The Secret Life of Suitcases Teacher Resources

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES

TEACHER RESOURCE PACK FOR TEACHERS WORKING WITH PUPILS IN YEAR 1 – 3

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES RUNNING FROM 18 SEP - 12 OCT 2014

LARRY’S GOT NO TIME FOR FUN, BUT THAT’S ALL ABOUT TO CHANGE...

Larry works in an office and he likes it very much.

He likes sorting and tidying and generally putting things in order. Everything in its place, a place for everything.

But one day, a suitcase suddenly appears at his door.

And this suitcase has a mission...

Production photo: Anne Binckebank Page 2

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES

CONTENTS CONTEXT INTRODUCTION TO THE PACK AND THE PLAY MAKING THE PLAY: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE CREATORS

4 5

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES SESSION ONE

9

This session allows children to engage with the themes of the play by exploring their own understanding and experience of what people like about routines and the familiar. It includes: games that prepare the children to work together in drama, freeze frames and light role-play.

SESSION TWO

12

This session allows the children to explore the character of Larry and his moment of decision: whether to go back to the familiar world of his office or take the first step on an adventure into the unknown. It includes: a drama game to help the children work together, a Story Whoosh, individual work in-role as Larry at the moment of decision; freeze frames and group scene making.

SESSION THREE

15

A post-show session that explores the Quarks in the play and their job of delivering suitcases to places and people that need them. It includes, a physical group warm-up game, group image making, teacher and pupil in-role work and making a Quark puppet.

RESOURCES STORY WHOOSH SCRIPT THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES WEBSITE

18 19

With downloadable templates for making a suitcase and a Quark.

Page 3

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES

CONTEXT INTRODUCTION TO THE PACK AND THE PLAY Welcome to the teacher resources for The Secret Life of Suitcases for children in years 1 to 3.

The Secret Life of Suitcases is the charming story of Larry; a man who is so busy with his work, and so concerned with getting it all right, that he forgets to look up and around him and see what else life has to offer.

Larry works in an office and he likes it very much. He likes sorting and tidying and generally putting things in order. But one day, a suitcase appears at his door and it has a mission... Larry follows the magical flying suitcase which takes him outdoors to the park, and then on to an adventure further afield in space, where he meets ‘Quarks’ who have a very important job in the universe.

The activities provided can be used before or after your visit and use drama, storytelling, and writing as ways of exploring themes and events that are relevant to the play. They do not take an objective led approach; however, teachers will be able to establish links to the relevant curriculum objectives for their particular year group and can adapt them for their particular educational setting.

The classroom activities in this pack will enable children to make, become and create stories using simple puppets and imagine the journeys they would most like to go on if they were sent a magical suitcase.

There will be opportunities for teachers to link the activities across the curriculum with particular relevance to reading, writing, spoken word, art and design and technology. For the adventurous, you could

Page 4

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES – CONTEXT

MAKING THE PLAY AN INTERVIEW WITH THE CREATIVE TEAM: DIRECTOR LEWIS HETHERINGTON AND MAKER AND PUPPETEER AILIE COHENS Can you tell us what The Secret Life of Suitcases is about?

Lewis: It’s about a man who is so obsessed with getting everything right and getting everything ordered, just living his life as properly as he can, that actually, he is missing out on life; he is missing out on the very ordinary but extraordinary things that are going on around him as he is buried in his own routine.

Ailie: He can’t let anything else in, he’s so busy with his own thing, his own way of doing things that he just can’t look up to see what’s happening.

Where did the original idea come from?

It started with suitcases, the things themselves and we decided they were interesting enough to base a show on.

When Ailie first suggested we make a show about suitcases I was excited; as a container for stories they give you a little clue for the outside. It’s like book covers, potentially there’s a whole microcosm of a life in there, what can you glean about a person, what they need, or want or feel and there’s the lovely reveal when you open the case.

