actors theatre of louisville
PLAY GUIDE
EDUCATION SPONSOR:
GE APPLIANCES AND LIGHTING
ABOUT THE
ADVETURES OF
TOM SAWYER
PLAY GUIDE
This play guide is a standards-based
resource designed to enhance your theatre
experience. Its goal is twofold: to nurture
the teaching and learning of theatre arts
and to encourage essential questions that
lead to enduring understandings of the
play’s meaning and relevance. Inside you
will find history/contextual information
and vocabulary that lay the groundwork
of the story and build anticipation for the
performance. Oral discussion and writing
prompts encourage your students to reflect
upon their impressions and to analyze and
relate key ideas to their personal experiences
and the world around them. These can
easily be adapted to fit most writing
objectives. The Bridgework connects theatre
elements with ideas for drama activities in
the classroom. We encourage you to adapt
and extend the material in any way to best
fit the needs of your community of learners.
Please feel free to make copies of this guide,
or you may download it from our website:
ActorsTheatre.org. We hope this material,
combined with our pre-show workshops,
will give you the tools to make your time
at Actors Theatre a valuable learning
experience.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer student
matinees and play guides address specific
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3
Tom Sawyer Synopsis, Characters and Setting
4
About the Author; About the Adaptor
5
Bringing Life To A Classic: Adapting Tom Sawyer for the Stage
6
An Interview with Movement Director, Tommy Rapley
7
River Town Culture/Louisville’s River Town History 8
Tom Sawyer: Just For Adults?
9
Mark Twain: Literary Outlaw?
10-11 Notions of Childhood: Then And Now/Twain’s Childhood
12
Writing Portfolio, Discussion Questions
13Bridgework
14
Other Reading and Works Cited
15
Glossary of Terms
Actors Theatre Education
Steven Rahe, Director of Education
Jacob Stoebel, Associate Director of Education
Jane B. Jones, Education Fellow
Betsy Anne Huggins, Education Intern/Teaching Artist
Dustin Morris, Education Intern/Teaching Artist
Liz Fentress, Resident Teaching Artist
Keith McGill, Resident Teaching Artist
Play Guide by Betsy Anne Huggins, Sarah Johnsrude,
Steven Rahe and Jacob Stoebel
Graphic Design by Mary Kate Zihar
• Students will identify or describe the
use of elements of drama in dramatic
works.
• Students will analyze how time,
place and ideas are reflected in
drama/theatre
• Students will explain how
drama/theatre fufills a variety of
purposes
If you have any questions or suggestions
regarding our play guides, please contact
Steven Rahe, Director of Education, at
502-584-1265 ext. 3045.
2
The Kentucky Arts Council, the
state arts agency, supports
Actors Theatre of Louisville with
state tax dolars and federal
funding from the National
Endowment for the Arts.
SYNOPSIS
Tom Sawyer, a boy
of about 11, is known
around his small town of
St. Petersburg, Missouri
as a playful troublemaker.
Tom and his friend,
Huck Finn, enjoy plotting
adventures that often leave
them in danger.
One night, when Tom
and Huck journey to the
town graveyard in the
hopes of cursing off some
Drawing of Tom Sawyer by True W. Williams.
unwanted warts, the two
boys witness a murder. The boys agree to keep quiet
out of terror, but grow uncomfortable when a suspect
is wrongly accused and the real murderer walks free.
Meanwhile, Tom falls out of favor with his sweetheart,
Becky, when she learns he was “engaged” to someone
else before her. Can Tom win her over? Will he and
Huck come forward about the graveyard happenings or
let the murderer walk free?
- Sarah Johnsrude
SETTING
Various locations in St. Petersburg, Missouri, a small
town on the banks of the Mississippi River.
CAST OF
CHARACTERS
Muff Potter
An unlucky drunk who becomes the
main suspect in the murder of Doc
Robinson.
Doc Robinson
A respected doctor, Robinson meets
an unfortunate end in the graveyard.
School Master
Tom and Joe’s teacher and a strict
disciplinarian.
Widow Douglas
A kind, elderly woman.
Norman Rockwell’s 1936 painting of
Tom, Huck, and Joe on the Island.
Tom Sawyer
An eleven or twelve year old boy,
Tom is mischievous but has a
good heart. He is always up for an
adventure.
Becky Thatcher
A new young girl in town who
becomes the object of Tom’s
affection.
Minister Douglas
The longwinded preacher.
Widow’s Brother
Accomplice
Lawyers
Townspeople
Huckleberry Finn
Huck is a free-spirited twelve year
old vagrant and Tom’s best friend.
The son of the town drunk, Huck
is the envy of all the boys because
he doesn’t have to attend school or
church, or even bathe!
Joe Harper
Tom’s school friend.
Sid Sawyer
Tom’s older brother, a meanspirited goody two-shoes who loves
to get Tom in trouble.
Aunt Polly
As the guardian of Tom and Sid,
she has the arduous task of keeping
Tom in line.
