THE STUDY GUIDE

Created & compiled by Jessica Robblee, Buntport Theater Teaching Artist

Commissioned by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation

Copyright 2012. All contents are free to be used for

educational purposes.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Basic Information about Domino Synopsis, Grade-specific versions, the Set, and Themes 3

II. Preparing for the Play Discussion Questions and Activities 4

III. Reviewing the PlayDiscussion Questions and Activities 4

IV. Kindness and Empathy in the PlayDiscussion Questions and Activities 5

V. Personal Connections to Kindness 6

VI. O. Henry Biographical Information & Photos 8Quotes 11The Stories A Retrieved Reformation 12 The Caliph, Cupid, and the Clock (in 6-8 version only) 20

The Last Leaf26

VII. More Theater Exercises 32Exploring Kindness, Empathy, Difference & Power

VIII. About Buntport Theater & its Programs for Schools 40

IX. About the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation 41

X. Bibliography 41

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I. Basic Information about DOMINO

A Synopsis of the Play Domino is a piece of transformational theater that can be performed by as few as 3 actors and as many as 19-25 actors. It is a stage adaptation of short stories by the early 20th century writer O. Henry: The Last Leaf, A Retrieved Reformation, and The Caliph, Cupid, and the Clock (this last story is only included in the Grades 6-8 version).

The play centers upon two people living in a big city—a young grocery delivery person and her elderly neighbor. They share stories from their lives in order to connect with one another, and the stories highlight how kindness can inspire change and spur further acts of kindness. (See scripts for more detailed synopses.)

Grade-specific Versions of the PlayThere are 3 versions of Domino available for download on the Random Acts of Kindness Website:

-a Grades K-2 version (35-40 minutes, set in the context of superheroes, includes two O. Henry stories: A Retrieved Reformation and The Last Leaf)

-a Grades 3-5 version (35-40 minutes, includes two O. Henry stories: A Retrieved Reformation and The Last Leaf)

-a Grades 6-8 version (45-50 minutes, includes three O. Henry stories: A Retrieved Reformation, The Caliph, Cupid, and the Clock, and The Last Leaf)

The SetYou can create the set of your choosing with furniture, neutral blocks, or anything you like. The original production used cardboard boxes stacked in various configurations to create the play’s various settings. Two sides of every box were decorated with drawings of windows and architectural details, to make the boxes look like miniature buildings (see script for photographs).

Themes of the Play

Kindness ListeningEmpathy CompassionSacrifice, Risk TransformationHonesty HealingFear NeedLove Openness v. Closed-nessInfluence of Peers, Family, & Self v. Community Surroundings Encountering Difference

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II. Preparing for the Play

Discussion Questions What is kindness?

What does a kind person do?

How does one person’s kindness affect another?

Describe the people you like to be around.

Why are people kind?

Why are people unkind?

III. Reviewing the Play

Discussion Questions What do you think of the play you just saw? What did you like about it? What would you have changed about it?

What does this play leave you thinking about? How would you summarize it for someone who hasn’t seen it?

How many characters can you remember from the play? Give two or three adjectives to describe the characters.

Name a character that undergoes change in the play. Describe the change and why you think it happened.

Reviewing Activity for Grades K-8Revisit the Story Physically- As a class or in small groups, create sequential tableaus (or frozen stage pictures) that tell the story of Jimmy Valentine, the story of meeting Prince Michael (only pertinent to the grades 6-8 version of the play), or the story of the sick person who gets well. (10-15 minutes)

Preparatory Activities for Grades K-8Aloud or independently, read the O. Henry stories featured in the

play (included in this guide). (10-30 minutes)

Research who O. Henry was by searching online and reading this Study Guide. (15 minutes or more)

Physical Pictures of Kindness-As a class or in small groups, create tableaus (or frozen stage pictures) of what kindness looks like. Ask students to add lines of dialogue to these tableaus or explain what’s happening in the stage pictures. (10-30 minutes)

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IV. Kindness and Empathy in the PlayDiscussion Questions What moments of kindness do you remember from the play?

Several characters felt inspired to take action during the course of the play. What different things motivated them?

Which characters in the play would you describe as kind or unkind? Why?

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation names 8 Building Blocks of Kindness.

o Kindness means caring for others o I can be kind to others and myselfo New friends come easily with kindness o Doing kind acts makes everyone happy o Nothing can stop kindnesso Everyone can be kindo Speaking kind words shows you careo Show respect through actions

How do moments in the play relate to these Building Blocks?

How does transformation relate to kindness?

Share your thoughts on Annabel’s statement:“Well, I’ve noticed that usually someone has to have the gumption to get kindness started, then other people feel safe enough to be nice. It’s a domino effect: domino, domino, domino! Without that, we’d all be sad and lonely forever!”

Kindness Activity for Grades K-2Draw a comic strip depicting one of the moments of kindness in the play. For instance...

(10-30 minutes)

Drawing of Jimmy asking for his tools back

Drawing of Dolores saying she polished the tools

Drawing of Jimmy saying thank you

Drawing of Dolores’ shock that he said thank you

Kindness Activities for Grades 3 and Up

Write the back-story for a character in the play. (10-30 minutes)For instance, write the story of how Prince Michael became so afraid of clocks and their power to “measure out our fun, press us to work and to worry, worry, worry” or how Eddie became so nervous around new and different people.

Write the inner thoughts of a character from one of the scenes in the play. For instance, you could write Annabel’s thoughts as she watched Jimmy Valentine crack the safe and free little Andrew from the bank vault:“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Ralph—I mean, Jimmy—open his bag and pull out tools to crack that safe. I had never met a criminal before. Is this what one looks like? Look how fast he is with that lock! Well, I never!”

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V. Personal Connections to KindnessDiscussion Questions

Which character/s do you have the most in common with? Why?

Which relationship in the play reminds you of a relationship in your life? How so?

Personal Connections Activities for Grades 3 and Up

Write about a moment of kindness you have witnessed personally. Then work in a team to create a series of tableaus depicting this moment. Give thought to portraying the beginning, middle and end of your kindness story, so that an audience can clearly perceive how this moment took place and how much it meant to you. (After the tableaus are complete, add elements such as lines of dialogue, music, costumes, props, and set pieces to tell your story even more clearly!) (20-30 minutes)

Multi-Media Image Presentation Create a quick-paced Pecha Kucha presentation with accompanying music or narration that captures your experience of kindness in the world. (20 minutes)

(Pecha Kucha (puh-CHAH kuh-CHAH) is a presentation format that has gained popularity since it was “devised in Tokyo in February

2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.”

Write a scene or a page of dialogue that captures a moment from your own life that opened your mind to someone different from you. (Feel free to change the names of the people involved, if they would not care to be identified.) Perform this scene or direct your classmates in a performance of the scene. (10 minutes

Write a short story that begins with the line “I saw a kindly

Personal Connections Activity for Grades K-2

Collage- Find pictures that relate to how you see people being kind everyday. Cut out the pictures from magazines or print out pictures you find online, and create a physical collage of images that captures your experience of kindness in the world. (20-30 minutes, Materials: magazines, computers)Storytelling- Sit in a circle and take turns standing to tell a story of a time you were kind to someone. Next, take turns telling a story of a time someone was kind to you. (10-20 minutes)

Statues- As a group, create a list of the different ways people are kind to each other. Divide the class in half in two areas of the room. Call out acts of kindness from the list. Half of the students observe, as the other half of the students use their bodies to create statues of these moments of kindness. Have the observers describe what they see. Have the halves switch roles for few more rounds. If you wish, do the same work with a list of ways people are unkind to each other. (20-40 minutes)

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VI. About O. Henry , also known as William Sydney Porter

Biographical Information

(Image taken from http://liternet.bg/ebook/amerikanska/image/ohenry.jpg)

Excerpts from Hollander’s O. Henry: Stories for Young People:

“William Sydney Porter, who wrote under the penname O. Henry, was the very popular author of several hundred short stories about American life around the beginning of the twentieth century. He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1862, where his father was a doctor. His aunt, a school teacher, educated him, and as a child he read widely, both in the great novelists of the nineteenth century and in popular fiction for boys...after several years he took the opportunity to move to

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Texas.” (6) O. Henry worked...

