tara when the lights went out education pack

It’s Divali - time for...

WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT

Education Resource Pack for Key Stage 2

When the Lights Went Out Education Resource Pack

TARA ARTS 356 Garratt Lane London SW18 4ES Tel: + 44 (0) 20 8333 4457 Fax: + (0) 20 8870 9540 www.tara-arts.com

Contents Introduction 3 About TARA 4 Divali Teacher’s notes 5 Synopsis of the Play 6 Follow Up Activities Drama: Hanuman’s Footsteps 7 Drama: Imaginary Objects 8 Drama: Building Bridges 1 9 Design Technology/Team Building: Building Bridges 2 10 Drama: Story-telling circle 11 Writing: About the Play 12 Art: Ceremonial Elephant, Drawing and Creating 13 Art: Elephant from a milk bottle 13 Art: Monkey Masks 14 Art: King Ravana, Drawing and Creating 15 Art: Make a Wedding Garland 16 Feedback form 17

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WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT

TARA’s captivating 50-minute show about India’s greatest festival for Years 3 to 6

Two performers draw children into the adventures of the legendary lovers, Sita and Rama, Hanuman the wondrous monkey king, and of course the terrifying ten-headed demon Ravana. The production supports Key Stage 2 teaching in Religious Education & English: Speak and Listening - in addition to helping pupils’ creativity across the curriculum. This Education Resource Pack provides additional materials to explore Divali, including ideas for Art, Drama, English and RE. This pack was created for TARA by Helen Cadbury www.theatrestudy.com and Anne Hutchison www.annehutchisonart.com With thanks to:

for information about licence to copy or distribute this material click on: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Ravana: from TARA’s exhibition of The Ramayana at the British Library

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ABOUT TARA ARTS

TARA produces global theatre for local audiences. Positioned between East and West, TARA has pioneered cross-cultural theatre for over 3 decades. What does TARA do? The company tours vibrant adaptations of European and Asian classics and new work, brings the great stories of the world to children in junior schools and, at TARA Studio, develops emerging artists and new audiences. We have produced work at the National Theatre, Trafalgar Square, the British Library and a host of other theatres across Britain, Europe, and Asia. Why? On July 4th 1976, Gurdip Singh Chaggar, a 17-year old Sikh boy living in Southall, fell victim to a racist murder. Out of the protests surrounding his death, an Asian public presence emerged in Britain, with a variety of Asian Youth Movements springing up in all the major British cities... and TARA. When? TARA was founded in 1977, by young Asians. It was the first Asian-led theatre company to be formed in the UK. It has been creating theatre and touring for over thirty years.

“Tara’s work is a terrific synthesis of east and west.” Sir Richard Eyre

“Tara have stretched British cultural life and helped to make those of us with

different origins visible to ourselves and others.”

Naseem Khan, OBE

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DIVALI: Teachers Notes a brief introduction to Divali*

What does Divali celebrate? The Hindu festival of Divali celebrates the victory of good over evil. It is a festival of light, driving out darkness. In different parts of India, there are different traditions about the origins and significance of Divali. In When the Lights Went Out, we explore the story of Sita and Rama and the ten-headed demon Ravana. The lights are lit to welcome Rama and Sita back to the city of Ayodhya. The story of Rama was written down as an epic poem, The Ramayana. In Gujarati, the festival honours Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. In Nepal Divali commemorates the victory of Lord Krishna over the demon king Narakaasura and in Bengal, it is associated with the goddess Kali. What all the different versions have in common is that Divali celebrates light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance. What happens in Hindu homes? The word Divali in Sanskrit means a row of lamps. The traditional lamps are oil-filled clay lamps called divas, which are lit to drive out evil and to remind us of the lamps that welcomed Rama home. Candles and electric lights are also used and in India the lights are kept burning all night long. Houses are cleaned and special paintings called rangoli are made on the threshold of the home to welcome the goddess Lakshmi. Fireworks light up the sky. Gifts and sweets are given and there are special prayers and blessings.

What links can be made to other faiths or traditions? Every major world faith has a festival of light. Compare the lights at Christmas and discuss why early Christians, chose

to celebrate Christmas at the darkest time of year in Europe. In the Jewish faith Hannukah is a festival of light. Cards are sent at Divali, as they are at Christmas and at the Muslim festival of Eid. Fireworks are part of Chinese New Year and the November 5th commemoration of the foiling of the gunpowder plot. Why not plan a Divali celebration with your class? Candles and lamps can make a wonderful focus for circle time, quiet time or creative writing. There are lots of ideas in this pack for you to follow up after the play and we have discovered some fantastic Further Resources online: (TARA and its partners are not responsible for the content of external websites, which are suggested in good faith)

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/rangoli.htm - images and activities using Rangoli designs http://www.firstschoolyears.com - good resources and ideas http://www.reonline.org.uk - a portal to a wide range of RE resources

(cc) http://flickr.com/photos/dhondusaxena *Divali can also be spelt Diwali, but we have chosen to use the letter v because it is a more accurate rendition of the pronunciation.

