1 THE STUDY GUIDE
Created & compiled by Jessica Robblee,
Buntport Theater Teaching Artist
Commissioned by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
Copyright 2012. All contents are free to be used for educational
purposes. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.
Basic Information about Domino
Synopsis, Grade-specific versions, the Set, and Themes 3
II.
Preparing for the Play
Discussion Questions and Activities
4
Reviewing the Play
Discussion Questions and Activities
4
Kindness and Empathy in the Play
Discussion Questions and Activities
5
V.
Personal Connections to Kindness
6
VI.
O. Henry
Biographical Information & Photos
Quotes
The Stories
A Retrieved Reformation
The Caliph, Cupid, and the Clock (in 6-8 version only)
The Last Leaf
III.
IV.
VII.
8
11
12
20
26
More Theater Exercises
Exploring Kindness, Empathy, Difference & Power
32
VIII. About Buntport Theater & its Programs for Schools
40
IX.
About the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
41
X.
Bibliography
41
3 I. Basic Information about DOMINO
A Synopsis of the Play
Domino is a piece of transformational theater that can be performed by as few as
3 actors and as many as 19-25 actors. It is a stage adaptation of short stories by
the early 20th century writer O. Henry: The Last Leaf, A Retrieved Reformation,
and The Caliph, Cupid, and the Clock (this last story is only included in the
Grades 6-8 version).
The play centers upon two people living in a big city—a young grocery delivery
person and her elderly neighbor. They share stories from their lives in order to
connect with one another, and the stories highlight how kindness can inspire
change and spur further acts of kindness. (See scripts for more detailed
synopses.)
Grade-specific Versions of the Play
There are 3 versions of Domino available for download on the Random Acts of
Kindness Website:
-a Grades K-2 version (35-40 minutes, set in the context of superheroes, includes
two O. Henry stories: A Retrieved Reformation and The Last Leaf)
-a Grades 3-5 version (35-40 minutes, includes two O. Henry stories: A Retrieved
Reformation and The Last Leaf)
-a Grades 6-8 version (45-50 minutes, includes three O. Henry stories: A
Retrieved Reformation, The Caliph, Cupid, and the Clock, and The Last Leaf)
The Set
You can create the set of your choosing with furniture, neutral blocks, or
anything you like. The original production used cardboard boxes stacked in
various configurations to create the play’s various settings. Two sides of every
box were decorated with drawings of windows and architectural details, to make
the boxes look like miniature buildings (see script for photographs).
Themes of the Play
Kindness
Empathy
Sacrifice, Risk
Honesty
Fear
Love
Influence of Peers, Family, &
Surroundings
Listening
Compassion
Transformation
Healing
Need
Openness v. Closed-ness
Self v. Community
Encountering Difference
4 II. Preparing for the Play
Discussion Questions
What is kindness?
What does a kind person do?
How does one person’s kindness affect another?
Describe the people you like to be around.
Why are people kind?
Why are people unkind?
Preparatory Activities for Grades K-8
Aloud or independently, read the O. Henry stories featured in the play
(included in this guide). (10-30 minutes)
Research who O. Henry was by searching online and reading this
Study Guide. (15 minutes or more)
Physical Pictures of Kindness-As a class or in small groups, create
tableaus (or frozen stage pictures) of what kindness looks like. Ask
students to add lines of dialogue to these tableaus or explain what’s
happening in the stage pictures. (10-30 minutes)
III. Reviewing the Play
Discussion Questions
What do you think of the play you just saw? What did you like about it? What
would you have changed about it?
What does this play leave you thinking about? How would you summarize it
for someone who hasn’t seen it?
How many characters can you remember from the play? Give two or three
adjectives to describe the characters.
Name a character that undergoes change in the play. Describe the change
and why you think it happened.
5 Reviewing Activity for Grades K-8
Revisit the Story Physically- As a class or in small groups, create
sequential tableaus (or frozen stage pictures) that tell the story of
Jimmy Valentine, the story of meeting Prince Michael (only pertinent
to the grades 6-8 version of the play), or the story of the sick person who
gets well. (10-15 minutes)
IV. Kindness and Empathy in the Play
Discussion Questions
What moments of kindness do you remember from the play?
Several characters felt inspired to take action during the course of the play.
What different things motivated them?
Which characters in the play would you describe as kind or unkind? Why?
The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation names
8 Building Blocks of Kindness.
o Kindness means caring for others
o I can be kind to others and myself
o New friends come easily with kindness
o Doing kind acts makes everyone happy
o Nothing can stop kindness
o Everyone can be kind
o Speaking kind words shows you care
o Show respect through actions
How do moments in the play relate to these Building Blocks?
How does transformation relate to kindness?
Share your thoughts on Annabel’s statement:
“Well, I’ve noticed that usually someone has to have the gumption to get
kindness started, then other people feel safe enough to be nice. It’s a domino
effect: domino, domino, domino! Without that, we’d all be sad and lonely
forever!”
Kindness Activity for Grades K-2
Draw a comic strip depicting one of the moments of kindness in the
play. For instance...
Drawing of Jimmy asking for his tools back (10-30 minutes)
Drawing of Dolores saying she polished the tools Drawing of Jimmy saying thank you Drawing of Dolores’ shock that he said thank you 6 Kindness Activities for Grades 3 and Up
Write the back-story for a character in the play. (10-30 minutes)
For instance, write the story of how Prince Michael became so afraid of clocks
and their power to “measure out our fun, press us to work and to worry, worry,
worry” or how Eddie became so nervous around new and different people.
Write the inner thoughts of a character from one of the scenes in the play.
For instance, you could write Annabel’s thoughts as she watched Jimmy
Valentine crack the safe and free little Andrew from the bank vault:
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Ralph—I mean, Jimmy—open his bag and
pull out tools to crack that safe. I had never met a criminal before. Is this what
one looks like? Look how fast he is with that lock! Well, I never!” (10-15
minutes)
V. Personal Connections to Kindness
Discussion Questions
Which character/s do you have the most in common with? Why?
Which relationship in the play reminds you of a relationship in your life?
How so?
Personal Connections Activity for Grades K-2
Collage- Find pictures that relate to how you see people being kind
everyday. Cut out the pictures from magazines or print out pictures you
find online, and create a physical collage of images that captures your
experience of kindness in the world. (20-30 minutes, Materials:
magazines, computers)
Storytelling- Sit in a circle and take turns standing to tell a story of a
time you were kind to someone. Next, take turns telling a story of a time
someone was kind to you. (10-20 minutes)
Statues- As a group, create a list of the different ways people are kind to
each other. Divide the class in half in two areas of the room. Call out
acts of kindness from the list. Half of the students observe, as the other
half of the students use their bodies to create statues of these moments
of kindness. Have the observers describe what they see. Have the
halves switch roles for few more rounds. If you wish, do the same work
with a list of ways people are unkind to each other. (20-­40 minutes) 7 Personal Connections Activities for Grades 3 and Up
Write about a moment of kindness you have witnessed
personally. Then work in a team to create a series of tableaus
depicting this moment. Give thought to portraying the beginning,
middle and end of your kindness story, so that an audience can
clearly perceive how this moment took place and how much it
meant to you. (After the tableaus are complete, add elements
such as lines of dialogue, music, costumes, props, and set pieces to
tell your story even more clearly!) (20-30 minutes)
Multi-Media Image Presentation Create a quick-paced Pecha
Kucha presentation with accompanying music or narration that
captures your experience of kindness in the world. (20 minutes)
(Pecha Kucha (puh-CHAH kuh-CHAH) is a presentation format that
has gained popularity since it was “devised in Tokyo in February
2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show
their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with
events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring
creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for
the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is
based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that
makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid
pace.”
