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GRAN’S BAG

By Greg Lissaman

Teacher’s Notes

Written by Chrissie Shaw in collaboration with Giselle Nathan

Education at Riverside 2013

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INTRODUCTION

GRAN’S BAG is written and directed by Greg Lissaman, with songs by Chrissie Shaw and

performed by Chrissie Shaw. Designers and makers are Imogen Keen and Hilary Talbot.

GRAN’S BAG is a show full of stories, just like the big red bag that appears on stage.

Storytelling is a vital part of all cultures, originally being the only way information was

transferred from one to another. An ancient art, storytelling provided entertainment long

before the technology of modern times. People from many cultures handed down societal

values and lore from one generation to the next. We are now encouraged through the

language of the story, the power of being able to listen, and the opening of the imagination,

to communicate expressively, in our own unique way.

GRAN’S BAG began as a way to explore relationships across generations in families, and to

look at the variety of family situations. It was important to include the adventure and yet

the isolation that can come from immigration to a new land, and both the joy and the

loneliness experienced by many grandparents.

Chrissie Shaw and Greg Lissaman gathered stories from many families of different national

origins. They spoke with young children and adults about their families and particularly the

relationship they had with their grandparents/grandchildren. The State Library of

Queensland invited Greg and Chrissie to conduct workshops in Brisbane with little children

and their older relatives. From these sessions came some vital elements in the show. The

pictures in Gran’s Big Red Brag Book were drawn by these children, and they also provided

the basis of the Baba Yaga song, as well as some of the visual imagery in the show. The first

season of GRAN’S BAG was performed at THE EDGE, the children’s activity centre in the

State Library of Queensland.

SYNOPSIS

When Gran comes to visit, she brings her beautiful big red bag. It is a treasure trove of

secrets and small delights, full of surprises and stories. The best story of all is about how

Gran found her magic carpet bag - or did her bag find her?

We are introduced to Gran, and a puppet version of herself, who cartwheels on the lawn for

the benefit of her loved granddaughter and the neighbours. From her Big Red Bag (and from

her large pockets), Gran draws out three other bags, each one with its own personality. The

little white bag is neat and tidy, containing everything a practical Grandmother might need.

This little bag is ready to help everybody, but as she crosses the road to help a woman

whose handbag has broken, the little white bag is swept up by a street sweeper and taken

to the dark forest on the edge of the city.

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Next is a big cuddly yellow bag who has found a special Nana. Nana and her grandchildren

catch a bus to the beach, but after her busy, chatty time on the bus, Nana gets off at her

stop and leaves her bag on the bus. The bus drives off to the dark forest on the edge of the

city.

Gran’s Bag now opens like a book, and inside is a painting of a house in China, with lanterns,

a moon gate and a courtyard. This house, the grandmother and the granddaughter Meiling

are introduced in Mandarin (with translation!). Nainai, the grandmother, has a silken red

bag containing snacks for travel. The family travels from China to Australia to live in a city

(next page!). The shiny red bag is lonely, and while looking out of the window to see

children on the pavement, she falls out of the window and is gently carried by the wind to

the dark forest on the edge of the city.

In the forest lives Baba Yaga, a lonely witch/grandmother who dines on handbags. The

three bags find their way to her house, and are just on the point of being eaten when they

devise a plan of escape: they unravel themselves, weave their threads into a magic flying

carpet, and fly back to the city where they see cartwheeling Gran and her little

granddaughter on the grass. And this is how Gran’s magic carpet bag finds her!

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ACTIVITIES AND THEMES

Within GRAN’S BAG are several themes or threads, which invite a range of post viewing

exploration and activities.

These include:

- Rich language and story exploration and improvisation opportunities

- Multi-cultural stories and places to be related and explored

GRAN’S BAG is a good resource for early childhood literacy, and for discussion about

connection to family.

Examples of activities to follow GRAN’S BAG are described in terms of the many threads

running through the story. These can be applied to the educational frameworks of all

states in Australia.

