Rapunzel
RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS
Compiled by Ali Murray
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Contents
• Creative Team
• interviews
• The Play
• Learning Objectives - Literacy
• Learning activities
• Ways of using Narrative
• Making choices
• Story Comprehension Activities
• Learning Objectives – Puppet making
. Using and making puppets
• Dance / Movement Activities
• Learning Objectives – S.E.A.L.
• Dance
• Radio Plays
• Useful Resources
Creative Team
Director
Designer
Composer
Choreography & Movement
Stage Manager
Andrew Breakwell
Lucy Bignell
Wayne Walker-Allen
Kitty Winter
Ali Murray
Cast
Rapunzel
Nan
Rachel Gay
Kate Hart
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Interviews
Director – Andrew Breakwell
What does a theatre director do? A theatre director does many things. They choose plays
and actors, work with other technical and creative staff to realise the physical production of
sets, costumes, properties, sounds, puppets and action on the stage. Sometimes they have
to be administrators deciding when plays will be produced, what money can be spent on
them and how much they must earn from the public at the 'box office'. They then have to
prepare the play, thinking about how the action might happen, what the characters might do,
how they might think and behave. Then the director must make the rehearsal room a
creative place for everyone to work so that they can experiment with their characters and
behaviour to tell the story of the play. Then the director has to edit all the best ideas and
shape the performance and bring it to perfection on the day that the audience will see it for
the first time. Of course that never quite happens, so the director has to continue shaping
and changing the play until it's as good as it can be.
What is the hardest part of your job? The hardest part of the job is casting. Seeing many
many actors who could all bring something good to the part, having to make decisions that
will disappoint some people in choosing who can finally be offered the part. Then when the
'dream team' is in place someone receives a better job offer and goes elsewhere to do a job
leaving the best laid plans in ruins. So then it's back to the list!
What do you enjoy most about your job? I enjoy most working with all the other artists
and craftspeople to make the play and then see it in front of an audience. I then learn more
about what the other people might do to make the production better.
How do you choose which play to direct? Usually when thinking about the choice of play
there is some kind of slot. It might be an age group, it may be a curriculum requirement, it
could be a time of year, it's maybe just how much money can be spent on the cast. So from
my knowledge of plays that I have read, seen or heard about I draw up a list. Sometimes,
there's no play in existence that meets all the requirements so we have to commission a
writer to make a new play for us, in many ways that's the most exciting prospect, because it
means thinking really hard about what it is that the audience would enjoy seeing, working
with the writer to agree on a story and a way of presenting that tale. Then working through
the various drafts, bringing in actors, movement directors, musicians and designers to all try
out ideas and then seeing the rehearsal draft arrive in the 'in-box' of the computer.
How did you get to be a director? I started my working life as a teacher, then became an
'actor/teacher' and finally decided (a very long time ago) that I wanted to be a director and
have control over the work that I was creating. In those days there were no courses for
directors but now it's possible to take a course which qualifies a person to offer themselves
as directors. Of course there's nothing to beat the experience of actually doing the job, but
like many of our jobs in theatre there are very many and varied ways in which one can learn
about a job and get experience of doing it in a way which doesn't put too much pressure on
an inexperienced director.
Designer – Lucy Bignell
What does a theatre designer do? A theatre designer is responsible for creating the set,
costumes and props needed to bring a play to life. As a theatre designer, I create the world
that the characters live in.
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What is the hardest part of your job? If the theatre space is small or challenging, it can
sometimes be quite difficult at first to find inspiration for a design - but by working hard, it's
not long before I have lots of ideas!
What do you enjoy most about your job? I enjoy every single thing about my job, but I
especially enjoy making a miniature model version of my set design. I do this as part of the
design process and it is used to make sure the set that I have designed will work well in the
theatre space. As the designer, it is very exciting seeing my model being made into the real,
life-sized set.
How do you choose how to design a play? I read the play many times and think about the
world that the characters live in, what it might be like and why. I think about the characters
as if they are real people and ask myself lots of questions about them. Then, I start to collect
pictures and use my imagination to decide where they live, what they might wear and so on and eventually, this world that I create for the characters is brought to life in the theatre.
Do you make all the scenery, costumes and props in the play? No, there are specialists
whose job it is to make the scenery, costumes and props - but I decide how all of these
things should look.
How did you get to be the designer of this play? I studied theatre design at university,
and while I was there I entered a competition where the prize was to professionally design a
play at the
Nottingham Playhouse. I worked very hard on my entry for it and I was lucky enough to be
chosen as the winner!