Write a scene or a page of dialogue that captures a moment from
your own life that opened your mind to someone different from
you. (Feel free to change the names of the people involved, if they
would not care to be identified.) Perform this scene or direct your
classmates in a performance of the scene. (10 minutes
Write a short story that begins with the line “I saw a kindly
smile on the person’s face. I looked around, uncertain what to do
next.” Perform it with classmates. (10-40 minutes)
-
8 VI. About O. Henry , also known as William Sydney Porter
Biographical Information
(Image taken from http://liternet.bg/ebook/amerikanska/image/ohenry.jpg)
Excerpts from Hollander’s O. Henry: Stories for Young People:
“William Sydney Porter, who wrote under the penname O. Henry, was
the very popular author of several hundred short stories about
American life around the beginning of the twentieth century. He was
born in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1862, where his father was a
doctor. His aunt, a school teacher, educated him, and as a child he
read widely, both in the great novelists of the nineteenth century and
in popular fiction for boys...after several years he took the
opportunity to move to Texas.” (6)
9 O. Henry worked...
-in his uncle’s drugstore in NC
-at a sheep ranch in Texas
-as a draftsman in a government land office in Austin, Texas
-publishing his own humorous weekly publication called The Rolling
Stone
-a bank teller
He was indicted (i.e., formally accused of a crime) for mismanaging
the bank’s funds. Hollander states that “it is believed that [O. Henry]
would have been acquitted, since he was not a thief, but he left the
U.S. for Honduras in Central America” (7).
O. Henry with his wife and daughter circa 1895,
(http://ohenryhouse.org/Photos/Family/family.html)
10 He returned to the U.S. to check on his sick wife, and he was
convicted and sent to jail for a few years. In prison, he wrote many
short stories based on his life experiences, and when he was released
he moved to Pittsburgh and then to New York City, where he would
live the rest of his life.
O. Henry’s home in New York City
(http://ohenryhouse.org/Photos/Family/family.html)
11 He is well-known for the “unexpected and often very surprising endings of his
stories” (7). Biography.com describes O. Henry as “Incapable of integrating a
book-length narrative, O. Henry was skilled in plotting short ones. He wrote in a
dry, humorous style and, as in "The Gift of the Magi," frequently used
coincidences and surprise endings to underline ironies.
Quotes by O. Henry
“I wanted to paint a picture some day that people would stand before and forget
that it was made of paint. I wanted it to creep into them like a bar of music and
mushroom there like a soft bullet.”
― O. Henry’s story Masters of Arts
in his collection titled Cabbages and Kings
“No friendship is an accident. ”
― O. Henry, Heart of the West
“I'll give you the whole secret to short story writing. Here it is. Rule 1: Write
stories that please yourself. There is no Rule 2.”
― O. Henry
“It couldn't have happened anywhere but in little old New York.”
― from A Little Local Colour
“Hospitality in the prairie country is not limited. Even if your enemy passes your
way, you must feed him before you shoot him.”
“The true adventurer goes forth aimless and uncalculating to meet and greet
unknown fate.”
—from The Green Door
Quote about O. Henry
From New York Times Article “Through the Shadows with O. Henry” 1921:
“As the years pass and new light is thrown into the obscurer recesses of Porter’s
life, the surer do the memory and tradition of this splendid fellow and greathearted soul fasten upon the consciousness of the public. The writer is held in
admiration by the masters of his craft in many lands[.]”
--Archibald Henderson
12 VII. The Stories included in DOMINO
A Retrieved Reformation
A guard came to the prison shoe-shop, where Jimmy Valentine was
assiduously stitching uppers, and escorted him to the front office.
There the warden handed Jimmy his pardon, which had been signed that
morning by the governor. Jimmy took it in a tired kind of way. He had
served nearly ten months of a four year sentence. He had expected to
stay only about three months, at the longest. When a man with as many
friends on the outside as Jimmy Valentine had is received in the
"stir" it is hardly worth while to cut his hair.
"Now, Valentine," said the warden, "you'll go out in the morning.
Brace up, and make a man of yourself. You're not a bad fellow at
heart. Stop cracking safes, and live straight."
"Me?" said Jimmy, in surprise. "Why, I never cracked a safe in my
life."
"Oh, no," laughed the warden. "Of course not. Let's see, now. How was
it you happened to get sent up on that Springfield job? Was it because
you wouldn't prove an alibi for fear of compromising somebody in
extremely high-toned society? Or was it simply a case of a mean old
jury that had it in for you? It's always one or the other with you
innocent victims."
"Me?" said Jimmy, still blankly virtuous. "Why, warden, I never was in
Springfield in my life!"
"Take him back, Cronin!" said the warden, "and fix him up with
outgoing clothes. Unlock him at seven in the morning, and let him come
to the bull-pen. Better think over my advice, Valentine."
At a quarter past seven on the next morning Jimmy stood in the
warden's outer office. He had on a suit of the villainously fitting,
ready-made clothes and a pair of the stiff, squeaky shoes that the
state furnishes to its discharged compulsory guests.
The clerk handed him a railroad ticket and the five-dollar bill with
which the law expected him to rehabilitate himself into good
citizenship and prosperity. The warden gave him a cigar, and shook
hands. Valentine, 9762, was chronicled on the books, "Pardoned by
Governor," and Mr. James Valentine walked out into the sunshine.
Disregarding the song of the birds, the waving green trees, and the
13 smell of the flowers, Jimmy headed straight for a restaurant. There he
tasted the first sweet joys of liberty in the shape of a broiled
chicken and a bottle of white wine--followed by a cigar a grade better
than the one the warden had given him. From there he proceeded
leisurely to the depot. He tossed a quarter into the hat of a blind
man sitting by the door, and boarded his train. Three hours set him
down in a little town near the state line. He went to the cafe of one
Mike Dolan and shook hands with Mike, who was alone behind the bar.
"Sorry we couldn't make it sooner, Jimmy, me boy," said Mike. "But we
had that protest from Springfield to buck against, and the governor
nearly balked. Feeling all right?"
"Fine," said Jimmy. "Got my key?"
He got his key and went upstairs, unlocking the door of a room at the
rear. Everything was just as he had left it. There on the floor was
still Ben Price's collar-button that had been torn from that eminent
detective's shirt-band when they had overpowered Jimmy to arrest him.
Pulling out from the wall a folding-bed, Jimmy slid back a panel in
the wall and dragged out a dust-covered suit-case. He opened this and
gazed fondly at the finest set of burglar's tools in the East. It was
a complete set, made of specially tempered steel, the latest designs
in drills, punches, braces and bits, jimmies, clamps, and augers, with
two or three novelties, invented by Jimmy himself, in which he took
pride. Over nine hundred dollars they had cost him to have made at
----, a place where they make such things for the profession.
In half an hour Jimmy went down stairs and through the cafe. He was
now dressed in tasteful and well-fitting clothes, and carried his
dusted and cleaned suit-case in his hand.
"Got anything on?" asked Mike Dolan, genially.
"Me?" said Jimmy, in a puzzled tone. "I don't understand. I'm
representing the New York Amalgamated Short Snap Biscuit Cracker
and Frazzled Wheat Company."
This statement delighted Mike to such an extent that Jimmy had to take
a seltzer-and-milk on the spot. He never touched "hard" drinks.
A week after the release of Valentine, 9762, there was a neat job of
safe-burglary done in Richmond, Indiana, with no clue to the author. A
scant eight hundred dollars was all that was secured. Two weeks after
that a patented, improved, burglar-proof safe in Logansport was opened
14 like a cheese to the tune of fifteen hundred dollars, currency;
securities and silver untouched. That began to interest the roguecatchers. Then an old-fashioned bank-safe in Jefferson City became
active and threw out of its crater an eruption of bank-notes amounting
to five thousand dollars. The losses were now high enough to bring the
matter up into Ben Price's class of work. By comparing notes, a
remarkable similarity in the methods of the burglaries was noticed.
