Study Guide

THEATRE DIRECT
Exceptional Theatre for Young People

Theatre Direct Canada

in The Loop Centre
for Lively Arts and Learning
in the Artscape Wychwood Barns

April 7 - May 3, 2009

Theatre Direct Study Guide
Founded in 1976, Theatre Direct has enjoyed praise and respect from young people, parents
Our Approach
and educators for their award-winning productions that consistently tackle difficult subject
matter with directness, honesty and integrity using sophisticated theatricality supported by Walking the Tightrope is a beautiful play. ready to do what Stan wasn’t able to at first;
innovative education programs and participatory workshops. Its beauty is in its simplicity, honesty, and answer their quesitons directly and honestly
candor. And yet, as educators, we can with gentle compassion and respect.
The company tours its productions and education programs to schools and theatre venues get caught up - just like Grandad Stan
throughout Toronto and the GTA. Productions of Beneath the Banyan Tree, Binti’s Journey, does in this play - in complicating matters, This play offers a wonderful opportunity for
Getting Wrecked and Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock have toured nationally to such prestigious clouding the truth, and brushing over key your students to share their own experiences
theatres as the National Arts Centre, Manitoba Theatre for Young People and the Vancouver issues. and traditions with each other, to express their
and Toronto International Children’s Festivals. feelings, and to develop their empathy for the
I wrote this guide to help you fight your characters and each other.
Our work is driven by a belief that young people deserve truth not diversion, that they have a
‘adult instincts’ and to approach the
cultural right to meaningful content and compelling, relevant theatre. We view our audience
as thinking, feeling, complex classroom discussions of change, loss, Explore this guide with your students. Bravely
individuals, not a market, not grief, friendship, honesty, and compassion celebrate family members and friends who we
just future audiences but our as your students do: with open-hearted love, remember those we’ve lost, and marvel
present audience that needs and questions, unabashed wonder, and a at our ability to support each other while
demands theatre that engages need for the facts. “some things change and some things stay
all their faculties and feelings. the same.”
After seeing this play, your students will ~Jessi Linn~
Our audience inspires us to tackle Jessi Linn Davies
need to talk about it. (Theatre is so great
big questions in the same way
for that!) They’ll have questions that need Education Consultant
children and youth ask them,
honestly, directly, courageously to be answered. And you’ll have to be
and passionately.On December
4, 2008, Theatre Direct, one of How to Prepare: BEFORE THE SHOW
the country’s leading theatres for young people, announced the creation of a unique centre • Read the synopsis (pg 4) and other info about the
devoted to arts education and performing arts serving children, youth and families. Short on time? Then we
recommend you do the play and our company
As the largest arts tenant of the newly opened Artscape Wychwood Barns, Theatre Direct bolded activities. • Gently ask your students about thier grandparents
is programming a theatre space dedicated to young people and families and a spacious If you’ve got more time, and experiences with loss; get a sense of their per-
rehearsal, education and event space. In honour of the site’s transit history and to express the please explore other sonal experiences
creative dialogue that flows between our artists and audience we’ve called this space The
ideas this guide has to • Talk about Theatre Etiquette (pg 6) with your class
Loop Centre. • Read the articles about helping children with grief
offer.
(pg 8-9)
In addition to showcasing Theatre Direct’s award-winning productions for young people
and hosting the company’s innovative education programs, The Loop will cultivate dynamic • Play Summer Tourist (pg 10 ) or Theatre as Storytelling
relationships with the artists and organizations residing in the Artscape Wychwood Barns (pg 11) with your students
and host some of the country’s leading dance, music, and puppetry companies. Future
programming also includes guest productions from Quebec and the UK. How to Debrief: AFTER THE SHOW
The seascape
Creating year-round programming that nurtures our audience’s love and appreciation of the and costume images • Create a Symphony of Sound (pg 12) with your class
arts in our very own home is the fulfillment of a long held dream of Theatre Direct. in this guide were • Copy the My Memory Book insert and work through
created by designer, it with your students (pg 13)
Kelly Wolf, for her set
Visit our website regularly to find out how you can get involved!
and costume design • Create Memory boxes, explore other ways to re-
for Walking the member those we miss
www.theatredirect.ca | www.loopcentre.ca Tightrope..
Tightrope

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Walking the Tightrope Walking the Tightrope