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When The Lights Went Out Synopsis

In our play the story of Sita and Rama is told by two girls, Sally and Samina, who take on all the characters in the legend. The synopsis is useful for the teacher to know what to expect, but should not be used with the children until after the play, otherwise it might spoil the story for them. They tell how in the Circular City there is a contest to win the hand of Princess Sita. Ravana, the ten-headed demon, who is the King of Lanka, arrives and tries his luck. With a bit of effort, he passes the test but Sita will not give him the wedding garland. In his anger, he leaves, threatening Sita that one day she will have to look on him forever. When Rama arrives, he passes the test easily and Sita agrees to marry him. Meanwhile, Rama’s step-mother, Queen Kaikai, wants her own son to be the next king, so she tricks her husband, Rama’s father, into promising that Rama should be sent into the forest and not become King. Sita agrees to go with him and they leave together on the River Ganges. That is when the lights go out all over the Circular City Sita and Rama live peacefully in the forest but over on the Island of Lanka, Ravana, the ten-headed demon, is still seething that Rama stole Sita from him. He then has an idea to steal her back from Rama. He sends one of his demons, disguised as a deer, to lure her away. When a deer appears to her in the forest she asks Rama to catch it and bring it to her. To keep her safe he puts a magic circle round her and she has to promise not to step outside it. When Rama has gone, a poor old beggar man comes along. He is hungry and Sita takes pity on him and invites him to eat with her. As he steps into the circle, a wall of fire springs up. If he comes into the circle he will burn, if he stays outside he will starve. Sita takes pity on him and steps outside the circle, whereupon the old man grabs her wrist. It is not an old man, but Ravana, the ten-headed demon. Even though Sita calls for help, Rama cannot hear her and Ravana carries her off in his chariot. Jatayu, King of the Eagles, challenges Ravana but the demon fights him and cuts off his wings. Jatayu falls to earth. Ravana, with Sita in his clutches, flies towards Lanka. Meanwhile in the forest, Rama chases the deer, but it disappears; it was a trick of Ravana. He hears someone calling Sita’s name and finds the broken body of Jatayu, who tells him what Ravana has done. When Rama sits down to think about how he will get Sita back, he hears a sound; it is Hanuman, the monkey king. Hanuman agrees to help and flies to Lanka, carrying the wedding garland that Sita gave Rama, so that she will know he is not a trick too. Hanuman proves himself further by showing Sita that he has a picture of Rama in his heart. He promises to return with his army of monkeys. By building a bridge, the one million monkeys reach Lanka. Hanuman and the monkeys fight the demons and Rama faces Ravana. Every time he shoots an arrow to cut off one the demon’s heads, another one takes its place. Hanuman whispers to Rama who prays to his arrow. This time it hits Ravana in the belly button and Ravana falls down dead. Sita puts the garland around Rama’s neck and they are married again. Hanuman carries them home to the Circular City, where the lamps are lit to welcome them back.

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Follow Up

Drama Activities

Hanuman’s Footsteps

Purpose: to get the children working together; to use movement safely; to physicalise characters; to create suspense; to create an active and fun warm-up to further drama activities. Hanuman has a million monkeys in his tail, but they are always trying to creep up on him to become top monkey. (This game is a monkey version of grandmother’s footsteps.)

1. One child is Hanuman and faces the wall while the other children start at the

other end of the hall/playground.

2. The monkey children have to creep up, monkey style, but when Hanuman turns, they have to stand as still as statues. Obviously they have to be very quiet monkeys!

3. If Hanuman thinks they are just rocks he will not see them, but if one of them moves, he will know it is a monkey and he will send it back to the beginning.

4. If a monkey manages to reach Hanuman and tap him on the shoulder, they become the new King of the Monkeys.

5. If the children run too fast, try slow motion monkeys, with more control to the

movement.

6. You could make the mask on page 14 and swap the Hanuman mask over when someone ‘wins’. The mask will make turning and spotting naughty monkeys just a bit more of a challenge.

7. If your group is large enough, half could watch and then swap over. Hanuman’s Footsteps is a very good spectator sport! Discuss with the children how it creates suspense and drama when we watch someone creep up on someone else. Think about how this might work in a different kind of story, such as a ghost story.

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Follow Up Drama Activities

Imaginary Objects

Purpose: the group learn to work together; to accept an idea; to mime an imaginary object; to improve their eye contact. They are doing all the things an actor has to do on stage. The actors in TARA’s performance use this game in rehearsals.