Ben Price investigated the scenes of the robberies, and was heard to
remark:
"That's Dandy Jim Valentine's autograph. He's resumed business. Look
at that combination knob--jerked out as easy as pulling up a radish in
wet weather. He's got the only clamps that can do it. And look how
clean those tumblers were punched out! Jimmy never has to drill but
one hole. Yes, I guess I want Mr. Valentine. He'll do his bit next
time without any short-time or clemency foolishness."
Ben Price knew Jimmy's habits. He had learned them while working on
the Springfield case. Long jumps, quick get-aways, no confederates,
and a taste for good society--these ways had helped Mr. Valentine to
become noted as a successful dodger of retribution. It was given out
that Ben Price had taken up the trail of the elusive cracksman, and
other people with burglar-proof safes felt more at ease.
One afternoon Jimmy Valentine and his suit-case climbed out of the
mail-hack in Elmore, a little town five miles off the railroad down in
the black-jack country of Arkansas. Jimmy, looking like an athletic
young senior just home from college, went down the board side-walk
toward the hotel.
A young lady crossed the street, passed him at the corner and entered
a door over which was the sign, "The Elmore Bank." Jimmy Valentine
looked into her eyes, forgot what he was, and became another man. She
lowered her eyes and coloured slightly. Young men of Jimmy's style and
looks were scarce in Elmore.
Jimmy collared a boy that was loafing on the steps of the bank as if
he were one of the stockholders, and began to ask him questions about
the town, feeding him dimes at intervals. By and by the young lady
came out, looking royally unconscious of the young man with the suitcase, and went her way.
"Isn' that young lady Polly Simpson?" asked Jimmy, with specious
guile.
"Naw," said the boy. "She's Annabel Adams. Her pa owns this bank.
15 Why'd you come to Elmore for? Is that a gold watch-chain? I'm going to
get a bulldog. Got any more dimes?"
Jimmy went to the Planters' Hotel, registered as Ralph D. Spencer, and
engaged a room. He leaned on the desk and declared his platform to the
clerk. He said he had come to Elmore to look for a location to go into
business. How was the shoe business, now, in the town? He had thought
of the shoe business. Was there an opening?
The clerk was impressed by the clothes and manner of Jimmy. He,
himself, was something of a pattern of fashion to the thinly gilded
youth of Elmore, but he now perceived his shortcomings. While trying
to figure out Jimmy's manner of tying his four-in-hand he cordially
gave information.
Yes, there ought to be a good opening in the shoe line. There wasn't
an exclusive shoe-store in the place. The dry-goods and general stores
handled them. Business in all lines was fairly good. Hoped Mr. Spencer
would decide to locate in Elmore. He would find it a pleasant town to
live in, and the people very sociable.
Mr. Spencer thought he would stop over in the town a few days and look
over the situation. No, the clerk needn't call the boy. He would carry
up his suit-case, himself; it was rather heavy.
Mr. Ralph Spencer, the phoenix that arose from Jimmy Valentine's
ashes
--ashes left by the flame of a sudden and alterative attack of love-remained in Elmore, and prospered. He opened a shoe-store and secured
a good run of trade.
Socially he was also a success, and made many friends. And he
accomplished the wish of his heart. He met Miss Annabel Adams, and
became more and more captivated by her charms.
At the end of a year the situation of Mr. Ralph Spencer was this: he
had won the respect of the community, his shoe-store was flourishing,
and he and Annabel were engaged to be married in two weeks. Mr.
Adams,
the typical, plodding, country banker, approved of Spencer. Annabel's
pride in him almost equalled her affection. He was as much at home in
the family of Mr. Adams and that of Annabel's married sister as if he
were already a member.
One day Jimmy sat down in his room and wrote this letter, which he
mailed to the safe address of one of his old friends in St. Louis:
16 Dear Old Pal:
I want you to be at Sullivan's place, in Little Rock, next
Wednesday night, at nine o'clock. I want you to wind up some
little matters for me. And, also, I want to make you a present of
my kit of tools. I know you'll be glad to get them--you couldn't
duplicate the lot for a thousand dollars. Say, Billy, I've quit
the old business--a year ago. I've got a nice store. I'm making an
honest living, and I'm going to marry the finest girl on earth two
weeks from now. It's the only life, Billy--the straight one. I
wouldn't touch a dollar of another man's money now for a million.
After I get married I'm going to sell out and go West, where there
won't be so much danger of having old scores brought up against
me. I tell you, Billy, she's an angel. She believes in me; and I
wouldn't do another crooked thing for the whole world. Be sure to be
at Sully's, for I must see you. I'll bring along the tools with me.
Your old friend,
Jimmy.
On the Monday night after Jimmy wrote this letter, Ben Price jogged
unobtrusively into Elmore in a livery buggy. He lounged about town in
his quiet way until he found out what he wanted to know. From the
drug-store across the street from Spencer's shoe-store he got a good
look at Ralph D. Spencer.
"Going to marry the banker's daughter are you, Jimmy?" said Ben to
himself, softly. "Well, I don't know!"
The next morning Jimmy took breakfast at the Adamses. He was going
to
Little Rock that day to order his wedding-suit and buy something nice
for Annabel. That would be the first time he had left town since he
came to Elmore. It had been more than a year now since those last
professional "jobs," and he thought he could safely venture out.
After breakfast quite a family party went downtown together--Mr.
Adams, Annabel, Jimmy, and Annabel's married sister with her two
little girls, aged five and nine. They came by the hotel where Jimmy
still boarded, and he ran up to his room and brought along his suitcase. Then they went on to the bank. There stood Jimmy's horse and
buggy and Dolph Gibson, who was going to drive him over to the
railroad station.
17 All went inside the high, carved oak railings into the banking-room-Jimmy included, for Mr. Adams's future son-in-law was welcome
anywhere. The clerks were pleased to be greeted by the good-looking,
agreeable young man who was going to marry Miss Annabel. Jimmy set
his
suit-case down. Annabel, whose heart was bubbling with happiness and
lively youth, put on Jimmy's hat, and picked up the suit-case.
"Wouldn't I make a nice drummer?" said Annabel. "My! Ralph, how heavy
it is? Feels like it was full of gold bricks."
"Lot of nickel-plated shoe-horns in there," said Jimmy, coolly, "that
I'm going to return. Thought I'd save express charges by taking them
up. I'm getting awfully economical."
The Elmore Bank had just put in a new safe and vault. Mr. Adams was
very proud of it, and insisted on an inspection by every one. The
vault was a small one, but it had a new, patented door. It fastened
with three solid steel bolts thrown simultaneously with a single
handle, and had a time-lock. Mr. Adams beamingly explained its
workings to Mr. Spencer, who showed a courteous but not too
intelligent interest. The two children, May and Agatha, were delighted
by the shining metal and funny clock and knobs.
While they were thus engaged Ben Price sauntered in and leaned on his
elbow, looking casually inside between the railings. He told the
teller that he didn't want anything; he was just waiting for a man he
knew.
Suddenly there was a scream or two from the women, and a commotion.
Unperceived by the elders, May, the nine-year-old girl, in a spirit of
play, had shut Agatha in the vault. She had then shot the bolts and
turned the knob of the combination as she had seen Mr. Adams do.
The old banker sprang to the handle and tugged at it for a moment.
"The door can't be opened," he groaned. "The clock hasn't been wound
nor the combination set."
Agatha's mother screamed again, hysterically.
"Hush!" said Mr. Adams, raising his trembling hand. "All be quite for
a moment. Agatha!" he called as loudly as he could. "Listen to me."
During the following silence they could just hear the faint sound of
the child wildly shrieking in the dark vault in a panic of terror.
