Once on This Island Study Guide

TheatreWorks S I L I C O N

V A L L E Y

FOR SCHOOLS

Once on this Island

Our Partners in Education TheatreWorks 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 2012/13 season alone, we served over 38,000 students, patients, and community members, making over 90,000 educational interactions.

CORPORATE & FOUNDATION Applied Materials Avant! Foundation Crescent Porter Hale Foundation Dodge & Cox Investment Managers Luther Burbank Savings Microsoft The David & Lucile Packard Foundation SanDisk Kimball Foundation The Leonard C. and Mildred F. Ferguson Foundation Wells Fargo

2

INDIVIDUAL Anonymous (2) Toni Bassett Matty Bloom Joan Bowersock Stephen Carney Rebecca Carter Cheri Chapman Evelyn Comstock Frances Escherich Daniel Fourrier Alice Frayne Seth Leslie Bruce Lonie Russ Louthian Barbara McArthur Lewis Miller Guido Neels Sharon Perl Audrey Perlman Valerie Pierce Nancy Ruskin Judith Schwartz Frank Shifrin Debra Summers Lisa Walker Patricia Workman

“There is an island where rivers run deep.

Where the sea sparkling in the sun earns it the name Jewel of the Antilles.

An island where the poorest of peasants labor.

And the wealthiest of grandehommes play.

And on this island, we tell the story!�

Lyrics from Once on This Island

FRONT COVER: SALISHA THOMAS / PHOTO TRACY MARTIN

Table of Contents For Teachers and Students • For Teachers: Using this Study Guide 4 • For Students: The Role of the Audience 5

Exploring the Play • • • • • • • • • • • •

Once on This Island Plot Summary 6 Understanding Plot: Sequencing Events 7 Setting: The French Antilles 8 French Colonialism in Haiti 9 The Gods 10 Activity: Paint the Gods 10–11 Rosa Cuthbert Guy 12 Excerpt from My Love, My Love; or, The Peasant Girl 13 Adapting a Story 14 Adaptations: From Page to Stage 15 Storytelling 16 Excerpt from Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica by Zora Neale Hurston 17

Resources • Suggestions for Further Reading • STUDENT/Student Matinee Evaluation • TEACHER/Student Matinee Evaluation

SET DESIGN BY JOE RAGEY

3

For Teachers Student matinee performances of Once on This Island will be held on March 20 & 27, 2014 at 11:00 am, at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto. The production is approximately 95 minutes, with no intermission. The performance 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 we hope every show at TheatreWorks will be a positive experience for both audience and cast, we ask you to familiarize your students with the theatre etiquette described on the “For Students” pages.

How to use this Study Guide This 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 Once on This Island 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 to California 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.

4

The Role of the Audience 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 put aside 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 to share your thoughts aloud. Talking to neighbors (even in whispers) carries easily to others in the audience and to the actors on stage. It is disruptive and distracting.

Food is not allowed in the theatre. Soda, candy, and other snacks are noisy and, therefore, distracting. Please keep these items on the bus or throw them away before you enter the audience area. Backpacks are also not allowed in the theatre.

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

Cell phones and other electronic devices must be turned off before the performance begins. Do not text during the performance, as it is distracting to the audience members around you.

What to bring with you: Introspection Curiosity Questions Respect An open mind What to leave behind: Judgments Cell phones, etc.

Backpacks Food Attitude

5

Once on This Island Plot Summary Once on This Island is a musical about an orphaned peasant girl named Ti Moune. Ti Moune lives on a tropical island that most closely resembles what we know today as Haiti. When she is just a little girl, a powerful storm strikes the island, and Ti Moune is saved from a great flood by the gods. She is then rescued and adopted by a loving couple named Mama Euralie and Tonton Julian.

She gently begins to tell him the story of how she rescued him. Daniel is at first angry that Ti Moune would seek him out in such a way, but he quickly becomes moved by her love and beauty. She stays by his side for two weeks, helping him grow stronger.

Other grandes hommes are shocked to see Daniel paying attention to a dark-skinned peasant girl, and gossip about this forbidden love affair.

Fast forward many years—Ti Moune has grown into a vibrant young woman. We learn that a strict class system divides her island into two populations. She lives on one side of the island where dark-skinned peasants live and labor. The other side of the island is home to lighter-skinned, wealthy grandes hommes. The divide between these two communities is deeply rooted in the island’s culture and complex history. Ti Moune prays to the gods to help her find her place in the world. She envies the strangers from the other side of the island who drive fast in fancy cars. The gods at first laugh at her pleas, but then debate each other. Erzulie (Goddess of Love) urges them to give Ti Moune the power of love, arguing that love can overcome anything in life. Papa Ge (God of Death) disagrees and believes that death is more powerful than love. The gods then decide to test Ti Moune to see what is more powerful: love or death.