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SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES USING THEME OF GRANDPARENTS

Using the grandparents theme/thread:

1. What are the stories of grandparents in your class?

2. Describe your grandparents or grandfriends.

3. Make a brag book about your grandparents or grandfriend

4. Make a teachers or Principal’s Brag Book for your class. Things you have done over a term - Display as a slide show at a parent visit day or keep the book in the foyer

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SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES USING THEME OF THE ‘BAG’ Using the contents of the bags theme/thread – collected bits of stories:

1. What sort of bag does your grandmother or grandfriend have?

2. How does a bag tell us about a person

3. What has ………..(someone’s) bag eaten today?

4. What has your bag eaten this morning?

5. Draw and match labels to the contents.

6. Write a class big book on the contents of the teacher’s bag – other professional’s bags

7. Memory and cumulative vocab games such as “I went to the beach and I brought…”

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SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES USING STORIES FROM OTHER COUNTRIES Using the stories from other countries theme/thread:

1. Fairy stories from migrant children’s countries

Reading or viewing the stories

Are the main characters as scary as Baba Yaga?

Story impros - what interactions might you have with the main characters

2. Through the moon gate in Mei Ling’s Grandmother’s garden I can see …. (concrete) What else might there be – (abstract thinking , anticipating the features of other’s lives)

Here is the Chinese song: Wa Ha Ha Womende zu guo shi hua yuan, (Our country is a flower garden)

Hua yuanli hua duo zhen xian yan, (Inside the flower garden are bright coloured flowers)

He nuande yangguang zhao hui zhi women, (The lovely light of the sun is shining on us)

Meigeren lian shang dou xiao kai yan. (Everybody’s face is laughing)

Wa ha ha, wa ha ha, (Laughter)

Meigeren lian shang dou xiao kai yan (Everybody’s face is laughing)

Da jiejie, ni (ya), gan kuai lai, (Big sister quickly come)

Xiao didi ni ye mo duo kai (Little brother don’t hide either)

Shou lazhi shou (ya), changqi na ge er, (Holding hands we sing this song)

Womende shenghuo duo yukuai (Our life is very happy)

Wa ha ha. Wa ha ha (Laughter)

Womende shenghuo duo yukuai (Our life is very happy)

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SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES USING PROBLEM SOLVING THROUGH

STORIES Using the stories as problems to be solved thread – short stories linked by repeated verse:

1. What problems are solved in the fairy stories you have read/heard/seen?

2. Using the song about the fate of the three bags as they are taken to the forest; its refrain that the audience is encouraged to sing during the show:

Bim Bom Bootle Bottle, Beetle in your shoe Oh, what’ll she do, what’ll she do?

- Make real life story scenario verses from the children’s experience

3. Using the above verse for reading development

Read the song verse (above) for exposure to a range of long and short vowel forms

Play with reading and singing different initial consonants – single and/or consonant blends – whatever the children are learning

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SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES USING THEME OF PUPPETS Using puppets as story-tellers: In GRAN’S BAG objects were used to tell the stories – eg. the magic carpet and the bags. Specifically constructed puppets were: the cartwheeling grandmother and the Baba Yaga puppet. The ‘Gran’ puppet was made from a peg doll base easily bought from craft shops. To enable her to be manipulated, a metal bar was bored through the body, like a handle. Her hair is made from a scrap of fur fabric, her face painted. TheBaba Yaga puppet was made from a cylinder of wood. The legs were made from paddle pop sticks cut into sections joined by tape to allow the knees to bend. Her face was carved from a piece of cork. Her hair was made of nylon threads from an onion bag.

1. What everyday materials could you use to make puppet figures for story telling? 2. What other objects could you use to represent people and have conversations with?

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SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES USING SONGS Using song writing to tell a story: The Baba Yaga song was partly written by the children in Brisbane, as they studied the puppet. If we were going to write a song about Baba Yaga, what would be in it? Here is the Baba Yaga song that the children helped to write. Their lines are shown in italics. BABA YAGA SONG

Baba Yaga has big long arms

She rocks all day in her chair

She sits in the treetops all night long

Her hair flies in the wind

She peers at the world with her sharp sharp eyes

In search of a child or two

But it’s best to beware of her fiery hair

And her bony fingers and her piercing stare.

Though she says she loves children, I just wouldn’t dare

To step in her house – would you?

