaffy, to return from Houston, Texas. When Jaffy does makehis way back to the family, he surprises both Clementine and Reginald by bringing Cassy, a quiet young girl hesaved back in Houston, who is struggling to stay sober. Jaffy believes that Cassy can see the future, saying thatshortly after he rescued her in Texas she gave him the key to winning the lottery. Clementine is skeptical, as isReginald...until he begins to spend more time with Cassy and believes that she may truly have a special relationshipwith the god Apollo.

Jaffy dodges the subject of their daughter, Iffy, and her death in the storm. Instead, he tries to rekindle hisrelationship with Clementine. Jaffy reminds Clementine about how she used to play the piano and that they firstmet by playing in the same nightclub together. He asks Clementine why she does not touch the instrument anymore and Clementine, who was a nurse during the storm, recalls a devastating encounter with a patient that has left her haunted ever since. Ghosts are following Jaffy, too, as he tries to come to terms with how he lost Iffy in thestorm. Once Clementine learns the truth, she prepares to cut Jaffy out of her and Reginald’s lives forever. Just asshe is about to cause a natural disaster in her own household, the gods, fate, and music collide to remindClementine how far she has come as a survivor and how she must continue to be strong for the sake of her family.

Dan DietzPlaywright

Justin EllingtonComposer and Musical Director

MEET THE CREATIVE TEAM

Please be advised that this play features mature language and discusses adult themes.

“As is so often thecase the biggest thingI look forward to nailing down is theending. What do Ileave these characters(and an audience) withas the lights go down?It's a moment youwant to get just right.”Dan Dietz

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AGAMEMNON: THE PLOTOne of the first plays to ever deal with some big themes, including loss, war, anddeath. Sound familiar?

Queen Clytemnestra awaits her husband Agamemnon’s triumphant return home after fighting in the Trojan War.After watchmen inform Clytemnestra that Agamemnon’s ship and the Greek fleet have been sighted and arepreparing to dock, the old men of Argos form the Chorus. Together, they tell of the Trojan War, which started

when Prince Paris stole Helen away from the Greek King Menelaus (Agamemnon’s brother) and started a ten year warbetween the armies of Troy and Greece.

The Chorus goes on to describe how Agamemnon, in order to defeat the Trojan fleet, sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia tothe god Artemis. They continue by singing about Helen’s beauty and how it has a unique power to destroy that isunlike anything else when Agamemnon rides in on his chariot, accompanied by Cassanda, a Trojan princess he hasstolen away to be his concubine and slave. Clytemnestra welcomes her husband home, declaring her love for him andhas her servants set up a carpet of purple robes for Agamemnon to walk on as he enters the palace. Agamemnonrefuses to comply, fearing that such an action could be considered one of hubris or pride, but Clytemnestra insists and he eventually makes his way inside their home on the path of robes.

Clytemnestra demands that Cassandra come inside the palace, too, yet the Trojan Princess remains quiet and the frustrated queen leaves before she hears Cassandra’s incoherent prophecies about a curse on the house of Agamemnon.According to her visions, the Chorus will see the death of Agamemnon, as well as her own, after which a figure willemerge to be the one who seeks revenge. Cassanda finally enters the palace, leaving the Chorus fearful as to what willhappen next. A scream rings out from inside the palace and as the Chorus argues about what action they should take,the doors open to reveal the lifeless bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Clytemnestra stands over them, declaringthat the murders have been commited to avenge Iphigenia. Clytemnestra’s lover, Agamemnon’s cousin Aegisthus, joinsher and together, they plan to take over the government of Greece. The Chorus does not believe this will be a lastingleadership, as they predict Orestes, Clytemnestra’s son, will return from exile to avenge his father, Agamemnon.

THE FATHER OF TRAGEDYAlthough Aeschylus is said to have written over ninety plays,

only seven have survived. When Aeschylus first began writing,the theatre had only just begun to evolve. Plays were little

more than very dramatic religious ceremonies and choral poetrythat included a number of dances. A chorus danced andexchanged dialogue with a single actor who portrayed one ormore characters primarily by the use of masks. Most of the actiontook place in the circular dancing area or "orchestra" which stillremained from the old days when drama had been nothing morethan a circular dance around a sacred object.

It was a huge leap for drama when Aeschylus introduced thesecond actor. He also attempted to involve the chorus directly inthe action of the play. In Agamemnon, the chorus of Eldersquarrels with the queen's lover, and in The Eumenides, a chorus ofFuries pursue the grief-stricken Orestes. Aeschylus directed manyof his own productions, and according to ancient critics, he is saidto have brought the Furies onstage in such a realistic manner thatwomen miscarried in the audience. His work laid the groundworkthe dramatic arts would need to flourish, and by the time of hisdeath, there were two notable successors ready to take his place:Sophocles and Euripides.

