The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Study Guide

SYRACUSE STAGE THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE STUDENT STUDY GUIDE 2011-12

2010 / 2011 EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH SPONSORS

S

yracuse Stage is committed to providing students with rich theatre experiences that explore and examine what it is to be human. Research shows that children who participate in or are exposed to the arts show higher academic achievement, stronger self-esteem, and improved ability to plan and work toward a future goal.

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

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

Children’s Tour Naming Sponsor

ArtsEmerging

John Ben Snow Foundation, Inc. Student Matinees

Young Playwrights Festival, Children’s Tour, & Student Matinees supported by

General Educational Outreach supported by

Lori Pasqualino as “Annabel” in the 2010 Bank of America Children’s Tour: Annabel Drudge... and the Second Day of School.

Photo by Michael Davis

Writing and Content Collection by Len Fonte Layout & Design by Michelle Scully

Timothy Bond

Producing Artistic Director Syracuse Stage and SU Drama

820 E Genesee Street Syracuse, NY 13210

STUDY GUIDE CONTENTS

www.SyracuseStage.org

Director of Educational Outreach

4. Production Information

Lauren Unbekant (315) 443-1150

5. Introduction

Manager of Educational Outreach

Michelle Scully (315) 442-7755

Group Sales & Student Matinees

12. Context & Connections

Tracey White (315) 443-9844

13. In the Classroom

Box Office

(315) 443-3275

15. Syracuse Stage Season Info

6. Teaching Theatre 8. Letter from the Education Director 9. About the Play

14. Sources and Resources

EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH AT SYRACUSE STAGE The Bank of America CHILDREN’S TOUR brings high-energy, interactive, and culturally diverse performances to elementary school audiences.

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

ArtsEMERGING takes students on an in-depth exploration of one mainstage season production using a multi-cultural, multi-arts lens.

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

SYRACUSE STAGE THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE STUDENT STUDY GUIDE 2011-12

PRESENTS

Dramatized by Adrian Mitchell Music Composed by Shaun Davey

DIRECTOR Linda Hartzell MUSICAL DIRECTOR Dianne Adams McDowell CHOREOGRAPHER Anthony Salatino

Nov. 25 - Dec. 31, 2011 London. The war is on and the bombs are falling. Four children – Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy – flee the perils of the Blitz to the safety of the countryside. In an old wardrobe they discover a portal to the land of Narnia, where a fearsome White Witch holds the inhabitants spellbound in a winter lasting 100 years.

There the children enter a deadly struggle, joining with the great lion, Aslan, to battle the White Witch and her army. Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and rarely produced State-side, this thrilling musical adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ inspiring tale delivers excitement for the whole family. Co-produced with Syracuse University’s Department of Drama.

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“Theatre brings life to life.”

Zelda Fichandler

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SYRACUSE STAGE THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE STUDENT STUDY GUIDE 2011-12

Int

Founding Artistic Director Arena Stage, Washington DC

W

elcome! As you take your students on the exciting journey into the world of live theatre we hope that you’ll take a moment to help prepare them to make the most of their experience. Unlike movies or television, live theatre offers the thrill of unpredictablilty.

With the actors present on stage, the audience response becomes an integral part of the performance and the overall experience: the more involved and attentive the audience, the better the show. Please remind your students that they play an important part in the success of the performance!

A few reminders...

BE PROMPT

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

Have them visit the restrooms before the show begins!

Audience

Etiquette

RESPECT OTHERS

Please remind your students that their behaviors and responses affect the quality of the performance and the enjoyment of the production for the entire audience. Live theatre means the actors and the audience are in the same room, and just as the audience can see and hear the performers, the performers can see and hear the audience. Please ask your students to avoid disturbing those around them. Please no talking or unnecessary or disruptive movement during the performance. Also, please remind students that cellphones should be switched completely off. No texting or tweeting, please. When students give their full attention to the action on the stage, they will be rewarded the best performance possible.

GOOD NOISE, BAD NOISE

Instead of instructing students to remain totally silent, please discuss the difference between appropriate responses (laughter, applause, participation when requested) and inappropriate noise (talking, cell phones, etc).

STAY WITH US

Please do not leave or allow students to leave during the performance except in absolute emergencies.

Again, reminding them to use the restrooms before the performance will help eliminate unnecessary disruption.

