The University of Kansas Theatre for Young People presents Where To, Turelu? by Henri Dégoutin, Jeanine Védienne, and Yves Hugues Translated by Miriam and Lewis Morton
Originally produced by Comédie de Lorraine, Nancy, France (1973) A participating entry in the 2003 Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival XXXV School Performances: November 4, 5, 7, 8, 2002 1:00 p.m. Lawrence schools November 6, 2002 1:00 p.m. County schools Tickets for school matinees are $2.50 by school arrangement. (Complimentary tickets available for teachers and students on free and reduced lunch programs). Public performance: Sunday, November 10, 2002 2:30 p.m. Public performance tickets are $3 for K-12 students, $6 for adults, and $5 for senior citizens (For tickets, call Murphy Hall Box Office 864-3982, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday) All performances are in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre, Murphy Hall, KU Most appreciated by families and children ages nine and up. Children with hearing difficulties may use special hearing devices in the Crafton-Preyer theatre (provided by FRiends Of the Theatre). Teachers should make special arrangements in advance with Amber McIntosh (864-5576) or the Murphy Hall Box Office (864-3982). Preview for teachers and parents: Monday, October 28, 7:00 p.m. Parents and teachers of grades 4, 5, and 6, librarians, and other school staff are invited to attend the final run-through rehearsal of Where to, Turelu? in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall. The purpose of this preview is to acquaint you with the play and its final, actor-rehearsal stage before finished scenery, costumes, lights, and sound are added during technical week. The rehearsal is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. and to run non-stop until approximately 8:00 p.m. We encourage you to ask questions and to discuss the play and its performance techniques with us so you may prepare children in advance of their attendance the following week. Lawrence teachers may obtain In-Service Points through Ann Bruemmer, Director of Arts and Humanities.
The Story of the Play: Turelu [Tur-e-loo] is a simple, friendly wanderer who wants to help people along the open road of life. While playing his joyful flute, he meets a family of siblings who have left their farm to see the world after their Papa's death. When the home-made tricycle they are riding falls apart on the road, Turelu tries to make friends with them. But Césarine [Say-sah-reen], the eldest, very bossy sister, doesn't want Didiche [De-deesh], her younger sister, to play with Turelu because she thinks he's a thief. Didiche wants to be grown-up and independent, so she tells Césarine to stop bossing her around and runs away to be by herself. Nobody but Turelu seems to pay attention to Gégé [Jay-jay], the little brother, who hugs his pet rabbit, Jojo (a puppet) for secure comfort. While Césarine and Gégé are gone to find Didiche, Mac-Bluff, a hungry, fast-talking, travelling salesman, arrives on his souped-up motorbike with a spectacular circus van full of technological entertainment and his Parrot side-kick (a puppet). Turelu sees that he can't fix his broken-down motorbike and tries to help. When Mac-Bluff learns about the family's inheritance money inside their baggage, he plots to steal it by pretending to be their friend. The three siblings return, awed by the modern technology of his vehicle. Mac-Bluff begins to sell them his cheap merchandise but has to distract them from wanting to travel in his broken motorbike. When Turelu tries to tell everyone the truth about the broken motorbike, Césarine blames him for breaking it while Didiche defends him. To stop this sibling argument, Mac-Bluff tricks Césarine into giving up her authority by voting with the others to make him their new leader--and paying him to repair his motorbike. The Parrot tries to warn everyone about Mac-Bluff's deceptive tricks, but Mac-Bluff silences it. To distract everyone again, he encourages Césarine to teach Turelu and Didiche "the value of money," while he hatches another plot with Gégé to silence Turelu's truths. He arrests Turelu for innocently playing his flute and jails him in his van which transforms into a prison. Gégé guards the prisoner with Mac-Bluff's (fake) gun, thinking he has "become a man" with it instead of Jojo. While Mac-Bluff distracts Césarine offstage, Turelu escapes and Gégé chases after him, warning Mac-Bluff. But Turelu and Didiche return to rescue Rascale, the parrot, and Jojo, the rabbit, and climb up an oil derrick in an attempt to get away. To force them down, Mac-Bluff aims his gun at them, but Césarine arrives and finally realizes his criminal actions. She jumps on his back, takes his gun away from him, imprisons him in his own van, and throws the gun away. Turelu returns Jojo, the rabbit, to Gégé because "He's better to have than a gun." Having learned the dangers of dictatorial authority, Césarine allows Gégé to steer the motorbike and invites Turelu to stay with Didiche. The four friends decide to return home to the simple pleasures of life, knowing the true values of democratic family relationships by not trusting capitalistic swindlers. Together they push the motorbike and van/prison homeward, having "seen enough of the world for one day." Turelu has shown them the true way of gaining happiness by helping people on their life journeys and by respecting their democratic human rights.