-in his uncle’s drugstore in NC-at a sheep ranch in Texas-as a draftsman in a government land office in Austin, Texas-publishing his own humorous weekly publication called The Rolling Stone-a bank teller

He was indicted (i.e., formally accused of a crime) for mismanaging the bank’s funds. Hollander states that “it is believed that [O. Henry] would have been acquitted, since he was not a thief, but he left the U.S. for Honduras in Central America” (7).

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O. Henry with his wife and daughter circa 1895, (http://ohenryhouse.org/Photos/Family/family.html)

He returned to the U.S. to check on his sick wife, and he was convicted and sent to jail for a few years. In prison, he wrote many short stories based on his life experiences, and when he was released he moved to Pittsburgh and then to New York City, where he would live the rest of his life.

O. Henry’s home in New York City

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(http://ohenryhouse.org/Photos/Family/family.html)

He is well-known for the “unexpected and often very surprising endings of his stories” (7). Biography.com describes O. Henry as “Incapable of integrating a book-length narrative, O. Henry was skilled in plotting short ones. He wrote in a dry, humorous style and, as in "The Gift of the Magi," frequently used coincidences and surprise endings to underline ironies. 

Quotes by O. Henry

“I wanted to paint a picture some day that people would stand before and forget that it was made of paint. I wanted it to creep into them like a bar of music and mushroom there like a soft bullet.” ― O. Henry’s story Masters of Arts in his collection titled Cabbages and Kings

“No friendship is an accident. ” ― O. Henry, Heart of the West

“I'll give you the whole secret to short story writing. Here it is. Rule 1: Write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule 2.” ― O. Henry

“It couldn't have happened anywhere but in little old New York.” ― from A Little Local Colour

“Hospitality in the prairie country is not limited. Even if your enemy passes your way, you must feed him before you shoot him.”

“The true adventurer goes forth aimless and uncalculating to meet and greet unknown fate.”

—from The Green Door

Quote about O. Henry

From New York Times Article “Through the Shadows with O. Henry” 1921:“As the years pass and new light is thrown into the obscurer recesses of Porter’s life, the surer do the memory and tradition of this splendid fellow and great-hearted soul fasten upon the consciousness of the public. The writer is held in admiration by the masters of his craft in many lands[.]”

--Archibald Henderson

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VII. The Stories included in DOMINO

A Retrieved Reformation

A guard came to the prison shoe-shop, where Jimmy Valentine wasassiduously stitching uppers, and escorted him to the front office.There the warden handed Jimmy his pardon, which had been signed thatmorning by the governor. Jimmy took it in a tired kind of way. He hadserved nearly ten months of a four year sentence. He had expected tostay only about three months, at the longest. When a man with as manyfriends on the outside as Jimmy Valentine had is received in the"stir" it is hardly worth while to cut his hair.

"Now, Valentine," said the warden, "you'll go out in the morning.Brace up, and make a man of yourself. You're not a bad fellow atheart. Stop cracking safes, and live straight."

"Me?" said Jimmy, in surprise. "Why, I never cracked a safe in mylife."

"Oh, no," laughed the warden. "Of course not. Let's see, now. How wasit you happened to get sent up on that Springfield job? Was it becauseyou wouldn't prove an alibi for fear of compromising somebody inextremely high-toned society? Or was it simply a case of a mean oldjury that had it in for you? It's always one or the other with youinnocent victims."

"Me?" said Jimmy, still blankly virtuous. "Why, warden, I never was inSpringfield in my life!"

"Take him back, Cronin!" said the warden, "and fix him up withoutgoing clothes. Unlock him at seven in the morning, and let him cometo the bull-pen. Better think over my advice, Valentine."

At a quarter past seven on the next morning Jimmy stood in thewarden's outer office. He had on a suit of the villainously fitting,ready-made clothes and a pair of the stiff, squeaky shoes that the

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state furnishes to its discharged compulsory guests.

The clerk handed him a railroad ticket and the five-dollar bill withwhich the law expected him to rehabilitate himself into goodcitizenship and prosperity. The warden gave him a cigar, and shookhands. Valentine, 9762, was chronicled on the books, "Pardoned byGovernor," and Mr. James Valentine walked out into the sunshine.

Disregarding the song of the birds, the waving green trees, and thesmell of the flowers, Jimmy headed straight for a restaurant. There hetasted the first sweet joys of liberty in the shape of a broiledchicken and a bottle of white wine--followed by a cigar a grade betterthan the one the warden had given him. From there he proceededleisurely to the depot. He tossed a quarter into the hat of a blindman sitting by the door, and boarded his train. Three hours set himdown in a little town near the state line. He went to the cafe of oneMike Dolan and shook hands with Mike, who was alone behind the bar.

"Sorry we couldn't make it sooner, Jimmy, me boy," said Mike. "But wehad that protest from Springfield to buck against, and the governornearly balked. Feeling all right?"

"Fine," said Jimmy. "Got my key?"

He got his key and went upstairs, unlocking the door of a room at therear. Everything was just as he had left it. There on the floor wasstill Ben Price's collar-button that had been torn from that eminentdetective's shirt-band when they had overpowered Jimmy to arrest him.

Pulling out from the wall a folding-bed, Jimmy slid back a panel inthe wall and dragged out a dust-covered suit-case. He opened this andgazed fondly at the finest set of burglar's tools in the East. It wasa complete set, made of specially tempered steel, the latest designsin drills, punches, braces and bits, jimmies, clamps, and augers, withtwo or three novelties, invented by Jimmy himself, in which he tookpride. Over nine hundred dollars they had cost him to have made at----, a place where they make such things for the profession.

In half an hour Jimmy went down stairs and through the cafe. He wasnow dressed in tasteful and well-fitting clothes, and carried hisdusted and cleaned suit-case in his hand. 

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"Got anything on?" asked Mike Dolan, genially.

"Me?" said Jimmy, in a puzzled tone. "I don't understand. I'mrepresenting the New York Amalgamated Short Snap Biscuit Cracker and Frazzled Wheat Company."

This statement delighted Mike to such an extent that Jimmy had to takea seltzer-and-milk on the spot. He never touched "hard" drinks.

A week after the release of Valentine, 9762, there was a neat job ofsafe-burglary done in Richmond, Indiana, with no clue to the author. Ascant eight hundred dollars was all that was secured. Two weeks afterthat a patented, improved, burglar-proof safe in Logansport was openedlike a cheese to the tune of fifteen hundred dollars, currency;securities and silver untouched. That began to interest the rogue-catchers. Then an old-fashioned bank-safe in Jefferson City becameactive and threw out of its crater an eruption of bank-notes amountingto five thousand dollars. The losses were now high enough to bring thematter up into Ben Price's class of work. By comparing notes, aremarkable similarity in the methods of the burglaries was noticed.Ben Price investigated the scenes of the robberies, and was heard toremark:

"That's Dandy Jim Valentine's autograph. He's resumed business. Lookat that combination knob--jerked out as easy as pulling up a radish inwet weather. He's got the only clamps that can do it. And look howclean those tumblers were punched out! Jimmy never has to drill butone hole. Yes, I guess I want Mr. Valentine. He'll do his bit nexttime without any short-time or clemency foolishness."