Quite early on we thought about the idea of work, I don’t know how we came about that, but we had those two things about work and suitcases. Because suitcases represent holidays, the counterpoint, the opposite, of that is work. So we had that duality; work and play, home and away.

We came up with Larry and another character early on and we knew the suitcase was going to fly and there was a station, there was a left luggage, a lost property station.

Why did you want the suitcase to fly?

There is something about it being magical. Suitcases are about transportation and they take you places. We had this image of Larry being taken somewhere in a flying suitcase and that image stayed with us.

How did you develop the piece after those initial ideas?

We went into nurseries and primary schools; we spent two weeks with a suitcase and tubes and with mock ups of puppets.

We hid loads of paper suitcases around the room; we don’t know how they didn’t notice them! Inside each one was a jigsaw of where that suitcase had been, so they had to piece together the jigsaw to discover where it had been. The children had to decide where they would like to go on an adventure and then draw what they would need to take with them inside the suitcase. We wanted to find out what places were meaningful; so we asked them if we were to go on an adventure, what sprung to their minds as an exciting place. The beach was very popular.

Page 5

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES – CONTEXT We had this idea about work and play and we wanted to know whether it was just an adult concept, or was it meaningful to a child?’ The workshop reassured us that children do get that notion of work and business, but obviously in a different way. It helped us start to formulate our ideas about Larry’s office and having tasks to do was something they related to. Their responses kept us on track because it was very easy for us to think as an adult about an office.

After the school workshops, we abandoned the second character (Harry) and just stuck with Larry. We realised the play was just about him and it was the suitcase that was trying to change his life rather than a human puppet character. Harry was mischievous and playful and said ‘hey look, let’s go and do crazy things in the outside world’. And actually it’s the suitcase that we wanted to do that. We realised that in 45 minutes it’s better to follow one character; it felt nice to hone in on Larry and spend the time with him.

Harry may get his own show one day; he’s got that jumper that Ailie knitted him, a little tiny jumper out of copper wire.

After the two development weeks we brought Rick, the second puppeteer, into the process. We had a wealth of stuff and we needed to start stripping it down by asking: What are the ideas we really want and how do we and push those? We always knew that Larry was a man who was obsessed by order; a suitcase was going to arrive and take him on a journey and bring him home again. We knew that it would be a story about the thrill of adventure and the joy of coming home again. We had the very broad skeleton to go into the devising process with and then we had to find out the detail and the colour, how Larry felt about going and why he’s going and the various stages of the journey. We had chunks of time between that so that Ailie could build the puppets.

How did you create Larry, the character and the puppet?

Initially it was a case of doing some sketches and drawings and then cutting him out in cardboard and being able to see him half a line, just on the page as a drawing. We liked Larry, because he was tall and we knew he would work well as a puppet so we concentrated on making him.

The process of making him took around three weeks and that was from experimenting with different sized heads to get exactly the right scale. I mocked him up just using doweling and brought him into the rehearsal room for two weeks to see if he was the right size and how he was moving and if we liked him. Once we’d committed to using that character, I went away and constructed him in a way that he wouldn’t fall apart; using a combination of dowelling and leather for the joints, air-drying modelling clay for the feet, harder modelling clay for the head and varnish and some craft fluff for his hair.

He is built as a mixture between a marionette and a rod puppet in terms of how he is jointed together because we knew we were going to have two people working him, so we could afford to make him flexible.

The design of Larry and the suitcases has a very strong aesthetic but then you’ve got the ‘Quarks’ which seem to come from another world or another show almost.

Yes they were a discovery in the rehearsal room for us, I originally thought we can’t put them in there; they are ridiculous, but they were exactly what we needed, all the brown leather is so beautiful and Larry is so beautiful and people say oh it looks like Romanian stop-motion animation and we thought, that’s brilliant, but we want to undercut that. It feels like we were nodding towards an aesthetic that you see a lot in children’s theatre; the old and nice vintage things. So we were excited about exploding that aesthetic a little bit and bringing a brand new element into it.