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SYRACUSE STAGE THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE STUDENT STUDY GUIDE 2011-12

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ACTIVITY

At its core, drama is about characters working toward goals and overcoming obstacles. Ask students to use their bodies and voices to create characters who are: very old, very young, very strong, very weak, very tired, very energetic, very cold, very warm. Have their characters interact others. Give them an objective to fulfill despite environmental obstacles.

Later, recap by asking how these obstacles affected their characters and the pursuit of their objectives.

Most (but not all) plays begin with a script — a story to be told and a blueprint of how to tell it. In his famous treatise, The Poetics, the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle outlined that playwrights are mindful of to this day:

Plot

What is the story line?

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

Any piece of theatre comprises multiple art forms. As you explore this play with your students, examine the use of:

WRITING VISUAL ART/DESIGN MUSIC/SOUND DANCE/MOVEMENT

INQUIRY

How are each of these art forms used in the play?

Why are they used?

How do they help to tell the story?

Theme

What ideas are wrestled with in the play? What questions does the play pose? Does it present an opinion?

Character

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

Language

What do the characters say? How do they say it? When do

they say it?

Music

How do music and sound help to tell the story?

Spectacle

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

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

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SYRACUSE STAGE THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE STUDENT STUDY GUIDE 2011-12

The atr e

Most plays utilize designers to create the visual world of the play through scenery, costumes, lighting, and more.

These artists use

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

LINE can have length, width, texture,

direction and curve. There are 5 basic varieties: vertical, horizontal, diagonal, curved, and zig-zag.

SHAPE

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

FORM is three-dimensional. It encloses space

and fills space. It can be geometric (e.g. cubes and cylinders), man-made, or free-form.

SPACE is defined and determined by shapes and forms.

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

COLOR

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

TEXTURE refers to the “feel” of an object’s surface. It

can be smooth, rough, soft, etc. Textures may be ACTUAL (able to be felt) or IMPLIED (suggested visually through the artist’s technique).

APPLIED LEARNING

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

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SYRACUSE STAGE THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE STUDENT STUDY GUIDE 2011-12

A LETTER FROM THE EDUCATION DIRECTOR

Dear Educator, Live theatre is a place for people to gather and experience the joys, triumphs, and sorrows life has to offer through a shared experience.

Syracuse Stage Education Department is committed to providing the tools to make learning in and through the arts possible, to address varied learning styles and make connections to curriculum and life itself. It is our goal in the education department to maximize the theatre experience for our education partners with experiential learning and in-depth arts programming. Thank you for your interest and support!

Sincerely,

Lauren Unbekant Director of Educational Outreach

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SYRACUSE STAGE THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE STUDENT STUDY GUIDE 2011-12

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Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was a British novelist, academic, literary critic, essayist, and Christian apologist. He is well-known for his fictional work, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Space Trilogy and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Along with his close friend J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings, Lewis was a leading figure in the English faculty at Oxford University. Lewis later taught as a Fellow at Cambridge University. His Anglican faith had a profound effect on his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim.

In 1956 he married the American writer Joy Gresham, 17 years his junior, who died four years later of cancer at the age of 45. The story of their marriage is told in the play and film Shadowlands. Lewis died three years after his wife, on November 22, 1963, the same day that U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Lewis’s works have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold millions of copies. The enduring popularity of the books that make up The Chronicles of Narnia have inspired many http://dailyoffice.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/c-s-lewis-348.jpg stage, TV, radio and film adaptations and have influenced the direction of fantasy fiction.

Adrian Mitchell (24 October 1932 – 20 December 2008) was an English poet, novelist and playwright. His large body of poetics reflects his ardent anti-war and anti-nuclear activism. Mitchell was poetry editor of the New Statesman, and was the first to publish an interview with the Beatles.

His work for the Royal Shakespeare Company included Peter Brook’s US and the English version of Peter Weiss’s Marat Sade, as well as the musical adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/pictures/2008/12/21/mitchell1.jpg

Shaun Davey is an Irish composer, born in Belfast in 1948. In Ireland his compositions have been recognized as a bridge between Irish traditional music and the orchestral tradition. His setting of St. Patricks’ prayer The Deers Cry is a much-loved and often performed anthem, and his work features regularly in the Irish school syllabus.