Ben Price knew Jimmy's habits. He had learned them while working onthe Springfield case. Long jumps, quick get-aways, no confederates,and a taste for good society--these ways had helped Mr. Valentine tobecome noted as a successful dodger of retribution. It was given outthat Ben Price had taken up the trail of the elusive cracksman, andother people with burglar-proof safes felt more at ease.

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One afternoon Jimmy Valentine and his suit-case climbed out of themail-hack in Elmore, a little town five miles off the railroad down inthe black-jack country of Arkansas. Jimmy, looking like an athleticyoung senior just home from college, went down the board side-walktoward the hotel.

A young lady crossed the street, passed him at the corner and entereda door over which was the sign, "The Elmore Bank." Jimmy Valentinelooked into her eyes, forgot what he was, and became another man. Shelowered her eyes and coloured slightly. Young men of Jimmy's style andlooks were scarce in Elmore.

Jimmy collared a boy that was loafing on the steps of the bank as ifhe were one of the stockholders, and began to ask him questions aboutthe town, feeding him dimes at intervals. By and by the young ladycame out, looking royally unconscious of the young man with the suit-case, and went her way.

"Isn' that young lady Polly Simpson?" asked Jimmy, with speciousguile.

"Naw," said the boy. "She's Annabel Adams. Her pa owns this bank.Why'd you come to Elmore for? Is that a gold watch-chain? I'm going toget a bulldog. Got any more dimes?"

Jimmy went to the Planters' Hotel, registered as Ralph D. Spencer, andengaged a room. He leaned on the desk and declared his platform to theclerk. He said he had come to Elmore to look for a location to go intobusiness. How was the shoe business, now, in the town? He had thoughtof the shoe business. Was there an opening?

The clerk was impressed by the clothes and manner of Jimmy. He,himself, was something of a pattern of fashion to the thinly gildedyouth of Elmore, but he now perceived his shortcomings. While tryingto figure out Jimmy's manner of tying his four-in-hand he cordiallygave information.

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Yes, there ought to be a good opening in the shoe line. There wasn'tan exclusive shoe-store in the place. The dry-goods and general storeshandled them. Business in all lines was fairly good. Hoped Mr. Spencerwould decide to locate in Elmore. He would find it a pleasant town tolive in, and the people very sociable.

Mr. Spencer thought he would stop over in the town a few days and lookover the situation. No, the clerk needn't call the boy. He would carryup his suit-case, himself; it was rather heavy.

Mr. Ralph Spencer, the phoenix that arose from Jimmy Valentine's ashes--ashes left by the flame of a sudden and alterative attack of love--remained in Elmore, and prospered. He opened a shoe-store and secureda good run of trade.

Socially he was also a success, and made many friends. And heaccomplished the wish of his heart. He met Miss Annabel Adams, andbecame more and more captivated by her charms.

At the end of a year the situation of Mr. Ralph Spencer was this: hehad won the respect of the community, his shoe-store was flourishing,and he and Annabel were engaged to be married in two weeks. Mr. Adams,the typical, plodding, country banker, approved of Spencer. Annabel'spride in him almost equalled her affection. He was as much at home inthe family of Mr. Adams and that of Annabel's married sister as if hewere already a member.

One day Jimmy sat down in his room and wrote this letter, which hemailed to the safe address of one of his old friends in St. Louis:

Dear Old Pal:

I want you to be at Sullivan's place, in Little Rock, nextWednesday night, at nine o'clock. I want you to wind up somelittle matters for me. And, also, I want to make you a present ofmy kit of tools. I know you'll be glad to get them--you couldn't

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duplicate the lot for a thousand dollars. Say, Billy, I've quitthe old business--a year ago. I've got a nice store. I'm making anhonest living, and I'm going to marry the finest girl on earth twoweeks from now. It's the only life, Billy--the straight one. Iwouldn't touch a dollar of another man's money now for a million.After I get married I'm going to sell out and go West, where therewon't be so much danger of having old scores brought up againstme. I tell you, Billy, she's an angel. She believes in me; and Iwouldn't do another crooked thing for the whole world. Be sure to beat Sully's, for I must see you. I'll bring along the tools with me.

Your old friend,

Jimmy.

On the Monday night after Jimmy wrote this letter, Ben Price joggedunobtrusively into Elmore in a livery buggy. He lounged about town inhis quiet way until he found out what he wanted to know. From thedrug-store across the street from Spencer's shoe-store he got a goodlook at Ralph D. Spencer.

"Going to marry the banker's daughter are you, Jimmy?" said Ben tohimself, softly. "Well, I don't know!"

The next morning Jimmy took breakfast at the Adamses. He was going toLittle Rock that day to order his wedding-suit and buy something nicefor Annabel. That would be the first time he had left town since hecame to Elmore. It had been more than a year now since those lastprofessional "jobs," and he thought he could safely venture out.

After breakfast quite a family party went downtown together--Mr.Adams, Annabel, Jimmy, and Annabel's married sister with her twolittle girls, aged five and nine. They came by the hotel where Jimmystill boarded, and he ran up to his room and brought along his suit-case. Then they went on to the bank. There stood Jimmy's horse andbuggy and Dolph Gibson, who was going to drive him over to therailroad station.

All went inside the high, carved oak railings into the banking-room--Jimmy included, for Mr. Adams's future son-in-law was welcomeanywhere. The clerks were pleased to be greeted by the good-looking,agreeable young man who was going to marry Miss Annabel. Jimmy

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set hissuit-case down. Annabel, whose heart was bubbling with happiness andlively youth, put on Jimmy's hat, and picked up the suit-case."Wouldn't I make a nice drummer?" said Annabel. "My! Ralph, how heavyit is? Feels like it was full of gold bricks."

"Lot of nickel-plated shoe-horns in there," said Jimmy, coolly, "thatI'm going to return. Thought I'd save express charges by taking themup. I'm getting awfully economical."

The Elmore Bank had just put in a new safe and vault. Mr. Adams wasvery proud of it, and insisted on an inspection by every one. Thevault was a small one, but it had a new, patented door. It fastenedwith three solid steel bolts thrown simultaneously with a singlehandle, and had a time-lock. Mr. Adams beamingly explained itsworkings to Mr. Spencer, who showed a courteous but not toointelligent interest. The two children, May and Agatha, were delightedby the shining metal and funny clock and knobs.

While they were thus engaged Ben Price sauntered in and leaned on hiselbow, looking casually inside between the railings. He told theteller that he didn't want anything; he was just waiting for a man heknew.

Suddenly there was a scream or two from the women, and a commotion.Unperceived by the elders, May, the nine-year-old girl, in a spirit ofplay, had shut Agatha in the vault. She had then shot the bolts andturned the knob of the combination as she had seen Mr. Adams do.

The old banker sprang to the handle and tugged at it for a moment."The door can't be opened," he groaned. "The clock hasn't been woundnor the combination set."

Agatha's mother screamed again, hysterically.

"Hush!" said Mr. Adams, raising his trembling hand. "All be quite fora moment. Agatha!" he called as loudly as he could. "Listen to me."During the following silence they could just hear the faint sound ofthe child wildly shrieking in the dark vault in a panic of terror.

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"My precious darling!" wailed the mother. "She will die of fright!Open the door! Oh, break it open! Can't you men do something?"