Page 6

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES – CONTEXT In science, Quarks combine to form the components of atomic nuclei, can you tell us about the Quarks in your show?

We talked about quantum physics and the universe and all those kind of things. We tried an alien puppet talking about how the universe works and that seemed a bit po-faced, but when you have these completely absurd things, Quarks, who are the guardians of the universe, it lets you flirt with that idea of what the universe is philosophically, but at the same time undercut it and be really playful – not take ourselves too seriously.

The Quarks move so differently to Larry. Because Larry is jointed, he’s weighted, so his movement is placed and human. It was really nice to have other puppets who can defy all those laws; who can float and their movement is much more free-form. This movement provides a visual language for the show; it’s about giving people a different quality to watch, which is exciting as an audience.

Ailie can you tell us what is happening when you animate Larry?

Firstly there’s the voice that helps me get into the mind of the puppet. Then there’s Larry’s story; what he’s experiencing at every point of the show. And there has to be an emotional resonance between me and the puppet. So I have to, as a puppeteer, feel what Larry’s feeling, but be relaxed enough in order to manipulate him so it reads for the audience. So I can’t get too involved as an actor - I think that’s maybe the difference between an actor and a puppeteer, being a puppeteer is more like playing a musical instrument.

I also have to consider where the puppet’s attention is - what is the puppet looking at? Is the puppet looking at what I want it to look at? And then there’s another layer which is that you’re working with someone else, as a team, so you have to have the sixth sense of what you’re doing and what the other person is doing.

The challenge in the rehearsal room is that you need that relaxedness so that you don’t look at the puppeteer but at the puppet. At the beginning of the show Larry is really stressed out, so Ailie has to be frantic but also not there. If she embodies it too much then you start looking at the puppeteer not the puppet.

What happens in that moment when a puppet comes to life and we all believe in it together?

It feels like a magical thing.

It’s a brilliant invitation to play, which theatre so often is. Clearly we all know this puppet isn’t a real person, but the game we all play is that we believe it’s real. You can see us make them move, the puppeteers are very visible, there’s no point in hiding them. And that, to me, feels like the brilliant game we’re all playing; we all know this is fake but actually let’s make that leap. Kids are brilliant at doing that and they really enjoy doing it. What I love about family audiences is the fact that kids do that so willingly and the adults, who are possibly a little less practiced or not in the habit of making those playful leaps, they jump with the kids. It’s great with a school audience as well, because you just feel that whole audience leaping with you.

Page 7

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES INTRODUCTION These activities allow children to bring their own experiences and understanding to explore the world of Larry, a ‘normal’ guy who enjoys the familiar and the routine. In the play, when the Quarks send a suitcase to Larry, he is offered the chance for adventure; a chance to step out of his secure world and take a risk.

The drama work in this sequence of activities will allow the children to explore their own relationship to the security of the known and the challenge of stepping into the unknown.

We have developed these resources with the help of Year 2 at Eleanor Palmer Primary School and would like to thank the children and their teacher Anna for their support and input into this pack.

Production photo: Anne Binckebank

Page 8

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES – CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

SESSION ONE AIM: To allow the children to engage with the themes of the play by exploring their own understanding and experience of what people like about routines and the familiar.

SESSION INCLUDES: Games that prepare the children to work together in drama; freeze frames and light role-play.

The session is best run in a hall space where you can set up two areas; one where you play the STOP/GO game and create the park, the other where you can set up the button sorting office.

A) STOP/GO: ROUTINES, SORTING, TIDYING, PUTTING THINGS IN ORDER Start the session by explaining that you will be going to see the play The Secret Life of Suitcases at the Unicorn Theatre, that the main character in the play is called Larry and that you are going to explore his world a little.

Explain that Larry loves routine, and sorting, tidying and putting things in order.