Agwé (God of Water) sends a huge storm which causes a handsome young man from the other side of the island to crash his car near Ti Moune’s village. Ti Moune rescues him, working hard to help him heal, and soon falls deeply in love with him. We learn that his name is Daniel Beauxhomme. Papa Ge comes to take Daniel away, and Ti Moune is so in love with him that she tells Papa Ge to take her life instead of Daniel’s. Papa Ge is surprised by her willingness to sacrifice her own life, and he decides to leave the young couple unscathed.

He vows, however, to return one day for Ti Moune’s life.

At a ball held by Daniel’s parents, the Beauxhommes, Ti Moune meets the arrogant Andrea Deveraux, a wealthy woman who has just returned from boarding school in France. Andrea attempts to humiliate Ti Moune by asking her to dance for the guests at the ball, but Ti Moune’s dancing is so impressive that she charms everyone there. Angry, Andrea reveals that she is engaged to be married to Daniel. Daniel assures Ti Moune that he doesn’t love Andrea but that he must marry her out of family duty and obligation. “There will always be a place for you here,“ he tells her. A heartbroken Ti Moune doesn’t know where to turn and calls upon the gods. Papa Ge appears to her and urges her to kill Daniel. She once offered her own life in order to spare Daniel’s, and so she owes Papa Ge the debt of her life.

If she kills Daniel, Papa Ge says, she will be free of her debt and can have her life back. That night Ti Moune steals into Daniel’s room with a knife, but immediately she realizes that she loves him too much to kill him.

However, Daniel wakes up and sees the knife in her hand. The Beauxhommes kick her out of the hotel and out of Daniel’s life forever. Weeks later Ti Moune waits with other peasants who beg for money as the newly married Daniel and Andrea emerge from the church.

Daniel puts a single silver coin in Ti Moune’s palm.

Tonton Julian seeks out Daniel’s family on the other side of the island, and they come to retrieve him from Ti Moune’s care. She is devastated to be separated from the love of her life but is determined to find him again.

With the help of the gods, in particular Asaka (Mother of the Earth), Ti Moune embarks on a journey across the island in search of Daniel. She discovers his family’s affluent hotel bordered by a tall iron gate, but finds a way inside. Daniel is recovering in his bed, his leg is still badly wounded, and he doesn’t remember Ti Moune.

6

With the help of the gods, Ti Moune wades into the ocean and drowns peacefully. They transform her spirit into a gorgeous tree in front of the Beauxhomme hotel.

It grows so much that it breaks through the walls and the gate that separates the hotel from the outside world. The tree symbolizes the hope and healing of the divided community and the equality that will one day come. As the story comes to a close, we fast forward again in time and see a young peasant girl and Daniel’s son playing together in the branches of the tree, and Ti Moune’s spirit sets them free to love.

Hayden Tee, Maureen McVerry, & Mindy Lym / Photo by Tracy Martin

Understanding Plot: Sequencing Events Once on This Island is a story with many layers and many storytellers. Identify the 6 most important events in the play.

Then number them 1–6 and assign them to a box. Draw a small picture of the event in the box and write a brief description of the event in the lines below the boxes.

Bonus exercise: divide the class into six groups and have each group form one tableau, using their bodies and imaginations to tell the story in six frozen pictures.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Setting: The French Antilles

Once on This Island is set in the French Antilles on an island that closely resembles what we know as Haiti.

Haiti was once called Saint-Dominigue or the “Jewel of the Antilles.” The time period in which this story is set is subject to interpretation. However, it seems to take place in the mythic past in a time after Haiti gained independence from France.

The French Antilles were a string of islands in the Caribbean Sea that were once colonized and governed

by France in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. These islands include the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Trinidad, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and many more. (Read more about French Colonialism, the history of Haiti, and its caste systems on page 9.)

In this story, the island is divided into two very separate populations: the working-class peasants live on one side of the island, and the wealthier mixed-race elite live on the other side of the island. This wealthier group is known as grandes hommes and are lighter in skin color than the peasants.

8

Haiti forms the western third of the island Hispaniola, neighboring the Dominican Republic. French and Haitian Creole are the official language of Haiti, and as the word “Haiti” means mountainous, there are huge mountain ranges, valleys, rivers, and lakes throughout the island. Nearly 63% of the land is considered too steep to farm on, but even still, agriculture is a huge part of the country’s economy and history. While Haiti had 60% of its original forest in 1923, now only 2% remains.