"There isn't a man nearer than Little Rock who can open that door,"said Mr. Adams, in a shaky voice. "My God! Spencer, what shall we do?That child--she can't stand it long in there. There isn't enough air,and, besides, she'll go into convulsions from fright."

Agatha's mother, frantic now, beat the door of the vault with herhands. Somebody wildly suggested dynamite. Annabel turned to Jimmy,her large eyes full of anguish, but not yet despairing. To a womannothing seems quite impossible to the powers of the man she worships.

"Can't you do something, Ralph--try, won't you?"

He looked at her with a queer, soft smile on his lips and in his keeneyes.

"Annabel," he said, "give me that rose you are wearing, will you?"

Hardly believing that she heard him aright, she unpinned the bud fromthe bosom of her dress, and placed it in his hand. Jimmy stuffed itinto his vest-pocket, threw off his coat and pulled up his shirt-sleeves. With that act Ralph D. Spencer passed away and JimmyValentine took his place.

"Get away from the door, all of you," he commanded, shortly.

He set his suit-case on the table, and opened it out flat. From thattime on he seemed to be unconscious of the presence of any one else.He laid out the shining, queer implements swiftly and orderly,whistling softly to himself as he always did when at work. In a deepsilence and immovable, the others watched him as if under a spell.

In a minute Jimmy's pet drill was biting smoothly into the steel door.In ten minutes--breaking his own burglarious record--he threw back thebolts and opened the door.

Agatha, almost collapsed, but safe, was gathered into her mother's

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arms.

Jimmy Valentine put on his coat, and walked outside the railingstowards the front door. As he went he thought he heard a far-awayvoice that he once knew call "Ralph!" But he never hesitated.

At the door a big man stood somewhat in his way.

"Hello, Ben!" said Jimmy, still with his strange smile. "Got around atlast, have you? Well, let's go. I don't know that it makes muchdifference, now."

And then Ben Price acted rather strangely.

"Guess you're mistaken, Mr. Spencer," he said. "Don't believe Irecognize you. Your buggy's waiting for you, ain't it?"

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The Caliph, Cupid, and the Clock (featured in DOMINO for grades 6-8 only)

Prince Michael, of the Electorate of Valleluna, sat on his favouritebench in the park. The coolness of the September night quickened thelife in him like a rare, tonic wine. The benches were not filled;for park loungers, with their stagnant blood, are prompt to detectand fly home from the crispness of early autumn. The moon was justclearing the roofs of the range of dwellings that bounded thequadrangle on the east. Children laughed and played about the fine-sprayed fountain. In the shadowed spots fauns and hamadryads wooed,unconscious of the gaze of mortal eyes. A hand organ--Philomel bythe grace of our stage carpenter, Fancy--fluted and droned in a sidestreet. Around the enchanted boundaries of the little park streetcars spat and mewed and the stilted trains roared like tigers andlions prowling for a place to enter. And above the trees shone thegreat, round, shining face of an illuminated clock in the tower of anantique public building.

Prince Michael's shoes were wrecked far beyond the skill of thecarefullest cobbler. The ragman would have declined any negotiationsconcerning his clothes. The two weeks' stubble on his face was greyand brown and red and greenish yellow--as if it had been made up fromindividual contributions from the chorus of a musical comedy. No manexisted who had money enough to wear so bad a hat as his.

Prince Michael sat on his favourite bench and smiled. It was adiverting thought to him that he was wealthy enough to buy every oneof those close-ranged, bulky, window-lit mansions that faced him, ifhe chose. He could have matched gold, equipages, jewels, arttreasures, estates and acres with any Croesus in this proud city ofManhattan, and scarcely have entered upon the bulk of his holdings.He could have sat at table with reigning sovereigns. The socialworld, the world of art, the fellowship of the elect, adulation,imitation, the homage of the fairest, honours from the highest,praise from the wisest, flattery, esteem, credit, pleasure, fame--allthe honey of life was waiting in the comb in the hive of the worldfor Prince Michael, of the Electorate of Valleluna, whenever he mightchoose to take it. But his choice was to sit in rags and dinginess

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on a bench in a park. For he had tasted of the fruit of the tree oflife, and, finding it bitter in his mouth, had stepped out of Edenfor a time to seek distraction close to the unarmoured, beating heartof the world.

These thoughts strayed dreamily through the mind of Prince Michael,as he smiled under the stubble of his polychromatic beard. Loungingthus, clad as the poorest of mendicants in the parks, he loved tostudy humanity. He found in altruism more pleasure than his riches,his station and all the grosser sweets of life had given him. It washis chief solace and satisfaction to alleviate individual distress,to confer favours upon worthy ones who had need of succour, to dazzleunfortunates by unexpected and bewildering gifts of truly royalmagnificence, bestowed, however, with wisdom and judiciousness.

And as Prince Michael's eye rested upon the glowing face of the greatclock in the tower, his smile, altruistic as it was, became slightlytinged with contempt. Big thoughts were the Prince's; and it wasalways with a shake of his head that he considered the subjugation ofthe world to the arbitrary measures of Time. The comings and goingsof people in hurry and dread, controlled by the little metal movinghands of a clock, always made him sad.

By and by came a young man in evening clothes and sat upon the thirdbench from the Prince. For half an hour he smoked cigars withnervous haste, and then he fell to watching the face of theilluminated clock above the trees. His perturbation was evident, andthe Prince noted, in sorrow, that its cause was connected, in somemanner, with the slowly moving hands of the timepiece.

His Highness arose and went to the young man's bench.

"I beg your pardon for addressing you," he said, "but I perceive thatyou are disturbed in mind. If it may serve to mitigate the liberty Ihave taken I will add that I am Prince Michael, heir to the throne ofthe Electorate of Valleluna. I appear incognito, of course, as youmay gather from my appearance. It is a fancy of mine to render aidto others whom I think worthy of it. Perhaps the matter that seemsto distress you is one that would more readily yield to our mutualefforts."

The young man looked up brightly at the Prince. Brightly, but the

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perpendicular line of perplexity between his brows was not smoothedaway. He laughed, and even then it did not. But he accepted themomentary diversion.

"Glad to meet you, Prince," he said, good humouredly. "Yes, I'd sayyou were incog. all right. Thanks for your offer of assistance--butI don't see where your butting-in would help things any. It's a kindof private affair, you know--but thanks all the same."

Prince Michael sat at the young man's side. He was often rebuffedbut never offensively. His courteous manner and words forbade that.

"Clocks," said the Prince, "are shackles on the feet of mankind. Ihave observed you looking persistently at that clock. Its face isthat of a tyrant, its numbers are false as those on a lottery ticket;its hands are those of a bunco steerer, who makes an appointment withyou to your ruin. Let me entreat you to throw off its humiliatingbonds and to cease to order your affairs by that insensate monitor ofbrass and steel."

"I don't usually," said the young man. "I carry a watch except whenI've got my radiant rags on."

"I know human nature as I do the trees and grass," said the Prince,with earnest dignity. "I am a master of philosophy, a graduate inart, and I hold the purse of a Fortunatus. There are few mortalmisfortunes that I cannot alleviate or overcome. I have read yourcountenance, and found in it honesty and nobility as well asdistress. I beg of you to accept my advice or aid. Do not belie theintelligence I see in your face by judging from my appearance of myability to defeat your troubles."

The young man glanced at the clock again and frowned darkly. Whenhis gaze strayed from the glowing horologue of time it restedintently upon a four-story red brick house in the row of dwellingsopposite to where he sat. The shades were drawn, and the lights inmany rooms shone dimly through them.