Have a discussion about what the word ‘routine’ means and in particular a daily routine. In pairs, ask the children to discuss what routines they have: in the morning before they go to school; when they are at school; when they get home in the evening and at weekends. Ask them to think of at least one or two examples where sorting, tidying and putting things in order are part of their routine.

Once you have a number of ideas from the whole class, work out a physical action for five or six of the things that the children have suggested they do as part of a routine; for example, cleaning teeth, getting dressed, lining up in the playground.

Now play the game STOP/GO using the actions you have agreed: ask the children to find a space in the room on their own. When you say GO everyone must walk around the hall, using the whole space and walking at the same pace. When you say STOP everyone must stop as still as a statue. When you call out an action, everybody act out that action. When you call GO, everybody moves around the space again.

After you have played the game have a short reflective discussion: Which routines do you like and why?

Which routines don’t you like and why?

How do you feel about sorting and tidying?

Page 9

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES – CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES B) LARRY’S WORK This activity places the children in a light role of people in a work place and allows them to experience a real task of sorting and tidying.

You will need to set up the space with around ten ‘work stations’. Use a piece of A4 paper to represent a work station and on each one place a pile of buttons or beads which are a mixture of sizes and colours. You will need at least approximately forty buttons for each station. This area is then the button sorting office.

In a circle, or a separate area of the room to where you have set up the work stations, explain that we are going to imagine that everyone works in this button sorting office.

Light narration will set the scene: Each day the workers go into the office and sort the buttons into different sizes and colours. Some of the people who worked in the button office loved it as this kind of work really suited them, others worked there because they had to earn money for their family.

In groups of three, set the children at their work stations and ask them to get on with their job, sorting the buttons.

In-role as the supervisor, visit the work stations, encourage the workers and question them about their approach to sorting. There will be many different ways for the children to create order out of their pile of buttons and each one will be valid (for example sorting into colours, sizes, number of holes etc). Some children may struggle with the task, but you can use the role of supervisor to acknowledge that some people find this kind of sorting uncreative and constraining, while others find real pleasure and satisfaction in the task, as well as finding creative solutions to the task.

Allow the role-play to continue until all groups have found a system of sorting their buttons and you have visited each group (in-role as the supervisor). Out of role, freeze the action and explain that at lunchtime, all the workers went out into the park to have their lunch.

C) LUNCH BREAK IN THE PARK Explain that right next to the button office is a lovely park, where all the workers go to have their lunch. Today, the sun is shining, people have brought packed lunches, there is a lovely lake for boating and swimming, some people are playing outdoor sports and having a run around, others are enjoying having a rest.

In groups of around 4 or 5, ask the children to create a freeze frame or photograph of the workers on their lunch break.

Feedback what you see happening in the park by narrating, for example - ‘under the shade of the trees some of the workers were sleeping, others were reading their newspapers.’ You may want to bring some of the images to life for a few seconds to hear what the workers are talking about or to see the games they are playing.

Page 10

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES – CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES D) BACK IN THE BUTTON OFFICE Explain that back in the office, one person has not gone outside to have lunch.

Either ask a Learning Assistant to take up a still image of the person left in the office still sorting buttons, or alternatively you could ask a child to do it.

Looking at the image of the person left in the office, ask the children why they think this person has stayed behind. If they could ask the person a question or say something to them, what would it be? In pairs, ask the children to come up with something they would like to say to or ask the person left behind.

Brief the person who is in-role so that they know the following information (this could be done before the lesson if a Learning Assistant is taking on the role, or in the moment if it’s a child): The reason they have stayed behind is simply that they like it inside; they like the job sorting and getting everything in order. They don’t really want to go outside. They are happy to wait until everyone else comes back.

They aren’t lonely; the other workers are friendly and ask them to come outside, they just prefer to stay inside.

Run a short in-role conversation, giving the children the chance to ask their questions and say what they want to say to the person who has stayed behind in the button factory.