"My precious darling!" wailed the mother. "She will die of fright!
18 Open the door! Oh, break it open! Can't you men do something?"
"There isn't a man nearer than Little Rock who can open that door,"
said Mr. Adams, in a shaky voice. "My God! Spencer, what shall we do?
That child--she can't stand it long in there. There isn't enough air,
and, besides, she'll go into convulsions from fright."
Agatha's mother, frantic now, beat the door of the vault with her
hands. Somebody wildly suggested dynamite. Annabel turned to Jimmy,
her large eyes full of anguish, but not yet despairing. To a woman
nothing seems quite impossible to the powers of the man she worships.
"Can't you do something, Ralph--try, won't you?"
He looked at her with a queer, soft smile on his lips and in his keen
eyes.
"Annabel," he said, "give me that rose you are wearing, will you?"
Hardly believing that she heard him aright, she unpinned the bud from
the bosom of her dress, and placed it in his hand. Jimmy stuffed it
into his vest-pocket, threw off his coat and pulled up his shirtsleeves. With that act Ralph D. Spencer passed away and Jimmy
Valentine took his place.
"Get away from the door, all of you," he commanded, shortly.
He set his suit-case on the table, and opened it out flat. From that
time on he seemed to be unconscious of the presence of any one else.
He laid out the shining, queer implements swiftly and orderly,
whistling softly to himself as he always did when at work. In a deep
silence and immovable, the others watched him as if under a spell.
In a minute Jimmy's pet drill was biting smoothly into the steel door.
In ten minutes--breaking his own burglarious record--he threw back the
bolts and opened the door.
Agatha, almost collapsed, but safe, was gathered into her mother's
arms.
Jimmy Valentine put on his coat, and walked outside the railings
towards the front door. As he went he thought he heard a far-away
voice that he once knew call "Ralph!" But he never hesitated.
At the door a big man stood somewhat in his way.
19 "Hello, Ben!" said Jimmy, still with his strange smile. "Got around at
last, have you? Well, let's go. I don't know that it makes much
difference, now."
And then Ben Price acted rather strangely.
"Guess you're mistaken, Mr. Spencer," he said. "Don't believe I
recognize you. Your buggy's waiting for you, ain't it?"
20 The Caliph, Cupid, and the Clock (featured in DOMINO for grades 6-8 only)
Prince Michael, of the Electorate of Valleluna, sat on his favourite
bench in the park. The coolness of the September night quickened the
life in him like a rare, tonic wine. The benches were not filled;
for park loungers, with their stagnant blood, are prompt to detect
and fly home from the crispness of early autumn. The moon was just
clearing the roofs of the range of dwellings that bounded the
quadrangle on the east. Children laughed and played about the finesprayed fountain. In the shadowed spots fauns and hamadryads wooed,
unconscious of the gaze of mortal eyes. A hand organ--Philomel by
the grace of our stage carpenter, Fancy--fluted and droned in a side
street. Around the enchanted boundaries of the little park street
cars spat and mewed and the stilted trains roared like tigers and
lions prowling for a place to enter. And above the trees shone the
great, round, shining face of an illuminated clock in the tower of an
antique public building.
Prince Michael's shoes were wrecked far beyond the skill of the
carefullest cobbler. The ragman would have declined any negotiations
concerning his clothes. The two weeks' stubble on his face was grey
and brown and red and greenish yellow--as if it had been made up from
individual contributions from the chorus of a musical comedy. No man
existed who had money enough to wear so bad a hat as his.
Prince Michael sat on his favourite bench and smiled. It was a
diverting thought to him that he was wealthy enough to buy every one
of those close-ranged, bulky, window-lit mansions that faced him, if
he chose. He could have matched gold, equipages, jewels, art
treasures, estates and acres with any Croesus in this proud city of
Manhattan, and scarcely have entered upon the bulk of his holdings.
He could have sat at table with reigning sovereigns. The social
world, the world of art, the fellowship of the elect, adulation,
imitation, the homage of the fairest, honours from the highest,
praise from the wisest, flattery, esteem, credit, pleasure, fame--all
the honey of life was waiting in the comb in the hive of the world
for Prince Michael, of the Electorate of Valleluna, whenever he might
choose to take it. But his choice was to sit in rags and dinginess
on a bench in a park. For he had tasted of the fruit of the tree of
life, and, finding it bitter in his mouth, had stepped out of Eden
for a time to seek distraction close to the unarmoured, beating heart
of the world.
These thoughts strayed dreamily through the mind of Prince Michael,
as he smiled under the stubble of his polychromatic beard. Lounging
21 thus, clad as the poorest of mendicants in the parks, he loved to
study humanity. He found in altruism more pleasure than his riches,
his station and all the grosser sweets of life had given him. It was
his chief solace and satisfaction to alleviate individual distress,
to confer favours upon worthy ones who had need of succour, to dazzle
unfortunates by unexpected and bewildering gifts of truly royal
magnificence, bestowed, however, with wisdom and judiciousness.
And as Prince Michael's eye rested upon the glowing face of the great
clock in the tower, his smile, altruistic as it was, became slightly
tinged with contempt. Big thoughts were the Prince's; and it was
always with a shake of his head that he considered the subjugation of
the world to the arbitrary measures of Time. The comings and goings
of people in hurry and dread, controlled by the little metal moving
hands of a clock, always made him sad.
By and by came a young man in evening clothes and sat upon the third
bench from the Prince. For half an hour he smoked cigars with
nervous haste, and then he fell to watching the face of the
illuminated clock above the trees. His perturbation was evident, and
the Prince noted, in sorrow, that its cause was connected, in some
manner, with the slowly moving hands of the timepiece.
His Highness arose and went to the young man's bench.
"I beg your pardon for addressing you," he said, "but I perceive that
you are disturbed in mind. If it may serve to mitigate the liberty I
have taken I will add that I am Prince Michael, heir to the throne of
the Electorate of Valleluna. I appear incognito, of course, as you
may gather from my appearance. It is a fancy of mine to render aid
to others whom I think worthy of it. Perhaps the matter that seems
to distress you is one that would more readily yield to our mutual
efforts."
The young man looked up brightly at the Prince. Brightly, but the
perpendicular line of perplexity between his brows was not smoothed
away. He laughed, and even then it did not. But he accepted the
momentary diversion.
"Glad to meet you, Prince," he said, good humouredly. "Yes, I'd say
you were incog. all right. Thanks for your offer of assistance--but
I don't see where your butting-in would help things any. It's a kind
of private affair, you know--but thanks all the same."
Prince Michael sat at the young man's side. He was often rebuffed
but never offensively. His courteous manner and words forbade that.
22 "Clocks," said the Prince, "are shackles on the feet of mankind. I
have observed you looking persistently at that clock. Its face is
that of a tyrant, its numbers are false as those on a lottery ticket;
its hands are those of a bunco steerer, who makes an appointment with
you to your ruin. Let me entreat you to throw off its humiliating
bonds and to cease to order your affairs by that insensate monitor of
brass and steel."
"I don't usually," said the young man. "I carry a watch except when
I've got my radiant rags on."
"I know human nature as I do the trees and grass," said the Prince,
with earnest dignity. "I am a master of philosophy, a graduate in
art, and I hold the purse of a Fortunatus. There are few mortal
misfortunes that I cannot alleviate or overcome. I have read your
countenance, and found in it honesty and nobility as well as
distress. I beg of you to accept my advice or aid. Do not belie the
intelligence I see in your face by judging from my appearance of my
ability to defeat your troubles."
The young man glanced at the clock again and frowned darkly. When
his gaze strayed from the glowing horologue of time it rested
intently upon a four-story red brick house in the row of dwellings
opposite to where he sat. The shades were drawn, and the lights in
many rooms shone dimly through them.