"Ten minutes to nine!" exclaimed the young man, with an impatientgesture of despair. He turned his back upon the house and took arapid step or two in a contrary direction.

"Remain!" commanded Prince Michael, in so potent a voice that thedisturbed one wheeled around with a somewhat chagrined laugh.

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"I'll give her the ten minutes and then I'm off," he muttered, andthen aloud to the Prince: "I'll join you in confounding all clocks,my friend, and throw in women, too."

"Sit down," said the Prince calmly. "I do not accept your addition.Women are the natural enemies of clocks, and, therefore, the alliesof those who would seek liberation from these monsters that measureour follies and limit our pleasures. If you will so far confide inme I would ask you to relate to me your story."

The young man threw himself upon the bench with a reckless laugh.

"Your Royal Highness, I will," he said, in tones of mock deference."Do you see yonder house--the one with three upper windows lighted?Well, at 6 o'clock I stood in that house with the young lady I am--that is, I was--engaged to. I had been doing wrong, my dear Prince--I had been a naughty boy, and she had heard of it. I wanted to beforgiven, of course--we are always wanting women to forgive us,aren't we, Prince?"

"'I want time to think it over,' said she. 'There is one thingcertain; I will either fully forgive you, or I will never see yourface again. There will be no half-way business. At half-pasteight,' she said, 'at exactly half-past eight you may be watching themiddle upper window of the top floor. If I decide to forgive I willhang out of that window a white silk scarf. You will know by thatthat all is as was before, and you may come to me. If you see noscarf you may consider that everything between us is ended forever.'That," concluded the young man bitterly, "is why I have been watchingthat clock. The time for the signal to appear has passed twenty-three minutes ago. Do you wonder that I am a little disturbed, myPrince of Rags and Whiskers?"

"Let me repeat to you," said Prince Michael, in his even, well-modulated tones, "that women are the natural enemies of clocks.Clocks are an evil, women a blessing. The signal may yet appear."

"Never, on your principality!" exclaimed the young man, hopelessly."You don't know Marian--of course. She's always on time, to theminute. That was the first thing about her that attracted me. I'vegot the mitten instead of the scarf. I ought to have known at 8.31that my goose was cooked. I'll go West on the 11.45 to-night withJack Milburn. The jig's up. I'll try Jack's ranch awhile and top

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off with the Klondike and whiskey. Good-night--er--er--Prince."

Prince Michael smiled his enigmatic, gentle, comprehending smile andcaught the coat sleeve of the other. The brilliant light in thePrince's eyes was softening to a dreamier, cloudy translucence.

"Wait," he said solemnly, "till the clock strikes. I have wealth andpower and knowledge above most men, but when the clock strikes I amafraid. Stay by me until then. This woman shall be yours. You havethe word of the hereditary Prince of Valleluna. On the day of yourmarriage I will give you $100,000 and a palace on the Hudson. Butthere must be no clocks in that palace--they measure our follies andlimit our pleasures. Do you agree to that?"

"Of course," said the young man, cheerfully, "they're a nuisance,anyway--always ticking and striking and getting you late for dinner."

He glanced again at the clock in the tower. The hands stood at threeminutes to nine.

"I think," said Prince Michael, "that I will sleep a little. The dayhas been fatiguing."

He stretched himself upon a bench with the manner of one who hadslept thus before.

"You will find me in this park on any evening when the weather issuitable," said the Prince, sleepily. "Come to me when your marriageday is set and I will give you a cheque for the money."

"Thanks, Your Highness," said the young man, seriously. "It doesn'tlook as if I would need that palace on the Hudson, but I appreciateyour offer, just the same."

Prince Michael sank into deep slumber. His battered hat rolled fromthe bench to the ground. The young man lifted it, placed it over thefrowsy face and moved one of the grotesquely relaxed limbs into amore comfortable position. "Poor devil!" he said, as he drew thetattered clothes closer about the Prince's breast.

Sonorous and startling came the stroke of 9 from the clock tower.The young man sighed again, turned his face for one last look at thehouse of his relinquished hopes--and cried aloud profane words ofholy rapture.

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>From the middle upper window blossomed in the dusk a waving, snowy,fluttering, wonderful, divine emblem of forgiveness and promised joy.

By came a citizen, rotund, comfortable, home-hurrying, unknowing ofthe delights of waving silken scarfs on the borders of dimly-litparks.

"Will you oblige me with the time, sir?" asked the young man; and thecitizen, shrewdly conjecturing his watch to be safe, dragged it outand announced:

"Twenty-nine and a half minutes past eight, sir."

And then, from habit, he glanced at the clock in the tower, and madefurther oration.

"By George! that clock's half an hour fast! First time in ten yearsI've known it to be off. This watch of mine never varies a--"

But the citizen was talking to vacancy. He turned and saw hishearer, a fast receding black shadow, flying in the direction of ahouse with three lighted upper windows.

And in the morning came along two policemen on their way to the beatsthey owned. The park was deserted save for one dilapidated figurethat sprawled, asleep, on a bench. They stopped and gazed upon it.

"It's Dopy Mike," said one. "He hits the pipe every night. Park bumfor twenty years. On his last legs, I guess."

The other policeman stooped and looked at something crumpled andcrisp in the hand of the sleeper.

"Gee!" he remarked. "He's doped out a fifty-dollar bill, anyway.Wish I knew the brand of hop that he smokes."

And then "Rap, rap, rap!" went the club of realism against the shoesoles of Prince Michael, of the Electorate of Valleluna.

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The Last Leaf

In a little district west of Washington Square the streets have runcrazy and broken themselves into small strips called "places." These"places" make strange angles and curves. One street crosses itselfa time or two. An artist once discovered a valuable possibility inthis street. Suppose a collector with a bill for paints, paper andcanvas should, in traversing this route, suddenly meet himselfcoming back, without a cent having been paid on account!

So, to quaint old Greenwich Village the art people soon cameprowling, hunting for north windows and eighteenth-century gablesand Dutch attics and low rents. Then they imported some pewter mugsand a chafing dish or two from Sixth avenue, and became a "colony."

At the top of a squatty, three-story brick Sue and Johnsy had theirstudio. "Johnsy" was familiar for Joanna. One was from Maine; theother from California. They had met at the _table d'hote_ of anEighth street "Delmonico's," and found their tastes in art, chicorysalad and bishop sleeves so congenial that the joint studioresulted.

That was in May. In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom thedoctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony, touching onehere and there with his icy fingers. Over on the east side thisravager strode boldly, smiting his victims by scores, but his feettrod slowly through the maze of the narrow and moss-grown "places."

Mr. Pneumonia was not what you would call a chivalric old gentleman.A mite of a little woman with blood thinned by California zephyrswas hardly fair game for the red-fisted, short-breathed old duffer.But Johnsy he smote; and she lay, scarcely moving, on her paintediron bedstead, looking through the small Dutch window-panes at theblank side of the next brick house.

One morning the busy doctor invited Sue into the hallway with ashaggy, gray eyebrow.

"She has one chance in--let us say, ten," he said, as he shook downthe mercury in his clinical thermometer. "And that chance is for herto want to live. This way people have of lining-up on the side ofthe undertaker makes the entire pharmacopeia look silly. Your littlelady has made up her mind that she's not going to get well. Has sheanything on her mind?"

"She--she wanted to paint the Bay of Naples some day," said Sue.

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"Paint?--bosh! Has she anything on her mind worth thinking abouttwice--a man, for instance?"

"A man?" said Sue, with a jew's-harp twang in her voice. "Is a manworth--but, no, doctor; there is nothing of the kind."