Aeschylus: Playwright (525-546 B.C.E.)

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THE GREEKS’ TRAGIC DRAMASThe Greeks were innovators when it came to technology, politics, and creating awhole lot of drama.

What exactly is epic drama?

The Greeks started performing theatre as part of a religiousceremony to honor the god Dionysus, but eventually transformed it into a platform for storytelling and presenting

current issues facing their society. Big themes and ideas wereexplored onstage using characters such as the gods, kings,and queens with a chorus representing the citizens of Greecewho share their reactions to the main conflict being enactedonstage. Epic drama has a number of characters in one playwho have to make decisions that are morally questionable andmight lead to actions that will forever change their lives andthe lives of everyone involved in the play.

What makes Clementine in the Lower 9 and Agamemnontragedies?

Tragedy comes from the word “tragos” which means “goat,”because in ancient Greece, it was common to hold annualplay festivals and the winner would often receive a goat as aprize for having written the best play. Today, tragedy is a wayto classify art that addresses the subject of human sufferingyet the term has often been used to invoke a powerful effectof cultural identity and historical continuity.

Agamemnon is considered a tragedy because Clytemnestra issuffering over the loss of her daughter at the hands of herhusband in order to win a war. Similiarly, Clementine is alsomourning the passing of her own daughter during HurricaneKatrina and eventually begins to question whether her husband might have been responsibile.

What are the big themes explored in these two plays?

Both Clementine in the Lower 9 and Agamemnon touch onfeelings and emotions involving a catastrophic event, such asa devastating natural distaster or a decade long foreign war.The themes all explore what it means to be a family, what it islike to go back home after a terrible event has shaken thatfamily unit, and if it is possible to believe that good things willcome from the forces of nature (or the gods, for that matter)that might have caused such horrible things to happen in thefirst place. While Agamemnon does not end on a happy note,Clementine in the Lower 9 suggests that tragedy is the perfect place to find new hope and rediscover the strengthwe never knew we had, especially the strength to forgive.

Looters taking advantage or survivors looking for supplies?

What makes a play, a movie, abook or a television show tragic?

ARISTOTLE’S DEFINITION OF TRAGEDY“Tragedy, then, is a process of imitating an action which has seriousimplications, is complete, and possesses magnitude; by means of language which has been made sensuously attractive, with each of itsvarieties found separately in the parts; enacted by the persons themselves and not presented through narrative; through a course ofpity and fear completing the purification (catharsis, sometimes translated "purgation") of such emotions.From Aristotle’s Poetics

a) "imitation": the artist does not just copy the shifting appearances of the world, but rather imitates or represents reality itself, and gives form and meaning to that reality. In so doing, the artist gives shape to the universal, not the accidental. Poetry, Aristotle says, is "a more philosophical and serious business than history; for poetry speaks more of universals, history of particulars."

b) "an action with serious implications": serious in the sense that it best raises and purifies pity and fear; serious in a moral, psychological, and social sense.

c) "complete and possesses magnitude": not just a series of episodes, but a whole with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The idea of imitation is important here; the artist does not just slavishly copy everything related to an action, but selects (represents) only those aspects which give form to universal truths.

d) "language sensuously attractive...in the parts": language must be appropriate for each part of the play: choruses are in a different meter and rhythm and more melodious than spoken parts.

e) tragedy (as opposed to epic): relies on an enactment (dramatic performance) not on "narrative" (the author telling a story).

f) "purification" (catharsis): tragedy first raises (it does not create) the emotions of pity and fear, then purifies or purges them. Whether Aristotle means to say that this purification takes place only within the action of the play, or whether he thinks that the audience also undergoes a cathartic experience, is still hotly debated. One scholar, Gerald Else, says that tragedy purifies "whatever is 'filthy' or 'polluted' in the pathos, the tragic act." Others say that the play arouses emotions of pity and fear in the spectator and then purifies them (reduces them to beneficent order and proportion) or purges them (expels them from his/her emotional system).”

connections:

Compare and contrast Comedy and Tragedy. What elements create a good Comedy and what create a good Tragedy?

Make a list of recent movies that your students would considergood Tragedies. Can your students site specific points in themovie that correspond to the above list?

As a class discuss the process of Catharsis. Have they ever experienced moments of Catharsis? In their own lives? In a movie? In a play? What did those moments look and feel like?

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A BRIEF KATRINA TIMELINE

Thursday Aug 25: Katrina makes first landfall in Florida as a Category 1 hurricane and starts moving West. BySaturday, two days later, Katrina becomes a Category 3 hurricane and at 5 pm New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin callsfor voluntary evacuation. It is not mandatory, so most nursing homes do not evacuate and many citizens believe the

hurricane isn't serious. There are no organized plans for evacuating those without personal vehicles.

