the little angel theatre · 2015-09-16 · cindermouse and cinderella cindermouse is based on the...

11
Little Angel Theatre Presents Cindermouse Education and Participation Resource Pack Written by Sarah Schofield The Little Angel Theatre 14 Dagmar Passage, Islington, London, N1 2DN 0207 226 1787 www.littleangeltheatre.com

Upload: others

Post on 08-Jul-2020

9 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: The Little Angel Theatre · 2015-09-16 · Cindermouse and Cinderella Cindermouse is based on the story of Cinderella, but some things are different from the traditional story we

Little Angel Theatre Presents

Cindermouse

Education and Participation Resource Pack Written by Sarah Schofield

The Little Angel Theatre 14 Dagmar Passage, Islington, London, N1 2DN

0207 226 1787

www.littleangeltheatre.com

Page 2: The Little Angel Theatre · 2015-09-16 · Cindermouse and Cinderella Cindermouse is based on the story of Cinderella, but some things are different from the traditional story we

Background Information The history of the theatre and show

Little Angel Theatre 1

The Little Angel Theatre John Wright, the founder of The Little Angel Theatre was born in South Africa in 1906. He travelled to England in 1935 and worked as an assistant stage manager for the Ballet Rambert while studying at the Central School of Art and Design. It was during this time he saw a puppet performance by Podrecca’s Piccoli and became hooked. John made his very first puppet in 1938. He returned to South Africa at the outbreak of the Second World War and continued to make and perform with puppets in his home country. When the war ended he returned to England, overland, performing with his puppets along the way. In 1961 John and his troupe found a derelict temperance hall in Islington and transformed it into a magical little theatre, specially designed for the presentation of marionette shows. It opened on Saturday 24th November 1961. This was to be the first purpose built puppet theatre the country had seen for many years and the only one with a permanent long string marionette bridge constructed backstage. The bridge was designed for puppeteers to stand on while they manipulate long stringed puppets who perform on the stage below leaving the audience unable to see the puppeteers. The original bridge is used to this day. The theatre has a traditional ‘proscenium arch’ and seats 100 audience members. Over the next 30 years, the Little Angel team created and performed over 30 full-scale shows, with John and his wife Lyndie designing, making, performing and directing as they established The Little Angel as ‘The Home of British Puppetry.’ Little Angel shows were also taken to 23 international festivals, representing Britain. John Wright died in 1991 but the work of the theatre continued apace. As well as producing many new exciting shows, the following years of programming has included many revivals of John Wright classics such as The Little Mermaid, Rapunzel and Angelo.

Cindermouse Cindermouse is an original Little Angel Theatre production and was first performed at Little Angel Theatre in 1991. It was the first production created by the theatre after John Wright’s death. The puppets were designed and made by Lyndie Wright and there are over 20 puppets in the show. Previous to this version the show was most recently revived in 2009, so it’s been 5 years since the puppets have seen the light of day. Lyndie was able to work on the original puppets, giving them new costumes and touching up their paintwork where necessary to make sure they were ready to perform. The show is performed in a booth (similar to a traditional Punch & Judy set up). And although you meet the puppeteers on a couple of occasions during the performance they are out of sight for most of the time. The majority of the puppets in the show are glove puppets, although you will see some rod puppets and trick puppets who will thrill you with their circus tricks.

John Wright Theatre founder

Page 3: The Little Angel Theatre · 2015-09-16 · Cindermouse and Cinderella Cindermouse is based on the story of Cinderella, but some things are different from the traditional story we

Cindermouse and Cinderella

Cindermouse is based on the story of Cinderella, but some things are different from the traditional story we are used to. After you have seen the show colour in or circle

the boxes that refer to things that happen in Cindermouse NOT Cinderella.

Little Angel Theatre 2

All the characters in the story

are mice

A pumpkin turns into a

carriage

The glass slipper smashes

Cinders has a Stepmother

The Ball is the Prince’s

Birthday Party

Cinders dad is a clock maker

The clock strikes 12 at

midnight

The prince is frozen in time

A broom comes to life

Page 4: The Little Angel Theatre · 2015-09-16 · Cindermouse and Cinderella Cindermouse is based on the story of Cinderella, but some things are different from the traditional story we

Literacy Links

Little Angel Theatre

3

Alternative Versions of Cinderella Cinderella is a tale that is known the world over. While the setting and characters may change, the story of a dream come true can be recognised in the African tale of ‘Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters’, the Chinese tale ‘Yeh-Shen’, and the old English tale ‘Tattercoats’ (a version of this story can be found in this pack). Compare three different versions of the Cinderella Story:

1. Cindermouse (live theatre) 2. Tattercoats (text) 3. Cinderella (Disney film version)

Write/draw one or two things that illustrate something that is totally original to that version of the story. Compare the three genres – What are good/bad points about a story being represented in these ways? Write your own version of the Cinderella story. How can you change it to make it original?