Composer – Wayne Walker-Allen
What does a composer do? A composer is a person who makes up music. This can be for
a film or TV programme, a concert, or in this case, a play. A composer can either write the
music down for someone to play, or record it onto a CD in a recording studio.
What do you enjoy most about your job? What I like best is when I see people tapping
their feet to a piece of music I’ve made. I like it when people hum bits of my music after the
show has finished.
How do you choose what kind of music to write? Choosing what kind of music to write
can sometimes be quite hard and other times quite easy. For this play I wanted to make
music that reflected Rapunzel’s longing to explore the world. I also wanted to make the
music sound like little pieces of Rapunzel and Nan's memory of their lives.
What instruments were used in this play and did you play all of them? The real
instruments I used for this play were guitar and hand drums, I played these myself. I also
used a lot of digital sounds that I made on a computer. All of this was recorded and mixed
together and then made into a CD that is played at the right time during the show.
How did you get to be a composer? Some people train for many years to be a composer.
They learn to write and read music; they learn about chords and notes and harmony; they
practice for hours and days and years to perfect their knowledge. Often they write music for
huge orchestras and choirs. Other people (like me), become a composer by listening to and
playing along to their favourite music on a guitar or piano and trying to work out what it is
that makes it their favourite music and why certain types of music sound like they do. Then
hopefully, if they are really lucky, people will pay them to write music for films and TV
programmes and, in my case, theatre plays.
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Choreographer – Kitty Winter
What does a choreographer do? The word choreographer comes from two Ancient Greek
words: the choreo bit means ‘dance’, and the graph bit means ‘to write’, so it’s someone who
writes dances.
In a theatre production, the choreographer is in charge of making up dances and teaching
them to the performers who are going to perform them- they might be dancers, actors,
musicians or even puppets!
There are lots of different kinds of choreographer, and lots and lots of different kinds of
dance - I try to use a really wide range of dance styles in the shows I work on and
sometimes I invent whole new ones to fit the play.
What is the hardest part of your job? I quite often work on several productions at the
same time, so it’s sometimes difficult not to get them mixed up in my head. I might start
planning ballet movement in a play that needs break-dancing! I have to keep a lot of notes
and make sure I’m really organised and that I know what day it is.
Other than that, the part I find most difficult is working out dances for two people because
there’s only one of me - I have to try to pretend I’ve got four legs and know what I’m doing
with all of them at the same time.
What do you enjoy most about your job? Oddly enough, one of the things I like most is
that I can be working on several different productions at once, even though it can be difficult!
Theatre is about taking an imaginative journey into a different place and time, and I’m really
lucky to be able to do that all the time with the work I do.
I also love seeing how the audience react to a dance or a movement sequence that I’ve
made, particularly if they laugh when it’s supposed to be funny! After all, we make plays for
people to watch and enjoy, so when we see the audience responding by laughing or gasping
or even crying, we know we’ve done our jobs well.
How do you teach people to dance? That varies a lot. Some performers are really
confident and have done lots of dancing before, and others might be quite nervous about it
(yes, professional actors do get nervous too!)
I like to work with the performers when I’m making the dances for a show so that I can play
to their strengths - for example, both of the actors in Rapunzel have done lots of circus
performance, so they’re really good at climbing and balancing. Since this is a story about
building and climbing high up, I have used their skills to make the movement sequences as
exciting as possible.
How is movement different from dance? That’s a very good question! The short answer is
that all dance uses movement, but not all movement is dance.
Dance is a bigger, more stylised way of moving (you’d be quite surprised if you saw
someone dancing down the street, or round the supermarket), it often happens in time to
music, and it doesn’t usually tell a story.
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Movement, particularly in theatre, usually helps to tell the story - it could help the audience
see the actor as a different character by how they stand, or suggest an environment, like
walking through a storm, for example.
Actor – Kate Hart
What does a theatre actor do? A theatre actor spends a lot of time telling stories with their
voices and bodies. They pretend to be other people and try to imagine what those people
think and feel. It’s different to acting on TV as we have to make it a bit bigger and our voices
louder so everyone in the seats or audience can see and hear.
What is the hardest part of your job? Getting a job in the first place! Also remembering
not to repeat the show night after night but recreate it. It can be very hard when you don’t get
chosen for jobs too and you have to be very tough and not give up easily.
