GUIDEBOOK

THUMBELINA

A WORD ON THE

COMPAGNY

MORE TO DISCOVER...For youngsters getting ready to come to a theatre, it is always interesting to learn things about the history of the company presenting the production. Where does it come from? Is it a new company or has it produced other plays previously? Who are the performers? What are their names? Why have they chosen this line of work? Where did they learn it?

Teachers can find answers to these questions by going to the company’s website at www.illusiontheatre.com

L’Illusion, Théâtre de marionnettes creates, produces and performs plays that draw on world literature and the rich repertoire of story tales.Each production explores various forms and techniques in the larger family of puppetry arts. Be it shadows, rods, strings or simple everyday objects, anything can be used to give life to inanimate objects and create a world where anything can happen.On the eve of its 35th year, L’Illusion stands out. This is due to the artists’ spirit and passion, the company’s openness to the next generation, innovation as well as efforts to make all its activities widely accessible. The company made a bold move by setting up in a

permanent location in order to create and present its productions. This unique theatre space located in Montreal is entirely dedicated to puppet productions. The company also tours outside its theatre studio, indeed all over Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the United States and Europe.

Thumbelina is born in the heart of a mysterious flower. Barely has she managed to discover her world that she is torn away and cast into a colossal world. Growing up, the frail heroine faces larger-than-life events. She will find the strength and courage to finally fly off on her own. Freely based on hans christian andersen’s Thumbelina, L’Illusion’s most recent production combines puppetry, dancing and music. Thumbelina is a production designed as a musical theatre adventure filled with movement. The words support the action just like in a story book. It engages children’s imagination and feelings and allows them to freely come up with their own interpretation of the story.

SYNOPSIS

This book serves as a guide to the teacher who wants to introduce students to the world of Tommelise with information and activities to easily address the different dimensions of the show:

... BEFORE THE SHOW ...How to prepare for going out to the theater?

... DURING THE SHOW ...How to supervise your students during the performance?

... AFTER THE SHOW ...How to broaden the adventure?

A WORD ON THIS

GUIDEBOOK...

BEFORE GOING OUT TO THE THEATER ...

To fully benefit from the experience, we suggest that you focus preparations for the performance on going out to a theatre. Few children have the opportunity of going to a theatre space on a regular basis. So it may be a first for many of them.

Take time in the classroom to discover what theatre is and tell children about how things are going to happen and what they will be experiencing.

WHAT IS THEATER?Why, when and how did people begin to gather in various locations to hear story tales that made them laugh or cry? The history of theatre is fascinating. From the large greek amphitheaters to london’s globe theatre and state-of-the-art spaces, thousands of venues have been built to give life to stories. For some, the mere glimmer of a candle is enough to make a whole world appear! There are various forms and it keeps evolving to better involve all those who come to hear stories.

For teachers interested in having their students discover theatre, may we suggest John Russell Brown’s the oxford illustrated history of theatre, published by Oxford University Press.

AND WHAT ABOUT PUPPETS?It is important to find out what children know about puppets. Have they already seen a puppet play? There are various types of puppets. They can be made of wood, cloth or paper and can be operated with strings or rods. They can be as small as a thumb and as large as an elephant.

WORD FROM THE AUTHOR

SABRINA BARANPROJECT BACKGROUNDMy childhood was filled with fairy tales, princesses and witches and I truly believe that major female archetypes have much more inner strength and complexity than may appear at first. As an adult I rediscovered the tales that nurtured my childhood imagination and are still with me today. One of the characters I enjoyed reconnecting with is the modest and fragile Thumbelina, a girl mysteriously born in the heart of a flower. Uprooted at birth and flung from one world to the next, the frail heroine grows up and overcomes a series of trying events. The whole story is structured like a metaphor for human existence and self-discovery in a hostile world. I want to adapt the story and craft a modern, highly visual and poetic puppet production. I aim to create a powerful female character even though she may seem fragile at first. I hope to go beyond the original tale’s proposition by leaving out a few concepts that date back to story’s writing. To do so we will focus on the project’s central idea: a female character’s quest for freedom and self-discovery.

DIRECTORIAL APPROACHIn my view choreographing movement in space, whether with a human body or a puppet, can generate strong emotions. So I chose to explore the limits between the human body and the puppet on stage. I want to work on generating feelings by intertwining puppetry, dancing, music and lighting through sets of proportions. I will be writing visually and musically. Movement will be conveying the meaning more than words.

CREATIVE TEAMI assembled a great team of 5 outstanding female designers. These highly skilled professionals come from various backgrounds. Their artistic approach involves direct involvement in a piece from the outset and a merging of genres. Their motivation is to share their respective know-how and have a hand in creating a uniquely organic piece.