Injun Joe
Motivated by anger and revenge,
Joe acts out through thievery and
murder, punishing those who have
helped make him a social outcast.
Glasscock’s Island, inspiration for Jackson’ Island in Tom Sawyer,
near Hannibal, Missouri.
3
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MARK TWAIN
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November
30th, 1835, in Florida, Missouri, a town so small that Twain joked
his birth increased the population by 1%. He lived there for four
years before his family moved to another tiny Missouri town,
Hannibal, which would become the inspiration for the setting of
many of his future writings. Twain was the troublemaker among his
six siblings and a stark contrast to Henry, his near-perfect brother
and model for the character Sid in Tom Sawyer. While he had a
prank-filled childhood, Twain had to take on adult responsibility
when, at the age of twelve, his father, John Marshall Clemens, died
leaving his family in poverty. Twain worked as a printing apprentice
at the Hannibal Courier, though he was only paid in clothes
and board. In 1853, Twain moved to St. Louis to work for The
Evening News before he began to travel. For several years he worked
newspaper jobs in various cities around the country.
In 1858, Twain’s fascination with steamboats led him to become
a steersman in New Orleans. By age 24, Twain became a licensed
river pilot. This career occupied him until the start of the Civil War
in 1861, when Twain enlisted with the Confederacy. He served for
a brief period of time before he abandoned the military and headed
west in hopes of mining silver and gold. Shortly thereafter, Twain
moved to Virginia because The Gold Rush had ended. He worked
as a reporter and humorist for Virginia City Territorial Enterprise
under the pseudonym Mark Twain and published his first book,
Innocents Abroad, in 1869.
In 1870, Twain married Olivia Langdon, who birthed two
children, Langdon Clemens and Susan Olivia. Twain published
Roughing It in 1872, the same year his eldest, Langdon, died of
Diphtheria. Twain became depressed from his son’s death and
his own struggling career. By 1873, Twain had collaborated with
Charles Dudley Warner on the novel The Gilded Age, which then
put Twain on the map as a literary author instead of a journalist.
Portrait of Mark Twain
Twain continued to gain popularity with his works The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1882), and The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). By the time of his death in
1910, Twain was regarded as one of the greatest authors in America.
Since his death, his autobiography and many personal letters have
been published.
- Sarah Johnsrude
ABOUT THE ADAPTOR
LAURA EASON
Laura Eason is a playwright whose
works have been featured at many
theatres throughout the country
including Lookingglass Theatre
Company, Steppenwolf Theatre
Company, Hartford Stage, and Actors
Theatre of Louisville. She adapted The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer in addition
to Huck Finn, A Tale of Two Cities
Jon Jory
and Ethan Frome, and has written
many original scripts, such as Mr.
Smitten, When the Messenger is Hot
Laura Eason
and In the Eye of the Beholder. Eason
grew up in Chicago and attended Northwestern University before
4
she became a member of Lookingglass Theatre Company, where she
wrote, acted, directed and served as Artistic Director for six years.
Eason has received the Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award for New
Work and Adaptation. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
- Sarah Johnsrude
BRINGING LIFE TO A CLASSIC:
ADAPTING TOM SAWYER FOR THE STAGE
In our cultural imagination,
no work of American literature
has been so influential in
defining the wonder of
childhood as Mark Twain’s
“hymn” to that experience,
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
As visitors to Twain’s fictional
St. Petersburg, Missouri—
based on the river town
where the master humorist
grew up in the 1840s—we’re
transported back to a time
in life when everything was
new, when becoming a pirate
and ditching school for the
swimming hole were serious
enterprises, and the new girl
or boy down the street held
endless fascination. Twain
wrote that he hoped to both
amuse the young and to “pleasantly remind adults of what they
once were themselves, and how they felt and thought and talked,”
spinning a captivating series of summer adventures that are both
comical and (at times) dangerously daring.
Drawings of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Becky Thatcher, and
Aunt Polly by True W. Williams in the first edition of Tom Sawyer.
Channeling these adventures for the stage, playwright Laura
Eason has penned a joyful adaptation of the novel, teaming
up with director Jeremy B. Cohen to harness all the theatrical
potential of the story’s playful spirit. Eason, renowned for her
nimble adaptations of classic texts and an ensemble member of
Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company, was invited by Cohen,
now Producing Artistic Director at The Playwrights’ Center in
Minneapolis, to write the piece for his former artistic home,
Hartford Stage. When their visually inventive version of Tom
Sawyer’s boyhood escapades—complete with original music—had
its debut in Hartford in 2010, the production’s “exhilarating
artistry” was praised by the New York Times, which called it “sassy,
ingeniously staged, and deeply affecting.” “This Tom Sawyer,” the
review continued, “is going after the heart of childhood, the part
most of us—except the poets and philosophers, maybe—lost touch
with long ago.”
That heart of childhood, for Eason and Cohen, lives in the power
of play itself—in all of the pranks and wild imagination that are the
very air that Tom and his best friend Huckleberry Finn breathe.