Writing your own version of the Cinderella story

Change the setting (another country,

place, time)

Change some or all of the characters

(animals, age, gender, fantasy)

Add new characters

Change the storyline (what if

Cinderella never made it to the ball?

What if she didn’t want to marry a

prince? What if her step sisters

turned out to be on her side? What

if she lost something else apart from

her shoe? How would the Prince find

her?)

If you change some or all of the above you will have your own version of the story. Draw the main characters in your own version of the story and write about how they are different.

Page 5: The Little Angel Theatre · 2015-09-16 · Cindermouse and Cinderella Cindermouse is based on the story of Cinderella, but some things are different from the traditional story we

Puppet History

Little Angel Theatre 4

Glove Puppets There are more than 20 puppets in Cindermouse, most of which are glove puppets. Glove puppets have been used to entertain people for hundreds of years. Glove puppets are very portable which is why they were popular in medieval times and were used by travelling minstrels and other entertainers. These shows were probably based on Bible stories and Greek and Roman legends. Monks and priests also used puppets and automated figures to tell Bible stories in church and to spread Christianity. Travelling puppeteers in Elizabethan England performed in wealthy households. Glove puppets were probably the most common type of puppet in Elizabethan England but shadow puppets were also known.

Theatres were closed during the mid-17th century, when stage plays were forbidden. Puppet plays, however, were still tolerated, so from 1642 until 1660 puppet theatre flourished - mostly with glove puppets. When Charles II returned to England, entertainers from Europe came too, including puppeteers. They brought a string puppet character based on the Italian Commedia dell’arte figure Pulchinello. In England he was called Punchinello and eventually Punch.

Mr Punch was first recorded in England in 1662 by the famous diarist Samuel Pepys when he saw him as a marionette, operated in Covent Garden by the Italian puppet showman Signor Bologna. Pulchinella, as he was then called, was presented within a tent rather than in the type of booth we know today with the audience standing outside.

Meanwhile, strolling puppeteers continued to play in portable booths around the country, with shows based on Bible stories and legends. Puppeteers were particularly active in 17th-century Norwich, a tradition that continues today.

Puppetry in Britain declined in the early 20th century with audiences drawn to other forms of entertainment, including music hall, variety and cinema, however you can still find Punch and Judy booths at the seaside, even today.

Trick Puppets

In Victorian times trick puppets became very popular. These were puppets that were designed to be able to do unusual things or perform specific movements.

The trick puppets in Cindermouse are circus performers, they can do lots of things like walk on stilts, balance balls and acrobatics!

Mr Punch is one of the most famous glove puppets

Page 6: The Little Angel Theatre · 2015-09-16 · Cindermouse and Cinderella Cindermouse is based on the story of Cinderella, but some things are different from the traditional story we

Design and Technology Links

Little Angel Theatre 5

How They Work

Glove puppets are just like gloves! The puppeteers put their hand up into the puppet. Their thumb moves one arm, the index and middle finger move the head and the ring and little finger move the other arm. Glove puppet heads and hands are often carved from wood as this is a strong and durable material. Their bodies are usually made of fabric as it’s light and moves well. Glove puppets are good gesturing with their arms, picking things up and clapping their hands. Glove puppeteers are often hidden inside a ‘booth’ so the audience can focus on the puppets.

Designing and Making Puppets When you design and make a puppet make sure you think about these things:

Decide on the character first (before you start drawing or making). Is it a person, an animal or a made up creature? Is it a character for a show you will be performing? What is that character like? Match the character with a suitable puppet style (marionette, glove, rod, finger, shadow etc.)

Decide what your puppet will need to do if it is performing in a show (walk, swim, fly, nod, wave?) Which parts need to move or not?

Materials Remember that puppets have to be held up and moved by a puppeteer so choose light materials. If you make your puppet too heavy you won’t be able to use it! Why not make an eco-friendly junk puppet from boxes/containers/old magazines and wrapping paper/tubs/tubes/wool/string/clothes/bottles etc that would otherwise be thrown away? .