"Ten minutes to nine!" exclaimed the young man, with an impatient
gesture of despair. He turned his back upon the house and took a
rapid step or two in a contrary direction.
"Remain!" commanded Prince Michael, in so potent a voice that the
disturbed one wheeled around with a somewhat chagrined laugh.
"I'll give her the ten minutes and then I'm off," he muttered, and
then aloud to the Prince: "I'll join you in confounding all clocks,
my friend, and throw in women, too."
"Sit down," said the Prince calmly. "I do not accept your addition.
Women are the natural enemies of clocks, and, therefore, the allies
of those who would seek liberation from these monsters that measure
our follies and limit our pleasures. If you will so far confide in
me I would ask you to relate to me your story."
The young man threw himself upon the bench with a reckless laugh.
23 "Your Royal Highness, I will," he said, in tones of mock deference.
"Do you see yonder house--the one with three upper windows lighted?
Well, at 6 o'clock I stood in that house with the young lady I am-that is, I was--engaged to. I had been doing wrong, my dear Prince-I had been a naughty boy, and she had heard of it. I wanted to be
forgiven, of course--we are always wanting women to forgive us,
aren't we, Prince?"
"'I want time to think it over,' said she. 'There is one thing
certain; I will either fully forgive you, or I will never see your
face again. There will be no half-way business. At half-past
eight,' she said, 'at exactly half-past eight you may be watching the
middle upper window of the top floor. If I decide to forgive I will
hang out of that window a white silk scarf. You will know by that
that all is as was before, and you may come to me. If you see no
scarf you may consider that everything between us is ended forever.'
That," concluded the young man bitterly, "is why I have been watching
that clock. The time for the signal to appear has passed twentythree minutes ago. Do you wonder that I am a little disturbed, my
Prince of Rags and Whiskers?"
"Let me repeat to you," said Prince Michael, in his even, wellmodulated tones, "that women are the natural enemies of clocks.
Clocks are an evil, women a blessing. The signal may yet appear."
"Never, on your principality!" exclaimed the young man, hopelessly.
"You don't know Marian--of course. She's always on time, to the
minute. That was the first thing about her that attracted me. I've
got the mitten instead of the scarf. I ought to have known at 8.31
that my goose was cooked. I'll go West on the 11.45 to-night with
Jack Milburn. The jig's up. I'll try Jack's ranch awhile and top
off with the Klondike and whiskey. Good-night--er--er--Prince."
Prince Michael smiled his enigmatic, gentle, comprehending smile and
caught the coat sleeve of the other. The brilliant light in the
Prince's eyes was softening to a dreamier, cloudy translucence.
"Wait," he said solemnly, "till the clock strikes. I have wealth and
power and knowledge above most men, but when the clock strikes I am
afraid. Stay by me until then. This woman shall be yours. You have
the word of the hereditary Prince of Valleluna. On the day of your
marriage I will give you $100,000 and a palace on the Hudson. But
there must be no clocks in that palace--they measure our follies and
limit our pleasures. Do you agree to that?"
"Of course," said the young man, cheerfully, "they're a nuisance,
24 anyway--always ticking and striking and getting you late for dinner."
He glanced again at the clock in the tower. The hands stood at three
minutes to nine.
"I think," said Prince Michael, "that I will sleep a little. The day
has been fatiguing."
He stretched himself upon a bench with the manner of one who had
slept thus before.
"You will find me in this park on any evening when the weather is
suitable," said the Prince, sleepily. "Come to me when your marriage
day is set and I will give you a cheque for the money."
"Thanks, Your Highness," said the young man, seriously. "It doesn't
look as if I would need that palace on the Hudson, but I appreciate
your offer, just the same."
Prince Michael sank into deep slumber. His battered hat rolled from
the bench to the ground. The young man lifted it, placed it over the
frowsy face and moved one of the grotesquely relaxed limbs into a
more comfortable position. "Poor devil!" he said, as he drew the
tattered clothes closer about the Prince's breast.
Sonorous and startling came the stroke of 9 from the clock tower.
The young man sighed again, turned his face for one last look at the
house of his relinquished hopes--and cried aloud profane words of
holy rapture.
>From the middle upper window blossomed in the dusk a waving, snowy,
fluttering, wonderful, divine emblem of forgiveness and promised joy.
By came a citizen, rotund, comfortable, home-hurrying, unknowing of
the delights of waving silken scarfs on the borders of dimly-lit
parks.
"Will you oblige me with the time, sir?" asked the young man; and the
citizen, shrewdly conjecturing his watch to be safe, dragged it out
and announced:
"Twenty-nine and a half minutes past eight, sir."
And then, from habit, he glanced at the clock in the tower, and made
further oration.
25 "By George! that clock's half an hour fast! First time in ten years
I've known it to be off. This watch of mine never varies a--"
But the citizen was talking to vacancy. He turned and saw his
hearer, a fast receding black shadow, flying in the direction of a
house with three lighted upper windows.
And in the morning came along two policemen on their way to the beats
they owned. The park was deserted save for one dilapidated figure
that sprawled, asleep, on a bench. They stopped and gazed upon it.
"It's Dopy Mike," said one. "He hits the pipe every night. Park bum
for twenty years. On his last legs, I guess."
The other policeman stooped and looked at something crumpled and
crisp in the hand of the sleeper.
"Gee!" he remarked. "He's doped out a fifty-dollar bill, anyway.
Wish I knew the brand of hop that he smokes."
And then "Rap, rap, rap!" went the club of realism against the shoe
soles of Prince Michael, of the Electorate of Valleluna.
26 The Last Leaf
In a little district west of Washington Square the streets have run
crazy and broken themselves into small strips called "places." These
"places" make strange angles and curves. One street crosses itself
a time or two. An artist once discovered a valuable possibility in
this street. Suppose a collector with a bill for paints, paper and
canvas should, in traversing this route, suddenly meet himself
coming back, without a cent having been paid on account!
So, to quaint old Greenwich Village the art people soon came
prowling, hunting for north windows and eighteenth-century gables
and Dutch attics and low rents. Then they imported some pewter mugs
and a chafing dish or two from Sixth avenue, and became a "colony."
At the top of a squatty, three-story brick Sue and Johnsy had their
studio. "Johnsy" was familiar for Joanna. One was from Maine; the
other from California. They had met at the _table d'hote_ of an
Eighth street "Delmonico's," and found their tastes in art, chicory
salad and bishop sleeves so congenial that the joint studio
resulted.
That was in May. In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the
doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony, touching one
here and there with his icy fingers. Over on the east side this
ravager strode boldly, smiting his victims by scores, but his feet
trod slowly through the maze of the narrow and moss-grown "places."
Mr. Pneumonia was not what you would call a chivalric old gentleman.
A mite of a little woman with blood thinned by California zephyrs
was hardly fair game for the red-fisted, short-breathed old duffer.
But Johnsy he smote; and she lay, scarcely moving, on her painted
iron bedstead, looking through the small Dutch window-panes at the
blank side of the next brick house.
One morning the busy doctor invited Sue into the hallway with a
shaggy, gray eyebrow.
"She has one chance in--let us say, ten," he said, as he shook down
the mercury in his clinical thermometer. "And that chance is for her
to want to live. This way people have of lining-up on the side of
the undertaker makes the entire pharmacopeia look silly. Your little
lady has made up her mind that she's not going to get well. Has she
anything on her mind?"
"She--she wanted to paint the Bay of Naples some day," said Sue.
27 "Paint?--bosh! Has she anything on her mind worth thinking about
twice--a man, for instance?"
"A man?" said Sue, with a jew's-harp twang in her voice. "Is a man
worth--but, no, doctor; there is nothing of the kind."