Have a short reflective discussion about the person who likes to stay inside, exploring why they might like it.

Explain that in the play they are coming to see, Larry is similar to the person who stays behind; he works in an office where he sorts and stamps labels and he’s very happy doing that. Reflect on how different people are; perhaps some really enjoyed the sorting task whilst others found it more difficult, and all the different ways people enjoyed their lunch hour.

Page 11

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES – CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

SESSION TWO AIM: To allow the children to explore the moment of Larry’s decision: whether to go back to the familiar world of his office, or take the first step on an adventure into the unknown.

SESSION INCLUDES: A drama game that helps the children work together to act out the objects and places in the story; a Story Whoosh of the beginning of Larry’s story; individual work in-role as Larry at the moment of decision; freeze frames into group scene making, exploring Larry’s adventure; making a suitcases and writing labels.

The session is best run in a hall, however a cleared classroom could be used if a hall space is not available.

A) STOP/GO This game forms the building blocks for the Story Whoosh activity which follows it and develops group image making skills which will be important for the rest of the session.

Start with a game of STOP/GO, first concentrating on the contrast between the focus and concentration when holding as still as a statue on STOP, and the energy and fluidity of the whole group as they move around the space on GO. Now when you say STOP ask the children to get into groups of the number you call out (you can choose to quickly group the children together if it’s easier). Ask them in groups of: Three - to create an image of a tree Five - to make a statue of a bridge over a river Six - to create a space ship Twos - to become a desk Threes - to show a door.

And finally ask them if they can find a way to make the door open.

B) STORY WHOOSH A Story Whoosh is a way of acting out a story with the whole class that allows you to create the main narrative, action and characters in the story in broad brush strokes. It is important to go around the circle with each child taking part in turn, making it an accessible and inclusive activity in which everyone contributes to telling the story. The teacher will need to take an active narrator/director role and support the children in the creation of the images.

In this Story Whoosh, the children create the objects in the story as much as the characters, and the repetition of images is a key part of Larry’s story - as he loves routine and stability.

First refer back to the previous session, the button sorting office, and recall the person who wanted to stay in the office and not go outside at lunch time.

Page 12

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES – CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES Use The Secret Life of Suitcases Story Whoosh script: Resource A. With the children sitting in a circle, read out the first part of the Story Whoosh. Taking it in turns, ask the children to come up and act out the characters and objects in the story. The children should make the desk, the door, the leaves and the suitcase as well as the people in the story.

When you come to a WHOOSH in the story, the children who are acting the story out at that moment go back to their seats and you continue the story with the next children in the circle, who come up to create the next moment in the story.

C) LARRY’S DECISION After the Story Whoosh, ask the children to spread out and find a place on their own. Now ask them to imagine they are Larry: they have followed the suitcase and the leaves through the door and out of the office, they have felt the sunshine on their face and a cool breeze in their hair, they have taken off their jacket and the suitcase with it’s tiny wings has hovered in front of them and landed gently on the grass. And now the suitcase has opened it’s lid.

This is the point Larry has to choose; will he step into the suitcase which will take him somewhere he doesn’t know, or will he put his jacket back on and return to the office and sit back at his desk?

Ask the children to decide what they, as Larry, will choose to do, and then act out their decision.

Ask the children who, as Larry, has chosen to step into the suitcase? What are they feeling and thinking and why have they chosen to step into the suitcase?

Ask the children who, as Larry, has returned to the office? Why they have done so and what they are thinking and feeling at this moment?

D) WHERE THE SUITCASE TAKES LARRY Ask the children to work in groups of 5 or 6. In their group, decide where it is that the suitcase takes Larry and what he sees when he gets there. Ask the children to create a freeze frame of Larry on his adventure and then bring the image to life for a few seconds.

See all of the groups work and discuss Larry’s adventures.

Explain that these are the places we have imagined Larry might travel to and the kind of adventures he might have, when they come and see the play, they will be able to see the adventure that the company took him on.