Synopsis
Characters Director's Note
Every summer Esme visits the seaside to stay with her ESME from Thomas Morgan Jones
Grandad Stan and her Nanna Queenie. This year Esme A 5-year old girl
is five years old and she travels to see them only to be STAN
met by Grandad Stan on his own. Her grandfather What does a director do?
As a director I work with actors and designers to breathe life into the words
She soon finds that Nanna Queenie is not at the house. She asks Grandad Stan where
on the page. Before the rehearsals with the actors begin, I have the great
she has gone and he quickly changes the subject. They spend a day at the beach,
joy of playing with designers to imagine what the set will look like, how the
and although Esme enjoys herself, she wonders again where her Nanna Queenie
lights can bring mood and feeling to that set, and what sounds will fill the
is. She asks Grandad Stan, and he tells her that Queenie has joined the circus as a
playground the actors play on and in.
tightrope walker.
With the actors, I help them to make decision about how to say the words,
The two spend their days at the beach, cooking at the house, and sharing stories at
how to listen to each other, and how to tell the story of the character’s
bedtime. Esme, however, is increasingly uncomfortable with the idea that Queenie
journey. At the end of each great play the characters are somehow different
simply left. Especially when she finds Queenie’s glasses, which Esme knows Queen
than they were at the beginning. The process of creating characters can be
absolutely cannot do without.
a very challenging one and I have the honour of helping actors through that
process as an outside eye.
And then, on their daily visit to the sea, Esme discovers that the circus is coming
to town. Esme convinces Grandad Stan to go, and it is shortly after they see the
The play’s the thing
tightrope walker that Esme realizes Queenie has died. She asks Grandad Stan if it is
What I love most about this play is its honesty and its simplicity. Mike Kenny has
true. He tells her it is.
given us (the actors, and the creative team) a great gift by being truthful to
the perspective of both the voice of a five year old and of her grandfather.
Walking the Tightrope beautifully navigates a child’s experience understanding
The beauty in this play lies in, for me, the use of repetition in every day rituals
loss: first as the absence of a loved one and then as a part of the cycle of life and
and how they are affected and effected by change.
death.
The blend of narration, song, and scenes allows the actors the opportunity
to move seamlessly from beginning to end and gives us, the audience, the
About the Playwright sense of spending an entire summer with these characters, all in a short
period of time. That’s the magic of Walking the Tightrope!
About the Playwright
Mike Kenny is one of the England’s leading writers for young audiences. He is the
recipient of numerous awards and was named to The Independent Sunday’s list of
Top Ten Living UK Playwrights. His plays are performed regularly throughout the UK,
France, Germany and Scandinavia.

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For Teachers For Teachers
Curriculum Connections, Grades K to 3 What's Grandad Saying?

Going to the theatre helps students to:

• Adapt to new situations. Walking the Tightrope was written in the United Kingdom, where Classroom
• Discuss elements of and express responses to Drama, Dance, and Music using grandparents and grandchildren use some different words than Activity:
appropriate vocabulary. ones we’re used to in Canada (where our production is set). See Ask two students
if your students can guess what Stan’s words mean. What special to create a brief
• Demonstrate knowledge of situation-appropriate behaviour.
words do your parents or grandparents use? scene using one
• Identify themes and subjects found in drama and dance works.
of these new
Fancy Like / Want to Have words
Walking the Tightrope gives students the opportunity to:
• Describe ways in which experiences of the characters relate to their own Fancy a mint?
experiences. Tea Afternoon Meal
Time for tea. I’ll get the eggs.
• Describe personal experience using appropriate details and vocabulary. Racing Page Horse Race Listings
• Describe simple life cycles of plants and animals, including humans. The newspaper was turned to the racing page.
• Use and interpret gestures, tone of voice, and other non-verbal means to Bread and Butter Pudding A treat for dessert
communicate and respond. Let’s eat some bread and butter pudding
Dominos A game using numbered tiles
• Identify purposes for listening in different situations, both formal and informal (to
grandparents/grandchildren, to the sea, to hear sounds in the distance…). We played dominos in the living room.
“Band strikes up” Band Begins to Play
• Retell stories that reflect their own heritage and the heritage of others. Listen - you’ll hear the band strike up.
• Use stated and implied information and ideas to make simple inferences and Wellies Rubber Boots
reasonable predictions. It’s raining - we should wear our Wellies.
“She’s poorly” She’s not feeling well
Preparing for a Trip to the Theatre She’s not on stage tonight because
she’s poorly.
Vocabulary for your Class:
“Our class will be going to the theatre to see a play called Walking the Tightrope.
Inside the theatre, there is a space for the perfomers (actors) and a place for the Locations in the Play
audience (that’s us!). The space for the performers is called the stage; it will have a
In Walking the Tightrope, Esme and her Grandad Stan visit the train station, the
set which will help us know where the story of the play is taking place. The set, along
sea side, the circus, and Stan’s home.
with lights, props, and costumes, help the actors to tell us a story.”
What do your students know about these places?
The audience members have a very important job - they need to give good focus
What and who might be there?
and attention to the actors, to encourage them to tell the story well. The audience
can do this by listening closely, laughing at the funny parts, being quiet for the
Check out our Books for Children list in this guide to see some books that you can
quiet parts, and giving applause at the end of the performance. Any questions or
share with your class before the play and then play the Summer Tourist activity
comments the audience has can be shared after the actors have finished telling the
from this guide.
story.