Draw a design for the puppet and remember to include:

1. What materials you will need. 2. Which parts of the puppet will move – How? 3. Will any parts be jointed? (elbows or knees) 4. Don’t forget to draw the rods/strings/controls etc

that move the puppet so that you know where they will go.

5. How will you fix the parts of the puppet together? 6. How you will show your puppet’s character?

(facial expression, clothes, decoration)

As you make your puppet test it out as you go. Is it strong enough to use? Are the details clear (will an audience be able to see the face from a distance?) Does it move in the places it is supposed to?

Cindermouse puppets being fixed in the theatre

workshop

Page 7: The Little Angel Theatre · 2015-09-16 · Cindermouse and Cinderella Cindermouse is based on the story of Cinderella, but some things are different from the traditional story we

Design a Dress For Cindermouse!

Cindermouse is going to the ball! Design a dress for her to wear. What colours and patterns will you use to make her stand out in the crowd?

Trick dancing puppets at the ball!

Page 8: The Little Angel Theatre · 2015-09-16 · Cindermouse and Cinderella Cindermouse is based on the story of Cinderella, but some things are different from the traditional story we

This is the original programme from the show when it was first created, hand drawn by Lyndie Wright in 1991. It tells you the settings and the characters in the show, as well as having a colour in and cut out mouse puppet that you can make, Follow the instructions to make your own finger puppet mouse!

Page 9: The Little Angel Theatre · 2015-09-16 · Cindermouse and Cinderella Cindermouse is based on the story of Cinderella, but some things are different from the traditional story we

The Story of Tattercoats – An Alternative Cinderella Story

IN a great Palace by the sea there once dwelt a very rich old lord, who had neither wife nor children living, only one little granddaughter, whose face he had never seen in all her life. He hated her bitterly, because at her birth his favourite daughter died; and when the old nurse brought him the baby, he swore, that it might live or die as it liked, but he would never look on its face as long as it lived. So he turned his back, and sat by his window looking out over the sea, and weeping great tears for his lost daughter, till his white hair and beard grew down over his shoulders and twined round his chair and crept into the chinks of the floor, and his tears, dropping on to the window-ledge, wore a channel through the stone, and ran away in a little river to the great sea. And, meanwhile, his granddaughter grew up with no one to care for her, or clothe her; only the old. nurse, when no one was by, would sometimes give her a dish of scraps from the kitchen, or a torn petticoat from the rag-bag; while the other servants of .the Palace would drive her from the house with blows and mocking words, calling her " Tattercoats," and pointing at her bare feet and shoulders, till she ran away crying, to hide among the bushes. And so she grew up, with little to eat or wear, spending her days in the fields and lanes, with only the gooseherd for a companion, who would play to her so merrily on his little pipe, when she was hungry, or cold, or tired, that she forgot all her troubles, and fell to dancing, with his flock of noisy geese for partners. But, one day, people told each other that the King was travelling through the land, and in the town nearby was to give a great ball, to all the lords and ladies of the country, when the Prince, his only son, was to choose a wife. One of the royal invitations was brought to the Palace by the sea, and the servants carried it up to the old lord who still sat by his window, wrapped in his long white hair and weeping into the little river that was fed by his tears. But when he heard the King's command, he dried his eyes and bade them bring shears to cut him loose, for his hair had bound him a fast prisoner and he could not move. And then he sent them for rich clothes, and jewels, which he put on and he ordered them to saddle the white horse, with gold and silk, that he might ride to meet the King. Meanwhile Tattercoats had heard of the great doings in the town, and she sat by the kitchen-door weeping because she could not go to see them. And when the old nurse heard her crying she went to the Lord of the Palace, and begged him to take his granddaughter with him to the King's ball. But he only frowned and told her to be silent, while the servants laughed and said: " Tattercoats is happy in her rags, playing with the gooseherd, let her be— it is all she is fit for." A second, and then a third time, the old nurse begged him to let the girl go with him, but she was answered only by black looks and fierce words, till she was driven from the room by the jeering servants, with blows and mocking words. Weeping over her ill-success, the old nurse went to look for Tattercoats; but the girl had been turned from the door by the cook, and had run away to tell her friend the