Page 13

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES – CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES E) EXTENSION ACTIVITY Back in the classroom, make a suitcase with wings using the templates which you can download from www.secretsuitcases.com/app.html Having made the suitcases, the children can create a drawing showing where Larry went and who he met. To add writing, you could attach a luggage label with Larry’s destination written on it, or you could write a diary entry from Larry describing where he went and what he saw.

You could extend this further asking children where they might like to travel to if they were brave enough. They could draw the destination and think about all the things they might need to take with them if they were to travel there. These items could then be drawn, cut out and labelled before being placed in the case.

Production image: Anne Binckebank Page 14

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES – CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

SESSION THREE AIMS: To explore the Quarks in the play and their job of delivering suitcases to places and people that need them. To reflect on why Larry might not have noticed the suitcases that were sent to him.

SESSION INCLUDES: A physical group warm-up game, group image making, teacher and pupil in-role work, making a Quark puppet.

This session is best done after your visit to the theatre. If you do the activity before your visit, you will give quite a lot of the story away, but you might decide this works best for your children and there are still plenty of surprises to be had along the way.

A) STORY WHOOSH Start the session by running the Story Whoosh from Session 2. Remind the children that they will be playing the objects in the story as much as the characters. Recap on the adventures they created for Larry and remember the adventures he went on in the play you saw. (You could even write your own extension for the Story Whoosh and act those scenes out.)

B) WHAT IS A QUARK? Now explain that you are going to explore the world of the Quarks. Ask the children if they can remember what Quarks are and what they do, you can use the lines of the text from below to remind them. If you haven’t seen the play yet, you will need to give the children the information below about the Quarks, so they know what they are and what they do: The Quarks sent the suitcase to Larry.

A Quark is a particle of matter (in science).

These are the lines one of the Quarks says at the beginning of the play: I’m a Quark. There are billions and billions of us. We Quarks are everywhere. We’re into everything. We are everywhere and everything. We are before and after the whole universe. We know all there is to know.

C) STOP/GO AS QUARKS Ask the children to find a space in the room and explain you are going to play STOP/GO imagining you are the Quarks.

When you say STOP the Quarks will freeze like a statue, when you say GO you may also add information about how Quarks move around the universe: Quarks have an electric charge as they rush around the universe.

Heavy Quarks transform into up and down Quarks.

Quarks can spin.

In slow motion, let’s see Quarks as they collide, bumping into each other really slowly.

Page 15

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES – CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES D) LARRY’S PREVIOUS SUITCASES Briefly discuss why the Quarks send suitcases around the Universe and whether anyone can remember examples of suitcases that they sent.

The Quarks send suitcases with things inside that they think might help. For example, when the Quarks saw that a little star had lost its sparkle they sent a suitcase with some twinkle in it. And when the Quarks saw a whole bunch of people were having a big fight they packed a suitcase with a bit of love and understanding and sent it off.

Remind the children, or explain that, sometimes people reject the suitcases and that twice Larry was sent a suitcase, which he ignored.

• In pairs ask the children to show an image of Larry when he was five years old, when the Quarks sent a shooting star to fly over the house, but Larry was too busy to notice.

• In fours ask the children to make an image of the second time the Quarks sent Larry a suitcase: Larry is twelve years old and they send a ray of sunshine through his window to try to get him out of the house and down to the beach where Tracy Pickles is hanging out. Again, Larry doesn’t see it.

See each group’s work and discuss what it is that Larry is doing that means he doesn’t notice the shooting star or the ray of sunshine.

E) A MEETING OF THE QUARKS Have a brief reminder of what the Quarks are and what they do. For example: Quarks hang out and take care of the whole Universe.

Quarks can see everything that is happening and try to make sure it’s all under control.

Quarks pay really close attention to what everything needs; people, planets, animals, buildings, seas, plants everything.