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For Teachers For Teachers
Helping Children with Grief Walking the Tightrope provides many examples for discussion about a child’s grief journey
and how adults respond. Here are a few examples.
As during other times, children experiencing grief look to the adults in their lives for Esme: Where's Nanna Queenie?
guidance, explanations, support, and understanding. Our words and actions during Stan: Tell you later. Stan: Nanna's gone, love...
this time are very important in helping our children experience a healthy grieving During a family’s grieving process, adults are often away...To a nicer place.
process. so overwhelmed by their own loss, the intensity
Esme: Let's go then.

of their feelings and the need to cope with life’s
demands that they are frequently unable to
Things Adults Can Do to help: deal with their children’s emotions. Sometimes,
in an attempt to protect the children, the adults
deny their own intense feelings. In doing so, they
Understand that you can’t hide your feelings from children, even complicate the child’s process of mourning, which
very young children, no matter what you say. is the outward expression of grief.
Understand that you can’t hide your feelings
Honour the child’s feeling of pain or loss. Trying to protect their from children, even very young children, no
feelings doesn’t allow them to feel comfortable with you. matter what you say. Even infants can sense the
difference that a loss brings to the family.
Understand that children may have intense grief.
Include children in the family or community sadness; have Esme: Nanna always tells me a story...
courage to show your own feelings in front of children. She must have forgotten me. Every-
thing's changed.
Understand that children are concrete thinkers. Using abstract Changes that reflect upon a child’s personal
language or euphamisms is confusing to children. identity are some of the hardest ones for them
to encounter. Beyond the loss of identity, there is
also the loss of the ‘old’ part of oneself. It is a time
Encourage the child to express her feelings for the child to rethink his/her own identity. As we
through creative outlets, drawing, journals, see in Esme, grieving children can become more
etc. and to choose the play activities that aware of the needs of others. A grieving child’s gift
will help her work through her grief. in helping others often comes from embracing and
learning from their own feelings of loss.
Sometimes when adults think they
don’t have the right words to explain
the complexities of grief and loss, they
rely on worn out familiar phrases to
help explain.
Children are literal-minded and need
simple, factual answers. Avoid phrases
like the ones below.
“Your loved one is in a better place.
They don’t have to suffer anymore.”
The griever actually knows that their
loved one isn’t suffering anymore.
But they are! And they would give
anything to have them here with
them, not anywhere else, better place
or not!
“I know just how you feel.”
No, you don’t! No one else can
know how this terrible pain feels.
Everyone’s feelings are uniquely theirs.
Acknowledge the feelings by naming
them and listening to their story.
www.griefworksbc.com/cliches.asp

Maintain structure, rules, limits. Knowing

that there are things unchanged provides Esme: Is she dead? Remember:
security for children. Stan: Yes love. Queenie's dead.
Grief can be
Children need to be gently helped to
experienced during any
acknowledge the realities of death through open loss or change. We grieve
and honest (and developmentally appropriate) when a pet or loved one
explanations. Children can cope with what they dies but also during moves,
know; they can’t cope with what they don’t know. divorces, family separations,
changes of school or
The information on these two pages is gathered from
situations, etc.
the resources for adults listed in the back of this guide.