"Well, it is the weakness, then," said the doctor. "I will do all
that science, so far as it may filter through my efforts, can
accomplish. But whenever my patient begins to count the carriages
in her funeral procession I subtract 50 per cent. from the curative
power of medicines. If you will get her to ask one question about
the new winter styles in cloak sleeves I will promise you a
one-in-five chance for her, instead of one in ten."
After the doctor had gone Sue went into the workroom and cried a
Japanese napkin to a pulp. Then she swaggered into Johnsy's room
with her drawing board, whistling ragtime.
Johnsy lay, scarcely making a ripple under the bedclothes, with her
face toward the window. Sue stopped whistling, thinking she was
asleep.
She arranged her board and began a pen-and-ink drawing to illustrate
a magazine story. Young artists must pave their way to Art by
drawing pictures for magazine stories that young authors write to
pave their way to Literature.
As Sue was sketching a pair of elegant horseshow riding trousers and
a monocle on the figure of the hero, an Idaho cowboy, she heard a
low sound, several times repeated. She went quickly to the bedside.
Johnsy's eyes were open wide. She was looking out the window and
counting--counting backward.
"Twelve," she said, and a little later "eleven;" and then "ten," and
"nine;" and then "eight" and "seven," almost together.
Sue looked solicitously out the window. What was there to count?
There was only a bare, dreary yard to be seen, and the blank side of
the brick house twenty feet away. An old, old ivy vine, gnarled and
decayed at the roots, climbed half way up the brick wall. The cold
breath of autumn had stricken its leaves from the vine until its
skeleton branches clung, almost bare, to the crumbling bricks.
"What is it, dear?" asked Sue.
28 "Six," said Johnsy, in almost a whisper. "They're falling faster
now. Three days ago there were almost a hundred. It made my head
ache to count them. But now it's easy. There goes another one. There
are only five left now."
"Five what, dear. Tell your Sudie."
"Leaves. On the ivy vine. When the last one falls I must go, too.
I've known that for three days. Didn't the doctor tell you?"
"Oh, I never heard of such nonsense," complained Sue, with
magnificent scorn. "What have old ivy leaves to do with your getting
well? And you used to love that vine so, you naughty girl. Don't be
a goosey. Why, the doctor told me this morning that your chances for
getting well real soon were--let's see exactly what he said--he said
the chances were ten to one! Why, that's almost as good a chance as
we have in New York when we ride on the street cars or walk past a
new building. Try to take some broth now, and let Sudie go back to
her drawing, so she can sell the editor man with it, and buy port
wine for her sick child, and pork chops for her greedy self."
"You needn't get any more wine," said Johnsy, keeping her eyes fixed
out the window. "There goes another. No, I don't want any broth.
That leaves just four. I want to see the last one fall before it
gets dark. Then I'll go, too."
"Johnsy, dear," said Sue, bending over her, "will you promise me to
keep your eyes closed, and not look out the window until I am done
working? I must hand those drawings in by to-morrow. I need the
light, or I would draw the shade down."
"Couldn't you draw in the other room?" asked Johnsy, coldly.
"I'd rather be here by you," said Sue. "Besides I don't want you to
keep looking at those silly ivy leaves."
"Tell me as soon as you have finished," said Johnsy, closing her
eyes, and lying white and still as a fallen statue, "because I
want to see the last one fall. I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of
thinking. I went to turn loose my hold on everything, and go sailing
down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves."
"Try to sleep," said Sue. "I must call Behrman up to be my model for
the old hermit miner. I'll not be gone a minute. Don't try to move
'till I come back."
29 Old Behrman was a painter who lived on the ground floor beneath
them. He was past sixty and had a Michael Angelo's Moses beard
curling down from the head of a satyr along the body of an imp.
Behrman was a failure in art. Forty years he had wielded the brush
without getting near enough to touch the hem of his Mistress's robe.
He had been always about to paint a masterpiece, but had never yet
begun it. For several years he had painted nothing except now and
then a daub in the line of commerce or advertising. He earned a
little by serving as a model to those young artists in the colony
who could not pay the price of a professional. He drank gin to
excess, and still talked of his coming masterpiece. For the rest he
was a fierce little old man, who scoffed terribly at softness in
any one, and who regarded himself as especial mastiff-in-waiting to
protect the two young artists in the studio above.
Sue found Behrman smelling strongly of juniper berries in his dimly
lighted den below. In one corner was a blank canvas on an easel that
had been waiting there for twenty-five years to receive the first
line of the masterpiece. She told him of Johnsy's fancy, and how she
feared she would, indeed, light and fragile as a leaf herself, float
away when her slight hold upon the world grew weaker.
Old Behrman, with his red eyes, plainly streaming, shouted his
contempt and derision for such idiotic imaginings.
"Vass!" he cried. "Is dere people in de world mit der foolishness
to die because leafs dey drop off from a confounded vine? I haf not
heard of such a thing. No, I will not bose as a model for your fool
hermit-dunderhead. Vy do you allow dot silly pusiness to come in der
prain of her? Ach, dot poor lettle Miss Johnsy."
"She is very ill and weak," said Sue, "and the fever has left her
mind morbid and full of strange fancies. Very well, Mr. Behrman, if
you do not care to pose for me, you needn't. But I think you are a
horrid old--old flibbertigibbet."
"You are just like a woman!" yelled Behrman. "Who said I will not
bose? Go on. I come mit you. For half an hour I haf peen trying to
say dot I am ready to bose. Gott! dis is not any blace in which
one so goot as Miss Yohnsy shall lie sick. Some day I vill baint a
masterpiece, and ve shall all go away. Gott! yes."
Johnsy was sleeping when they went upstairs. Sue pulled the shade
down to the window-sill, and motioned Behrman into the other room.
In there they peered out the window fearfully at the ivy vine.
30 Then they looked at each other for a moment without speaking. A
persistent, cold rain was falling, mingled with snow. Behrman, in
his old blue shirt, took his seat as the hermit-miner on an upturned
kettle for a rock.
When Sue awoke from an hour's sleep the next morning she found
Johnsy with dull, wide-open eyes staring at the drawn green shade.
"Pull it up; I want to see," she ordered, in a whisper.
Wearily Sue obeyed.
But, lo! after the beating rain and fierce gusts of wind that had
endured through the livelong night, there yet stood out against the
brick wall one ivy leaf. It was the last on the vine. Still dark
green near its stem, but with its serrated edges tinted with the
yellow of dissolution and decay, it hung bravely from a branch some
twenty feet above the ground.
"It is the last one," said Johnsy. "I thought it would surely fall
during the night. I heard the wind. It will fall to-day, and I shall
die at the same time."
"Dear, dear!" said Sue, leaning her worn face down to the pillow,
"think of me, if you won't think of yourself. What would I do?"
But Johnsy did not answer. The lonesomest thing in all the world is
a soul when it is making ready to go on its mysterious, far journey.
The fancy seemed to possess her more strongly as one by one the ties
that bound her to friendship and to earth were loosed.
The day wore away, and even through the twilight they could see the
lone ivy leaf clinging to its stem against the wall. And then, with
the coming of the night the north wind was again loosed, while the
rain still beat against the windows and pattered down from the low
Dutch eaves.
When it was light enough Johnsy, the merciless, commanded that the
shade be raised.
The ivy leaf was still there.
Johnsy lay for a long time looking at it. And then she called to
Sue, who was stirring her chicken broth over the gas stove.
"I've been a bad girl, Sudie," said Johnsy. "Something has made that
31 last leaf stay there to show me how wicked I was. It is a sin to
want to die. You may bring me a little broth now, and some milk with
a little port in it, and--no; bring me a hand-mirror first, and then
pack some pillows about me, and I will sit up and watch you cook."
An hour later she said.
"Sudie, some day I hope to paint the Bay of Naples."
The doctor came in the afternoon, and Sue had an excuse to go into
the hallway as he left.