What do you enjoy most about your job? That I get paid to play and explore different
characters which means, I hope, that I understand how different people might feel in different
situations and can understand better why they behave in different ways.
How do you get chosen to be in a play? That’s a difficult question! Sometimes a director
will have seen you working on another play and like your work, so when a part comes up
that they need to get an actor to do, they might remember you and ask you to do it.
Sometimes you have to go to an audition with lots of other people who all want to act in the
play and hope that the director will choose you.
How did you get to be an actor? I did lots of youth theatre at school and college then I
went to drama school for three years – instead of university. After I finished training I had to
write lots of letters and send my photo and CV(a record of all the jobs you have done) off to
lots of theatres and directors. Some actors get an agent to find them work but at first I found
my own work and then got an agent about four years after graduating.
Stage Manager – Ali Murray
What does a stage manager do? A Stage Manager makes sure that everyone and everything is safe. I
organise the scenery and props for the play and fix anything that gets broken .I also organise for the
costumes to be cleaned after every show. I drive the van and operate the sound system. I make
notes about each performance and have o be very good at communicating with lots of different
people.
What is the hardest part of your job? Every school is different so I have to work out the
best place to put the stage and make sure that we don’t cause any difficulties for caretakers
or dinner ladies. Sometimes the traffic is very busy which can be tiring.
What do you enjoy most about your job? Watching the audiences enjoying our show.
How did you get to be a stage manager? I was a teacher then retrained in technical
theatre at new College, Nottingham. Working in theatre in education lets me use all the skills
I have as a teacher as well as the new skills I learnt.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/misc/stories/misc-rapunzel/
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The Play
Background
Rapunzel is a traditional tale from Germany by the Brothers Grimm, although many of the
story elements can be traced back to Persian and Roman stories. It is a story of change;
growing up and growing wiser, and a story of parental fear for the safety of their grandchild
in a dangerous world.
There are many different versions of Rapunzel including the recent Pixar film “Tangled”
A rapunzel plant is commonly known as Rampion - a five pointed star shaped flower.
Rampion, Campanula rapunculus, was regularly cultivated in English kitchen gardens and
much valued as a wholesome suculent vegetable. The leaves can be used in the summer
and autumn as a substitute for spinach.
Synopsis of the Play
Rapunzel lives with her Nan - we don’t know why her Mum isn’t there. Nan is very good at
making things and builds a huge tower that lets Rapunzel see further and further until she
can see the horizon above the sea. It also keeps her safe because not everything in the
world is nice.
The local children think Nan is a witch and taunt her with name calling but one boy, Rafi,
befriends Rapunzel and tells her about lots of things outside her tower.
Every year Rapunzel celebrates her birthday and her hair gets longer and longer. She can
do lots of things with her hair – use it as a skipping rope, paint with it, tie things up with it,
use it as a pillow and a blanket. But it is too long and too heavy and gets very tangled.
One day Rapunzel cuts off her hair and goes out of the tower to find out about the world for
herself. Nan was scared that she wouldn’t come back but she did…again and again. Rafi
asked Nan to make things for the community and she invited people to come and admire her
view from the top of the tower – after she had built some stairs to the top.
Learning Objectives - Literacy
Depending on their age, most pupils will be able to…
• enjoy listening to the play
• retell the main parts of the play, ordering events using story language
• extend their vocabulary
• Identify VCOP in the play and use them to inform their own work
• make notes of the main events and characters
• give some reasons why things happen or characters change
• choose how they will retell the story to another group of children
• use speaking and listening for a wide range of purposes
• understand and interpret texts
• create and shape texts
• use keyboard skills and ICT tools to compose and present work
• make and use a story grid
• use the useful words and phrases grid
• use the decision making grid
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Learning Activities
• Children note the main characters and plot from the play
• Children retell the story from the play to talk partners/ groups/ whole class
• Children decide how they will create a more detailed retelling of the story for
another class
Use the ideas below as a springboard for your class’s creativity. Different groups of
children could choose various ways of retelling and refining their ideas. This will
develop aspects of personalised learning.
Ways of Using Narrative
Story tower
After discussing the play with pupils write the key events in the story on cards. Stick these
onto large building blocks. Give the children the blocks to rebuild the story of “Rapunzel”.
The pupils build a tower in the order that the events occur. Children may do this on their
own, in pairs or as a group. They retell the story as someone (teacher or pupil) climbs up the
blocks (with their fingers or a figure).