“Tom Sawyer is a roller coaster ride of episodic events built on
the notion that there’s nothing greater than playfulness,” explains
Cohen. While Tom tries to win the affection of pretty Becky
Thatcher, he gets into all manner of boyhood mischief: subverting
Aunt Polly’s chores, running away to the woods, and hunting
for buried treasure with Huck. But the boys stumble into danger
when they witness a crime in the graveyard one night, and the play
evokes not only the elation of being a kid, but also the sheer terror
of eye-opening first experiences. True to the novel, though, fear is
always vanquished by joy. “That idea was really important to us, that
everything in the show was about the spirit of adventure, of play, of
childhood,” explains Eason. “There are definitely moments in Tom
Sawyer when the adult world of darkness and danger slash through
the story. But ultimately, play wins. Childhood wins.”
This idea of a world defined by play is embedded in Eason’s vivid
descriptions of the movement sequences in her script, and fully
embodied in the production’s thrilling stagecraft. The decision to
have the whole ensemble hold Twain’s narrative voice means that
from the start, the audience is welcomed into the event, addressed by
the company of actors. And then with wild abandon, Tom swings
and splashes (literally) into a day of playing hooky from school—
and the fun begins. In collaboration with a dream team of designers
as well as choreographer Tommy Rapley, Eason and Cohen have
created a three-dimensional equivalent to the very feeling of youthful
imagination. Language and physical texture tell the story in tandem.
“It’s so much about boys out in the world, jumping and swinging
and running around,” says Eason. “There’s such a rich physical life
in the book, and there was no way to tell the story I wanted to tell
without a very strong physical component.” As Cohen points out,
this is also key to the experience of childhood: “Kids understand
things through their bodies, not by sitting down over an Americano
and working it out,” he laughs. “Physical expression is the best way
to translate across time periods and generations; it brings the story
closer to the audience.”
And this adaptation—both faithful to the book’s spirit and a
satisfying journey all its own—has delighted newcomers to the tale
and Twain fans alike, charming anyone who’s ever been a kid. Being
able to revisit that feeling of boundless awe, that brief time when
everything was new, is as close to a form of magic as the theatre
can conjure. “That’s how we wanted to connect with a wide range
of audiences: to appeal to the child in all of us, by remembering
those first moments of true love, true fear, true adventure,” says
Cohen. That sensation of discovery lives on as a universal experience,
even in a 21st century world so different from the idyllic town of
Mark Twain’s memory. “Childhood now is much more scheduled,
mediated and play-dated, and running out alone into the world
unsupervised, having all kinds of adventures, is not something that
a lot of kids do anymore,” Eason observes. “But I think we all still
have that impulse to run into an open field and see what we can
find, and use our imaginations.”
- Amy Wegener
5
INTERVIEW WITH MOVEMENT DIRECTOR
TOMMY RAPLEY
Tommy Rapley is the Movement Director for The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer. He spoke to Education Intern Sarah Johnsrude
about his role in the production and the importance of physical
storytelling.
Sarah Johnsrude: Could you describe your role in the rehearsal
process?
Tommy Rapley: I would say my role in the rehearsal process is split
in to three main categories:
1. As a choreographer of steps. For Tom Sawyer this included
moments like the opening sequence, the graveyard fight and the
beginning of Act II. I arranged the bodies in space, choreographed
their movement and, in collaboration with the composers, put that
movement to music. This is what you would expect the choreographer for a Broadway musical or concert dance piece to do, and is
often where a choreographer’s job description ends. What I enjoyed
so much about working on Tom Sawyer was that my role extended
well beyond the realm and language of dance to include all kinds of
storytelling through movement—from small gestures and looks, to
the way someone walks and stands, to large musical sequences that
rely on physicality to tell the story in place of text.
2. As a resource for the actors. Some of the fun in Tom
Sawyer comes from the fact that several actors play multiple
roles. Part of my job is to ensure that you, the audience, understand
each character as a distinct individual, unique from another role the
actor might play. I’m available as a resource in the rehearsal room
(much like a voice or dialect coach might be) to assist actors in creating a physically specific and dynamic performance. 3. As a movement dramaturg. I collaborate with the director and
the designers to ensure that the movement in the play is cohesive
and coherent throughout. This includes making sure that Huck
doesn’t give Tom a peace sign—that would seem out of place for
the world of the play. It also includes helping the director and set
designer craft seamless transitions and make use of the space in
imaginative and engaging ways—rearranging ladders to look like
we’re in a cave or climbing the set of stairs like it’s a rock because in
our imaginations we’re by a lake. Tom Sawyer is a very cinematic
play; there are lots of short scenes and small adventures that add up
to one large journey. It was important to Jeremy, the director, that
we move fluidly from place to place and use the transitions to set
tone, energy or circumstances for the scene. We try to squeeze the
juice out of every moment the actors are on stage, and keep the ball
rolling from beginning to end.