"Well, it is the weakness, then," said the doctor. "I will do allthat science, so far as it may filter through my efforts, canaccomplish. But whenever my patient begins to count the carriagesin her funeral procession I subtract 50 per cent. from the curativepower of medicines. If you will get her to ask one question aboutthe new winter styles in cloak sleeves I will promise you aone-in-five chance for her, instead of one in ten."

After the doctor had gone Sue went into the workroom and cried aJapanese napkin to a pulp. Then she swaggered into Johnsy's roomwith her drawing board, whistling ragtime.

Johnsy lay, scarcely making a ripple under the bedclothes, with herface toward the window. Sue stopped whistling, thinking she wasasleep.

She arranged her board and began a pen-and-ink drawing to illustratea magazine story. Young artists must pave their way to Art bydrawing pictures for magazine stories that young authors write topave their way to Literature.

As Sue was sketching a pair of elegant horseshow riding trousers anda monocle on the figure of the hero, an Idaho cowboy, she heard alow sound, several times repeated. She went quickly to the bedside.

Johnsy's eyes were open wide. She was looking out the window andcounting--counting backward.

"Twelve," she said, and a little later "eleven;" and then "ten," and"nine;" and then "eight" and "seven," almost together.

Sue looked solicitously out the window. What was there to count?There was only a bare, dreary yard to be seen, and the blank side ofthe brick house twenty feet away. An old, old ivy vine, gnarled anddecayed at the roots, climbed half way up the brick wall. The coldbreath of autumn had stricken its leaves from the vine until itsskeleton branches clung, almost bare, to the crumbling bricks.

"What is it, dear?" asked Sue.

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"Six," said Johnsy, in almost a whisper. "They're falling fasternow. Three days ago there were almost a hundred. It made my headache to count them. But now it's easy. There goes another one. Thereare only five left now."

"Five what, dear. Tell your Sudie."

"Leaves. On the ivy vine. When the last one falls I must go, too.I've known that for three days. Didn't the doctor tell you?"

"Oh, I never heard of such nonsense," complained Sue, withmagnificent scorn. "What have old ivy leaves to do with your gettingwell? And you used to love that vine so, you naughty girl. Don't bea goosey. Why, the doctor told me this morning that your chances forgetting well real soon were--let's see exactly what he said--he saidthe chances were ten to one! Why, that's almost as good a chance aswe have in New York when we ride on the street cars or walk past anew building. Try to take some broth now, and let Sudie go back toher drawing, so she can sell the editor man with it, and buy portwine for her sick child, and pork chops for her greedy self."

"You needn't get any more wine," said Johnsy, keeping her eyes fixedout the window. "There goes another. No, I don't want any broth.That leaves just four. I want to see the last one fall before itgets dark. Then I'll go, too."

"Johnsy, dear," said Sue, bending over her, "will you promise me tokeep your eyes closed, and not look out the window until I am doneworking? I must hand those drawings in by to-morrow. I need thelight, or I would draw the shade down."

"Couldn't you draw in the other room?" asked Johnsy, coldly.

"I'd rather be here by you," said Sue. "Besides I don't want you tokeep looking at those silly ivy leaves."

"Tell me as soon as you have finished," said Johnsy, closing hereyes, and lying white and still as a fallen statue, "because Iwant to see the last one fall. I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired ofthinking. I went to turn loose my hold on everything, and go sailingdown, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves."

"Try to sleep," said Sue. "I must call Behrman up to be my model forthe old hermit miner. I'll not be gone a minute. Don't try to move'till I come back."

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Old Behrman was a painter who lived on the ground floor beneaththem. He was past sixty and had a Michael Angelo's Moses beardcurling down from the head of a satyr along the body of an imp.Behrman was a failure in art. Forty years he had wielded the brushwithout getting near enough to touch the hem of his Mistress's robe.He had been always about to paint a masterpiece, but had never yetbegun it. For several years he had painted nothing except now andthen a daub in the line of commerce or advertising. He earned alittle by serving as a model to those young artists in the colonywho could not pay the price of a professional. He drank gin toexcess, and still talked of his coming masterpiece. For the rest hewas a fierce little old man, who scoffed terribly at softness inany one, and who regarded himself as especial mastiff-in-waiting toprotect the two young artists in the studio above.

Sue found Behrman smelling strongly of juniper berries in his dimlylighted den below. In one corner was a blank canvas on an easel thathad been waiting there for twenty-five years to receive the firstline of the masterpiece. She told him of Johnsy's fancy, and how shefeared she would, indeed, light and fragile as a leaf herself, floataway when her slight hold upon the world grew weaker.

Old Behrman, with his red eyes, plainly streaming, shouted hiscontempt and derision for such idiotic imaginings.

"Vass!" he cried. "Is dere people in de world mit der foolishnessto die because leafs dey drop off from a confounded vine? I haf notheard of such a thing. No, I will not bose as a model for your foolhermit-dunderhead. Vy do you allow dot silly pusiness to come in derprain of her? Ach, dot poor lettle Miss Johnsy."

"She is very ill and weak," said Sue, "and the fever has left hermind morbid and full of strange fancies. Very well, Mr. Behrman, ifyou do not care to pose for me, you needn't. But I think you are ahorrid old--old flibbertigibbet."

"You are just like a woman!" yelled Behrman. "Who said I will notbose? Go on. I come mit you. For half an hour I haf peen trying tosay dot I am ready to bose. Gott! dis is not any blace in whichone so goot as Miss Yohnsy shall lie sick. Some day I vill baint amasterpiece, and ve shall all go away. Gott! yes."

Johnsy was sleeping when they went upstairs. Sue pulled the shadedown to the window-sill, and motioned Behrman into the other room.In there they peered out the window fearfully at the ivy vine.

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Then they looked at each other for a moment without speaking. Apersistent, cold rain was falling, mingled with snow. Behrman, inhis old blue shirt, took his seat as the hermit-miner on an upturnedkettle for a rock.

When Sue awoke from an hour's sleep the next morning she foundJohnsy with dull, wide-open eyes staring at the drawn green shade.

"Pull it up; I want to see," she ordered, in a whisper.

Wearily Sue obeyed.

But, lo! after the beating rain and fierce gusts of wind that hadendured through the livelong night, there yet stood out against thebrick wall one ivy leaf. It was the last on the vine. Still darkgreen near its stem, but with its serrated edges tinted with theyellow of dissolution and decay, it hung bravely from a branch sometwenty feet above the ground.

"It is the last one," said Johnsy. "I thought it would surely fallduring the night. I heard the wind. It will fall to-day, and I shalldie at the same time."

"Dear, dear!" said Sue, leaning her worn face down to the pillow,"think of me, if you won't think of yourself. What would I do?"

But Johnsy did not answer. The lonesomest thing in all the world isa soul when it is making ready to go on its mysterious, far journey.The fancy seemed to possess her more strongly as one by one the tiesthat bound her to friendship and to earth were loosed.

The day wore away, and even through the twilight they could see thelone ivy leaf clinging to its stem against the wall. And then, withthe coming of the night the north wind was again loosed, while therain still beat against the windows and pattered down from the lowDutch eaves.

When it was light enough Johnsy, the merciless, commanded that theshade be raised.

The ivy leaf was still there.

Johnsy lay for a long time looking at it. And then she called toSue, who was stirring her chicken broth over the gas stove.

"I've been a bad girl, Sudie," said Johnsy. "Something has made that

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last leaf stay there to show me how wicked I was. It is a sin towant to die. You may bring me a little broth now, and some milk witha little port in it, and--no; bring me a hand-mirror first, and thenpack some pillows about me, and I will sit up and watch you cook."