"Even chances," said the doctor, taking Sue's thin, shaking hand in
his. "With good nursing you'll win. And now I must see another case
I have downstairs. Behrman, his name is--some kind of an artist, I
believe. Pneumonia, too. He is an old, weak man, and the attack is
acute. There is no hope for him; but he goes to the hospital to-day
to be made more comfortable."
The next day the doctor said to Sue: "She's out of danger. You've
won. Nutrition and care now--that's all."
And that afternoon Sue came to the bed where Johnsy lay, contentedly
knitting a very blue and very useless woolen shoulder scarf, and put
one arm around her, pillows and all.
"I have something to tell you, white mouse," she said. "Mr. Behrman
died of pneumonia to-day in the hospital. He was ill only two days.
The janitor found him on the morning of the first day in his room
downstairs helpless with pain. His shoes and clothing were wet
through and icy cold. They couldn't imagine where he had been
on such a dreadful night. And then they found a lantern, still
lighted, and a ladder that had been dragged from its place, and some
scattered brushes, and a palette with green and yellow colors mixed
on it, and--look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf on the
wall. Didn't you wonder why it never fluttered or moved when the
wind blew? Ah, darling, it's Behrman's masterpiece--he painted it
there the night that the last leaf fell."
32 VIII. More Theatre and Creative Exercises
Exploring Kindness, Empathy, Difference, and Power
General Note:
After all of these exercises, open the door for the students to reflect upon what
just happened. Ask open-ended questions about what was difficult, what was fun,
what they noticed, and how it relates to people’s treatment of one another in
general. These reflective periods can be brief. They can come in the form of
asking each student for one word to describe their experience of the exercise that
was just completed. They can be written or shared—variety of reflective
techniques keeps it interesting.
If at all possible, use the students’ observations to fuel the next discussion or
exercise. These reflective periods of time build the easy-to-neglect habit of
listening fully to the people with whom one is living and working.
GAMES THAT FOCUS UPON KINDNESS
Assisted Kindness, or “Um...” (Grades 2 and Up, 15-30 minutes)
Improvisation as a way to build Kindness Vocabulary
Two students improvise a scene together based upon a challenging situation,
such as those listed below:
-Meeting someone who is new to school
-Making conversation with someone who is very different from you
-Admitting you were wrong about something
-Responding to Unfriendliness
-Responding to an Insult
The two begin their first scene. When a student finds himself at a loss, he can
say “Um, um, um...” so the audience knows he needs a helpful suggestion. The
students with ideas raise their hands for the facilitator to call upon them, and
they give an idea of what to say in a situation like that. The student tries the
idea and continues on his own, until he chooses to say “Um...” again.
A helpful variation of this might be to have a facilitator improvise with a
student, until the students become more adept at playing the circumstances of
the given scene. Ask students to reflect on the exercise.
33 Writing/Creating a Play Based on a Building Block of Kindness
(Grades 3 and Up, 15-45 minutes)
Writing and Acting to Explore Kindness
Place old photographs of people the students do not know in one container.
Place small slips of paper with a Building Blocks of Kindness (p. 4) written on
them in another container.
Have small groups of students randomly draw a photograph and a building
block of kindness from the containers and ask them to create a story inspired
by what they have drawn. Ask students to reflect on the writing experience.
SPECIAL EVENT: Obstacle Course for Kindness
(adjustable for K-8, 30-45 minutes)
An exhilarating, physical race that makes kindness a Field Day
Materials: Signs detailing obstacles/events
Space divided up into areas
Arrows directing students to next event
Discuss kindness with students and create a shared list of everyday acts of
kindness.
Create an obstacle course or relay race in which students race to do acts of
kindness that they have placed on the list (e.g., saying thank you, helping
someone up who has fallen, sharing food with someone who is hungry,
welcoming someone when you meet someone new, helping someone carry
something, etc.) as well as others that you are striving for them to reach
toward.
This event could take place outdoors or in a gymnasium, and it is a great way
to take honor students’ definitions of kindness and reward them with
physical activity, small prizes, and recognition. Remember to ask the
students to reflect on the experience.
34 GAMES THAT FOCUS UPON EMPATHY
History Walk (Great for ALL Grades! 10-15 minutes)
Acting to Build Empathy
Materials: list of circumstances relevant to your class’s focus area (examples
below)
Compile a small library of quotes from history books that describe notable
circumstances of a time. Ask students to walk around an open space. Ask
them not to speak to anyone or communicate, just behave as though each
circumstance you read to them is true for them.
You might read circumstances such as these:
-The state was experiencing some of the worst winters in memory.
-As the town became more populated, land became harder and harder to
acquire.
-Water was extremely scarce.
-Eye contact was strictly forbidden.
(relevant to various class systems)
-You weigh 17% of your normal weight.
(relevant to study of the moon’s gravitational pull)
-People wearing blue are thought to be dirty and have diseases.
(relevant to issues of discrimination)
-Light is proven scientifically to make you young and beautiful.
(relevant to the emphasis society places upon appearances)
-It’s cool to show off your calf muscles.
(relevant to Elizabethan fashion and aesthetics.)
Fun variation to support history curriculum: You could also use facts about
a specific historical figure, without sharing who the figure is (e.g., Mother
Theresa, a person who showed and inspired kindness)
Adding COMEDY: Add circumstances that are comical to help with student
buy-in. Reflect upon the experience and the emotions students experience in
the absence of eye contact, in the pursuit of being young and beautiful, in the
absence of water.
Ask students to reflect on their experience. This exercise brings a dimension
of first-person experience to hearing someone else’s circumstances.
Modification for Grades 6 and Up (long-term reading project)
Take this personalizing exercise into non-fiction even further by asking the
students to read biographies of prominent figures they admire (short or
long) and ask them to create a script/scene that tells the story of a decision
the prominent figure made in favor of kindness.
Encourage them to consider and include the difficulties that were present
when the person made the decisions they did.
35 Hotseat (Great for ALL grades! 10-45 minutes)
Improvisation as a Tool to Build Empathy
In this game, a student is seated in front of the class and improvises answers
to questions posed by the facilitator and the other students. The student
answers questions from the perspective of a character familiar to everyone
participating in the game.
The goal of the questions asked is to know this character well. The character
can be a familiar villain from a fairytale, or a stock character that often lacks
dimension. The goal of the group is to humanize this character and find out
who they really are, instead of assuming they already know.
Ask students to reflect on their experience.
Modification for Grades 6 and Up:
Ask students to prepare for the exercise by journaling for a week from the
perspective of this character. Give writing prompts asking about dreams,
fears, embarrassing moments, doubts, moments of inspiration to be kind,
etc. This will allow for a richer interview and a need for closer listening
from the interviewers.
Discuss the experience of being interviewed and listening to the interview.
Change Narrative Perspective (Grades 4 and up, 25-90 minutes)
Writing to Build Empathy
Rewrite a well-known poem, story, or movie from a peripheral character’s
perspective (to help create buy-in, give examples of projects that do the same
thing: the musical Wicked, the movie Elf, Shrek movies, etc.) Perform the
piece with others and have a post-show discussion about the perspective shift.
36 SPECIAL EMPATHY EVENT: Haves and Have-Nots Hunger Banquet Ritual
(Grades 2 and Up! 20-30 minutes)
Exercise highlighting the broad range of circumstances people experience, and
how often those circumstances are not under their control.
Materials: Appropriate, unmessy snacks for participants
Room divided up into areas, some with chairs & tables, some without
Hold a special lunch or snacking event at which participants are randomly
given a number at the door. The food supply can be specific to each group
(produce for the high-income people, beans and rice for the low-income
people) or the food distribution can be strictly based on quantities.
At the door:
1’s are given to 20% of the participants: They get 75% of the food and get to sit
at a table with chairs and decorations.