Aug. 28: Katrina reaches a Category 5 with 175 mph winds and gusts up to 215 mph. At 9:30 am, Mayor Naginorders mandatory evacuation and the Superdome is opened as "shelter of last resort;" 9,000 people enter it the firstday, and by the next day; 24,000. They have food and water for 15,000 for three days.

Aug. 29: At 3 am the breach in 17th St Canal levee is reported. At 5 am the power fails in the Superdome. It has noair conditioning, unbearable humidity, severe shortages of food, water, and medical supplies, and toilets became non-functional. At 6:10 am Katrina makes landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 with sustained winds of 125 mph andrain falling at 1 inch per hour. The Industrial Canal breaches, a break that will reach 900 feet long. Less than an hourlater, two holes open in Superdome roof while 6-9 feet of water flows into the Lower 9th Ward from the LondonAvenue, Industrial, and 17th Street Canals. Katrina's storm surge makes the Mississippi River appear to be flowingbackwards.

Aug. 30: All hospitals but one are without power and patients are being ventilated by hand. Over 1100 patients aretrapped, doctors, nurses, and support personnel are also trapped. The areas around Superdome that were dry untilnow are soon covered in 3 feet of water. The breach in 17th Street Canal reaches 200 feet. Looting is rampantthroughout New Orleans. All New Orleans is ordered to evacuate, including all those sheltered in the Superdome,those who resist can be taken by force.

Aug 31: Water has stopped rising but 85% of New Orleans is already submerged. Mayor Nagin instructs NewOrleans police to abandon search and rescue efforts and control rampant looting. Martial law is declared.

Sept 1: Conditions at Superdome and Convention Center are horrific: nowater, no food, non-functioning toilets, reports of rapes and robberies, people dying with nowhere to put the bodies. An estimated 4,000 peopleare stranded on Interstate 10 overpass including elderly and sick. Most areevacuated there and left stranded, out of the water but without supplies orshelter. 5,000 refugees arrive at the Astrodome in Houston, with cots available for only 2,000; a total of 11,375 will be admitted before the end ofthe day when it is closed to further refugees. Overflow evacuees are sent tothe Reliant Center.

9 Days later, the hospitals in New Orleans are finally evacuated. 13 dayslater, evacuation of the Superdome is complete. 20 days later, after allowing some residents back to the city, New Orleans is evacuated again for Hurricane Rita.

Sept 24: Hurricane Rita makes landfall just west of where Katrina hit inLouisiana. Despite having patched the levees and pumped most of the water out of the city after Katrina, levees breach a second time and much of New Orleans is flooded again. One month after the first day of Hurricane Katrina’s first landfall, drinking water is declared safe in most of the city. Three months later the first school reopens in New Orleans. 8 months later, all New Orleans neighborhoods declared open for returningresidents.

“You could feel it. It felt like the end of the world.”Oliver Thomas, New Orleans Councilman

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New Orleans fell prey to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina for many reasons, but especially because of its geography. First of all, a great deal of the city is at or below sea level (the highest areas are only 20 feet abovesea level), and most of the Lower Ninth Ward is below the water level. This is where Katrina’s flooding was worst

and where Clementine in the Lower 9 takes place.

Added to that, the city is bordered on the north by Lake Pontchartrain(actually a 600 square mile estuary), with the Mississippi River south of thelake, twisting and turning through themiddle of the city. The land that abutsthe river and the lake is actually aslightly higher elevation than the landin between which means the city isshaped like a bowl. This traps water inthe lower areas of the city, since thenatural outlets are higher than the areathat needs to be drained.

On top of this, several man-made canals connect the two bodies ofwater, including the Industrial Canalthat was built in the 1920s. That canalruns right through the Lower NinthWard, splitting it into two sections.When the hurricane’s huge storm surge(essentially a wall of water over twenty feet high that Katrina brought with it from the Gulf of Mexico) overwhelmed the area, the levees holding the water in the canals and the lake failed and the water overtook the Lower Ninth Ward,as well as other low-lying districts of the city. Parts of the Lower Ninth were under up to 11 feet of water and residentshad to be rescued from their homes by boats and helicopters. The levees along the Mississippi River held, sparingsome neighborhoods from watery devastation, including the famous French Quarter, the home of Bourbon Street,which suffered mainly wind damage.

The flooding continued until the level of the water was equal in the lake and the city. Once the levees were temporarilyrepaired, the water in the city had to be pumped out, since it had no way to drain on its own. This meant the low-lyingareas were flooded for weeks. It wasn’t until mid-October 2005, nearly 6 weeks after the hurricane, that the city wasdeclared essentially dry.

connections: Once the mandatory evacuation order was issued it took less than a day for the leeves to break.