Davey has received international recognition as a composer for theatre, with many scores for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the USA he has also worked on and off Broadway, receiving a New York Critics Award and a Tony nomination for best musical score (James Joyces’ The Dead, writer Richard Nelson). His work in TV and Film (The Hanging Gale, Ballykissangel, Twelfth Night, Waking Ned, David Copperfield, The Tailor of Panama). http://www.taramusic.com/biogs/shaundbg.htm

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Adapted from www.shaundavey.com

SYRACUSE STAGE THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE STUDENT STUDY GUIDE 2011-12

Edmund

The second to youngest child. He follows Lucy into the wardrobe and is quickly enchanted by the witch on the promise of Turkish Delight.

Peter

The eldest child. In Narnia, Aslan dubs him Sir Peter Wolfs-Bane.

Susan

The elder daughter does not believe in Narnia until she passes through the wardrobe.

The Professor

He hosts the Pevensie children at his country house. He believes in the existence of other worlds existing in parallel times.

Mrs. McCready

The Professor’s imperious housekeeper.

Aslan

A majestic and mysterious lion, he is the most powerful figure in the The Chronicles of Narnia. His name is Turkish for Lion. While he is benevolent, he is by no means a tame lion. Despite his loving nature, he can be dangerous. The devout Christian C.S. Lewis described Aslan as a form Christ might take in a fantasy world. Aslan’s death and resurrection bring hope to Narnia.

The White Witch

Her name is Jadis, but she calls herself the queen of Narnia. She has brought eternal winter to the land. With a wave of her wand, she turns rebellious Narnians to stone.

Tumnus the faun

He shelters Lucy on her first visit to Narnia.

Beaver and Mrs. Beaver The children’s hospitable and brave guides.

Maugrim

A wolf. He is the chief of the witch’s secret police

Grumpskin

A dwarf. He serves the White Witch.

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The youngest of the Pevensie children, she is the first to enter Narnia through the wardrobe.

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Major Characters of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe Lucy

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SYRACUSE STAGE THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE STUDENT STUDY GUIDE 2011-12

“If there really is a door in this house that leads to some other world, I should not be surprised if that other world has a separate time of its own; so that however long you stay there, it never takes up any of our time.”

--The Professor

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, young Lucy passes through the wardrobe in the Professor’s home and steps out onto the frozen, fantastic landscape of Narnia lit by a London lamp post. The faun Mr. Tumnus skitters into view, and the Penvensie children’s adventure begins. But this is not the beginning of the story. In The Magician’s Nephew, published five years later, C.S. Lewis tells us that the lamp post grew from the metal fragment the witch Jadis used in an attempt to kill Aslan as he created the magical land of Narnia. We also learn that the young Digory Kirke, an English child present at Narnia’s birth, will grow up to be the Professor. So although The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the first written and published book of The Chronicles of Narnia, it’s not the first in the chronology. Much like George Lucas’s Star Wars films, we enter The Chronicles near the end of the saga and have the beginning filled in by later episodes.

The Chronicles of Narnia employ an eclectic mix of literary elements, including the trappings of classical mythology; the population of Narnia includes fauns and dryads, centaurs and flying horses. Lewis also uses folkloric figures like witches and dwarves rubbing elbows with the talking animals of fables. The White Witch is a shadow of Morgan Le Fay of Arthurian legend. Father Christmas himself drives his sleigh across Aslan’s silvery countryside. All of this in service of a six volume epic adventure ringing with the Christian values the author revered.

Although his Oxford friend J.R.R. Tolkien had published The Hobbit as a children’s book in 1936, his masterful The Lord of the Rings was written concurrently with Lewis’s Narnia books, with which it shares the mixture of folk and classical elements, and a monumental battle of good versus evil. More recently, there’s a direct line from The Chronicles to J.R. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, which, like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, begin with children boarding a train leading to a parallel magic world. Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy also borrows heavily from Lewis’s magical worlds while taking a heavily anti-religious, un-C.S. Lewis point of view.

The books in The Chronicles of Narnia placed in the order of events:

The Magician’s Nephew (1955) The origins of Narnia are revealed.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950) We meet the four Pevensie children The Horse and His Boy (1954) Events during the reign of the four kings and queens.

Prince Caspian (1951) The children come back to a later, still imperiled Narnia.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952) Lucy, Edmund, and their selfish cousin Eustace return to voyage with Prince Caspian.

