Study Guide

Frindle

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ATTENDING A PERFORMANCE The concert hall at Tilles Center seats 2,242 people. Hillwood Recital Hall seats 490 people. When you attend a performance at Tilles Center, there are a few things you should remember:

ARRIVAL • Plan to arrive approximately 30 minutes prior to the show.

• Performances cannot be held for late buses.

• LIU Post Public Safety will direct buses to parking areas.

• Remain seated on the bus until instructed to unload.

• Please stagger chaperones throughout the group to help keep students in lineand moving quickly to the seating area.

• Groups are directed into the theater in the order that they arrive.

BEING SEATED (IMPORTANT!) • Upon entering the theater, ushers will direct students and teachers to sit row

by row. Students will be seated in the order which they enter the building.Groups from your school may be seated separately from one anotherthroughout the theatre. We ask that at least one chaperone is assigned toevery 15 students for grades Pre-K- 5, and one chaperone to every 30students for grades 5-12. We recommend that a teacher or chaperone sitat the end of each row of students in the theatre. With adequate adultsupervision, students which may be seated in different sections of thetheatre will have enough chaperones to ensure safety. We ask for your fullcooperation with this procedure in order to start the show on time!

• Please allow ushers to seat your group in its entirety before makingadjustments within the row. This allows us to continue seating groups thatarrive after you. Once the entire group is seated you may rearrange students innew seats and use the restrooms.

• Schools are not allowed to change their seats.

• All students must be supervised by a teacher at all times including whengoing to the restroom - high school students are no exception.

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DURING THE SHOW • There is no food or drink permitted in the theater or lobby areas.

• Photography and audio/video recording are not permitted during theperformance.

• Please turn off (or leave behind) all electronic devices, including cell phones,portable games, cameras, and recording equipment. Keep them off for the entireperformance. The devices may interfere with the theater’s sound system as wellas being disruptive to both the audience and the actors. And please – no textingor checking messages during the show!

• Please do not disturb the performers and other members of the audience bytalking.

• If something in the show is meant to be funny, laughter is encouraged!

• Please do not leave and re-enter the theater during the performance.

• There is no intermission; visit the restroom prior to the start of theshow. Performances generally run 50 - 60 minutes.

EMERGENCY CANCELLATIONS If schools throughout the area are closed due to inclement weather, Tilles Center performances will be cancelled. If, on the day prior to a performance, it appears that inclement weather may cause a performance to be cancelled, all schools will be called by our staff to alert them to this possibility. School representatives should periodically check the Tilles Center website (tillescenter.org) when winter weather advisories and warnings are in effect. Updates will be posted regularly on the home page. On the morning of the performance a message will be posted on the website no later than 6:30 AM indicating if the performance has been cancelled.

If a performance is cancelled, Tilles Center will attempt to reschedule performances on a date mutually agreeable to the artists and the majority of ticket buyers.

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YOUR ROLE AS AN AUDIENCE MEMBER

TO THE TEACHER: An essential component needed to create a live performance is the audience. Please talk with your students about what it means to be an audience member and how a “live” performance is different from TV and movies. Please share the following information with your students prior to your visit to Tilles Center. Some performances may involve audience participation so students should behave appropriately, given the nature of the performance and the requests of the artists on the stage. By discussing appropriate audience behavior, as a class ahead of time, the students will be better prepared to express their enthusiasm in acceptable ways during the performance.

BEING AN AUDIENCE MEMBER: Audience members play an important role— until an audience shows up, the performers are only rehearsing! When there is a “great house” (an outstanding audience) it makes the show even better, because the artists feel a live connection with everyone who is watching them. When the “house lights” (the lights in the part of the theater where the audience is sitting) go down, everyone feels a thrill of anticipation. Focus all your attention on the stage and watch and listen carefully to the performance. The most important quality of a good audience member is the ability to respond appropriately to what’s happening on stage… sometimes it’s important to be quiet, but other times, it’s acceptable to laugh, clap, or make noise! If the audience watches in a concentrated, quiet way, this supports the performers and they can do their best work. They can feel that you are with them!