Johnsrude: What aspects of Tom Sawyer lend themselves well to
movement instruction?
Rapley: There are lots of moments for physical storytelling in the
play. When Tom and Becky see each other for the first time, for
example, we want to see and feel the butterflies in their stomachs,
not hear them talk about it. Something that our playwright, Laura
6
Norman Rockwell’s painting of Tom receiving a whipping from his school master.
Eason, has done so beautifully is choose where ideas and action
need to retain the voice and wit of Mark Twain, where we can rely
on the actors to use dialogue to understand the story, and where
the information can be expressed in physical sequences. These
include the opening dance (where we are introduced to many of the
characters and relationships that unfold throughout the play), the
“painting the fence” sequence, Tom following Becky home, Tom’s
Nightmare at the beginning of Act II, and the journey through the
caves.
Johnsrude: How has choreography benefitted the telling of this
story?
Rapley: I think that movement engages the audience in a different
way than text. It is another way we can excite the minds of our
audience. By including lots of different forms of storytelling—
dance, set, lights, music, costumes, narration, dialogue—we are
constantly asking the audience to engage with the story in new and
interesting ways—often times asking them to use their imaginations
heavily in the process. This makes them lean forward into the story;
the tale could literally not be told without them, so they become
essential to the story itself. I also find physical storytelling to be a more universal and visceral
way to communicate. Even if I don’t understand English and have
never been to the Deep South, I understand what it might be like
to get my ear tugged or get punched in the gut or receive a flower
from someone I like. These kinds of physical gestures help to make
the play accessible to a broad spectrum of socio-economic classes,
religions, ethnicities and ages. Movement sometimes communicates
what words cannot.
RIVER TOWN CULTURE
In a time before highways
and maintained roads,
rivers were the primary
transportation for long
distance travel. Towns
located on rivers grew
faster and became more
profitable than those that
were removed from water.
Proximity to water could
make or break a town,
not only because water
was (and is) a valuable
resource, but also because
rivers brought goods,
Sketch of the Mississippi River by artist
Jacob A. Dallas
trade and passengers
as boats traveled up
and downstream. River towns were a vital part of America’s early
economy and culture. Mark Twain created the fictional river town
of St. Petersburg, Missouri as the setting for his most beloved works,
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. River towns played a large part in Mark Twain’s
life, as they did the life of most Americans in the 1800s. Tom
Sawyer is not only an ode to childhood, but also to pre-Civil War
America and the river towns of Twain’s youth.
Mark Twain grew up in the river town of Hannibal, Missouri.
Twain and his family moved there for the economic opportunities
the town would provide. Hannibal is located on the banks of
the Mississippi River, the largest river in North America, which
flows from Minnesota down to the Gulf of Mexico. In the 1840s,
Hannibal was the third largest town in Missouri thanks to the
Mississippi, which brought trade and passengers to the town. In
the 1840s, Hannibal would have been host to traveling lecturers,
circuses and showboats because of its position on the Mississippi,
providing entertainment, culture and exotic commodities to the
town.
Tom Sawyer is not only an ode to childhood, but
also to pre-Civil War America and the river towns
of Twain’s youth.
Mark Twain used his experience in Hannibal as the basis for the
fictional town of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Renamed
St. Petersburg, perhaps to evoke St. Peter himself, the Christian
gatekeeper of heaven, St. Petersburg has many recognizable
features of Hannibal, like McDowell’s cave and Glasscock’s Island,
renamed McDougal’s cave and Jackson’s Island respectively in Tom
Sawyer. However, Hannibal and St. Petersburg are very different.
St. Petersburg, as drawn by Twain, was a sleepy, rural town. The
funeral and trial that take place in Tom Sawyer are the most exciting
activities the town sees that summer. So, St. Petersburg is based
on Hannibal’s geography, but Twain took plenty of artistic license
when creating the town. St. Petersburg, with its small town feel, is
the perfect backdrop for a summer of adventure readers cannot help
but remember.
Even today, most of America’s most influential and populous cities
are located on rivers, lakes, bays and oceans. Despite the advances
made in modern transportation and an extensive highway system
stretching from coast to coast, rivers and the cities built along them
remain important to America’s commerce and culture.
- Betsy Anne Huggins
LOUISVILLE’S RIVER TOWN HISTORY
Louisville, Kentucky, like Hannibal, is also a river town on the banks
of one of the Mississippi’s tributaries, the Ohio River. Founded by
George Rogers Clark in 1778, the town was a natural stopping point
on the Ohio River due to the Falls of the Ohio, a two-and-a-halfmile series of rapids dropping twenty six feet, which made the river
impossible to navigate. Ships had to unload their cargo and reload
below the Falls.
Louisville grew as a center of trade along the Ohio, and by 1850,
Louisville was the tenth largest city in America. For the first time
in 1815, steamboats were powerful enough to cruise upstream from
the Mississippi to the Ohio, which led to a population boom in
Louisville. The city had a newspaper, theatre, library and hospitals—
very cosmopolitan features for a city at the time.