An hour later she said.

"Sudie, some day I hope to paint the Bay of Naples."

The doctor came in the afternoon, and Sue had an excuse to go intothe hallway as he left.

"Even chances," said the doctor, taking Sue's thin, shaking hand inhis. "With good nursing you'll win. And now I must see another caseI have downstairs. Behrman, his name is--some kind of an artist, Ibelieve. Pneumonia, too. He is an old, weak man, and the attack isacute. There is no hope for him; but he goes to the hospital to-dayto be made more comfortable."

The next day the doctor said to Sue: "She's out of danger. You'vewon. Nutrition and care now--that's all."

And that afternoon Sue came to the bed where Johnsy lay, contentedlyknitting a very blue and very useless woolen shoulder scarf, and putone arm around her, pillows and all.

"I have something to tell you, white mouse," she said. "Mr. Behrmandied of pneumonia to-day in the hospital. He was ill only two days.The janitor found him on the morning of the first day in his roomdownstairs helpless with pain. His shoes and clothing were wetthrough and icy cold. They couldn't imagine where he had beenon such a dreadful night. And then they found a lantern, stilllighted, and a ladder that had been dragged from its place, and somescattered brushes, and a palette with green and yellow colors mixedon it, and--look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf on thewall. Didn't you wonder why it never fluttered or moved when thewind blew? Ah, darling, it's Behrman's masterpiece--he painted itthere the night that the last leaf fell."

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VIII. More Theatre and Creative Exercises Exploring Kindness, Empathy, Difference, and Power

General Note:After all of these exercises, open the door for the students to reflect upon what just happened. Ask open-ended questions about what was difficult, what was fun, what they noticed, and how it relates to people’s treatment of one another in general. These reflective periods can be brief. They can come in the form of asking each student for one word to describe their experience of the exercise that was just completed. They can be written or shared—variety of reflective techniques keeps it interesting.

If at all possible, use the students’ observations to fuel the next discussion or exercise. These reflective periods of time build the easy-to-neglect habit of listening fully to the people with whom one is living and working.

GAMES THAT FOCUS UPON KINDNESS

Assisted Kindness, or “Um...” (Grades 2 and Up, 15-30 minutes)Improvisation as a way to build Kindness Vocabulary

Two students improvise a scene together based upon a challenging situation, such as those listed below:

-Meeting someone who is new to school-Making conversation with someone who is very different from you-Admitting you were wrong about something-Responding to Unfriendliness-Responding to an Insult

The two begin their first scene. When a student finds himself at a loss, he can say “Um, um, um...” so the audience knows he needs a helpful suggestion. The students with ideas raise their hands for the facilitator to call upon them, and they give an idea of what to say in a situation like that. The student tries the idea and continues on his own, until he chooses to say “Um...” again.

A helpful variation of this might be to have a facilitator improvise with a student, until the students become more adept at playing the circumstances of the given scene. Ask students to reflect on the exercise.

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Writing/Creating a Play Based on a Building Block of Kindness (Grades 3 and Up, 15-45 minutes)Writing and Acting to Explore Kindness

Place old photographs of people the students do not know in one container.Place small slips of paper with a Building Blocks of Kindness (p. 4) written on them in another container.

Have small groups of students randomly draw a photograph and a building block of kindness from the containers and ask them to create a story inspired by what they have drawn. Ask students to reflect on the writing experience.

SPECIAL EVENT: Obstacle Course for Kindness (adjustable for K-8, 30-45 minutes)An exhilarating, physical race that makes kindness a Field Day

Materials: Signs detailing obstacles/eventsSpace divided up into areasArrows directing students to next event

Discuss kindness with students and create a shared list of everyday acts of kindness.

Create an obstacle course or relay race in which students race to do acts of kindness that they have placed on the list (e.g., saying thank you, helping someone up who has fallen, sharing food with someone who is hungry, welcoming someone when you meet someone new, helping someone carry something, etc.) as well as others that you are striving for them to reach toward.

This event could take place outdoors or in a gymnasium, and it is a great way to take honor students’ definitions of kindness and reward them with physical activity, small prizes, and recognition. Remember to ask the students to reflect on the experience.

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GAMES THAT FOCUS UPON EMPATHY

History Walk (Great for ALL Grades! 10-15 minutes) Acting to Build Empathy

Materials: list of circumstances relevant to your class’s focus area (examples below)

Compile a small library of quotes from history books that describe notable circumstances of a time. Ask students to walk around an open space. Ask them not to speak to anyone or communicate, just behave as though each circumstance you read to them is true for them.

You might read circumstances such as these: -The state was experiencing some of the worst winters in memory.

-As the town became more populated, land became harder and harder to acquire. -Water was extremely scarce.-Eye contact was strictly forbidden. (relevant to various class systems)

-You weigh 17% of your normal weight. (relevant to study of the moon’s gravitational pull)-People wearing blue are thought to be dirty and have diseases.(relevant to issues of discrimination)-Light is proven scientifically to make you young and beautiful.(relevant to the emphasis society places upon appearances)-It’s cool to show off your calf muscles.(relevant to Elizabethan fashion and aesthetics.)

Fun variation to support history curriculum: You could also use facts about a specific historical figure, without sharing who the figure is (e.g., Mother Theresa, a person who showed and inspired kindness)

Adding COMEDY: Add circumstances that are comical to help with student buy-in. Reflect upon the experience and the emotions students experience in the absence of eye contact, in the pursuit of being young and beautiful, in the absence of water.

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Ask students to reflect on their experience. This exercise brings a dimension of first-person experience to hearing someone else’s

circumstances.

Hotseat (Great for ALL grades! 10-45 minutes)Improvisation as a Tool to Build Empathy

In this game, a student is seated in front of the class and improvises answers to questions posed by the facilitator and the other students. The student answers questions from the perspective of a character familiar to everyone participating in the game.

The goal of the questions asked is to know this character well. The character can be a familiar villain from a fairytale, or a stock character that often lacks dimension. The goal of the group is to humanize this character and find out who they really are, instead of assuming they already know.

Ask students to reflect on their experience.

Change Narrative Perspective (Grades 4 and up, 25-90 minutes)Writing to Build Empathy

Rewrite a well-known poem, story, or movie from a peripheral character’s perspective (to help create buy-in, give examples of projects that do the same thing: the musical Wicked, the movie Elf, Shrek movies, etc.)

Modification for Grades 6 and Up (long-term reading project)

Take this personalizing exercise into non-fiction even further by asking the students to read biographies of prominent figures they admire (short or long) and ask them to create a script/scene that tells the story of a decision the prominent figure made in favor of kindness.

Modification for Grades 6 and Up: Ask students to prepare for the exercise by journaling for a week from the perspective of this character. Give writing prompts asking about dreams, fears, embarrassing moments, doubts, moments of inspiration to be kind, etc. This will allow for a richer interview and a need for closer listening from the interviewers.

Discuss the experience of being interviewed and listening to the

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Perform the piece with others and have a post-show discussion about the perspective shift.

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SPECIAL EMPATHY EVENT: Haves and Have-Nots Hunger Banquet Ritual (Grades 2 and Up! 20-30 minutes)Exercise highlighting the broad range of circumstances people experience, and how often those circumstances are not under their control.

Materials: Appropriate, unmessy snacks for participants Room divided up into areas, some with chairs & tables, some

without

Hold a special lunch or snacking event at which participants are randomly given a number at the door. The food supply can be specific to each group (produce for the high-income people, beans and rice for the low-income people) or the food distribution can be strictly based on quantities.