CONNECTION: After discussing the French Antilles with your students, ask them how they expect the setting to affect what they see and hear onstage. What kinds of costumes do they imagine the characters will wear, and what will the music sound like?

French Colonialism in Haiti “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” We’ve all heard bits and pieces of this song. We use it to remember the approximate date that European explorers began to venture west to the Americas. It turns out that Columbus visited Haiti several times during this year and named the island Hispaniola. However, this date playfully remembered in song marks the beginning of Colonialism and slavery in the Americas. The history of Colonialism is as complex and multi-layered as the cultures that fill the Caribbean today.

Portuguese explorers were among the first to “conquer” the islands of the Caribbean. Spain claimed “Hispaniola” as its own until it gave up the western half of the island to France in the late 1600s. France renamed this western half Saint-Domingue. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch colonists vied for land and resources in the rich Caribbean. While these countries sought to expand their empires, they were also motivated by money and economics. The tropical islands of the Caribbean were extremely fertile and excellent for growing sugar, cotton, cocoa, and coffee. There was a huge demand for these products in Europe where they could not be grown. The tropical climate ensured enough water, but none of the freezing temperatures that would hinder agriculture. After many indigenous people died from disease or servitude on the island, European explorers sought laborers to farm and maintain their agricultural businesses. As a result the slave trade was developed. European colonialists took populations of people primarily from the western coast of Africa and forced them into slavery working in plantation systems in the Antilles and in the Americas.

By the end of the 1700s, Saint-Domingue was producing 60% of the world’s coffee and 40% of the sugar used by France and England. There were approximately 500,000 enslaved people living in Saint-Domingue at the height of the slave trade.

Over the years various caste systems developed based on the color of one’s skin. The white Europeans were known as grand blancs. The freed slaves (or mixed-race people) were known as affranchise. The slaves were known as noirs. By 1791, the enslaved vastly outnumbered the population of white colonists on the island. Runaways escaped to the mountains forming

groups known as Maroons that launched guerrilla attacks on white colonists. In this same year, the enslaved led by the charismatic Toussaint L’Ouverture revolted against French colonists and succeeded in gaining independence. L’Ouverture governed successfully for six years when he was dubbed “governorgeneral-for-life.” In 1802, however, French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte sent troops to wrest control from L’Ouverture and his men. Bonaparte’s troops overpowered L’Ouverture and he surrendered on May 5th, 1802. The next year a former general who served with L’Ouverture led the country to push Bonaparte’s troops out and to establish an independent republic. They renamed the island “Haiti,” which means “mountainous.”

However, remnants of the caste system remained after the revolution, and Haiti society was still divided along the lines of skin color. The Mulatto, or mixed-race, population became powerful in Haiti, and the descendents of the enslaved were disenfranchised.

9

The Gods The peasants in Once on This Island pray to and dance for gods, and the gods often guide Ti Moune, for better or worse, through her journey. We hear about: • • • •

Asaka, Mother of the Earth Agwé, God of Water Erzulie, Goddess of Love Papa Ge, Demon of Death

These gods have origins in the Vodou religion, a religion that developed in Haiti. The history and cultures that fill the Caribbean are multi-layered and complex due to the long history of Colonialism and slavery there. It’s hard to track down the origins of any religion or belief as cultures have borrowed and melded with one another. But vodouists, those who worship and practice Vodou, believe in an all-knowing, all-seeing creator god called Bondye. Secondary gods known as loa serve Bondye and go between him and his human worshippers. Each loa is in charge of a certain aspect of life like love, death, fire, water, earth, war, agriculture, peace, children, crossroads, etc.

s

CONNECTION:

__________________________________________________

Each of the gods that we see in this story has its own unique traits and qualities. Choose one of your favorite gods and research his or her origin, history, and cultural significance. Discover how this god is depicted in images or other stories.

What does he or she do? What is this god in charge of? Record your research, thoughts, and impressions on the lines to the right.

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________

Now, imagine you are a costume designer and you are in charge of costuming a production of Once on This Island. Using the outline on page 12, sketch a costume for the god you have researched. Think about fabric, colors, extra materials, and other creative ways to express character.

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________

Present your design to your class or to your group. Explain why you have chosen the fabric, colors, and materials that you have chosen.

Which aspects of the god are you trying to highlight in your costume design? What are you hoping to convey with your costume design?