- Betsy Anne Huggins
Drawing of the Falls of the Ohio in the 1826 Atlas of the Ohio,
Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
7
TOM SAWYER:
JUST FOR ADULTS?
small town life and the narrow-mindedness of its inhabitants. It
was Twain’s wife who convinced him to market the book toward
children, and to his great advantage. The children’s book market
of the time was full of instructional or moralistic work with good
little boys who succeed and bad boys who are taught a lesson.
Tom Sawyer was a true departure; as Twain wrote, “He was not
the Model Boy of the village. He knew the model boy very well
though—and loathed him.” Tom Sawyer is the hero while retaining
his childlike impishness.
“It is not a boy’s book, at all. It will
only be read by adults. It is written
only for adults.”
Years after the publishing of Tom Sawyer, Twain conceded that the
book was for children. As it turns out, his entrepreneurial spirit
won through. He wrote to a friend in 1892, “I conceive that the
right way to write a story for boys is to write so that it will not only
interest boys but strongly interest any man who has ever been a boy.
That immensely enlarges the audience.”
- Betsy Anne Huggins
Portrait of Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, published in 1876, was Mark Twain’s
first novel, but it was hardly America’s first taste of Twain. The
short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”
made Twain an overnight sensation in 1865 and his fame grew as
he traveled America and Europe on lecture circuits. The former
newspaper writer also co-authored three books, all published
with great success. But it was Tom Sawyer that enchanted the
nation and brought him fans worldwide. Twain called the book,
a fictionalization of his childhood in rural Missouri, “a hymn” to
his boyhood. The book remains an American classic and even those
who haven’t read it are familiar with the iconic characters and
images. But before the fame and success of Tom Sawyer, Twain was
concerned about the audience of the now beloved classic.
Today, the book has been adapted for children and the original
continues to be read in high school, but Twain originally intended
the book for adults. He wrote to a friend in 1875 that “It is not a
boy’s book, at all. It will only be read by adults. It is written only
for adults.” Twain worried about losing his main audience if Tom
Sawyer was marketed for children. He also never intended for
Tom Sawyer to be a straightforward story of a boy’s adventure. He
intended for the adult audience not only to be reminded of their
own childhood but also to recognize his sharp social critique of
8
Did you know?
Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, the
author adopted the pen name “Mark
Twain” around 1863. The term, derived
from Twain’s time spent as a river
boat captain on the Mississippi, is an
antiquated term for navigable waters.
“Mark twain” meant that the water was
two, or twain, fathoms deep.
MARK TWAIN:
LITERARY OUTLAW
Historians have been able to find real-life counterparts from
Twain’s youth for most major characters, including the boys, Becky
Thatcher, the schoolteacher and doctor. There is no information
that Twain knew someone like Injun Joe. It’s likely, then, that Injun
Joe was not written from real life, but rather, was an invention of
Twain’s imagination. Injun Joe is a perfect villain, but perhaps too
perfect, as if a character from one of Tom’s (or Twain’s) books
stepped out of its pages and into St. Petersburg. He is the ideal
vehicle for the story, a children’s book antagonist come to life. Injun
Joe was never meant to speak for all Native Americans.
Should Mark Twain be censored?
Though Twain’s books were written over one hundred years
ago, they continue to inspire debate. His most beloved books,
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn, take place before the Civil War in an era of racial injustice
and slavery. Twain was uniquely situated to comment on social
issues of the day. After growing up in the South, Twain traveled
the Mississippi as a steamboat Captain, journeyed to the West
as a reporter and ventured to Europe as a tourist. By the time he
wrote Tom Sawyer, Twain had seen the world and had developed
a pessimistic attitude towards man’s ability to treat others with
compassion. Twain was a famous abolitionist and a crusader for
women’s rights, yet today his books inspire controversy because
of how he approached race. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the
evil, malevolent adversary Injun Joe is the only Native American
character in the book. And The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one
of the most widely banned books in America. How can America’s
greatest novelist inspire so much controversy?
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer has many antagonists, from the
domineering schoolteacher to the pious priest, but only one villain:
Injun Joe. Injun Joe is the perfect villain, a murderous thief driven
by greed and revenge. The source of his rage, the story claims, is his
“Injun blood” which causes him to be ruthless and aggressive. Twain
draws his character with no remorse. Injun Joe has been treated
poorly because of his race, but Twain advises the reader to take
no pity on the man. He is pure evil. Native Americans were often
characterized as revenge-seeking criminals in books and newspapers
during the 19th century. Yet Twain never meant for his characters to
be archetypes. Becky Thatcher certainly isn’t like all the other girls
at school, and no other boy matches the mischievous ingenuity of
Tom. Twain’s characters are a clue as to how the character of Injun
Joe can be understood.
Schools have continued to remove the
book from reading lists because parents,
students and teachers alike have been
uncomfortable with the language.