When children are confident in telling the story, the activity may be extended by using blank
blocks at the top so that children make up alternative endings.
Tennis Openers
This can be played either with cardboard bats or miming using invisible bats. Children take
turns to say different story starters,
e.g.
• Once upon a time …
• In a once upon place…
• Long, long ago…
Cheddar Gorge
Children need to be in groups of 3-4. All children take it in turn to retell the story by adding a
sentence at a time. The whole group can join in with repeated phrases eg, “so that’s alright
then” This can also be done with actions that are repeated by the group to enhance the
telling e.g., “Nan built the tower higher.”
Story in the Round
As above but one child is the observer. At anytime during the retelling of the story they can
say “Stop!” and add a new character, setting or change part of the plot.
Story Building Blocks
Have cards with the following headings:
• Openings
• Dilemmas
• Action and Plot
• Suspense
• Resolving Problems
• Characters
• Settings
• Repetition
• Connectives
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Ask the children to break down the story of Rapunzel into these categories. How can they
retell it with even more entertainment and memorable details for a given audience?
New and Improved
Can the children add any of the following to the story of Rapunzel?
• Substitutions – change a few details to the characters, settings or plot
• Additions – introduce a new character or another part for the audience to join in
With eg name calling to rhyme with witch
• Recycling – use the same plot with completely different characters and
Settings eg a boy with very long hair that her wrapped up in a turban
• Alteration – set the story in a different place e.g., high rise block of flats
• Embellish – extend the story or add more detail to the descriptions – what else
could she do with her hair?
Radio Play
When the children can retell the story with confidence, ask them to consider how they can
enhance it with sound effects eg the sound of Nan using her hammer to build. If the intended
audience is also blind folded they can use the sense of touch to bring the story alive. For
instance the audience could feel a wig, sand and water and leaves enhance their senses.
Writing down the radio performance will develop the skills of using playwriting conventions
including stage directions.
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/englishC5.htm
Make choices about...
• Who the audience will be
• Making puppets to retell the story
• Writing your own play script
• Making a collection of Rapunzel stories
• Acting out the story through drama
• Creating music to accompany the story
• Using ICT programmes to retell the story
• Drawing pictures and writing captions on a storyboard
• Using freeze-frames and photo shots
Story Comprehension Activities
Constructing Images
Draw a map quest or journey based on details from the story. Map the events in a story.
Children recall and retell the story using the map. The maps can be circular or linear from A
to B.
Freeze Frame
Children work in groups to create a still image or drama freeze frame of part of the story.
Take a photograph with a digital camera and upload it to the computer. On the Interactive
White Board or individual computers children can add bubbles to each character and write in
their thoughts or speech.
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Hot Seating
Take on the role of a character from the story and sit in the “hot seat”. Children create
questions for the character and you give answers “in role”. Encourage children to ask more
deep and probing questions. Questions can be reflected back to pupils, eg. “Well what would
you do? How would you feel? What would you have done? Confident pupils can take on a
role and sit in the hot seat.”
Drawing Characters
Draw a character from the story. Surround the character with words and phrases to describe
them. Draw thought bubbles to write down their feelings.
Compare and contrast
Draw a picture of the room in the tower that Rapunzel lived in. Put in lots of detail – where
did she sleep; what did she eat with; were there any toys; where did she keep her clothes;
what did the walls and ceiling look like? Next draw Rapunzel with close detail of her hair and
clothes.
Compare the pupil’s pictures with the set design and costume design for our version. What
are the similarities and differences between the pictures?
Learning Activity - Puppet Making
Depending on their age, most pupils will be able to…
• Make a puppet to retell the story
• Try out tools and techniques and apply these to materials and processes
• Work as individuals and in collaboration with others
• Review what they and others have done
• Identify one thing that they might change
• Use literacy links to retelling the story
• Use ICT links to upload photos into a programme
Rubber glove finger puppets
Wooden clothes peg puppets
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lolly stick puppets
wooden spoon puppets
The home corner can be Rapunzel’s house. Provide a range of building blocks, wigs
dressing up clothes and props from the story.
The home corner can also be a theatre for the pupils to use the puppets to retell the story.
Dance / Movement activities for 4 - 8 yrs
Building human towers
This should be done in the hall, in bare feet, with something soft to land on!
Start by exploring the idea of counterbalance. In pairs stand back to back, and link elbows.