Now explain that we are all going to imagine we are the Quarks at our monthly meeting, discussing everything that is happening and how well we are making sure all is under control.

It will help to write a brief script for yourself to get started and prepare some open questions which will help the children get into role as the Quarks. For example: Welcome Quarks, please sit down, lets get ourselves settled, we’ve had a busy month haven’t we? Oh just before we start, did I leave that meteor shower on? Can someone turn the meteor shower off? (ask a child as a Quark to do it).

Useful questions: How is everything out in the universe? Did that star get it’s sparkle?

How did Larry respond to the suitcase this time? Did he get in it? Where did it take him?

What happened when we sent that case of love and understanding? Did the people stop their big fight? How did they manage to work it out?

Ask: Has anyone noticed a situation out there that you think could do with a suitcase? Take a few examples. Then ask all the Quarks to go out into the Universe and pay really close attention to people or situations that could do with a suitcase full of something.

Page 16

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES – CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES You can ask the children to move around the space as Quarks, going everywhere in the Universe to find out what is needed, or you could ask the children to close their eyes and imagine where they go and what they find.

Reconvene the meeting of the Quarks and report back on the situations that need a bit of help. Decide what you will send in a suitcase to really help the situation.

F) EXTENSION In the same way you created Larry at ages five and twelve with the shooting star and sunshine, you could create images or short scenes of the children’s ideas for where the suitcases go. Do the people who need help ignore the suitcases or accept them?

You can also use the templates from The Secret Life of Suitcases website to create your own Quark from a sock. www.secretsuitcases.com/app.html

Production images: Anne Binckebank Page 17

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES

RESOURCES RESOURCE A - STORY WHOOSH SCRIPT (Words in bold are characters/objects that children come into the circle and become) Larry works in an office and he likes it very much. Each day he sits at his desk. A worker delivers labels to him and Larry looks at each label, stamps it and files it in the right draw.

WHOOSH Larry is at his desk stamping and filing his labels when the door opens. A lady at the door asks Larry if he would like a cup of coffee. Larry shakes his head, says ‘no thank you’ and carries on working.

WHOOSH Larry is at his desk stamping and filing when the door opens and a man at the door tells Larry he is going for lunch. He asks Larry if he’d like to go with him. Larry shakes his head, says ‘no thank you’ and carries on with his work.

WHOOSH Larry is at his desk stamping and filing when in the pile of labels he spies a leaf. He picks up the leaf and looks at it. The door opens and a man says ‘delivery for Larry’ and hands him a suitcase. He opens the suitcase and a trail of leaves come out and the trail leads out of the door. Larry stands up and follows the leaves out through the door.

WHOOSH Larry is in the park. He looks at the trees, he looks at the boats on the lake, he looks at the children swimming in the pool. He feels the sun on his face and the wind in his hair and he takes off his jacket.

The suitcase flutters mid air with its wings in front of Larry. The suitcase lands on the floor in front of Larry and the lid opens.

WHOOSH

Page 18

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES – RESOURCES

SUITCASE AND QUARK MAKING TEMPLATES You can download templates for making a suitcase and a Quark from The Secret Life of Suitcases website: www.secretsuitcases.com/app.html

MAKING A SUITCASE Materials you will need: • Paper or thin card • Tape • Scissors • 2 x Split Pins • Colouring pens or pencils to decorate

MAKING A QUARK Materials you will need: • Sock • Tape • Paper or crepe paper • Self adhesive google eyes • Scissors

Page 19

THE SECRET LIFE OF SUITCASES An Ailie Cohen Puppet Maker / Unicorn production

CREATIVE TEAM

By Lewis Hetherington and Ailie Cohen Director Lewis Hetherington Designer Ailie Cohen Devised with Rick Conte Soundtrack Niroshini Thambar Lighting Andrew Gannon Resource pack written by Catherine Greenwood Developed with Ella Macfadyen and pupils and staff at Eleanor Palmer Primary School