As a class discuss the reasons why so many citizens could not leave New Orleans. What would factor into your decisionto go or stay?

What would you have done if you didn’t have a car? What if the roads were blocked? If the local officials had assuredyou that the leeves were strong, would you have stayed? What if you were separated from you family and there was no cell phone service? What would you do with your pets? What if you had worked your whole life to own your ownhouse?

NEW ORLEANS GEOGRAPHY ANDHURRICANE KATRINABy Vickie Rozell, TheatreWorks Resident Dramaturg:

By Vickie Rozell, TheatreWorks Resident Dramaturg:

What is the Lower 9th Ward and where is it located?

Every city has idiosyncrasies, but New Orleans, from its unusual political structure to the devastation it survived from HurricaneKatrina, is unique. The city is divided into seventeen Wards that areboth voting districts and individual communities. The largest is theNinth, bordered by the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, andsplit by the 5.5 mile Industrial Canal connecting the river and the lake.The Ward has three sections, Lower Ninth (furthest downstream),New Orleans East, and Upper Ninth.

How did Hurricane Katrina flood New Orleans?

As Katrina approached, New Orleans did not issue a mandatory evacuation order so many able-bodied citizens and nursing homesdid not feel compelled to evacuate. The day before Katrina hit, whenthe order was issued, there was no time to help the sick and poorand little time to get away—the 90-minute drive to Baton Rouge, forexample, was taking eleven hours.

Katrina came onshore at 5:10 am Monday, August 29, 2005, at Buras,Louisiana with 125 mph winds, then moved northward, skirting NewOrleans but still having a monumental effect on the city. The water inLake Pontchartrain rose seventeen feet in five hours. The largestbreach of the Industrial Canal was 900 feet long. Highways becamerivers, water engulfed the streetlights, and waves reached six feet.

What happened to those people trapped in the city?

The Superdome, the “refuge of last resort,” was the main destinationfor those stranded in the city, mostly African Americans. WhenKatrina struck there were 10,000 refugees inside the dome and25,000 by that night. There was not enough water, food, or medicalsupplies. Those inside were dry but the toilets were overflowing,thieves and rapists plied their trades, and there was no place to putthe dead.

What did the Federal and state governments try to do?

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brownordered emergency responders outside the area to stay put untilasked for assistance, even as the Lower Ninth sat in water 11 feet deep, with the stench of death, rot, and standingwater filling the air, and trapped people begging for help. Coast Guard helicopters plucked people off roofs, theLouisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries deployed boats, and the NOLA Homeboys, a group of residents, ran ad hoc rescues in whatever watercraft they had. Many citizens realized help would not be coming and did what theycould to assist their neighbors, some even facing down looters. During the evacuation families were separated, oftenbeing sent to different states. With cell service down and no organized plan for evacuation or tracking of survivorsmany could not find each other for days.

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THE PATH OF KATRINAHurricane Katrina swept through the Gulf Coast, broke the leeves of NewOrleans and flooded America with the nation’s greatest natural disaster in history.

What happened to New Orleans after HurricanceKatrina?

The debris in the city was estimated at 22 million tonsincluding 350,000 cars and an equal number of boats.Katrina devastated 90,000 square miles, killing at least1836 people; 1577 in Louisiana including 1464 in NewOrleans. More than 850,000 homes were damaged andover a million people fled, including 250,000 to Houston,Texas. The Brookings Institute estimates that 463,000 people lived in New Orleans before Katrina, but only181,000 remained the following year.

In January 2006 the Lower Ninth Ward was the last to officially reopen to residents, although it remained under acurfew. Estimates are that of 6,000 families in the LowerNinth before Katrina, less than 200 remained a year later.Hurricane Katrina was one of the five deadliest hurricanesand the costliest natural disaster in US history. Along with the anger and frustration the disaster response engendered, it brought out the city's fighting spirit as ordinary citizens stepped in where the government failed.

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connections: The text below is from Agamemnon. The word impious means—not pious: lacking in reverence or proper respect, (asfor God or one's parents,) irreverent.

In small groups or pairs, consider what the quotation means if the city of New Orleans is “king.” Why do you think wehave chosen this particular piece of text? What if the United States federal government were the “king” referred to inthis quote?

“Oh! O my king, my king, how am I to weep for you? What am I to sayfrom a heart of friendship? You lie in this spider's web, breathing outyour life in a death which is impious; oh, oh me!, your lying here isignoble, laid low in a treacherous death by a hand with double-bladedweapon.”The Chorus, Agamemnon

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connections:In pairs or small groups, compare and contrast the two quotes above. Do you agree with one of them? Why or whynot? Though some in our western culture might no longer believe in the myths of the Gods as we once did, do we stillhave deep connections to the idea of “Acts of God?”

