Where Words Once Were: A World Premiere Kennedy Center Commission

CUESHEET PERFORMANCE GUIDE

A World Premiere Kennedy Center Commission

Where Words Once Were Written by Finegan Kruckemeyer Directed by Colin Hovde

Presenting Sponsor of Performances for Young Audiences.

But Orhan isn’t satisfied with these laws.

Secretly, when no one else is looking, Orhan thinks and dreams of new and exciting words that can communicate powerful emotions. And when a strange message with an interesting “erased” word appears on a wall outside of his mother’s bakery, Orhan starts to question the world around him. He begins to wonder: What if the forbidden words were brought back?

words are jumbled together and rewritten so they form new words: ALL FEEL SAFE ➔ SEE LEAF FALL Palindromes (PAL-in-drohms) – where letters spell the same words forwards as they do backwards: RACECAR spelled backwards is RACECAR Alliteration (uh-lit-uh-REY-shun) – when several words that begin with the same sound are used in a row: “The silence settles on the sinner’s soundless life.”

During the performance, be sure to listen for a few of these examples.

is le ss ,

A

Where Words Once Were is all about language—the wonderful, funny, crazy, and complicated things that words can do when they’re put in the right order. Within the play, you may hear some examples of word games or tongue twisters like: Anagrams (AN-uh-grams) – where letters of specific

There is nothing to read Mor here. e

Power of the Pen

it loudly.

Say nothing. Say

y!

Where Words Once Were, a brand new play written for the Kennedy Center, tells the story of Orhan, a boy who lives in a strange and over-crowded town that’s simply called “the City.” In the City, there was once a great war where people fought about which words could be used and when. During the course of the battle, words became weapons and, to stop the fighting, the City declared that only a certain number of words were allowed…and that all other words would be forbidden or “erased.” Since then, the citizens of the City have only been able to use 1,000 different words—which are collectively known as “the Language”—and pens have been considered so dangerous that only City officials (who are like policemen) are permitted to carry them.

Cit e The v o l We

A Word Play

Recognize any of these names? Some of them may seem familiar but some of them may feel special or new.

This is because the City is filled with people from many different cultures. Also, keep an eye out for these slightly mysterious characters (sometimes they may not be so easy to see): a Girl Papa, the Girl’s father

An

In this performance, one boy and his friends discover how difficult life can be when language is given a strict set of rules and when no one can write or say exactly what they mean.

Here are a few of the people you’ll meet in the City: Orhan, a young boy Alli, a baker, Orhan’s mother Isaac, a City official Kieran, a young boy Eila, a young girl a Teacher

.

Have you ever felt like you couldn’t find the words you needed to express how you feel? No big deal, right? If you wanted, you could use a dictionary to find some new ones. But what if you couldn’t find those words because they weren’t allowed to exist at all? What if you weren’t permitted to fill the space where words once were?

Meet the Characters

u yo dI

What would happen if our weird and wonderful words were whisked away?

n and Th ew w non e is or is bes de t. is x i m sts y .S pe oa n! no ld Iu on se em it us an td ie. d th en !I re tu rn it ag ai n!

A

m en !

Welcome to the City

. s d r o d. w ar te he s a ty w i t C no he o T D . . k k n in thi e u t as yo w at t no wh Do ow Kn brush

hamburger

beautiful

ice cream Number 19 East Road

bicycle

But Orhan isn’t satisfied with these laws.

Secretly, when no one else is looking, Orhan thinks and dreams of new and exciting words that can communicate powerful emotions. And when a strange message with an interesting “erased” word appears on a wall outside of his mother’s bakery, Orhan starts to question the world around him. He begins to wonder: What if the forbidden words were brought back?

words are jumbled together and rewritten so they form new words: ALL FEEL SAFE ➔ SEE LEAF FALL Palindromes (PAL-in-drohms) – where letters spell the same words forwards as they do backwards: RACECAR spelled backwards is RACECAR Alliteration (uh-lit-uh-REY-shun) – when several words that begin with the same sound are used in a row: “The silence settles on the sinner’s soundless life.”