While Tom Sawyer shies away from explicit discussion of race, The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has overt themes of anti-racism and
abolitionism. However, it’s the language, not the content, that
has placed Huck Finn on many banned books lists. The “N” word
is used 219 times in the book as a synonym for slave or African
American. Twain did not mean the word to be offensive, but today
the word can still be extremely hurtful. As the audience has become
further removed from the time of the book, the word has become
more weighted with the struggles of black Americans. Schools have
continued to remove the book from reading lists because parents,
students and teachers alike have been uncomfortable with the
language. Recently, news that an edited version of both Huckleberry
Finn and Tom Sawyer would be available for schools made headlines
for its controversial elimination of both the “N” word and “injun,”
to be replaced with “slave” and “Indian,” respectively. The public
outcry condemning the censorship of Twain’s work proved that
although his work is controversial, Twain’s novel, inspired by
historically accurate biases and beliefs, is worth preserving in its
entirety.
- Betsy Anne Huggins
9
NOTIONS OF CHILDHOOD:
THEN AND NOW
In 1840s Missouri, children were first and foremost expected to
contribute to the family. They had the opportunity to private
school; that is, if their families could afford it. There were no
children’s comforts—no stores devoted to kid-sized furniture or
toys to boost children’s development. Instead children grew up in
an adult environment where they were required to run errands,
complete chores around the house and help out on the family
farm.
That is not to say that children in this era lacked fun; they
just had to get innovative and invent games themselves. The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer exemplifies the many ways kids were
able to create entertainment. Children played pranks on one
another—Tom, for instance, enjoys tricking his neighbors into
doing his chores while profiting from their little treasures during
the whitewashing scene. He also recruits his friend Huck to go
on several adventures with him—together they play make-believe
games like “Graveyard Murder” and “Pirates.” Though the
children of this age had a number of familial responsibilities, they
were given a degree of freedom most kids in 2011 would envy.
For example, Becky, a girl of Tom’s pre-teen age, hosts a picnic
in a cave without parental supervision. The liberty for youngsters
to meander about town as they please facilitates a desire for
adventure while simultaneously posing a dangerous threat to
kid’s safety.
The notion of childhood has changed drastically since Twain’s
era. Though many states passed bills regulating child labor
throughout the 19th century, a national law prohibiting
child labor did not exist in America until 1938 with the
implementation of The Fair Labor Standards Act. These
standards ensured children have the opportunity to pursue
an education and attend school before they could enter the
workforce at age 16. Mark Twain did not grow up under these
standards—at age 12, he was forced to leave school to work and
support himself after his father, the primary breadwinner of the
home, died.
Once child labor laws were established, “childhood” itself was
defined as a stage of life that demanded particular care in order
for development to occur. Small, specialty furniture—such as
booster seats and miniature chairs—were produced in order
to aid kids’ growth process. Companies took note of this new
market niche and began making children’s toys and advertising
them
with new, advanced techniques that made toy companies quite
profitable. Walt Disney is credited with bringing the “kidconsumer” to America with the implementation of Disney
World and Disney Land, which streamlined the ideal image of
childhood in America in terms of consumption.
Now, in 2011, kids have very different day-to-day experiences
from Mark Twain. They have fewer adult responsibilities, though
many still have simple age-appropriate chores they must carry
10
Childhood is very different today than it was when Mark Twain grew up.
out at home. Children are not allowed to work for pay and must
be full-time students. Kids are engaged in extracurricular sports
and clubs that foster education and skill outside of the classroom.
In their spare time, children are primarily consumers of toys,
television, and video games. Though children may continue to
play creative and innovative games, such as “House” or “Pirates,”
there are limitations as to where kids are allowed to play and
under whose supervision.
In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain portrays Tom in an
innocent, playful light—a boy free to explore the world of his
own imagination—which colors even the darker, more mature
aspects of the story. Though the notion of childhood has
drastically changed since Mark Twain wrote Tom Sawyer, his
characterization of childhood through Tom’s spirited pursuit of
adventure is timeless.
- Sarah Johnsrude
MARK TWAIN’S CHILDHOOD
the staircase, he found himself trapped at the top with
Twain at the foot of the staircase. Twain ambushed his
brother with mud until his mother heard the racket and
chased Twain around the house. Twain hopped the
fence and spent a couple hours in safety. However, when
he returned, his brother ambushed him in return. He
suffered a particularly painful bruise on the side of his
head, where his brother hit him with a rock.
But this payback did nothing to curb Twain’s tendency
towards mischief. Twain admitted to more fooleries, like
feeding strong painkillers to his cat (a story mirrored in
the novel) and dropping a watermelon rind on Henry’s
head.
- Sarah Johnsrude
William Anderson wrote the book River Boy: The Story of Mark Twain to chronicle some of Twain’s
own childhood adventures.
Tom Sawyer shares many qualities with his author,
Mark Twain. As a boy, Twain was known to be
playfully mischievous in a way that frequently got him
into trouble. Twain recounts how his mother would
automatically blame him for problems that arose in the
house—even when Twain was, on occasion, innocent.
