the carrier backstory program 2008

The Carrier

BACKSTORY!

Program

2008

Student Study Guide

Student Matinee ProgramStage Sponsor ($5,000 - $7,499) Syracuse University Division of Student Affairs National GridStage Partner ($3,000 - $4,999) TargetStage Manager ($1,500 - $2,999) Grandma Brown Foundation PriceChopper's Golub Foundation

Carrier Backstory! ProgramDirectors’ Circle ($10,000 - $14,999) Carrier Corporation Syracuse University GEAR-UPStage Sponsor ($6,000 - $9,999) KARE FoundationStage Manager ($1,500 - $2,999) Time Warner CablePatron ($1,000 - $1,499) Lockheed Martin Employees Federated Fund

2007-2008 EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH SPONSORS

Since 1849 National Grid and its predecessor companies have been part of the Syracuse community, helping to meet the energy needs of over two million Upstate New York customers. We are proud to contribute to the quality of life through the energy we deliver and through the many ways we give back to the communities we serve.

2007 - 2008 Educational Outreach Sponsors

2007 - 2008 Season Sponsors

Lockheed Martin Project BlueprintDirectors’ Circle ($7,500 - $13,999) Lockheed Martin MS2

Bank of America Children's TourProducers’ Circle ($15,000 - $30,000) Bank of AmericaStage Partner ($3,000 - $4,999) Lockheed Martin Employees Federated FundStage Manager ($1,500 - $2,999) Excellus BlueCross BlueShield Wegman’s

The JPMorgan Chase Young Playwrights FestivalDirector’s Circle ($15,000 - $30,000) JPMorgan Chase Foundation

ArtsEmergingDirector’s Circle ($7,500 - $13,999) Onondaga County District AttorneyPatron ($1,000 - $1,499) Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

TABLE OF CONTENTSI. Introduction Theatre, Education, and Etiquette............................................4 Elements of Theatre...................................................................5 A Message From the Director...................................................6

II. Anne Frank *...........................................................................................7

III. Harriet Tubman......................................................................................13

IV. Hip-Shake...............................................................................................19

V. Rosalie Randazzo...................................................................................25

VI. Zora Neale Hurston..............................................................................31

VII. Resources...............................................................................................37

Carrier CorporationCarrier is proud to continue to support Syracuse Stage and is delighted to sponsor the Backstory! Program this season. We salute Syracuse Stage for remaining committed to its mission of bringing such exceptional performances and educational programming of live theatre to our community for over 34 years.

© 2007. Edited by Lauren Unbekant and Adam Zurbruegg. Layout by Adam Zurbruegg.* Please be advised: this section contains some violent images.

www.syracusestage.orgwww.myspace.com/syracusestageman.org

Theatre and Education“Theatre brings life to life.”

-Zelda Fichandler

When the first cave dweller got up to tell a story, theatre began. Almost every culture has some sort of live performance tradition to tell stories. Television and film may have diminished the desire for access to theatre, but they have not diminished the importance. Live theatre gives each audience member an opportunity to con-nect with the performers in a way he or she never could with Tom Cruise or Lindsay Lohan. The emotions can be more intense because the events are happening right in front of the audience.

Syracuse StageDept. of Educational Outreach(315) 443-1150

Audience EtiquetteA Few Reminders for Your Students

BE PROMPT - Give your students plenty of time to arrive, find their seats, and get situated.

RESPECT OTHER PEOPLE’S SPACE - Remind students not to bump/kick the person next to or in front of them (or their chairs!)

LISTEN QUIETLY - Unlike TV, these actors can see and hear you. Talking, even in a whisper, distracts both the performers and other audience members. There is of course an exception to this rule if the per-formers ask for audience response! Please also avoid unnecessary coughing, gum chewing, and no electronic games or cell phones!

STAY WITH US - Please do not leave, or allow students to leave, once a performance has begun, except in absolute emergencies.

APPLAUD - Polite applause lets the performers know you appreciate their hard work, but at the wrong time it can be disruptive. It is appropriate to clap in between scenes, and at the very end of the performance.

4 www.syracusestage.orgwww.myspace.com/syracusestageman

Elements of TheatreTheatre usually engages other art disciplines including: Writing, Visual/Design, Music, and Dance or Movement.

CharacterWho? – Who are the characters in the play and what is their relationship to each other?

Plot/StoryWhat? – What is the story line? What happened before the play started? What do the characters want? What happens next?

SettingWhere? – Where does the story take place? This influences design concepts and actors’ actions. Char-acters move and behave according to their environ-ment.

TimeWhen? – Time consists of: Historical (period in history), Time of Year/Season, and Time of Day, all of which influence design concepts and actors’ actions.

This column contains some possible elements for fur-ther classroom exploration when investigating a piece of theatre.