What distinguishes something so large as to be though of as an “Act of God?” What is the difference between something “bad” happening and what we might beleive as something out of our human control? Something from aforce mysterious and unexplainable to us?

Paraphrase what you think Robert Kennedy is trying to say. Do the same for Michael Marcavage.Debate and defendboth sides of the issue. If you were to play a character whose beliefs differ from your own, would you be able to findfacts to support both arguements?

“Tragedy is a tool for theliving to gain wisdom, not aguide by which to live.”

Senator Robert Kennedy

“Although the loss oflives is deeply saddening,this act of God destroyed

a wicked city...” Repent America director Michael Marcavage

Origin Of The Greek Gods

The god Chaos (gaping void) was thefoundation of all creation. Out of this godarose Gaea (earth), Tartarus (underworld)

and Eros (love). The god Eros was necessaryto draw Chaos and Gaea together so thatthey would produce offspring. Chaos thencreated night and the first born of Gaea wasUranus (god of the heavens). The union ofChaos and Gaea also resulted in the creationof the mountains, seas, and gods known asTitans. The interaction of these early godsresulted in the creation of several other gods.These included well-known figures such asAphrodite, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. Zeuseventually waged war on his father (Cronus)and the Titans. As a result of this conflict,Zeus established a new regime on Mt.Olympus. Zeus ruled the sky, his botherPoseidon ruled the seas, and his brotherHades ruled the underworld.

OF MYTHS AND GODS

THE ROLE OF THE CHORUS

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Plays of the ancient Greek theatre always included a chorus that offered a variety of background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance. A Greek chorus commented on themes, and showedhow an ideal audience might react to the drama. The chorus also represented, on stage, the general population of

the particular story, in sharp contrast with many of the themes of the ancient Greek plays which tended to be about individual heroes, gods, and goddesses.

In many of these plays, the chorus expressed to the audience what the main characters could not say, such as their hidden fears or secrets. The chorus often provided other characters with the insight they needed.

Today the idea of the chorus is alive and well. Though we often associate the chorus with musical theatre it is still oftenused in legitamate dramas from Shakespeare to contemporary playwrights, such as Dan Dietz. From the Greeks all theway to contemporary days, a “character” that guides the audience through multiple layers of perspective on theactions that are taking place within the play.

From these pictures we see that the chorus affords directors many creative ways to theatricalize the action of a play,with costumes, masks and even contempoary clothing.

connections:In pairs or small groups, discuss the following questions:

What would you consider to be a modern version of the chorus?

How do you think mythology and the sharing of information has changed since the time of the Greeks?

Do you think we have more of a voice as a community in today’s world? Why or why not?

Do a quick write on your thoughts about the way people pass information to one another in today’s society.

Please visit this site for the entire article and more Blues worksheets:http://www.pbs.org/theblues/classroom/essaysblues.html

On a lonely night in 1903, W.C. Handy, the AfricanAmerican leader of a dance orchestra, got stuck waiting for a train in the hamlet of Tutwiler, Mississippi.With hours to kill and nowhere else to go, Handy fellasleep on a hard wooden bench at the empty depot.When he awoke, a ragged black man was sitting nextto him, singing about "goin' where the Southern crossthe Dog" and sliding a knife against the strings of aguitar. The musician repeated the line three times andanswered with his instrument.

Intrigued, Handy asked what the line meant. It turnedout that the tracks of the Yazoo & Mississippi ValleyRailroad, which locals called the Yellow Dog, crossedthe tracks of the Southern Railroad in the town ofMoorehead, where the musician was headed, and he'dput it into a song.

It was, Handy later said, "the weirdest music I had ever heard."

That strange music was the blues, although few people knew it by that name. At the turn of the century, the blues wasstill slowly emerging from Texas, Louisiana, the Piedmont region, and the Mississippi Delta; its roots were in variousforms of African American slave songs such as field hollers, work songs, spirituals, and country string ballads. Ruralmusic that captured the suffering, anguish and hopes of 300 years of slavery and tenant farming, the blues was typically played by roaming solo musicians on acoustic guitar, piano, or harmonica at weekend parties, picnics, and juke joints. Their audience was primarily made up of agricultural laborers, who danced to the propulsive rhythms,moans, and slide guitar.

In 1912, Handy helped raise the public profile of the blues when he became one of the first people to transcribe andpublish sheet music for a blues song—"Memphis Blues." Eight years later, listeners snapped up more than a millioncopies of "Crazy Blues" by Mamie Smith, the first black female to record a blues vocal. This unexpected successalerted record labels to the potential profit of "race records," and singers such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith beganto introduce the blues to an even wider audience through their recordings.