But, most of the time, his mother had the correct culprit.
Twain got much pleasure from setting up practical jokes,
especially at the expense of his goody-two-shoes brother,
Henry.
In his autobiography, Twain recalls an afternoon when
Henry was sent on an errand that required him to
walk up the stairway on the exterior of their house.
In advance, Twain locked the door at the top of the
stairs and returned to his backyard, where he collected
fistfuls of dirt and mud. When his brother ascended
Mark Twain as a young boy.
Did you know?
Mark Twain was born in 1835 during the
passing of Halley’s Comet, which is visible
from Earth every 75 to 76 years. The author
believed that he would die during the next
passing of the comet, and indeed, in 1910
Twain passed the day after the Comet’s
return. In his biography, Twain wrote, “It
will be the greatest disappointment of my life
if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet. The
Almighty has said, no doubt: “Now here are
these two unaccountable freaks; they came in
together, they must go out together.”
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WRITING PORTFOLIO
PERSONAL
Tom and Huck go on several adventures
that start out innocently before taking a
dangerous, life-threatening turn. Think
back on your own imaginative childhood
adventures. Write a narrative about an
experience you had growing up when your
curiosity got the better of you and put you
at risk. Did the experience make you more
cautious? How did it change you?
TRANSACTIVE
Imagine you are a member of the St.
Petersburg community and you have
been following the Muff Potter murder
trial. Write an editorial to the local paper
asserting your opinion about the results
of the trial.
LITERARY
What would Tom Sawyer be like if he
lived in 2011? How would he spend his
time? Write a short story about what kind
of trouble Tom would find himself in if he
lived today.
Mark Twain sits at his messy desk.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
PRE-SHOW QUESTIONS
POST-SHOW QUESTIONS
activities were you allowed to do? What activities were off limits?
How do you think this might differ from someone who grew up in
smalltown 19th century America?
maturity. In what ways does Tom show courage? What makes him
a hero?
1. What was your childhood like? What did you do for fun? What
2. In your opinion, where does childhood end and adulthood
begin? What are key characteristics that define childhood vs. adulthood?
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1. Even though Tom is mischievous, he does, at times, display
2. Twain intentionally concludes The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
while Tom is still young. What do you think Twain is trying to
express by keeping Tom from growing up in this story? Is it an
effective resolution?
BRIDGEWORK
BUILDING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN STAGE AND CLASSROOM
The following exercises combine creative drama, theatre concepts and core content to connect the
theatre experience with drama activities in your classroom.
By exploring drama as a mode of learning, students strengthen skills for creative problem solving, imagination and critical thinking.
AT YOUR DESK ACTIVITIES
1. Create a board game based
on Tom Sawyer! Pick several
locations from the story, like the
cave or the graveyard, and create
stepping stones to form a path
Board Game
from start to finish. Think about
different obstacles that Tom and his friends face in
the book. Write some of these obstacles in the form of
game directions on individual squares. For example,
“Whitewash the fence. Skip a Turn,” or “Homesick on
the island. Go back two spaces.” Create game pieces
modeled after the characters. Now roll the dice!
2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was inspired by Mark
Twain’s childhood. Think about your own childhood.
Who were your friends? What kind of trouble did
you get into? Write a short story based on your own
childhood experience using your friends as models for
your characters. Like Twain, feel free to embellish the
plot! Share your stories out loud with your class.
ON YOUR FEET ACTIVITIES
1. One memorable scene in the play is the whitewashing
scene. Tom convinces his friends that whitewashing the
fence, a grueling task, is actually the best time he’s ever
had. Tom even tricks his friends into giving up their
treasures for a turn at whitewashing! Have the class form
two lines, Line 1 and Line 2. One person from each
line takes the stage at a time. Improvise a scene where
the actor from Line 1 has to convince the actor from
Line 2 to complete a difficult or boring task. Think of
different tactics to convince your scene partner to work
for you. Try out a few different methods to persuade
your partner. After your scene, switch lines. What tactics
succeeded or didn’t succeed? Why? And remember what
Twain wrote, “in order to make a man or boy covet a
thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to
attain.”
2. Tom and Huck believe some
crazy remedies for getting rid of
warts, from dousing their hands in
spunk-water to swinging a dead cat
over their head in a graveyard at
midnight. Often, old-wives’ tales
like these have some kernel of truth
Shhhh!
to them, but as the advice gets
passed from person to person, the words change until the
saying is nothing like the original! Have everyone sit in
a circle on the floor and play a version of “Telephone.”
Have the “caller” whisper a phrase in the ear of the
person next to them. That person in turn whispers
whatever they heard into the next person’s ear, and so
on and so forth around the circle until the last person
hears the secret and says it out loud. Only the last person
is allowed to say the secret out loud, and each person
only has one chance to whisper the phrase in the next
person’s ear. No cheating! And keep the phrases school
appropriate. How did the phrase change? Can your class
find a way to pass the secret around the circle without it
changing?