During the performance, be sure to listen for a few of these examples.

is le ss ,

A

Where Words Once Were is all about language—the wonderful, funny, crazy, and complicated things that words can do when they’re put in the right order. Within the play, you may hear some examples of word games or tongue twisters like: Anagrams (AN-uh-grams) – where letters of specific

There is nothing to read Mor here. e

Power of the Pen

it loudly.

Say nothing. Say

y!

Where Words Once Were, a brand new play written for the Kennedy Center, tells the story of Orhan, a boy who lives in a strange and over-crowded town that’s simply called “the City.” In the City, there was once a great war where people fought about which words could be used and when. During the course of the battle, words became weapons and, to stop the fighting, the City declared that only a certain number of words were allowed…and that all other words would be forbidden or “erased.” Since then, the citizens of the City have only been able to use 1,000 different words—which are collectively known as “the Language”—and pens have been considered so dangerous that only City officials (who are like policemen) are permitted to carry them.

Cit e The v o l We

A Word Play

Recognize any of these names? Some of them may seem familiar but some of them may feel special or new.

This is because the City is filled with people from many different cultures. Also, keep an eye out for these slightly mysterious characters (sometimes they may not be so easy to see): a Girl Papa, the Girl’s father

An

In this performance, one boy and his friends discover how difficult life can be when language is given a strict set of rules and when no one can write or say exactly what they mean.

Here are a few of the people you’ll meet in the City: Orhan, a young boy Alli, a baker, Orhan’s mother Isaac, a City official Kieran, a young boy Eila, a young girl a Teacher

.

Have you ever felt like you couldn’t find the words you needed to express how you feel? No big deal, right? If you wanted, you could use a dictionary to find some new ones. But what if you couldn’t find those words because they weren’t allowed to exist at all? What if you weren’t permitted to fill the space where words once were?

Meet the Characters

u yo dI

What would happen if our weird and wonderful words were whisked away?

n and Th ew w non e is or is bes de t. is x i m sts y .S pe oa n! no ld Iu on se em it us an td ie. d th en !I re tu rn it ag ai n!

A

m en !

Welcome to the City

. s d r o d. w ar te he s a ty w i t C no he o T D . . k k n in thi e u t as yo w at t no wh Do ow Kn brush

hamburger

beautiful

ice cream Number 19 East Road

bicycle

A Few Things to Know Before You Enter the City Watch for…

Think about…

n how some actors play more than one role and how they change their costumes and voices with each new character n words that appear on stage but are never said out loud n what Orhan, Kieran, and Elia must do every time they use a pen at school n how the characters behave when another character says a word that has been erased from the Language

n how the Language was created after a terrible war. Can you think of other times in history when horrible events have led to special rules and restrictions? n why the City wants its citizens to use less words instead of more. What does the City gain by limiting the Language to 1,000 words? n how words can exist inside your head even when they are not spoken out loud. Can anyone really limit the words within a person’s mind? n the “silenced” characters. What do you think it would be like to exist without words at all?

n how the character of the Girl is introduced and how she interacts with Orhan

Listen for… n pairs of words that sound the same but have different meanings (like “flower” and “flour”) n silences between words (these can be important too!) n how the Girl speaks and how the characters around her speak n moments when the characters leave small pauses in their sentences and you have to fill in the missing words using your mind n how the characters greet each other

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Additional support for Performances for Young Audiences is provided by The Clark Charitable Foundation; the Kimsey Endowment; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; and the U.S. Department of Education.

David M. Rubenstein Chairman Deborah F. Rutter President Mario R. Rossero Senior Vice President Education

Major support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by David and Alice Rubenstein through the Rubenstein Arts Access Program.

Kennedy Center education and related artistic programming is made possible through the generosity of the National Committee for the Performing Arts and the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts.

International Programming at the Kennedy Center is made possible through the generosity of the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts.

The contents of this Cuesheet have been developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education and do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. © 2016 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

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