As the African American community that created the blues began moving away from the South to escape itshardscrabble existence and Jim Crow laws, blues music evolved to reflect new circumstances. After thousands ofAfrican American farm workers migrated north to cities like Chicago and Detroit during both World Wars, many beganto view traditional blues as an unwanted reminder of their humble days toiling in the fields; they wanted to hear musicthat reflected their new urban surroundings. In response, transplanted blues artists such as Muddy Waters, who hadlived and worked on a Mississippi plantation before riding the rails to Chicago in 1943, swapped acoustic guitars forelectric ones and filled out their sound with drums, harmonica, and standup bass. This gave rise to an electrified bluessound with a stirring beat that drove people onto the dance floor and pointed the way to rhythm and blues and rockand roll.

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NEW ORLEANS: A CITY WITH A CASEOF THE BLUES...Music is New Orleans’ oldest and most prodominate citizen, especially the blues.

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“The hurricane come and took my Louisiana home/And all I got in return was a darn country song/

This whole country wrong.” Lil Wayne, Hollywood Divorce (2006)

connections:As a way to reinforce student understanding of poetic devices, this exercise considers the use of these devices in songlyrics, from both popular music and the blues. Start by asking students to bring in the lyrics to one of their favoritesongs (reminding them, of course, of the importance of selecting a song appropriate for classroom study). Using theirsong selections, have students identify poetic devices within the lyrics. Some devices to include: alliteration, imagery,metaphor, personification, simile, rhyme, repetition, apostrophe, echo, allusion, hyperbole, euphemism, and paradox.

Similar to the devices in the songs brought in by students, a wealth of poetic devices appears in blues songs. Toreinforce student understanding of both poetic devices and the use of these devices in song lyrics, write the followingblues lyrics on the board. Then, as a class, identify the devices evident in each:

"Sometimes I feel like a motherless child" (simile)"Sun going down, dark gonna catch me here" (personification, imagery)"They got me accused of forgery and I can't even write my name" (paradox)"You've got a good cotton crop, but it's just like shootin' dice" (simile, paradox)"I had religion this very day, but the whiskey and women would not let me pray" (internal rhyme, personification)"I can hear the Delta calling by the light of a distant star" (personification, imagery)"Woke up this morning with the jinx all around my bed" (metaphor)"Go down, old Hannah; don't you rise no more. If you rise in the morning, bring judgment sure" (personification,

apostrophe)

To further discuss the notion of blues as poetry, play Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues." As students listen, ask themto write down all of the devices they hear employed. Students should recognize the use of rhyme, repetition, allusion,apostrophe, and personification. If necessary, distribute lyrics to the song, which can be found athttp://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/.

Conclude the exercise by discussing song lyrics as poetry. How do such lyrics compare to other poetry studied inschool? Can all song lyrics be considered poetry? Why or why not? Should teachers incorporate song lyrics into theirpoetry units?

This connection comes from an exceptional website for teachers http://www.pbs.org/theblues/classroom/defpoetry.html

In the 1940s and early 1950s, the electrified blues reached its zenith onthe radio, but began to falter as listeners turned to the fresh sounds ofrock and roll and soul. In the early 1960s, however, as bands like TheRolling Stones began to perform covers of Muddy Waters and Howlin'Wolf, aspiring white blues musicians in the United Kingdom helpedresuscitate the genre. In the process, they created gritty rock and rollthat openly displayed its blues influences and promoted the work oftheir idols, who soon toured England to wide acclaim. Although happyto be in demand as performers again, many veteran blues musicianswere bitterly disappointed by seeing musicians such as Led Zeppelin getrich by copping the sound of African American blues artists, many ofwhom were struggling to survive.

Today, 100 years after WC Handy first heard it, the blues no longercommands the attention it once did; to many young listeners, traditionalblues—if not contemporary blues—may sound as strange as it did toHandy. But if they listen closely, they'll discover a rich, powerful historyof people who helped build America and created one of the most influential genres of popular music.

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MAKING THE SET FOR CLEMENTINE IN THE LOWER 9The real-life inspiration and creation of a beautifully destroyed setting.

“We thought the neighborhood would never come back...”

Wendell Pierce, “Treme” actor and New Orleans native

In designing the set for Clementine in the Lower 9, set designer J.B. Wilson credited “the very specific stage directions thatDan Dietz included in his amazing script, and…Leah C. Gardiner's generous and trusting direction.” That setting, asdescribed in the script, says in part,

A hurricane-ravaged house in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. A few chunks of the walls have been rippedaway by wind and flood, leaving parts of it exposed like a doll’s house… There is a large hole in theroof, as if someone had hacked their way out from the attic. It’s unbelievable the place is still standing.