Baba Yaga plays air guitar

She sings in a very strange way

She loves to collect little bags and things

She hides them in her bed

She walks to the letterbox every day

In search of a letter or two

But nobody sends her a letter or a card

Though she waits and hopes and wishes very hard.

I think she’s quite lonely and a little bit sad –

So I’ll post her a card, won’t you?

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1. Write a letter to Baba Yaga: what would you say to her?

2. Write a song with your class, about a story character that your class loves.

3. How different are your grandmothers (grandfriends) from each other?

4. Make pictures of Baba Yaga and the other characters in Gran’s bag.

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RESPONSES TO GRAN’S BAG

From Teachers…

ARANDA PRIMARY SCHOOL ACT (Preschool – Y3 children attended)

This show was wonderful. The children were thoroughly engaged and talked about elements

of the show for some time afterwards. The children have been eager to make their own

puppets. Thank-you for coming to our school this was a very positive experience for all

involved and even our more reserved students had a fabulous time.

EVATT PRIMARY SCHOOL ACT (Preschool – Y2)

The show was great and the students were entertained. The ability to ask questions at the

end was fantastic and the students were fascinated by the workings of the bag.The students

talked about the show after the performance for the rest of the day and it influenced an

assessment piece of narrative writing in the coming weeks. Chrissie was very approachable,

great with the students and a pleasure to have in the school.

HALL PRESCHOOL ACT

The show was of a high quality and suitability for preschoolers was age appropriate.

Great feedback, the children and the grandparents, and parents were impressed. Children

talked about the show for days after, and sent you pictures and thankyou’s.My preschoolers

love the show; I believe older children would love it too! Well prepared, well organized, vast

knowledge, well presented, props outstanding and well thought-out for the show. Overall

the show was a success I believe this was due to the organization before hand, well versed

in the presentation and costumes/props. FANTASTIC, will recommend it to other teachers. I

know I will be having Gran back next year at my new school. Congratulations!

KINGSFORD SMITH PRESCHOOL ACT

The Preschoolers loved your performance. They have spoken about it all week. Many of

them have drawn pictures and a few have written letters that we will post to you. It

inspired the children to think about story telling and performing in a new way. Many now

have an interest in writing letters. It was perfectly pitched at the preschool age group, a

little beyond some of the 3 year olds in the group. A very entertaining performance for the

adults as well.

The children had a very positive response to the performance. It was great to see how

different children related to different parts in the performance depending on their

experiences. It cater for a wide range of children due to the many difference concepts.

After the show the children were able to recount the story and describe many of the props

used. The children in my group have been creating play with handbags and going on the bus

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and Baba Yaga was even living in our dramatic play area. It obviously made quite an

impression. There was a great feel from Chrissie during the performance, before and after.

She fitted in very well to the preschool setting. It was lovely that Chrissie was able to spend

time answering questions and explaining some of the props.

FADDEN PRESCHOOL ACT

We thought it was wonderful for our grandparents and preschoolers. It may have been a

little long for our children. For our age group I would recommend you structure the question

time a little to give children cues to support their questions and comments. They loved

coming up and seeing the props closely. We have had all positive responses and children

who want to see ‘Gran’ again. The children were very fascinated by Baba Yaga. It was great

for our preschoolers and the oldies too!

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From the Media…

The following is a review from LOWDOWN magazine- from August 2009

By Peter Wilkins

‘Bring your own cushion and your favourite Gran’s bag’ invited the brochure for Greg

Lissaman and Chrissie Shaw’s delightfully simple and gentle production of Gran’s Bag. I

watched excited, curious and wide-eyed young children, clutching the hands of mothers,

fathers or grandparents and hugging their favourite cushions with bags strapped to their

tiny backs as they filed into the small studio of The Street Theatre. Before them, on a

Persian rug stood a revolving table with a large red and mysterious carpetbag beneath a

canopy of fairy lights.

‘Hellooo!’ A smiling face peered from behinds a curtain. Chrissie Shaw is the kind of

Grandma that every child would wish to have. Cheerful, lively, fun-loving, slightly eccentric,

alive with song and stories and able to spin her whirling cartwheels down the street. In an

instant, friendly greeting turned into surprising mystery as the bag became a ‘treasure trove

of secrets and small delights.’ Slowly, with all the expectant wonder of surprising sleight of

hand, Shaw drew her audience, young and old alike, into her entrancing world of

enchantment.