Page 10: The Little Angel Theatre · 2015-09-16 · Cindermouse and Cinderella Cindermouse is based on the story of Cinderella, but some things are different from the traditional story we

gooseherd, how unhappy she was because she could not go to the King's ball. But when the gooseherd had listened to her story, he bade her cheer up, and proposed that they should go together into the town to see the King, and all the fine things; and when she looked sorrowfully down at her rags and bare feet, he played a note or two upon his pipe, so gay and merry, that she forgot all about her tears and her troubles, and before she well knew, the herdboy had taken her by the hand, and she, and he, and the geese before them, were dancing down the road towards the town. Before they had gone very far, a handsome young man, splendidly dressed, rode up and stopped to ask the way to the castle where the King was staying; and when he found that they too were going thither, he got off his horse and walked beside them along the road. The herdboy pulled out his pipe and played a low sweet tune, and the stranger looked again and again at Tattercoats' lovely face till he fell deeply in love with her, and begged her to marry him. But she only laughed, and shook her golden head. "You would be finely put to shame if you had a goosegirl for your wife!" said she; "go and ask one of the great ladies you will see to-night at the King's ball, and do not flout poor Tattercoats." But the more she refused him the sweeter the pipe played, and the deeper the young man fell in love; till at last he begged her, as a proof of his sincerity, to come that night at twelve to the King's ball, just as she was, with the herdboy and his geese, and in her torn petticoat and bare feet, and he would dance with her before the King and the lords and ladies, and present her to them all, as his dear and honoured bride. So when night came, and the hall in the castle was full of light and music, and the lords and ladies were dancing before the King, just as the clock struck twelve, Tattercoats and the herdboy, followed by his flock of noisy geese, entered at the great doors, and walked straight up the ball-room, while on either side the ladies whispered, the lords laughed, and the King seated at the far end stared in amazement. But as they came in front of the throne, Tattercoats' lover rose from beside the King, and came to meet her. Taking her by the hand, he kissed her thrice before them all, and turned to the King. "Father!" he said, for it was the Prince himself, "I have made my choice, and here is my bride, the loveliest girl in all the land, and the sweetest as well!" Before he had finished speaking, the herdboy put his pipe to his lips and played a few low notes that sounded like a bird singing far off in the woods; and as he played, Tattercoats' rags were changed to shining robes sewn with glittering jewels, a golden crown lay upon her golden hair, and the flock of geese behind her, became a crowd of dainty pages, bearing her long train. And as the King rose to greet her as his daughter, the trumpets sounded loudly in honour of the new Princess, and the people outside in the street said to each other: "Ah! Now the Prince has chosen for his wife the loveliest girl in all the land!" But the gooseherd was never seen again, and no one knew what became of him; while the old lord went home once more to his Palace by the sea, for he could not stay at Court, when he had sworn never to look on his granddaughter's face. So there he still sits by his window, if you could only see him, as you some day may, weeping more bitterly than ever, as he looks out over the sea.

Little Angel Theatre

9

Page 11: The Little Angel Theatre · 2015-09-16 · Cindermouse and Cinderella Cindermouse is based on the story of Cinderella, but some things are different from the traditional story we

Useful Resources

www.littleangeltheatre.com More information about the history of the theatre and future puppet shows and workshops, including our school menu of activities. Visual stories for children on the autistic spectrum Visit our ‘access needs’ page on the website to find a general Little Angel Theatre visual story to prepare children for a visit to the theatre. This is also a useful resource for very young children who may not have visited a theatre before as it explains what happens when you visit a theatre and what you might see there. There will also be a visual story for the show, which is a useful resource to prepare children on the spectrum as well as a reminder about the content of the show, or as a tool to prepare planning around the show in advance of your visit. Book a Table Top Puppet Workshop! Want to make puppets with your class but don’t have the confidence or time to plan, resource and deliver it yourself? We can come to your school and make puppets with your class. By the end of the day each child will have a finished puppet and we bring all the materials. All stories and themes considered! £350+VAT per class (in London). Contact [email protected] for more information. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAy3kcT7lgA Meet the puppets and cast from our 2010 production of Fantastic Mr Fox in this behind the scenes clip. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=little+angel+theatre&sm=3 Visit You Tube to watch trailers, clips and behind the scenes films of our shows past and present and see the puppets in action! http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/putting-on-a-puppet-show-pt-1-2/9654.html Two short films featuring Little Angel Theatre about the process of putting on one of our shows. www.facebook.com Make friends with Little Angel Theatre to keep up to date with the latest news https://twitter.com/LittleATheatre Follow us on Twitter! Little Angel Theatre Puppetry Scheme of Work Including detailed lesson plans and templates for delivering puppetry in the primary classroom with links to literacy £7 Contact: [email protected]

Little Angel Theatre 10

Inside Little Angel Theatre