CREATIVE TEAM

TEXT, CONCEPT and INTERPRETATION SABRINA BARANSabrina Baran, L’Illusion, Théâtre de marionnettes’s artistic codirector, was drawn to the performing arts, dance and visual arts early on. Following her bachelor’s degree in psychology for deeper knowledge of human behavior, she began training with Quebec and European masters in puppet theatre, shadow and object puppets.Sabrina has been involved in creating, developing and performing of the

company’s productions including Chantefable, Under the stars and Philemon and Baucis. In 2012, she created Ondin, her first creation. The productions tour at the Studio-théâtre de L’Illusion and all over Montreal, Quebec, Canada, United States, South America and Europe.

DANCER and CHOREOGRAPHER LILA-MAE G. TALBOTLila-Mae began dancing at a very early age. She trained classically at the l’École supérieure de Ballet school. Her first pre-professional experiences were with the Jeune Ballet du Québec company after which she became a dancer with Les Grand Ballets and performed both repertory and modern dance pieces, including choreographies by George Balanchine, Kim Brandstrup and Helgi Tomasson.

Later she joined the Rubberbanddance Group with which she worked for several years as a dancer and assistant choreographer. Lila-Mae still dances independently and teaches at École de danse de Québec.

SOUND DESIGN and MUSICIAN MARYSE POULINAs an artist who works with body, sound and imagery, Maryse Poulin practices and incorporates various artistic languages in her work. She danced for 5 years with O’Vertigo dance company before undertaking her own movement research work, exploring various aspects of stage and tech-based languages. Her work has been presented in various venues in Montreal and across Europe.As a self-taught musician, a theatre sound designer, a poetry accompanist, a

collector of sounds of life, she creates music for the stage using instruments such as prepared violins, saxophones and other sundry instruments. She won two sound-design Masque awards from the Académie québécoise du théâtre.

SCENOGRAPHY and COSTUME DESIGN JOSÉE BERGERON-PROULXA graduate of the set design program at the National Theatre School of Canada, Josée Bergeron-Proulx is involved in designing sets and costumes as well as set painting and prop building. She worked for a number of directors, such as René-Richard Cyr, Alain Gauthier et Anne-Marie White. She shares her affection for imagination’s architecture with various companies including

Théâtre le Clou, Théâtre la Manufacture and L’Illusion, Théâtre de marionnettes.She passes on her expertise by running a scenography program at Collège Jean-Eudes until 2016. Today, she continues her research by developing her master’s degree in visual and media arts at L’UQÀM.

PUPPET DESIGN and CONSTRUCTION ISABELLE CHRÉTIENAfter graduating in dramatic arts at UQÀM university in 2002 and majoring in set design, Isabelle Chrétien specialized in designing and building puppets. She works on puppets for a number of Quebec theatre companies, including Théâtre de l’Avant-Pays, Théâtre de l’Oeil and L’Illusion, Théâtre de marionnettes. Recently, she led a puppet construction building on the Coco-incognito production and

co-designed the puppets for Montreal’s Biodôme.

In 2003, she founded the Vis Motrix puppet theatre company along with David Magny. She designs and builds its puppets aside from manipulating them.

LIGHTING AUDREY-ANNE BOUCHARDA graduate in theatre design and production at Concordia University, Audrey-Anne works primarily as a lighting designer in dance, music and theatre productions both in Quebec and abroad. Her recent lighting designs for young audiences include Les Zurbains – Théâtre Le Clou company, Babioles – Cabane Théâtre company and Fairy Mix - Les BGM dance company. In 2011 Audrey-Anne completed an international master’s program in

which she studied the integration of video projection in new artistic practices. She is currently teaching design and production in the undergraduate program at Concordia University aside from being a production coach at the National Theatre School of Canada.

GOING OUT IN A GROUP CAN BE AN EVENT IN ITSELF.

Getting on a school bus with a group of friends is exciting. In fact it has nothing to do with the destination or the length of the trip.

Of course, once they’re in the venue, paying attention is crucial for a successful theatre outing. Yet you must not forget to remind the children that they have the right to react to what happens on stage. performers love hearing children’s responses.

laughter, oohs and ahhs are more than welcome. Children often have questions and name characters out loud. No problem!

We suggest not using the classic sshhh! with the children since it often ends up affecting their concentration as well as that of the performers.

The puppet performance will be enriched by the sets, the music and the lighting. The audience will collectively enjoy the tale played out by the actors and the inanimate objects coming to life before their very eyes.

GOING OUT TO A PERFORMANCE ...