While Wilson has not visited post-Katrina New Orleans in person, he says, “the hundreds of images of destruction I havestudied, house after house and block after block, have been overwhelming in their impact.” In an email conversation discussing his design process for Clementine in the Lower 9, Wilson revealed how his research influenced his set design,

I was deeply affected by embarrassingly private images of the insides of peoples' homes which displayed theirdestroyed lives for all to see, their neat worlds ripped apart and covered with mud. The sheer randomness of thedebris—a refrigerator in a tree, a boat on a street, a semi-trailer rig on its side draped in a velvet curtain.

The level of intricate detail is evident in Wilson’s set designs, from the waterlogged and paint-peeled wooden framework ofthe house to the strewn debris of a bicycle, lawn umbrellas, and a life-size automobile. Wilson concludes, “My response tothat experience as a human being affected my choices as a designer.”

By Jonathan Amores, TheatreWorks staff member

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connections:Discuss the following question in groups or as a class:

What would happen if you lost your roof, your walls, your home and the very thing that protectsyou and your family?

A quick write: What really does protect you in your life? Your clothes? Your house? Your family?Your family’s finances? Your beliefs?

What if you did not have any of these things at your fingertips?

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RESOURCES PAGEFILM AND TELEVISION:

“When The Leeves Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts” (2006) (Documentary; directed by Spike Lee)

“Trouble The Water” (2008) (Documentary; directed by Carl Deal and Tia Lessin)

“Treme” (2010-Present) (TV Series; created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer)

NEWS ARTICLES:

Frontline: Hurricane Katrina http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/storm/lesson.html

Super Teacher Worksheet http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/reading-comp/5th-hurricanes.pdf

Teaching With Hurricane Katrina http://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/katrina/questions.html

British Red Cross Resource http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Teaching-resources/Lesson-plans/Hurricane-Katrina

NYTimes Learning: Hurricane Katrina Resource http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/hurricane-katrina-and-new-orleans-then-and-now/

There's No Place Like Home http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/theres-no-place-like-home/

2007: Tracing the Migration of Those who Fled Katrina and Writing Profiles of Evacuees

Let the Music Play http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/let-the-music-play/

2007: Learning About How New Orleans High School Marching Bands and Professional Brass Bands

A Disaster in the Making http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/04/17/a-disaster-in-the-making/

2006: Comparing the consequences of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco to Hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans

Country's Music http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2005/09/09/countrys-music/

2005: Considering the fate of Jazz Music after Hurricane Katrina

When Disaster Strikes http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2005/08/31/when-disaster-strikes/

2005: Examining the Ways Major Industries are Affected By and Respond to a Natural Disaster.

In the Eye of the Storm http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/in-the-eye-of-the-storm/

2005: Learning About Impending Hurricanes and Comparing News Reports About Hurricane Katrina.

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“Treme” Reading List of Post-Katrina Inspired Books:“Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America,” by John Barry. Though publishedbefore the 2005 levee failures, many of the environmental, political, racial and class concerns that surfaced in the wakeof Hurricane Katrina find their antecedents in this book.

“Zeitoun,” by Dave Eggers. The story of Abdulrahman Zeitouin, the Syrian-American house painter who went fromrescuing people stranded in the floodwaters to being arrested and accused of being a member of Al-Quaeda.

“Floodlines,” by Jordan Flaherty. Soft spoken, self-effacing and very sharp, this is something of a people's history ofthe rebuilding of New Orleans. Meet people fighting for their city against the corporations and their politicians whoworked so hard to remake New Orleans into a more profitable, less community-centered enterprise.

“Breach of Faith,” by Jed Horne. Former editor at The Times-Picayune wrote the most balanced, eloquent blow-by-blow of what happened after the failure of the federal levees allowed all hell to break lose. It is as much aboutbreaches of citizen trust as it is about breaches of levees.

“Overcoming Katrina: African American Voices From the Crescent City and Beyond,” by D'Ann R. Penner and KeithC. Ferdinand. Almost from the beginning, news reports on the impact of Hurricane Katrina focused on race in waysboth subtle and obvious. How could they not? The largest most graphic gatherings of flood victims were to be foundamong teeming, mostly African-American masses at the Louisiana Superdome and the Ernest N. Morial ConventionCenter. Here are 27 first-hand stories of victims seeking refuge that offer other perspectives.

“Why New Orleans Matters,” by Tom Piazza. Written by one of the 'Treme' family of writers shortly after the flood of2005, when some questioned whether our city should be helped, this book on New Orleans culture and his novel, Cityof Refuge, eloquently answer the question.