The Silver Chair (1953) Aslan calls Eustace and his friend Jill Pole to Narnia.

The Last Battle (1956) The world of Narnia is destroyed.

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Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air raids.”

t nec Con

Operation Pied Piper “Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and

s ion

So begins C. S. Lewis’s fantasy masterpiece, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Not unlike young wizard Harry Potter, when the four Pevensie children step onto a train leaving London, they are embarking on a journey that will test them in ways they cannot even imagine. They will have a grand adventure full of wondrous discoveries and terrifying peril, but these opening lines only hint at the terrible danger they have just escaped. War has torn them from their parents.

During World War II, as German bombers flew over England’s cities, it became clear that bombs would not only hit factories and other defense targets, but also homes and schools. In 1939, the British government issued evacuation orders. Called Operation Pied Piper, the plan to move children to safety relocated kids from London and other cities, to host families in the countryside, where there were few military targets.

An evacuation journey often began with a walk to school. Then it was off in buses to the station, where special trains were waiting. It was quite exciting, but most children felt sad as they waved goodbye to their mothers and the steam train puffed away.

Every evacuee had a gas mask, food for the journey (such as sandwiches, apples, chocolate) and a small bag for washing things and clothes. Pinned to the children’s coats were labels. On the label were each child’s name, home address, school and where he or she was going. Often the journey took several hours.

Life for evacuees Though evacuees missed their homes, many enjoyed the country. Country life was full of surprises.

Some city children had never seen a cow, and were startled to see where milk came from. Seeing carrots growing in muddy fields, one child said in disgust ‘ours come in tins’.

Locals and evacuees went to school and played together. Most became friends, though local children sometimes said it was unfair when the ‘townies’ were given sweets and parties!

Children were massively affected by World War Two. Nearly two million children were evacuated from their homes at the start of World War Two; children had to endure rationing, gas mask lessons, living with strangers etc.

Children accounted for one in ten of the deaths during the Blitz of London from 1940 to 1941. quoted from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/world_war2/evacuation/

Adrian Mitchell’s stage adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe begins with Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy boarding the train that will take them to the Professor’s home, giving the audience a glimpse of the terror they leave behind.

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Image from http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LIzN8fYMVFE/TMGYA_jftnI/AAAAAAA...

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Questions For

Discussion & Essays 1) Why do you think C.S. Lewis made Aslan a lion?

What qualities or values does this choice represent?

2) How does Edmund come under the White Witch’s influence? How does his character change over the course of the play? As a king of Narnia, C.S. Lewis calls him "Edmund the Just." How does this name fit him?

3) What do we learn from Aslan's death at the hand of the White Witch?

4) What is Mr. Tumnus's crime? What do you think his arrest and punishment tell us about justice in Narnia under the White Witch's reign?

5) How are the actions of Aslan, Peter, and Edmund courageous?

6) Why do you think Lewis had the children enter Narnia through a wardrobe? If you were writing the story, what would you chose as a gateway to a fantasy world?

7) What is the significance of the arrival of Father Christmas? What values does he represent?

8) Why do you think that Lucy, the youngest child, is the first on to go through the wardrobe into Narnia?

Activities can be found at http://www.cslewis.org/resources/studyguides.html

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SYRACUSE STAGE THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE STUDENT STUDY GUIDE 2011-12

TEACHING THEATRE/ARTS

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ArtsWork.com http://artswork.asu.edu/arts/teachers/resources/theatre1.htm

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LEARN MORE...

ChildDrama.com http://www.childdrama.com/lessons.html Educational Theatre Association http://schooltheatre.org/ Kennedy Center http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons.aspx Viola Spolin http://www.spolin.com/ Princeton Online Art Lesson Plans http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/Files/elements.htm

SOURCES AND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES http://www.cslewis.org/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/world_war2/evacuation/ http://cslewis.drzeus.net/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/children_and_world_war_two.htmhttp://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ children_and_world_war_two.htm http://narnia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia_Wiki http://www.bookrags.com/The_Lion,_the_Witch_and_the_Wardrobe http://www.thenarniaacademy.org/menu.php http://www.shaundavey.com/ http://literature.britishcouncil.org/adrian-mitchell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Mitchell

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SYRACUSE STAGE THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE STUDENT STUDY GUIDE 2011-12

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