The theater is a very “live” space. This means that sound carries very well, usually all over the auditorium. Theaters are designed in this way so that the voices of singers and actors can be heard. It also means that any sounds in the audience - whispering, rustling papers, or speaking - can be heard by other audience members and by the performers. This can destroy everyone’s concentration and spoil a performance. Do not make any unnecessary noise that would distract the people sitting around you. Be respectful!

Applause is the best way for an audience in a theater to share its enthusiasm and to appreciate the performers, so feel free to applaud at the end of the performance. At the end of the performance, it is customary to continue clapping until the curtain drops or the lights on stage go dark. During the curtain call, the performers bow to show their appreciation to the audience. If you really enjoyed the performance, you might even thank the artists with a standing ovation!

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based on the book by Andrew Clements adapted by William Massolia

Study Guide

Synopsis:

The play opens with Mrs. Granger, an elderly, distinguished teacher, grading

papers when the mail arrives. She is informed by the superintendent that a permanent,

million dollar trust fund for college scholarships has been set up in her honor. Mrs.

Granger passes it off as a trick until she learns that the fund was established by a former

student of hers, Nicholas Allen.

The play then flashes back to over ten years ago when Nick was starting fifth

grade at Lincoln Elementary School. He and several of his friends were dismayed to

find that their language arts teacher was to be the dreaded Mrs. Granger, who was

notorious for her long homework assignments. Nick responded rather coolly, however,

because he was known throughout his class as the “idea man”, who could invent ways

to get everyone out of class work. Everyone was still reeling from his bug stunt last

year which involved turning the thermostat up and dumping sand all over the classroom

to create a beach party. The class was so busy cleaning up, there was never an

opportunity to do any work, or even to receive a homework assignment. All the kids in

Nick’s language arts last year were more than confident that Nick would come up with

something just as good this time.

In the last moments of class, after Mrs. Granger had finished her lecture on the

importance of words and their definitions, and just before she was about to sentence the

entire class to what was sure to be the longest homework assignment ever, Nick’s hand

shot into the air. He’d come up with the perfect question to keep Mrs. Granger talking

well past the ring of the bell: “Where do words come from?”

Mrs. Granger was not taking the bait, though, and she took this opportunity to

allow Nick to teach the class, himself. Nick was to research his own question and write

up a report, in addition to the homework that was assigned to the rest of the class.

This proved to be the beginning of Nick’s experiment with words, as well as his

power struggle with Mrs. Granger over what constituted a “real word” in the first place.

It was then that Nick decided to create a new word to replace “pen”: Frindle. The feud

between Nick and Mrs. Granger then spread over the whole school, then the town, then

throughout the entire country. The struggle went on and on, with neither conceding

until finally Nick’s new word was printed in the latest edition of the dictionary.

By the play’s end, we find that Mrs. Granger not only taught Nick about the

importance of words and their origins, but also about having the courage to stand up for

himself when he faced opposition. In the final moments of the play, Nick thanks Mrs.

Granger for the lessons, and, as a token of his gratitude, offers her a gift that she can call

by any name she chooses.

Welcome!

We are delighted that you’ve chosen to bring your students to attend our production of Frindle. This is a wonderful opportunity for teachers and students to explore the performing arts. You can discover new ways of integrating arts exploration into ongoing work in the classroom. We hope to give you some ideas, and we hope you will share the arts methods you already use to maximize instruction.

The mission of the Griffin Theatre Company is to create extraordinaryand meaningful theatrical experiences for both children and adults by building bridges of understanding between generations that instill in its audience an appreciation of the performing arts. Through artistic collaboration the Griffin Theatre Company produces literary adaptations, original work and classic plays that challenge and inspire, with wit, style and compassion for the audience.

Griffin Theatre Touring Productions

The Stinky Cheese Man & Other Fairly Stupid Tales Based on the book by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

adapted by William Massolia

Frindle based on the book by Andrew Clements

adapted by William Massolia

LETTERS HOME Adapted for the stage by William Massolia

The Griffin Theatre Company

Mission

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew Clements is the author of several picture books, including Big Al and Bill and the Bad Teacher. He taught in the public schools near Chicago for seven years before moving east to begin a career in publishing. The idea for Frindle grew out of a talk he gave about writing to a group of second graders. He says this about the book: “Frindle is . . . about discovering the true nature of words, language, thought, community, and learning. It’s also about great teaching and great teachers, and about the life that surges through corridors and classrooms every school day.” Mr. Clements lives in Westborough, Massachusetts with his family.