“Down in New Orleans,” by Billy Sothern. One of the books we consulted in researching the options for what mighthave happened to Daymo, LaDonna's missing brother in Season 1, this is far more than a missing person's story. It'sabout Billy Sothern's fight for a city he has come to love.

“Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms,” by John McQuaidand Mark Schleifstein. Two reporters at The Times-Picayune outline the lessons of the great flood of 2005 and itsimplications for the future. We ignore their points at our peril.

“Not Just The Levees Broke,” by Phyllis Montana Leblanc (Desiree on 'Treme'). Leblanc stayed during the flood andsaw many of the post-disaster horrors and betrayals first hand. She first told her story in Spike Lee's documentary,When the Levees Broke. Her book is a personal history of those times and the terrible toll they exacted.

“One Dead in Attic,” by Chris Rose. This former columnist for The Times-Picayune became a local hero for the power-ful ways in which he channeled the city's frustration in the thrice-weekly columns. In these pages, which include manyof those columns as well as some post-Katrina writing, you witness Rose's transition from chronicler of these events tovictim of them.

“The Storm: What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane Katrina—the Inside Story from One LouisianaScientist,” by Ivor van Heerden. While others speculated about why New Orleans flooded, van Hardeen brought scien-tific analysis to the question. The former deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center had warnedof the city's vulnerability to flooding for years. His predictions came true, and this book chronicles how, with scientificanalysis of the design and construction of the levee system. What van Heerden found will shock and anger you.

“The Great Deluge” by Douglas Brinkley. This book gives an almost minute by minute historical account of HurricaneKatrina and its aftermath throughout the gulf coast. It looks at the disaster through the actions of government officials,local officials, New Orleans residents, and first responders.

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Student Matinees/ STUDENT Feedback

Name____________________________________Grade_____________School_________________________________________

Performance Tasks based CA State theatre arts standards

Select and complete one of the following activities:

1. Rewrite the ending of the play. How would you like to see it end? Why?

2. Pick a moment in the play that affected you. Describe the stage elements that created that moment for you (the script, acting, lighting, music, costumes, set design, sound design and/or direction).

3. Write a review of the play or an actor.

4. Describe something you would change in the production. Describe what benefit that change create in the production and why.

5. Identify and describe how this production might affect the values and behavior of the audience members who have seen it.

6. Write about any careers you learned about in attending this production. (example, stage hands, set designers, actors, etc.)

Assessment Survey

No Maybe Yes Really Yes

I learned a lot from this experience 1 2 3 4

I would like to do this sort of project again 1 2 3 4

I will remember what I learned 1 2 3 4

pg. 1, STUDENT Matinee Evaluation/Student

STUDENT evaluation (cont)

Finish the following statements:

The most important thing I learned from this play was:

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Besides getting out of school, the best thing about attending this student matinee is:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Learning through the theatre is different from my regular class because:

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If I could change something about attending a student matinee, I would:

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I'm going to use what I learned, saw, or experienced by:

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STUDENT Matinee Evaluation/Student, pg. 2

Student Matinee/TEACHER Evaluation

Name_____________________________________________________________________School___________________________

Please rate your Student Matinee experience below:

Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly AgreePlanningI received sufficient and timely information 1 2 3 4from TheatreWorks before the matinee

TheatreWorks maintained communication with 1 2 3 4me and/or involved administrators at my school

It was clear to me that the production and study 1 2 3 4guide incorporated curriculum standards

Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly AgreeM atinee W orkshops…Supported other curriculum areas/subjects 1 2 3 4

Targeted students' educational needs 1 2 3 4

Provided a grade-appropriate experience 1 2 3 4

Engaged students' interest and attention 1 2 3 4

I would like to learn how to lead more of these 1 2 3 4kinds of activities on my own in the classroom

Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly AgreePost-M atineeStudents were engaged in this experience 1 2 3 4

The experience was valuable to my students' 1 2 3 4education.

The "Performance Tasks" were useful in helping 1 2 3 4 my students understand their experience

I would be interested in bringing more drama 1 2 3 4related activities into my classroom

Pg 1, TEACHER assessment/student matinee

TEACHER Evaluation (cont)

For your classrooms please list the strengths of watching a student matinee:

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In terms of your teaching, did this particular Student Matinee give you any arts integration ideasfor your curriculum:_________________________________________________________________________________________

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We are very interested in your feedback, what worked for you about this experience? _________________________________________________________________________________________

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What did not work for you?_________________________________________________________________________________________

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Additional Comments:

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TheatreWorks student matinees tend to fill up quickly, so keep an eye out for next year'sselections and book your tickets before it's too late! Information about next season will beavailable by March 1st. Keep us updated with your current contact information, and let usknow if you have friends who would like to be added to our mailing lists.

TEACHER assessment/student matinee, Pg 2