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Activities: Pre-Show Activities: Pre-Show
Summer Tourist (Kindergarten to Grade 3) Classroom
Activity: Theatre as Storytelling (Grades 2/3)
Create the landscapes and the cosy home depicted in
Create tableaux
Walking the Tightrope with your students.
of places Esme
and Grandad In Walking the Tightrope we get to see a Classroom
Using the Teacher-in-Role technique, cast yourself as a
Stan visit. dramatization of the events of Esme’s visit to see Activity:
tourist photographer, visiting the places that Esme and
Grandad Stan have been over the summer. her grandfather. Explore with your class how they
can turn their own events into short plays. Turn events into
plays..
plays
Encourage students - either one at a time or as a group - to join the scene
and become frozen objects or characters that might be found in each
location.
Ask your students to “Think of something that happened
Places to visit (with items mentioned in or extrapolated from the play): to you today or yesterday, or over the weekend[or give
another time prompt].”
The Beach - sandcastles, spades and buckets, sea wall, ooly-ooly-olly waves, wood and
stones and shells, beach towels, picnic blanket, sandwiches, ice cream stand, bright sun,
hot sand, more....
• Invite students to share their events with the group.
The Yard - three fat chickens, tree you could climb and the one you couldn’t, • Choose one event to dramatize. Ask: What would the location of this
wallflowers, garden, garden tools, sea gulls, more...
play be? What characters are needed to tell the story? What would they
say?
The Kitchen - sink with a crack, egg timer, stove, fridge, table with the checked cloth,
chairs, boiled cabbage, windows, cook books, special bowls, more...
• Select students to performs as the characters in the story. Narrate the
story for them, instructing them to act out the story as you tell it. Try to
The Living Room - television, fireplace, mantle with ornaments, ticking clock, comfy
think of telling the story like one from a story book.
chair with ottoman, newspaper, more...

• Tip: If your students are unsure what to do, have them “freeze” and
The Circus - clowns with custard pies, cannons and human cannon balls, strong men
and women, acrobats, ringmaster, acrobats’ seesaw, tightrope walker, audience, horses, “unfreeze” during the story, depending on whether their character is
popcorn sellers, more... speaking/acting at each point.

Extensions: • Act out a few stories in this way.

• Try taking real photos of these tableaux with a digital camera, printing
the photos and adding them to Nanna Queenie’s Memory Box! Discuss: What is the difference between telling a story and creating a play?
• Try creating ‘aural pictures’, Soundscapes, to describe the locations
above using sounds. Sit your group in a circle and get creative using
body parts (stamping, snapping, etc) or found objects (crinkled paper,
instruments, shakers, etc) to explore the locations through sounds.
Check out the Symphony of Sound exercise on page XX.

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Activities: Post-Show
Symphony of Sound (Kindergarten to Gr 3)
Using the locations from the play (home, train station, seaside, circus)
you can create a symphony of sound with your students!
Classroom
Activity: • Choose one location (home, train station, seaside,
circus).
Turn your students
into a sound • Ask the students what sounds are in those places.
• After each contribution, ask the student to make
orchestra!
that sound.
• Repeat the sound for the class to hear, and then
have the entire class make that sound in unison.
• Now, add a movement to the sound (for example,
the raising and the lowering of the arms for waves,
a big face shake for the neighing of a horse, etc.)
• Choose three sounds for the location.
• Split the group into three sections. Each section will
have one sound. As conductor, cue each group
when to come in with their sound by pointing
towards them with an imaginary conductor wand.
• Volume control is fun and key! When you want
them to be louder, lift your hand up and up with
your palm facing the ceiling. Turn the hand with
the palm facing the ground when you want them
to hush the sound.
You can build each of the groups one on top of the other
to create that locations environment all together.
That is a symphony of sound!
Extensions:
• Put your Symphony of Sound composition together with a tableau of the locaion using
the Summer Tourist activity.
• Record your Symphony of Sound and put the recording in Nanna Queenie’s Memory Box.
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Activities: Post=Show
Memory Box (Kindergarten to Gr 3)
When we think about loved ones, there are things
After the we can remember clearly about them. . . and things
Show: we wish we remembered more clearly. It’s okay to
remember some things and not others.
What things could help
Esme and Stan remember Remembering and collecting memories is an way we
Nanna Queenie? can work through the death or loss of a loved one.
Who would you like to
Using the My Memory Book included with this guide,
remember? What things
remind you of that help your child or students to fill out the book using
person? words and images. The could draw or make a collage
of some of their memories.
Esme:
Memory Boxes are recommended by a few of our sources
"Some things
as good tools for helping a child work through his grief. A
happen that you memory box is a special box (or bag, shelf, etc.) that can
remember" house a collection of things that help us remember our
loved one. They can contain things they used to own, things
Stan: they liked, pictures, letters, things that remind us of that
person.
"And some that
you forget." Nanna Queenie’s Memory Box
Have students think of things that Esme and Stan could
include in their own memory boxes to help them remember
Nanna Queenie. Students can draw on big paper,
make objects from clay, write words, or cut pictures from
magazines to add into a box (or place on the board) for
Nanna Queenie.
Want to create memory boxes of your own? Here are a few crafty ideas:
• Make a box from popsicle sticks. See website for instructions.
www.kinderplanet.com/paddle.htm
• Decorate a repurposed cardboard box with construction paper and makers.
• Create paper boxes of all shapes. www.webindia123.com/craft/kids/box/box.html
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Resources for Adults Resources for Children
Books Story Books Life Cycle and Grief
The Fall of Freddie the Leaf: A Story of Life for All Ages Fun Fact:
A Child’s View of Grief: A Guide for Parents, Teachers and Counselors
by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D. by Leo Buscalgia The cast and
crew read The Fall
Keys to Helping Children Deal with Death and Grief by Joy Johnson A Bunch of Balloons: A Workbook for Grieving Children of Freddie the Leaf - a
by Dorothy Ferguson beautiful story - before
But Won’t Granny Need Her Socks? by Donald W. Knowles and Nancy Reeves they started the
When Dinosaurs Die: A Guide to Understanding Death
by Laurie Krasny Brown
rehearsal process.
Death and Children: A Guide for Educators, Parents and Caregivers
by Stephan Vitron Gullo
Aarvy Aardvark Finds Hope by D. O’Toole
Helping Grieving
Explaining Death to Children by Dr. Earl Grollman Children at School Gentle Willow: A Story for Children About Dying by Joyce C. Mills
Educators:
How Do We Tell the Children by Christine Schaefer To view a helpful article written
Illustrated. For readers aged 4 to 8.
by
Bereaved Children and Teens, a Support Guide for Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D Annie and the Old One by Miska Miles and Peter Parnall
go to the example site listed
Parents and Professionals by Dr. Earl Grollman at griefwords.com. I Know I Made it Happen: A Gentle Book about Feeling Guilty by Lynn Blackburn
Helping Children Cope With the Loss of a Loved One:
A Guide for Grownups by William C. Kroen and Pamela Espeland Why Did Grandpa Die? by Barbara Hazen