Director Lissaman lured the very young into a carefully devised and skilfully structured

imaginary world. From the bag, Shaw drew “Gran’s Big Brag Book’ with colourful

illustrations of her travels upon her magic carpet and souvenirs of her great adventures: a

chunk of the great Wall of China, a bottle of sand from Egypt and a shell from the Torres

Strait Islands. In the intimate world of the Street Theatre Studio, children and performer

became as one, rapt in the mystery, wonder and surprise of Gran’s magical carpetbag.

From deep inside, other bags emerged – the little white bag with its collection of useful

odds and sods such as screwdrivers, lipstick and mobile phone, which was suddenly swept

away by a large truck while trying to cross the street, or the big cuddly beach bag that was

left on a bus by mistake with sunglasses, hat, sun lotion and a sarong to shield Gran from

the sun, and the bag of faraway China with its colourful dragon designs full of delicious

ginger and salty plum snacks.

In a clever twist of personification, Gran’s bags become characters in the main story of this

simple, yet ingenious tale. Lissaman and Shaw are magicians of their art. They know their

audience well. Their theatre ran its fascinating course on a trajectory of expertly timed

surprise, engrossing storytelling, laced with songs and a chorus for the audience to repeat.

Having introduced the transfixed audience to Grandma’s magical and surprising world from

Bondi to China, and the stories of her bags, it was time to take the audience on their last

intriguing and somewhat frightening adventure. It was time for a touch of the Gothic in this

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theatrical treat of sweet delights. Shaw had primed her audience with bewitching story and

song. Now her tale could take a most unexpected turn with the gory story of the gaunt and

flaming haired Baba Yaga, who devoured unfortunate bags.

Through some remarkable coincidence that can only happen in the world of fairytale, she

had captured the white, the cuddly and the Chinese bag to have for her supper. Lissaman

and Shaw realise the power of the traditional folk tale. It is a tale of danger, suspense, good

versus evil and in the end the triumph of cunning and courage over self-interest and

malevolence.

Turning themselves into threads, through Shaw’s clever sleight of hand, the bags wove

themselves into a magic carpet that carried them far from the evil clutches of the wicked

Baba Yaga and safely into grandma’s beautiful red carpetbag. No story would be complete

without a moral, as Gran reminded her grandchild Little Snotty that ‘love is free’. The moral

seemed to be tagged swiftly on the end, with scant reference throughout the travels on

Gran’s magic carpet ride, but it is a moral worthy of any story. The four to seven-year-olds

with their Mums and Dads and grandparents didn’t seem to need logic to justify its sudden

appearance.

Gran’s Bag was a celebration of the power of the imagination, sensitively directed by

Lissaman and performed with panache and charm by Shaw. Imogen Keen’s design of a bag

that opened to reveal a Chinese scene or Sydney apartment block and her tasteful mood-

enhancing setting created a focus for young eyes and surprising events. Hilary Talbot’s

puppetry of a cartwheeling Gran and the menacing Baba Yaga, and the delightfully sewn

miniatures drew one into a Lilliputian world, safe but magical, mysterious but enchanting.

Gran’s Bag was a magical carpet ride into a child’s imagination and an adult’s memorable

journey into the delightful world of storytelling. The production used illustrations drawn by

children during research at the State Library of Queensland. Many of Gran’s adventures,

songs and stories had been suggested by children. Gran’s Bag’s simplicity was appealing, its

design bewitching and its performance endearing. Its future success is definitely in the bag!

Peter Wilkins previously taught Theatre Arts t Narrabundah College in Canberra. Before returning to teaching, Peter worked as an actor and writer with Adelaide festival Theatre’s TIE Team, Theatre ’62 TIE, as director of Troika TIE’s Secondary Unit and as artistic director of Jigsaw theatre Company. Peter is also a former deputy chief examiner of the International Baccalaureate Theatre Arts Curriculum and an executive council member of the International Schools theatre Association. Peter is also a freelance writer and reviewer with The Canberra Times.