1. The Visible and Invisible Ball

You Will Need: a soft ball or bean bag; the hall.

1. All the players stand in a circle. Using a soft ball or a bean bag they throw and catch the ball across the circle. The person throwing says their own name (e.g. Sam) and the name of the person they are throwing to (Sam to Alisha). Then Alisha throws it, saying her name and the person she is throwing to.

2. Once everyone has had the ball at least once, ask them to try it without speaking, they must use eye contact to check the person is ready. The ball should stay active, not be held for more than a moment. (Try it at the beginning of the year when you have new class, you’ll learn the names far quicker this way!)

3. If they find this pretty easy, add a second ball that goes at the same time, see if

you can get up to 3 going!

4. Now, remove the real balls and ask the group to imagine an invisible ball that they throw and catch, as it crosses the circle it changes. For example, it begins as a tennis ball, now it is a netball, now a tiny superball, now a huge, heavy watermelon. The throwers and catchers must adapt how they handle the invisible ball to show its weight and size.

2. The Scarf is… You Will Need: A scarf, preferably of a chiffon or silky material that has some movement to it. In TARA’s performance the long scarf, known as a chunni, worn by many Indian women, is used in several different ways.

1. All the players sit or stand in a circle. The scarf is in the middle. The teacher will need to model the first example. One by one, players come into the centre and pick up the scarf and say “The scarf is…” eg: a river, and create the shape and sound of the river with the scarf. Each time the scarf is something different.

2. Let the players choose when to come in; they will sense taking turns. It is more intimidating to less confident children if they have to wait for their turn to come round the circle. If they are unsure, they could go up in pairs and create something together.

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Follow Up

Drama Activity Building Bridges 1

Purpose: to encourage team work; problem solving; co-operation; working safely. In TARA’s show the actors build an imaginary bridge with some of the children in the audience. You will need: chairs; the hall. NB: This requires a health and safety discussion with the children first. Read through all the instructions before beginning and make sure they agree to the following ground rule: only one child can stand on one chair at a time. The version with chairs is appropriate for year 5 or 6 but for younger children an easier variation is to use large squares of fabric (you could put in an appeal for old pillow cases) to create stepping stones over the water.

1. Hanuman has to get his monkey army over the water to Lanka. In teams of five, with six chairs, how can the group cross from one side of the hall to the other?

2. If a group does something that isn’t safe, or anyone’s foot touches the water they have to stop and go back to the beginning and try again.

3. The winning team should work out that they have to co-operate by passing the

empty chair along the line, moving along carefully and then picking up the empty chair again.

Making Activity Building Bridges 2

Purpose: as above, but a classroom based version You will need: lots of newspapers, paper clips; sellotape; plasticine monkeys.

1. In order to get Hanuman and his monkey army across to Lanka, each group needs to build a bridge between two tables approximately a metre and a half apart with only the materials provided.

2. Some members of the class could make the monkey army out of plasticine while the other groups are making the bridge, or the monkey army could be prepared in a previous session. It would be a tall order to build a million, but to test each bridge it should be able to carry at least 3 monkeys.

3. Try this as a staff development exercise, but for adults it has to be done without

talking!

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Follow Up Drama Activities

Story-telling Circle

Purpose: to embed the learning about the story of Rama and Sita; to enable all the children to be involved in role play; to embed learning about story structure. You will need: the synopsis from page 6; chalk; the hall; something to make a sound, like a rain-stick, maracas or bells.

1. Put the children into groups of two or three.

2. Ask them to create a frozen picture of the moment in the play that has stayed in their mind.

3. Each little group might have more than one if each child has a different favourite

moment.

4. Arrange the groups in a circle.

5. Using the rainstick (or similar) make a magic ‘freeze’ sound over each group in turn.

6. The rest of the class watches until it is their turn.

7. Ask the class if they can arrange the frozen moments in the order in which they

happen. Are there any gaps? Discuss these.

8. The children then sit in a circle and the teacher makes a circle of chalk, like Rama’s magic circle, on the floor. Anyone inside the circle is performing, anyone outside is audience. Discuss how a performer needs to behave and how an audience needs to behave.

9. The teacher starts to read the story of Sita and Rama (from the synopsis). At

each new moment in the story, the appropriate number of volunteers need to get up and form a frozen picture in the centre of the circle.

10. When the magic story sound is made, the picture comes to life, when it sounds

again, the picture freezes.

11. Then that picture dissolves, the teacher reads on and a new picture takes its place.

12. The teacher will need to give some encouragement to reluctant children, you

may choose to go round the circle in turn, but often it works very well to take volunteers but make it clear nobody can go up twice until everyone has had at least one turn. Continue until the whole story is complete.