Online Story Books Circus and Sea Side

Emeline at the Circus by Marjorie Priceman
Children’s Grief Education Association www.childgrief.org
g
Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer
Center for Loss and Life Transition www.centerforloss.com
What’s Happening at the Seaside? by Heather Amery. Ages 4 to 8.
Griefworks B.C. www.greifworksbc.com

Good Grief: Helping Children Cope with Loss

www.good-grief.org

Story Books Grandparents

The Gifts of Being Grand by Marianne Richmond. Ages 4 to 8

Grandparents by Roser Capdevila. Ages 4 to 8

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WALKING THE TIGHTROPE
If you have any questions, comments, or feedback
to share with the actors, director, or creative team
Written by MIKE KENNY
of Walking the Tightrope, please send them to:
Directed by THOMAS MORGAN JONES
Theatre Direct
Set and Costume Design by KELLY WOLF 601 Christie Street, Studio 174
Lighting Design by GEOFF BOUCKLEY Toronto, ON M6G 4C7
Sound Design by MIKE ROSS 416-537-4191
info@theatredirect.on.ca
WAYNE ROBSON as STAN
SHARMILA DEY as ESME We would love to hear from you!

Production Manager BETH BROWN

Stage Manager and Education Lead Did you know?
JESSI LINN DAVIES
Esme calls her grandparents Nanna
Artistic Director LYNDA HILL Queenie and Grandad Stan. Did you
know that there are a variety of different
Media Relations by JOSEE DURANLEAU of names for grandparents?
DURANLEAU MEDIA RELATIONS
What to you call your grandparents?
Study Guide by JESSI LINN DAVIES with
images from KELLY WOLF. Have you heard of these
grandparent names?
FOR THEATRE DIRECT
Artistic Director LYNDA HILL Grandmother and Grandfather
Administrator MICHAEL PAGE Grandma and Grandpa
Granny and Gramps
Production Manager BETH BROWN
Nana and Papa
Consulting Director of Education and Outreach Abuela and Abuelo (Spanish)
CAROLINE HOLLWAY Lola and Lolo (Filipino)
Bubby and Zeide (Yiddish)
Associate Artistic Director & Dramaturg Mica and Deda (Serbian)
THOMAS MORGAN JONES E-li-si and E-du-di (Cherokee)
Education Consultant JESSI LINN DAVIES Gammlemor and Gammlefar (Norwegian)
Gigia and GiGi (Greek)
Administrative Assistant NICKY PHILLIPS Oma and Opa (German and Dutch)
Associate Artist SHARADA K. ESWAR Tutu wahine and Tutu kane (Hawaiian)
Associate Artist LISA CODRINGTON Amma and Afi (Icelandic)
Daadima and Daa-daa-jee (Hindi)
Studio Theatre Consulant & Project Manager Babushka and Dedushka (Russian)
JULIAN SLEATH
Marketing, Communications & Graphic Design
Find lots more grandparents names
BLAIR FRANCY, BF DESIGN on grandparents.com!
Financial Services YOUNG ASSOCIATES
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