Push your backs together from the shoulders all the way down to the hips, and slowly walk
your feet away from each other. You should be able to sit down, and then stand up again
together.
In pairs, stand facing each other with your toes close to your partner’s. Each grip your
partner’s wrists, so you’re both holding each other really securely in a ‘monkey grip’.
Carefully lean back away from each other, you should be able to both straighten your arms
so you make an upside-down A shape.
Then think about points of support so that one person can balance on another’s body
without the base person needing to use their strength to support their partner.
In threes, two people kneel next to each other on all fours, making sure that their hands are
directly under their elbows and their knees are directly under their hips, so they make a
strong base like a table. The third person should then be able to kneel directly on top of the
bases’ points of support.
In pairs, the base lies on the floor, and puts their feet on
the flier’s hips. The flier takes hold of the base’s hands
and they keep a firm connection and strong arms. The flier
leans forward so the base is taking their weight. The base
bends their knees so the flier’s feet come off the floor, then
the base straightens their legs so the flier is flying! Like
this:
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Then combine the two…
In threes, but with the rest of the group watching, so they can step in
and help give a shoulder to lean on if needed.
The base kneels in the strong table position as before, and the middle
sits directly on their hips (not on the unsupported bit of their back)
facing away from the base. The flier (with help from the group if
needed) steps up onto the middle’s thighs, and holds their hands in a
strong monkey grip. The flier then leans back, pulling the middle’s
weight forward into a counter-balance. The base should then be able
to crawl away, leaving an impossible-looking balance, like this: Magic!
Learning Objectives – S.E.A.L.
Depending on their age, most pupils will be able to…
• Discuss wishes and dreams
- What Rapunzel wish for?
- What did Nan wish for?
• Know that actions have consequences that affect themselves and others
Stop telling the story at the point where a character faces a problem and has a
decision to make. Eg. Make a list of possible solutions to the dilemma with ideas
from the children. Try out some suggestions in a new version of the story.
• Managing feelings - to be able to recognise and label a feeling and be able to
share it with another person
- name the different emotions that Nan and Rapunzel experience
- how could you tell how they were feeling – from the words they said, how their
faces looked, the way their bodies moved.
• Empathy - to see something from someone else’s point of view –
- discuss why the children were scared of Nan and saw her as a witch.
- discuss why Nan kept Rapunzel locked up
•
-
Self-awareness – “Children grow, they can’t help it. They grow out of things.”
Draw pictures of what they have grown out of.
•
•
motivation
Social skills – work together in groups to build a tower out of lego or from
packaging boxes and containers. Use the guidelines below to evaluate how
successfully each group co operated.
REMEMBER YOUR GROUP SKILLS
Don’t forget to think about HOW you work together as well as WHAT you end
up with!
Make sure you listen to what everyone thinks and what they would like to do.
Agree together what each of you needs to do next.
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Emotional barometer
Use the emotional barometer at the back of the pack for Nan and Rapunzel. Retell the story
and move the arrow round for each character to show how they are feeling at different parts
of the story.
Create one for children in the class to put her/his name peg on when talking to them about
feelings.
Contact
Ali Murray
Roundabout Theatre-in-Education
Nottingham Playhouse
Wellington Circus
Nottingham
NG1 5AF
Direct Line: 0115 873 6230
Box Office: 0115 941 9419
Email:
[email protected]
www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk
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Costume design for
Rapunzel
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This is a photograph of the model of the
theatre set before it was made.
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Rapunzel challenge
Nan and Rapunzel looked different to their neighbours.
The parents told their children that Nan was a witch. The
children who lived nearby were afraid of Nan so they
called her names.
Nan was afraid that Rapunzel would get hurt in the world
outside their home so she kept her locked up safe and
sound.
Your challenge is to explain to the children why they don’t
need to be afraid of Nan and explain to Nan why
Rapunzel needs to go out into the world and create her
own life and make her own mistakes.
Your presentation should include:
Something to look at that reminds you of Nan.
A list of her good points and her bad points.
Something to look at that reminds you of Rapunzel.
A poster to help Rapunzel keep safe outside her
home.
REMEMBER YOUR GROUP SKILLS
Don’t forget to think about HOW you work together as well as WHAT you end
up with!
Make sure you listen to what everyone thinks and what they would like to do.
Agree together what each of you needs to do next.
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Emotional Barometer
Quite a
bit
a lot
How am
Too
much
Just a
little
I feeling?
Not sure
I don’t know
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Costume design for Nan
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