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Follow Up Activities Writing Ideas

1. Y5/Y6. Ask the children to write the story of Sita and Rama. It will be much

easier if they have already explored it in the Story Circle Activity. This could form a longer project to include pictures and IT research.

2. Letters from the forest. Imagine you are Sita or Rama when you are living in the forest. You miss your friends in the Circular City. You write a letter describing the forest to them. It is very different from the city so you need to describe it very well. Remember to use the five senses: What smells are there? What textures can you feel there? What can you see? What can you hear? And when you stick out your tongue, what does the air taste like (or the fruit you can pick…) This activity could be differentiated depending on the age group, the senses could be written down or included in a writing frame.

3. Writing about the play. Can you write an advert for the play? How would you describe it to someone who has never seen it? Use the picture below as a reminder. (Although this is a different actor, it will help stimulate thinking.)

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Ceremonial Elephant - draw, finish and colour

Sangita the elephant is being dressedfor Rama and Sita’s wedding.

But they have left her half finished, and itis getting late. Please help to finish theceremonial preparations.

Draw more rangoli patterns on her frontlegs and colour them in, like the ones onthe back leg. Put some fringes andtassels on her blanket and hat, alongwith some of the decorations, jewels andpatterns above.

Finish decorating the carriage on top ofher back, so she is fit for Sita to ridethrough the streets at Divali. That’smuch better, now she can hold her headup.

© www.annehutchisonart.com12

Ceremonial Indian Elephant - follow making instructions below

Humble plasticmilk carton....

Cut the carton in halfround the circumference.

Trim and adjust the baseto balance.

Draw and cut out tail andback legs.

Draw with spirit basedpen and cut out frontlegs. Draw and cut out the sides.

Trim trunk to size, a bitshorter so she doesn’ttrip over it!

EITHER decorate straight onto the con-tainer, sticking on sequins, ribbons etconto the bare carton.......

Ready to decorate with sequins,ribbons, tissue paper, anythingsparkly & colourful.

Decorate different shaped containersas well , ready to go on parade forRama and Sita’s return to the palaceat Divali.

.........to regal elephantin an hour or so.....

OR....paint first withacrylic based paints.

©www.annehutchisonart.com

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Monkey Maskscopy and cut out -here’s how.....

Enlarge monkey masks x4 usingphotocopier, onto card.

Each monkey face is made from afew simple shapes. Use yourphotocopy to make templates forchildren to draw around.

Draw round shapes on differentcoloured card or sugar paper, sothat each feature will stand out.

Stick all shapes onto one biggerbacking sheet and then cut out thewhole mask.

Make holes just above the ears.Use elastic to go around children’sheads.

What a monkey army you will create! Hanuman, the Monkey King

Some of his foot soldiers - why not try creating some of your own?


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King Ravana, the Ten Headed Demon - draw, colour and finish

Ravana according to legend, had tenheads. Our portrait here is unfinished.

Please give him seven more heads andeight more pairs of arms.

You can design a different helmet foreach head and make all individual.

When you have drawn his extra arms,please put a staff or tool in each handso that he can make himself really use-ful. Copy the ones from above, or inventsome of your own.

In lots of images, Ravana has blue skin,but you can make it any colour if youwish.

Happy drawing!

©www.annehutchisonart.com15

Wedding Garland follow the making instructions below

Make these to fit your children for aplay, or to decorate the wholeclassroom for Divali. Long or short,they are simple and decorative.Orange and red are popular coloursfor a wedding garland.

You can buy tissue in ready cutcircles, but if there isn’t time toget some, just cut some circlesabout 10cm across - it won’ttake long. Rough edges add tothe floral effect.

Pinch them in half likethis, rather than folding.

Twist the end around the form a littlestalk.

The stalk should be quitetight and about half acentimetre long.

Florist’s wire can be bought frommost florists very cheaply. Itcomes in about 20cm lengthsand is plastic coated. It is not toosharp, so pretty safe for class-room use.

This is a bit fiddly, but good finemotor practice for little fingers!The wire is pulled tightly aroundthe stalk - make sure it issecure.

The next flower can go a littlefurther down the wire. Whenyou run out of wire, just windanother piece around to jointhem up.

Keep adding more and more, till youget your wedding garland the rightsize. If you are working with youngerchildren, you can do the wiring. Butif they are a little older, this wire isvery easy to use.


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Education Resource Pack

FEEDBACK FORM If you have found this pack useful, please take a moment to give us your feedback. What year group are your pupils in? Which pages did you use with your pupils after the TARA performance? Which resources will you use in future schemes of work? Was the level of this pack appropriate for your pupils? (If no, explain how we could have made it better). Is there any other information you would have liked, in order to enhance your students’ experience of the TARA performance? Any other comments? Please return to TARA ARTS at the address/fax or email below:

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tara when the lights went out education pack

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