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________

10

11 11

Once on This Island Costume Design by:_________

Rosa Cuthbert Guy September 1, 1922 – June 3, 2012 Rosa Cuthbert Guy was a Trinidad-born American author who wrote the book My Love, My Love; or, The Peasant Girl in 1985, and it is this novel that is the inspiration for Once on This Island.

Ms. Guy was born in Diego Martin, Trinidad and immigrated to America at age 7 where she joined her parents in Harlem, New York. Her mother passed away two years later, “leaving us with a tyrant of a father, who was terrified at the prospect of raising two girls in the corrupting influence of big-city life.”

Soon her father married again and the family lived quite comfortably, “swept from abject poverty to a situation where we were being taken to picnics on the weekend in a chauffeur-driven car,” said Ms. Guy. When she was only fourteen, her father also passed away, and Rosa sought work in a brassiere factory. While living in New York she studied acting at the American Negro Theater, married a man named Warner Guy, and had a son named Warner, Jr. Later, she wrote and performed in her first play called Venetian Blinds, produced Off-Broadway in 1954 at the Tropical Theater. She then cofounded the Harlem Writers Guild which harbored the talents of great writers Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, and more.

CONNECTION: It is said that Rosa Guy based her novel My Love, My Love; or, The Peasant Girl partly on the popular Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, The Little Mermaid. What do you think? Do you spy similarities? What other stories does Once on This Island remind you of?

“She loved to write about love. If you thought a situation called for a kind of mournfulness, she was the one to laugh and turn music on and dance.”

Maya Angelou, on Rosa Guy

ROSA GUY / PHOTO CREDIT FERN LOGAN

12

Exerpt from Rosa Guy’s novel My Love, My Love; or, The Peasant Girl “On that island where rivers run deep, where the sea sparkling in the sun earns it the name Jewel of the Antilles, the tops of the mountains are bare. Ugly scrub brush clings to the sides of their gray stones, giving the peaks a grim aspect that angers the gods and keeps them forever fighting. These terrible battles of the gods affect the lives of all the islanders, rich and poor. But the wealthy in towns, protected from the excesses of the gods' furies, claim to be masters of their own destiny.

The peasants accept the will of the gods as theirs. They pray to the gods when times are hard and give thanks to them when life goes well.

The beautiful Lac Peligre in Haiti

But then the peasants live in the valleys and mountain villages amid flamboyants, poinsettias, azaleas, ficus, eucalyptus, and magnolias—their colors raging over the countryside and blending roads into hills, hills into forests. Multicolored flora defy the destructiveness of man and climate to spring eternally back to life. This miracle the peasants attribute to the gods.”

13

Adapting a Story Many of the movies and plays you see today are actually adaptations, meaning they are based on a story already written. An adaptation may simply present the characters and plot points of a novel or play as they were originally written, or it may change the setting and situation of the story. For example, the musical Once on This Island is an adaptation of Rosa Cuthbert Guy’s 1985 novel My Love, My Love; or The Peasant Girl. The steps below outline how a writer might go about creating an adaption for stage or screen.

Identify what grabbed you emotionally about the story.

Before you start to form the plot and characters, decide the feeling you want to invoke in the audience.

Pare down the story to only the most important plot points. A novel may tell a story in hundreds of pages that a film or stage adaptation would have to tell in roughly two hours. Which parts of the plot are the most important? What is extra, and might be cut out? When you’re outlining the plot, ask yourself if each scene helps to invoke the emotion you identified in the first step. Every scene doesn’t have to convey that feeling, but they should all help carry the story to that place.

Decide which characters and locations are needed to tell the story. The number of characters in a stage or film production should be kept small. Hiring more actors is not only costly, but too many characters can be confusing to the audience in a story only two hours long. If a character has a minor part and doesn’t affect

14

the story much, leave that character out. When writing for the stage, do the same thing for locations: only use the most essential settings. A play can be very successful in only one place—no need for set changes! Films have a little more freedom because scenes can be shot in many different locations.

Consider the conventions of your medium. A novel is not likely to include songs, but a musical adaptation certainly would. If you’re writing a screenplay, you might show the passage of time through a montage. Keep in mind the different ways that you can convey emotion or plot points that are different from the way they’re presented in a book.

Begin writing the adaptation. Once you’ve outlined your scenes, you’re ready to start writing dialogue.

If writing for the stage, include any essential stage directions. If writing for film, make sure your writing is very visual.

Adaptations: From Page to Stage Once on This Island is just one example of a novel adapted into a stage production. Can you think of other examples of adaptations, either on stage, on TV, or in film? What stories might you like to see adapted into stage productions? Why?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What might a sequel of Once on This Island be like? Make a list of ideas. Consider: • • • •

What characters would be included?