Language Arts & Social Studies Connections: Comprehend a dramatized story by identifying its metaphoric elements and main ideas Metaphoric Idea - Life takes us on many journeys along the open road (setting), and we never know who we'll meet (characters) or what will happen along the way (main events): * Characters = You or people you know * Setting = an open road = Your journey in life * Tricycle or Motorbike = Vehicles = how You get around in the world * Main Event = seeing the world and meeting new people along the way * Problem = how do You get around in the world? * Resolution = [for You to decide] * What do you need to know in order to get around in the world (i.e., to succeed in life)? *Where do you want to go and how are you going to get there? * Discuss this main idea from the play: "If all the people in the world were willing to help each other, we'd have happiness, right now, today." Identify the effects of modern technology on our culture *Which kinds of vehicles (or values) will "carry you forward" into the future? * Compare human-powered vs. motorized/computerized ways of getting around. * How do you define "Progress"? In terms of: * Human values "with liberty and justice for all"? or *Technological values "which cannot be stopped"? * Trust - Whose "Voice of Progress" should you listen to and trust? * Honesty - How do you know when a leader is lying or telling you the truth? Identify the human and economic effects of wants, needs, and resources * How do your human needs differ from your material wants? Compare with: Turelu - Why does he want to help people? What does he need to be happy in life? Césarine - Why does she act like (Julius) Caesar toward her younger siblings? Didiche - Why does she want freedom and independence? Gégé - What does he need to become a "man" in his family? Mac-Bluff - How does his name describe his actual motives? Does he really "fulfill all your needs at the lowest prices"? Jojo (the rabbit) and Rascale (the parrot) - ????? * What is "the value of money"? Why do you need to know the value of money? * Discuss whether or not people need money to be happy in life. * What needs does money provide? (food, clothing, shelter) * What resources do you really need to get around in the world and to become happy? * What products do you want? How do you know which are really "useful"? * Is it "better to have an old bicycle than none at all"? * What's the difference between a "consumer" and someone "consumed" by material goods? Develop citizenship skills and knowledge of democracy (voting, freedom, rights) * Explain the difference between dictatorial and democratic styles of leadership. * Which style of leadership is more effective? Why? * Which style of leadership hurts people's freedoms? How? * How does Mac-Bluff persuade everyone to believe that he's their friend? * How do your siblings treat you? Which style of leadership do they use? * How do you stop someone from bullying you and calling you names? * How do you choose your leaders and whom to follow? How do you decide "who is in charge"? * Equality - Does "everybody really have a say about who's in charge"? * What happens when voting vehicles break down (e.g., when there's a tie-vote)? * Compare human-powered (paper) ballots with computerized/electronic forms of voting. * How do you practice "liberty and justice for all" in your daily relationships with others? * Economic Class - Can "a person be born poor, or not, and still be the same as everyone else"? * Diversity - How do we "make the world one big happy family, without distinction of class, of race, of condition"? * Tolerance - "What is most lacking in order for the entire world to be happy?" "A little Confidence? Charity? Solidarity?" Identify deceptive advertising * How do you know when a salesperson (or advertiser) lies or tells the truth about his products? * What does the US flag symbolize? What do corporate logos stand for or symbolize? * How many logos can you identify in our production? Why do you know them? * How does Mac-Bluff use patriotism to sell his material goods? * What figurative language does Mac-Bluff use to exaggerate the products he's selling? Identify figurative language used in literature and dramatic performance Irony = Using a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its normal meaning. When Césarine shouts, Gégé says, "Can't you talk a little louder? I could hardly hear you." Sarcasm = Praise that actually means the opposite and is meant to put someone down. When the tricycle breaks apart, Gégé keeps pedaling in place, going nowhere. Césarine asks sarcastically: "Everything okay, Gégé?...You're not too tired?...The wind doesn't bother you too much?...It's not too hard for you?..." Simile = A figure of speech that compares one thing to something unlike it using "like" or "as." Didiche tells Césarine, "I'd rather be a big ninny than a cross crow like you." Metaphor = A figure of speech or visual image that compares two different things. Mac-Bluff's motorbike has "the speed of a race horse" and "the thrust of a jet engine." Personification = Words that compare something not human with human qualities. "Progress cannot be stopped." "Fortune has favored me." "Fate has worked things out." Exaggeration = Words that stretch the truth. Mac-Bluff brags that his motorbike is "super-modern, super-speedy, super-dynamo, super-bang-bang," but then he calls it, "superficial, super-phoney, super-shoddy, super-fake!" Pun = A word or phrase that gives a funny twist with another meaning. When Rascale, the parrot, repeats others' words, how do their meanings change?