At the door:1’s are given to 20% of the participants: They get 75% of the food and get to sit at a table with chairs and decorations.

2’s are given to 40% of the participants: They get 20% of the food and get to sit at chairs, but do not get tables.

3’s are given to 40% of the participants. They get 5% of the food and have no chairs or tables, but must eat on the floor.

(These statistics come from “Poverty Facts and Stats,” an article by Anup Shah and updated in Sept. 2010. The food in this situation represents income. See http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats)

The participants eat side by side in the same room, observing the differences between what people have, based largely upon circumstances they were born into. Allow the participants to do as they wish within this set-up and observe what actions they take to balance provisions and circumstances...or not.

Have a post-snack discussion about the feelings members of the different groups.

Augusto Boal’s Exercise Exploring POWER: Metalface-Magnethand (Great for ALL grades! 10-15 minutes)Energizing Physical exploration of Power

Ask students to find a partner and emphasize the importance of taking excellent care of one’s partner. Safety is paramount.

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“One actor holds her hand palm forward, fingers upright, anything between 20 and 40 centimeters away from the face of another, who is tehn as if hypnotised and must keep his face constantly the same distance from the hand of the hypnotiser, hairline level with her fingertips, chin more or less level with the base of her palm. The hypnotiser starts a series of movements with her hand, up and down, right and left, backwards and forwards, her hand vertical in relation to the ground, then horizontal, then diagonal, etc. –the partner must contort his body in every way possible to maintain the same distance between face and hand, so that face and hand remain parallel. If necessary, the hypnotic hand can be swapped; for instance, to force the hypnotised to go between the legs of the hypnotiser. The hand must never do movements too rapid to be followed, not must it ever come to a complete halt. ...After a few minutes, the two actors change, the follower and the leader. After more time, both can extend a hypnotising right hand, becoming leaders and followers at one and the same time.”

After the students participate in this, ask them about what role they enjoyed more: leader or follower. Ask for their reasons for their preferences, and explore through discussion what behaviors emerged when one person exerts power over another. Were there moments when you felt unsafe or when you wanted to stop (or did stop)? What are the temptations that come about when one has power? Were you a kind leader or a cruel one? What do you think of these impulses?

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EXERCISES THAT FOCUS UPON DIFFERENCE

Augusto Boal’s Exercise: “Difficulties” (Great for ALL grades! 10-20 minutes)

“We are habituated to doing things mechanically—but with the smallest alteration of the body, or of the objects it encounters, everything can change. If, for example, the actor has one hand behind his back, how will he lay the table? What if he has the use of only one eye or one leg, or can hardly move from the spot, forwards or backwards, or his fingers are rigid—how will he get dressed? All physical deficiencies or imperfections of environment produce an immediate increase of sensitivity” (69-70).

Ask students to do simple tasks like load backpacks with one hand, recycle used paper moving only on one leg, or dance to their favorite song with only their fingers.

Seek out other experiments with difference that are pertinent to your specific students. (e.g., If a student is on crutches, what can they use those crutches to do or to move like that is inventive and fanciful?)

Reflect upon the effects upon a person’s movements and emotions.

Embracing Difference (Great for ALL grades! 10-15 minutes)A physical clowning exercise that glories in the opportunities and inventions difference presents

Materials: Various pillows

All participants use small pillows (or even balled-up extra sweatshirts) to change their physique. The pillow is shoved under clothing to become a hunchback, giant bicep, an oversized behind, a big round belly, an extra puffy foot. The students develop a new walk, a new voice, a backstory, and a goal for the character that they become when they have this new shape.

Ask the students to move about the space in character to experiment with this new shape and to create their character. After they develop their walk while moving about to music, offer them the chance to journal from the perspective of this newly created human being. Prompt them with questions like “What is important to you? What do you want to do? What and whom do you love and who loves you?”

After this development work, observe as a group as two of these newfound characters improvise scenes in which they encounter one another. Ask students to find relationships between their characters while

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improvising short scenes together. The basic form of the scenes should include the characters meeting, conflict of some kind over differences, and then arriving at some degree of understanding—big or small.

Allow time for the students to reflect about what their various differences felt like.

Team Crossing the Room (Grades 3 and Up, 20-45 minutes)An old camp game becomes a full-body experience of needing help, giving it, and the joy of succeeding at the task of helping others

Materials: Numbered Pieces of Paper

Place numbered pieces of paper on the floor throughout an open space. They should be arranged and taped to the floor to serve as lily pads that students can hop from one to the next without touching the floor. The goal of the game is for the entire group to travel from paper #1 to the final piece of paper, crossing the space . The whole group must cross, but there are certain challenges that the facilitator assigns to various students.

-Only one person may speak. -Others may only gesture and communicate without words. (They may be allowed a single suggestion, if called upon by the official speaker.)

-One person is blindfolded.-One person can only use one leg-One person can only use one leg and a hand-Two people have to remain connected while crossing.-If people have crossed the space, they may be sent out on the paper “lilypads” to help someone, but if anyone touches the floor instead of the paper, they must return to the starting position.

Add or change the limitations as you wish.Allow time for the students to reflect on the elements of kindness that arose, the moments of triumph and frustration involved.

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IX. About Buntport TheaterBuntport Theater Company is a vibrant ensemble of eight people located in Denver, Colorado. Intent on creating innovative and affordable entertainment, they write and produce all of their work. Each piece grows from a collaborative process, without specific directors or designers. They brainstorm their way to any given solution, relying on the combined skills of the whole ensemble. They are the writers, the directors, the performers, the technicians...even the administrators.

Known for unusual adaptations and quirky original comedies, we keep our seasons packed, debuting several new full-length productions in addition to a variety of less traditional programming. From live sit-coms to unique open-mic nights to family-friendly entertainment, to an ongoing series at the Denver Art Museum, they offer programs that appeal to all walks of life.

Buntport’s all-ages live comic book is in Workshops teach theater skills and teambuilding,Its 7th season, debuting a new episode as well as integrating theater with other topics.every two weeks from November to May.

Considering themselves to be on the fringe of traditional theater while at thesame time focusing on remaining extremely accessible. Come to a Buntport production and you see a world premiere unique to their black-box space just off of the Santa Fe Arts District. Find out more about our creative work, our all-ages plays, and educational programs at www.buntport.com.

X. About the Random Acts of Kindness FoundationThe Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is an internationally recognized non-profit organization founded upon the powerful belief in kindness and dedicated to providing resources and tools that encourage acts of kindness. Find these resources and tools and randomactsofkindness.org.

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XI. BibliographyBoal, Augusto. Games for Actors and Non-Actors. Translated by Adrian Jackson.

Cain, Frasier. “Gravity on the Moon.” 14 Oct. 2008. http://www.universetoday.com/19710/gravity-on-the-moon/Accessed 12 April 2012.

Family and Home Photos. The O. Henry House. San Antonio, TX. http://ohenryhouse.org/Photos/Family/family.html

Henderson, Archibald. “Through the Shadows with O. Henry.” New York Times. 1921.

Henry, O. “The Caliph, Cupid, and the Clock.” http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/41/ Accessed Feb. 2012.

Henry, O. “The Last Leaf.” http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/41/ Accessed Feb. 2012.

Henry, O. “A Retrieved Reformation.” http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/41/ Accessed Feb. 2012.

O. Henry: Stories for Young People Edited by John HollanderIllustrated by Miles Hyman Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. New York.

“Pecha Kucha 20 x 20.” http://www.pecha-kucha.org/ Accessed 11 April 2012.

“William Sydney Porter.” http://www.biography.com/people/william-sydney-porter-9542046

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