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IF YOU LIKED THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER...
MORE BOOKS BY MARK TWAIN
Autobiography of Mark Twain, released in 2010
Tom Sawyer, Detective, 1896
Tom Sawyer Abroad, 1894
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1885
FILM
OTHER BOOKS
A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Around the World in Eighty Day by Jules Verne
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Summer of the Monkeys (1998) Tom and Huck (1996)
The Goonies (1985)
Oliver Twist (1982)
Benji (1974)
WORKS CITED
McDermott, John Francis. Before Mark Twain: A Sampler of Old,
“Biography of Mark Twain,” List of Works, Study Guides & Essay
Editing. GradeSaver. Web. 16 July 2011. <http://www.
gradesaver.com/author/mark-twain/>.
Old Times on the Mississippi.
Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1968.
Bosman, Julie. “Publisher Tinkers with Twain.” The New York Times. 4 Jan. 2011. 14. Jul. 2011 <http://www.nytimes.
com/2011/01/05/books/05huck.html?_r=1. >
Neider, Charles, ed. The Autobiography of Mark Twain. New York: Harper & Row, 1959. Print.
de Koster, Katie, Ed. Readings on Mark Twain “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1999.
Falls of the Ohio State Park. 16 Jul. 2011 <http://www.fallsoftheo
hio.org/.>
Norton, Charles A.. Writing Tom Sawyer. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., Publishers, 1983.
Robbins, Richard H. “Capitalism and the Making of the
Consumer.” Global Problems and the Culture of
Capitalism. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Pearson Education,
2002. 21-31.
“History of Child Labor.” Scholastic.com. Teaching Resources, Children’s Book Recommendations, and Student Activities Sloan, David E. E. Student Companion to Mark Twain. Westport, Scholastic.com. Web. 18 July 2011. <http://
Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2001.
www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=5428>.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Hertfordshire: History of Louisville Timeline. 16 Jul. 2011 <http://www.louisville.
Wordsworth Edition Limited, 1992.
cc/timeline-large/071831.html
Watkins, T. H. Mark Twain’s Mississippi: A Pictoral History of
America’s Greatest River. Palo Alto, California: American
Hutchinson, Stuart, Ed. Mark Twain: Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry
West Publishing Company, 1974.
Finn. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
“Laura Eason.” Lookingglass Theatre Company. Web. 7 July 2011.
<http://www.
lookingglasstheatre.org/content/laura-eason>.
“Laura Eason.” Web. 7 July 2011. <http://web.me.com/lauraeason/
LE_Web/Home.html>.
“Mark Twain Biography - A Complete Biography on Mark
Twain.” Mark Twain - Complete Works of Mark Twain,
Biography, Quotes. Web. 18 July 2011. <http://www.
mtwain.com/l_biography.html>.
14
GLOSSARY
CHICKEN-HEARTED
Description for someone who
is cowardly or gutless.
RECKON
A slang term for “think” or “believe.”
FOOLERY
SKIFF
HOOKEY
A small fishing boat with a
pointed bow (front) and flat
stern (back). They are usually
powered by oars.
Foolish behavior or speech
Slang term for skipping school
or cutting class. Often referred
to as “playing hooky.”
HORSEWHIP
WHARF
Structure in a harbor where ships
can dock to unload or reload
supplies and passengers
WHITEWASH
Beat severely.
Apply a coat of white paint.
Also refers to the paint itself.
SPUNK-WATER
Rain water that collects in hollowedout tree stumps, thought by Huck to
cure warts.
VAGRANT
INJUN
Racist term for someone of
Native American origin.
A person without a settled home
or regular work who wanders from
place to place and lives by begging.
MUM
Remain silent, as in “keep mum.”
ONE HORSE TOWN
A colloquial term for a small town.
RANSACK
Search thoroughly, pillage.
15
The Kentucky Arts Council, the
state arts agency, supports Actors
Theatre of Louisville with state tax
dollars and federal funding from the
National Endowment for the Arts.
The Norton Foundation
ATTENTION:
YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS!
Actors Theatre of Louisville is seeking
submissions for our Ten-Minute Play Contest
Students grades 6-12 living in the Commonwealth of
Kentucky or the (812) area code of Southern Indiana are
invited to submit their very best ten-minute play to New
Voices, Actors Theatre of Louisville’s annual ten-minute play
contest for young playwrights!
Guidelines, tips, examples and submission details are
outlined at ActorsTheatre.org. You may also email your
questions to [email protected].
Deadline for submissions:
October 31, 2011, Halloween
NEW VOICES YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
Winning plays will be fully produced at Actors Theatre of
Louisville in April of 2012 and will be published in our New
Voices Anthology!
actors theatre of louisville n 316 West Main Street n Louisville, KY 40202-4218
Box office 502-584-1205 n Group Sales 502-585-1210 n Business Office 502-584-1265
ActorsTheatre.org