When would it take place?

Where would it take place?

What happens next, given the changes in time and place?

Now, write a plot summary or scene from this sequel: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

15

Storytelling Storytelling is at the heart of Once on This Island and is one of its biggest themes. Consider the following questions: • Who tells stories in this musical?

• To whom do they tell stories to?

• Why do they tell the stories they tell? What are they trying to accomplish through their storytelling?

• How do they tell stories? Through spoken word? Through song? Through dance?

Through images?

• Think about the very beginning and the very

Once you’ve seen Once on This Island, find someone who has never seen or heard of this musical or the story that inspired it. Tell them all about it. Describe the story as completely as you can. Notice what details stick with you. Notice what moments are difficult for you to remember.

end of Once on This Island. Why do you think

Who are your favorite characters? Which parts are

this musical begins and ends the ways that it

the most fun to tell? Do you forget anything or

does? What effect do the beginning and end

embellish anything?

have on you as an audience member?

• Why do you think it is important to tell stories?

Set aside some time to brainstorm. Think about a story that has deeply affected your school, your family, your local community, or your country. Why do you think it’s important to tell this story in particular? How would you tell this story? Through theatre, through dance, through film, through illustration, through photography, through sculpture, through writing, etc.? Why do you think it’s important to use that particular form to tell your story?

16

CONNECTION:

Excerpt from Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica by Zora Neale Hurston “Everybody knows that La Gonave is a whale that lingered so long in Haitian waters that he became an island. He bears a sleeping woman on his back. Any late afternoon anyone in Port-au-Prince who looks out to sea can see her lying there on her back with her hands folded across her middle sleeping peacefully. It is said that the Haitians prayed to Damballa for peace and prosperity. Damballa was away on a journey accompanied by his suite, including two wives, Aida and Cilia. When the invocations reached Damballa where he was travelling in the sky, he sent his woman Cilia with a message to his beloved Haitians. He commanded Agoue’ta-Royo to provide a boat for his wife and to transport her safely to Port-au-Prince so that she could give the people the formula for peace. Papa Agoue’ sent a great whale to bear Cilia and instructed him to transport the woman of Damballa with safety and speed and comfort. The whale performed everything that the Master of Waters commanded him. He rode Madame Cilia so quickly and so gently that she fell asleep, and did not know that she arrived at her destination. The whale dared not wake her to tell her that she was in Haiti. So every day he swims far out to sea and visits with his friends. But at sundown he creeps back into the harbor so that Madame Cilia may land if she should awake. She has the formula of peace in her sleeping hand. When she wakes up, she will give it to the people.”

17

Suggestions for Further Reading • In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez • The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat • Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica by Zora Neale Hurston • Annie John by Antigua-born American novelist Jamaica Kincaid • A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid • Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys • The poems and plays of Derrick Walcott, an award-winning author from Saint Lucia who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992

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 would 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

STUDENT evaluation (cont)

Finish the following statements: The most important thing I learned from this play was: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 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: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ If I could change something about attending a student matinee, I would: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I'm going to use what I learned, saw, or experienced by: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Student Matinee/TEACHER Evaluation Name_____________________________________________________________________School___________________________

Please rate your Student Matinee experience below:

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

1

2

3

4

TheatreWorks maintained communication with me and/or involved administrators at my school

1

2

3

4

It was clear to me that the production and study guide incorporated curriculum standards

1

2

3

4

Planning I received sufficient and timely information from TheatreWorks before the matinee

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

Matinee Workshops 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 kinds of activities on my own in the classroom

1

2

3

4

Strongly Disagree Post-Matinee Students were engaged in this experience

Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

1

2

3

4

The experience was valuable to my students' education

1

2

3

4

The "Performance Tasks" were useful in helping my students understand their experience

1

2

3

4

I would be interested in bringing more drama related activities into my classroom

1

2

3

4

TEACHER Evaluation (cont) For your classrooms please list the strengths of watching a student matinee. _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ In terms of your teaching, did this particular Student Matinee give you any arts integration ideas for your curriculum? _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ We are very interested in your feedback. What worked for you about this experience? _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ What did not work for you? _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Comments: _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ TheatreWorks student matinees tend to fill up quickly. Information about the 2014/15 season is available now— please visit theatreworks.org for the most up-to-date information. Please keep us updated with your current contact information to receive show announcements and booking information. Also, let us know if you have friends who would like to be added to our mailing lists!

x

x