Character Relationship Conflict/Resolution Action Plot/Story Setting Time Improvisation Non-Verbal Communication Staging Realism/Naturalism Visual Composition Metaphor Language Tone Pattern Repetition Emotion Point of View Humor

Creating Questions for Exploration

Creating an open-ended question using an element for exploration, otherwise known as a “Line of Inquiry,” can help students make discoveries about a piece of theatre and its relevance to their own lives. A Line of Inquiry is also useful for Kinesthetic Activities (On-Your-Feet Exercises.)

Examples of Lines of Inquiry:

1. How does an actor create a character through changing his/her body shape?2. How does an actor create setting using physical actions?3. How does an actor use the language of gesture to convey emotion/feeling?4. How does the use of music convey the mood of a scene?

Syracuse StageDept. of Educational Outreach

(315) 443-11505www.syracusestage.org

www.myspace.com/syracusestageman

A Message From theDirector


6

Dear Educator,

I am very pleased to introduce you to our third season of Backstory! This year promises to be even more engaging and thought-provoking than the last! Because of the popularity of the program we’ve added two new Backstories: “Hip-Shake,” the unlikely literary partnership of a hip-hop artist and an actor from the Globe Theatre, as well as “Anne Frank,” on the 60th anniversary of her diary’s first publication.

We are also bringing back some favorites from the past few years: “Rosalie Randazzo,” an early 20th century child laborer, “Zora Neale Hurston,” Harlem Renaissance writer, and “Harriet Tubman,” our local heroine of the Under-ground Railroad.

Prior to any performance, we encourage you and your students to make use of our study guides, as well as the op-portunity to participate in professional development for teachers and teaching artist-led workshops for students. As always, our Backstories are performed by professional actors with the classroom in mind, mixing history with the artistry of theatre. We hope you enjoy!

Sincerely,

Lauren Unbekant Director of Educational Outreach Syracuse Stage

www.syracusestage.orgwww.myspace.com/syracusestageman

Timothy J. BondProducing Artistic Director

James A. ClarkManaging Director

PRESENTS

ANNE FRANK:My Secret Life

By Patricia Buckley

Directed by Lauren UnbekantCostume Design by Meggan Kulczynski

Sponsored by:




HISTIO-BIOGRAPHICAL TIMELINE

German & World History Frank Family History

1929 June 12. Anne Frank is born in Frankfurt, Germany.

1933Adolph Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany and enacts anti-semitic laws. The first concentra-

tion camp is built in the town of Dachau.The family moves to the Netherlands to escape growing violence against Jews in Germany.

1938Nov. 9, 10. Kristallnacht. Jewish busi-

nesses and synagogues in Austria and Germany are looted and destroyed.

1939Nazis implement the T-4 Program, which authorized the killing of mentally/physically

handicapped persons, and the institutionalized.

1940Germany invades the Netherlands.

1941 The family, along with all other Dutch Jews, are forced to wear yellow stars at all times.

Dec. 11. Germany declares war on the U.S.

1942The ‘Final Solution’ is adopted by Nazi party

leaders. Auschwitz, Belzec and Sobibor become operational death camps.

June 12. Anne receives a diary for her birthday.

July 5. Anne’s sister Margot summoned to a labor camp. The family goes into hiding the next day.

July 13. The Van Pels family joins the Franks.

Nov. 16. Fritz Pfeffer joins the group.

1944June 6. D-Day. Allies invade the German strong-hold on the beaches of Normandy, France.

Aug. 4. The annex is discovered. Occupants are arrested and sent to Westerbork Transit Camp.

Sept. 3. The family is relocated to Auschwitz, where the men and women are separated. Hermann van Pels is gassed three days later.

Oct. 28. Anne & Margot sent to Bergen-Belsen.

Dec. 20. Fritz Pfeffer dies at Neuengame.

1947 Anne’s diary is published in Amsterdam. It would be published in the USA in 1952.

1946The Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Of the 22

defendants, 11 were sentenced to death, 8 were imprisoned, and only 3 were acquitted.

1945Jan. 6. Edith Frank dies at Auschwitz.

March. Anne & Margot die of Typhus.

June. Otto Frank returns to Amsterdam unaware of his daughters’ fates.

Oct. 24. Otto learns in a letter of his daughters’ deaths. He is given Anne’s diary.

Jan. 27. Allies liberate Auschwitz. Survivors include Otto Frank.

Apr. 30. Hitler commits suicide.

May 7. Germany surrenders.

Otto Frank’s business moves to new offices on the Prinsengracht Canal.

The Story of Anne Frank“My father, the most adorable father I’ve ever seen, didn’t marry my mother until he was thirty-six and she was twenty-five. My sister Margot was born in Frankfurt am Main in Germany in 1926. I was born on June 12, 1929.” -The Diary of Anne Frank

Anne’s father, Otto, works at his family’s bank. Her mother, Edith, takes care of everything at home. It is a carefree period for Margot and Anne. However, their parents are worried. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party have made Jews the scapegoat for all of Germany’s social and economic problems.