About the Original French Production This original play was created by members of the Comèdie de Lorraine of Nancy, France, in 1973 as an attempt to communicate the harsh realities of authoritative dictatorships and the dangers of consumer materialism through metaphoric situations. Henri Dégoutin, the artistic director, explains: "I think that every child is capable of assimilating anything, provided one knows how to address him from the stage. Furthermore, I don't see why anyone would want to protect [or] isolate the young person from the reality that awaits him [or her]. On the contrary, it seems to me that causing him to one day discover brutal realities, without having prepared him for them, is what would traumatize him." To achieve these goals, he and his actors sought "to develop a theatrical language which would be clear and immediately understandable by children, whose vitality, color and movement would bring it close to their own world. . . . [and] to open the eyes and minds of young spectators to the world which surrounds them, or which will waylay them." They chose to adapt commedia dell'arte characters, European circus techniques, and Buster Keaton's physical humor to dramatize the conflicts between rural and urban lifestyles. The play's translator, Miriam Morton, adds: "The rapidly paced action, tomfoolery, farce, grotesquerie, and the nice touches of the poetic Turelu and his appealing naturalness, his abiding good will toward the world, and more are sure to appeal to any child audience. As to Mac-Bluff and what he represents, the warning is there, but he is ridiculous, farcical, and grotesque, as well as representing a demagogue and would-be dictator. . . . In sum, there is much in Where to, Turelu? to amuse children as their minds and sensibilities are nourished."
Commedia Dell-Arte Commedia dell-arte is a farcical style of exaggerated, non-realistic,"slapstick" acting which became very popular in France and Italy during the Renaissance. (A slapstick is a long wooden board with another hinged board attached that makes the sound of a slap when you hit the two sticks together.) Many commedia stock characters are evident in situation comedies found in television and movies today. Turelu represents Pierrot, a sensitive, innocent, child-like character who loves animals and music. As a loner, he observes and points out the follies of other characters with honesty and truth, similar to Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp. Mac-Bluff represents the Captain, an overblown braggart who pretends to be brave and strong, but he is actually a coward at heart, hungry, and poverty-stricken. Part-pirate and part-salesman, he is a brilliant but ridiculous liar. Other characters in our play represent different traits of other zanni characters or fools who perform various lazzi or comic bits of stage business throughout the play.
Where To, Turelu? Drama Workshops The director, Jeanne Klein, and actors from Where To, Turelu? will be available to visit 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classrooms who have attended this production. A free, one hour (or less) drama workshop with actors is intended to engage students' imaginations through drama, to extend the play's themes, and to answer questions about this production and theatre. To take advantage of this follow-up learning opportunity, contact Amber McIntosh or Jeanne Klein (864-5576) to schedule a classroom visit.
We'd love to hear your ideas about our production. Please make copies for students and return to Jeanne Klein, KU Theatre for Young People, 1530 Naismith Drive, Lawrence, KS 66045.
Play review of Where To, Turelu?
Reviewed by (name optional) _______________________________________________________ School_________________________________________________________________________ Grade ____________________________________________________________
1. During the play, I discovered, imagined, or felt:
2. During the play, I felt like (character name) when: Because:
3. I think a main idea of the play is: Because:
4. The thing I liked best about the production was: Because:
5. The thing I liked least about the production was:
Because:
Teachers Guide Written by Jeanne Klein