CAUTION!Introducing children to the play’s themes may arouse interest, but please avoid telling too much in order to preserve the magic of the play!

AFTER THE

PERFORMANCE...There is a whole range of follow-up activities. All of them help enrich the outing. You can broaden it to other learning experiences, including drawing, handicraft, discussions, writing and research. Following the performance, we suggest that you first take time to exchange in the classroom on their impressions. What was their favorite moment? How did they feel? What did they understand or not understand in the show? Bear in mind that there is no good or bad answer. Every child can have his/her own interpretation of the show.

EMOTIONSFrom the beginning to the end of the performance, Thumbelina goes through adventures that give rise to a whole range of feelings. Despite her size she will show great courage and overcome a number of obstacles. You could have an interesting discussion on this theme.

Do you sometimes feel you are tiny like Thumbelina? What if you really became miniature? What would you do? Where would you go explore? How would you feel?

EXPLORING ANIMAL CHARACTERS During her adventure, Thumbelina meets a toad, a fish, a butterfly, a few beetles, a mole and a swallow. It can be interesting to get together and list the various animal characters Thumbelina met. You can discuss their personalities and feelings. Keep in mind that there is no bad interpretation as we do not feel or understand things the same way.

What were her feelings when she met them? Which character made the strongest impression on you? Why?

Did children love or hate one specific character?

DRAWINGIt is always interesting to suggest children draw something after a performance. Through the drawings they will be able to express some specific feeling even if they cannot yet put it into words. You can suggest they draw their favourite moment during the performance or even draw themselves as tiny characters in a huge world!

READINGHans Christian Andersen wrote some 150 tales, which were translated in many languages worldwide. The writer had a profound influence on children’s literature. Here are some of this most famous tales.

The Ugly Duckling The Emperor’s New Clothes

The Steadfast Tin Soldier The Snow Queen

The Princess and the Pea The Little Match Girl The Little Mermaid

The Sheperdess and the Chimney Sweep that Paul Grimault and Jacques Prévert adapted into an animated feature The King and the

Mockingbird (Le Roi et l’Oiseau)

Tommelise is the original Danish title of Andersen’s tale. Translated in English it became Thumbelina. You can tell a story in various ways. Indeed there are various versions of the tale. You can read them and have fun discovering the differences between any one and the performance you just attended.

... ACTIVITIES TO HELP

BROADEN THE ADVENTURE

DIFFERENT FORMS OF

ARTISTIC EXPRESSIONDANCEdancing to express strong feelings Joy, fear and sadness can be interesting feelings to explore in free workshops. You will need to have adequate space in the classroom. Find music that can stimulate various feelings, let the children dance freely on the theme and share the given feeling.

MUSICTHE UKULELE: The ukulele is a traditional Hawaiian plucked string instrument. It is similar to the cavaquinho, adapted from a popular Portuguese instrument. It is thought that the term “ukulele” probably stemmed from 2 words “uke” and “lele”, respectively meaning to scratch and to hit and describing the musician’s movements.

NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE: In Lakota Sioux, “siotantka” means “singing wood”. The native American flute made of red cedar is an ancient instrument typical of North America. Like for many traditional instruments there is not factory that produces them. Musicians manufacture them for themselves or another musician, which gives them a unique sound. The flute is designed to match the human voice and create a soothing sound. According to an ancient Sioux legend the woodpecker invented the flute.

ALTO CLARINET: The alto clarinet is a wind instrument often used in chamber orchestras. In the production the instrument represents a specific animal, i.e. the mole. Its deep hollow sound faithfully represents the world of moles.

thumbelina

Thumbelina is born in the heart of a mysterious flower. Barely has she managed to discover her world that she is torn away and cast into a colossal world. Growing up, the frail heroine faces

larger-than-life events. She will find the strength and courage to finally fly off on her own.

STUDIO-THÉÂTRE DE L’ILLUSION6430, St-Denis Montréal (Qc) H2S 2R7514-523-1303 • info@illusiontheatre.comWWW.ILLUSIONTHEATRE.COM

TEXT, CONCEPT and INTERPRETATION : SABRINA BARAN

SCENOGRAPHY and COSTUME DESIGN : JOSÉE BERGERON-PROULX

LIGHTING : AUDREY-ANNE BOUCHARD

PUPPET DESIGN and CONSTRUCTION : ISABELLE CHRÉTIEN

DANCER and CHOREOGRAPHER : LILA-MAE G. TALBOT

SOUND DESIGN and MUSICIAN : MARYSE POULIN

photo credits : MICHEL PINAULT ET STÉPHANIE BARAN

interpretation SABRINA BARAN , LILA-MAE G. TALBOT ET MARYSE POULIN