ACTIVITIES* & CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

*These activities cover a range of grade levels from 4-8. Feel free to adapt any of them to make them

appropriate for your grade level and students’ abilities.

BEFORE you see the show:

• Create a classroom display of all the books by Andrew Clements.

• OR you might choose to focus on Frindle.

• Read and discuss Frindle.

• Introduce vocabulary words and use various activities in the upcoming pages

• Introduce the cast of characters. Ask students to describe, either orally or in writing, what they think some of the characters might look like.

• Ask students to discuss perseverance. What does it mean? Are there times when it is a bad idea to not back down, or is it always good? If there are times when it is inappropriate, how can you tell the difference between those times and the times it is good?

• Ask students what they think is worth “fighting for”.

• Ask students if they have ever felt picked on, or treated unfairly by a parent or teacher or any other authority figure. Were they ever able to see how this person might have been trying to help them?

• Is conflict always bad? How can conflict be handled to allow for positive results?

VENN DIAGRAM

STORY MAP

Name of Story _____________________________________

Problems

Setting

Characters

Event

Event

Event

Event

Resolutions

Vocabulary Words superintendent scholarship established celebrity adoption hooligan villain stubborn leisure dictionary devious instructions report

concentration complex etymological definition brilliant detention discuss commotion maverick disruption punishment history oath

library quiz challenge overreaction vandalism disrespectful forbid principal opinion perspective foolishness appointment trademark

preliminary episode educate invent manufacture media perseverance remarkable boycott graduation arbitrary coinage endure

• Arrange these words in alphabetical order.

• Using a dictionary, find definitions.

• Write a story using these words.

• Create (students or teachers) a crossword puzzle.

• Find root/base words within vocabulary words.

• Explore origins and meanings of various base words.

• Explore origins and meanings of affixes.

• Categorize words according to their parts of speech.

• Many words have smaller words within them (not necessarily their root/base words). Find example of thesesmall words in the vocabulary words. Letters need to be consecutive.

Cast of Characters

• Nicholas Allen, the school’s “ideaman” and the story’s main character

• Mrs. Granger, famously strict fifthgrade teacher

• Howie, Janet, and Chris, Nick’sclassmates

• Mrs. Chatham, principal of LincolnElementary School

• Judy Morgan, reporter for theWestfield Gazette

• Bud Lawrence, businessman and“Frindle” merchandiser

AFTER you see the show:

• Choose three people who have had a positive impact on your life. Write about each one andtell what they have done to influence you.

• Use the same activity, but this time, write a letter to each of those people, telling them whatthey’ve done to help you.

• Make a list of your character traits. Include your strengths and weaknesses.

• Use the triple Venn diagram (see page 7) to compare and contrast any three characters fromthe play.

• Use some of the vocabulary activities suggested on page 5.

• Pretend you are a theatre critic: Write and present to the class your view of the play, Frindle.You may want to present your review with another class member in an “Ebert & Roeper”type format.

• Write a review of the book or play for the school newspaper.

• Read other books by Andrew Clements.

• Practice writing dialogue by imagining a scene between one of the characters and his/herparents.

• Write a letter from one character in the play to another.

• Use a story map (see page 8, or use a map of the students’ own design) to follow one of thecharacters in the play.

• Discuss perseverance. Describe a time when you had to stand up for what you thought wasright. What happened?

• Interview your mom or dad about their own experiences with perseverance. What helpedthem to “stay strong”?

• Create a word of your own. What does it mean and how would you use it? See if you canget other people to use the word as well.

• What is something in your school or community that you would like to see changed? Canyou come up with positive alternatives to this issue? What are things that you and yourclassmates could do to help bring about this change? Do you feel strongly enough aboutthis issue to work for it.

STOP Look. .