2’s are given to 40% of the participants: They get 20% of the food and get to sit
at chairs, but do not get tables.
3’s are given to 40% of the participants. They get 5% of the food and have no
chairs or tables, but must eat on the floor.
(These statistics come from “Poverty Facts and Stats,” an article by Anup
Shah and updated in Sept. 2010. The food in this situation represents income.
See http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats)
The participants eat side by side in the same room, observing the differences
between what people have, based largely upon circumstances they were born
into. Allow the participants to do as they wish within this set-up and observe
what actions they take to balance provisions and circumstances...or not.
Have a post-snack discussion about the feelings members of the different
groups.
Augusto Boal’s Exercise Exploring POWER: Metalface-Magnethand
(Great for ALL grades! 10-15 minutes)
Energizing Physical exploration of Power
Ask students to find a partner and emphasize the importance of taking
excellent care of one’s partner. Safety is paramount.
“One actor holds her hand palm forward, fingers upright, anything between 20
and 40 centimeters away from the face of another, who is tehn as if
hypnotised and must keep his face constantly the same distance from the
hand of the hypnotiser, hairline level with her fingertips, chin more or less
37 level with the base of her palm. The hypnotiser starts a series of movements
with her hand, up and down, right and left, backwards and forwards, her hand
vertical in relation to the ground, then horizontal, then diagonal, etc. –the
partner must contort his body in every way possible to maintain the same
distance between face and hand, so that face and hand remain parallel. If
necessary, the hypnotic hand can be swapped; for instance, to force the
hypnotised to go between the legs of the hypnotiser. The hand must never do
movements too rapid to be followed, not must it ever come to a complete halt.
...After a few minutes, the two actors change, the follower and the leader.
After more time, both can extend a hypnotising right hand, becoming leaders
and followers at one and the same time.”
After the students participate in this, ask them about what role they enjoyed
more: leader or follower. Ask for their reasons for their preferences, and
explore through discussion what behaviors emerged when one person exerts
power over another. Were there moments when you felt unsafe or when you
wanted to stop (or did stop)? What are the temptations that come about when
one has power? Were you a kind leader or a cruel one? What do you think of
these impulses?
38 EXERCISES THAT FOCUS UPON DIFFERENCE
Augusto Boal’s Exercise: “Difficulties”
(Great for ALL grades! 10-20 minutes)
“We are habituated to doing things mechanically—but with the smallest
alteration of the body, or of the objects it encounters, everything can change.
If, for example, the actor has one hand behind his back, how will he lay the
table? What if he has the use of only one eye or one leg, or can hardly move
from the spot, forwards or backwards, or his fingers are rigid—how will he get
dressed? All physical deficiencies or imperfections of environment produce
an immediate increase of sensitivity” (69-70).
Ask students to do simple tasks like load backpacks with one hand, recycle
used paper moving only on one leg, or dance to their favorite song with only
their fingers.
Seek out other experiments with difference that are pertinent to your specific
students. (e.g., If a student is on crutches, what can they use those crutches to
do or to move like that is inventive and fanciful?)
Reflect upon the effects upon a person’s movements and emotions.
Embracing Difference (Great for ALL grades! 10-15 minutes)
A physical clowning exercise that glories in the opportunities and inventions
difference presents
Materials: Various pillows
All participants use small pillows (or even balled-up extra sweatshirts) to
change their physique. The pillow is shoved under clothing to become a
hunchback, giant bicep, an oversized behind, a big round belly, an extra puffy
foot. The students develop a new walk, a new voice, a backstory, and a goal for
the character that they become when they have this new shape.
Ask the students to move about the space in character to experiment with
this new shape and to create their character. After they develop their walk
while moving about to music, offer them the chance to journal from the
perspective of this newly created human being. Prompt them with questions
like “What is important to you? What do you want to do? What and whom do
you love and who loves you?”
After this development work, observe as a group as two of these newfound
characters improvise scenes in which they encounter one another. Ask
students to find relationships between their characters while improvising
short scenes together. The basic form of the scenes should include the
39 characters meeting, conflict of some kind over differences, and then arriving
at some degree of understanding—big or small.
Allow time for the students to reflect about what their various differences felt
like.
Team Crossing the Room (Grades 3 and Up, 20-45 minutes)
An old camp game becomes a full-body experience of needing help, giving it, and
the joy of succeeding at the task of helping others
Materials: Numbered Pieces of Paper
Place numbered pieces of paper on the floor throughout an open space. They
should be arranged and taped to the floor to serve as lily pads that students
can hop from one to the next without touching the floor.
The goal of the game is for the entire group to travel from paper #1 to the final
piece of paper, crossing the space . The whole group must cross, but there are
certain challenges that the facilitator assigns to various students.
-Only one person may speak.
-Others may only gesture and communicate without words. (They may be
allowed a single suggestion, if called upon by the official speaker.)
-One person is blindfolded.
-One person can only use one leg
-One person can only use one leg and a hand
-Two people have to remain connected while crossing.
-If people have crossed the space, they may be sent out on the paper “lilypads”
to help someone, but if anyone touches the floor instead of the paper, they
must return to the starting position.
Add or change the limitations as you wish.
Allow time for the students to reflect on the elements of kindness that arose,
the moments of triumph and frustration involved.
40 IX. About Buntport Theater
Buntport Theater Company is a vibrant ensemble of eight people located in
Denver, Colorado. Intent on creating innovative and affordable entertainment,
they write and produce all of their work. Each piece grows from a collaborative
process, without specific directors or designers. They brainstorm their way to
any given solution, relying on the combined skills of the whole ensemble. They
are the writers, the directors, the performers, the technicians...even the
administrators.
Known for unusual adaptations and quirky original comedies, we keep our
seasons packed, debuting several new full-length productions in addition to a
variety of less traditional programming. From live sit-coms to unique open-mic
nights to family-friendly entertainment, to an ongoing series at the Denver Art
Museum, they offer programs that appeal to all walks of life.
Buntport’s all-­‐ages live comic book is in Workshops teach theater skills and teambuilding, Its 7th season, debuting a new episode as well as integrating theater with other topics. every two weeks from November to May. Considering themselves to be on the fringe of traditional theater while at the
same time focusing on remaining extremely accessible. Come to a Buntport
production and you see a world premiere unique to their black-box space just off
of the Santa Fe Arts District. Find out more about our creative work, our all-ages
plays, and educational programs at www.buntport.com.
X. About the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is an internationally recognized nonprofit organization founded upon the powerful belief in kindness and dedicated to
providing resources and tools that encourage acts of kindness. Find these
resources and tools and randomactsofkindness.org.
41 XI. Bibliography
Boal, Augusto. Games for Actors and Non-Actors. Translated by Adrian Jackson.
Cain, Frasier. “Gravity on the Moon.” 14 Oct. 2008.
http://www.universetoday.com/19710/gravity-on-the-moon/
Accessed 12 April 2012.
Family and Home Photos. The O. Henry House. San Antonio, TX.
http://ohenryhouse.org/Photos/Family/family.html
Henderson, Archibald. “Through the Shadows with O. Henry.” New York Times.
1921.
Henry, O. “The Caliph, Cupid, and the Clock.”
http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/41/
Accessed Feb. 2012.
Henry, O. “The Last Leaf.”
http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/41/
Accessed Feb. 2012.
Henry, O. “A Retrieved Reformation.”
http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/41/
Accessed Feb. 2012.
O. Henry: Stories for Young People
Edited by John Hollander
Illustrated by Miles Hyman
Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. New York.
“Pecha Kucha 20 x 20.” http://www.pecha-kucha.org/ Accessed 11 April 2012.
“William Sydney Porter.” http://www.biography.com/people/william-sydneyporter-9542046