AUDIENCE RESPONSIBILITY

A way for your students to make the most of this experience

Live theatre can be magical. Many students have never attended a performance of live theatre. Those who have may only have limited experience. Throughout the past few decades, children have become accustomed to being entertained by television and videos in their own homes. The setting is relaxed and casual; talking and walking around are commonplace. Even in the movie theatres people take liberties with the “Silence is Golden” rule.

Just as there are rules and etiquette within the classroom and school setting, there are standard rules of etiquette in theatre. Children need to learn or be reminded of that. There are also ways in which audience members can enhance their experience with live theatre. Please help us make this performance enjoyable for everyone by reviewing theatre etiquette with your students and by suggesting ways to experience the magic of theatre.

STOP: When the lights in the theatre (house lights) begin to dim and go out it means the performance is about to begin. Stop talking. Just as the audience can hear the actors, the actors can hear the audience. Remember that the actors are in the same room with you. Laughing when something is funny, sighing or even crying when something is sad is acceptable; talking with friends, talking out loud to the actors and disturbing people around you is not. Applause is a way of saying “Thank you” to the actors; whistling and catcalling are not.

LOOK: Watch the performers. Notice what they are doing and when they are doing it. Look at the imaginative costumes. See the way in which the actors move in and around the scenery. Pay attention to the props (any object that is used, touched, displayed, or carried on stage). Notice the way the lights are used in the production. Make-up may also be used to get attention or suggest something about a character. Watch closely for the actors’ facial expressions; sometimes their faces allow the audience to know what’s happening without saying any words.

LISTEN: Pay close attention to what the performers are saying and how they are saying it. Do they all sound the same? How are their voices different from each other? Are the actors using any accents; do they all sound like they are from the same place? Are they making noises other than words? Listen for music and other sounds that are not words. Listen for sound effects such as a phone ringing, street sounds, chimes, or animal sounds. Can you see any microphones on stage? How are the actors making their voices heard throughout the theatre?

ENJOY! Attending any performing arts event is a special treat. Because the performance is live, the actors will feed off of the energy you contribute. When you use your concentration and imagination while watching, you are helping the performers on stage to deliver the very best performance.

Tilles Center for the Performing Arts,at LIU Post in Brookville, is Long Island’s premier concert hall.

Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at LIU Post in Brookville, is Long Island’s premier concert hall. For 38 years, Tilles Center has been host to more than 70 performances each season by world-renowned artists in music, theater and dance. Tilles Center was the first to bring the New York Philharmonic to Long Island and Bruce Springsteen’s legendary “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” was recorded onsite.

Tilles Center’s Concert Hall seats 2,242 and features orchestral performances, fully-staged operas, ballets and modern dance, along with Broadway shows, and all forms of music, dance and theater from around the world. Thanks to the generous support of Eric and Sandra Krasnoff, the Krasnoff Theater, formerly Hillwood Recital Hall, has been refurbished and expanded to include new cushioned seats, a regraded floor for better views and an improved overall layout.

Arts Education programs are made possible, in part, by the Gilbert and Rose Tilles Endowment for Arts Education.

Tilles Center’s Education Programs are made possible, in part, with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

School Partnership Program An intensive part of Tilles Center’s Arts Education program is the School Partnership program, modeled on the highly acclaimed aesthetic education program that has evolved over a 35-year period at Lincoln Center. The Partnership is a comprehensive approach to teaching and learning about the arts, applicable to all grade levels and academic disciplines. The Partnership inspires students and teachers to approach the arts with an open mind and to gain insights into the creative process. Attendance at professional performances at Tilles Center is combined with experiential in-school workshops. Led by teaching artists and teachers, students explore their own artistic capabilities while strengthening essential skills – abstract thinking, teamwork, critical judgment, and problem solving. Guided to a deeper level of understanding, students learnwhat to look for, and listen to, in a performance or work of art.

The School Partnership works with students inPre-K through high school and providesprofessional development for teachers.

For information about the School Partnership Program and other performances, visit tillescenter.org or call (516) 299-2752.

2018-19 School Partner Districts

East Meadow Carle Place Freeport East Williston

Great Neck Glen Cove Roosevelt

The Portledge School (Independent)

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