Anne’s parents no longer feel safe, and Otto’s bank is also in financial trouble because of the worldwide economic crisis. Otto and Edith decide to leave Ger-many. Otto goes to the Netherlands to start a com-pany in Amsterdam, where his family would join him a year later. They feel free and safe until the German army invades the Netherlands on May 10, 1940. Dis-cimination against the Jews begins there as well: Jews may not own their own businesses, Jewish children have to go to separate schools, all Jews have to wear a yellow star, and countless other restrictions.

On her thirteenth birthday in 1942, Anne receives a diary as a present. It is her favorite gift. She begins writing in it immediately: “I hope I will be able to confide everything to you... and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.” Like thousands of other Jews living in Amsterdam, Margot receives orders to report to a German work camp on July 5, 1942.

Her parents have expected such a call-up: the secret hiding place is almost ready. Not only for their own family, but also for the Van Pels family: Otto’s co-worker Hermann, his wife Auguste, and their son Pe-ter. The next day, the Frank family immediately takes to hiding. They are helped by four of Otto’s employ-ees: Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, and Bep Voskuijl. They arrange the food supplies, clothing, books, and all sorts of other necessities.

In November 1942, an eighth person joins: Fritz Pfeffer, an acquaintance of both families. The people in hiding pass their time by reading and studying. There is a lot of tension, probably due to the oppres-sive nature of the hiding place and their constant fear of being discovered. They often quarrel among themselves.

When the people in hiding have spent almost two years in the Secret Annex, there is fantastic news: a massive landing of the Allies on the beaches of Nor-mandy. Europe could soon be liberated. Anne hopes to return to school in the fall. But on August 4, 1944, an SS Officer and three Dutch policemen arrive and demand to be taken to the Secret Annex. The people in hiding have been betrayed. They are arrested, as are some of their helpers, but Miep and Bep are left behind, where they find and rescue Anne’s diary.

The occupants of the Annex spend a month at a Transit Facility before being taken by train to Auschwitz. At the end of October, 1944, Anne and Margot are moved to Bergen-Belsen. Their mother remains behind, but soon falls ill and dies of exhaustion. Anne and Margot succumb to typhus in March, 1945, only a few weeks before the camp is liberated by the British army.

Otto Frank is liberated from Auschwitz in January, 1945. He does everything he can to find out the fate of his daughters: placing an ad in the newspaper and talking to survivors, until he meets witnesses of their deaths. When Miep Gies hears the news, she gives Otto Anne’s diary and notebooks. Otto reads about the plan Anne had to publish a book about the time she spent in the Annex and decides to fulfill his daughter’s wish.

Following the war, Otto devotes himself to human rights, and answers thousands of letters from across the world. He says, “Young people especially always want to know how these terrible things could ever have happened. I answer them as well as I can. And then at the end, I often finish by saying, “I hope Anne’s book will have an effect on the rest of your life so that insofar as it is possible in your own circumstances, you will work for unity and peace.”

www.AnneFrank.org


(315) 443-11509

Inside the Annex

View from the street This bookcase hid the entrance Interior, shown reconstructed based on accounts in Anne’s diary

“The Annex is an ideal place to hide in. It may be damp and lopsided, but there’s probably not a more comfortable hiding place in all of Amsterdam. No, in all of Holland.” - Anne Frank, Diary Entry July 11, 1942

Anne’s outlook on the Secret Annex reveals the hopeful optimism of its inhabitants, but their stay was longer than expected: 2 years and 1 month total. What was their life like in the the annex?

Otto Frank’s spice company moved into its new Amsterdam offices in 1940. Facing the historic Prinsengracht Canal, the building included an Achterhuis (“Back House”) in the rear which was surrounded on all sides by houses. This made it an ideal hiding location, which Otto realized in 1942, when Anti-Semetic violence spread to Am-sterdam. When his oldest daughter, Margot, was summoned to report to a Nazi Labor Camp, he took his family into hiding the very next day.

The Annex measured only 500 square feet. By November, these tight quarters were shared by eight people. The Frank family lived in two rooms on the first floor, the Van Pels family in the other two rooms on the second floor. Through Peter van Pels’ tiny bedroom was an entrance to the attic.

The hiding place was a storage space for the business, and consisted of no more than a few windows, stacks of boxes, and a loft space. There was also, fortunately, a toilet and sink.The Franks first order of business was to make curtains for the windows for security reasons. When this was finished they made every effort to turn the bare storage space into a home, but just beyond the fake bookcase that hid the secret entrance were functioning offices. During business hours they were forced to maintain an insufferable silence.

Informal tours of the Annex began shortly af-ter the diary’s first publication, but by 1955 the building was in danger of being demolished. A public campaign was launched to save the build-ing, and in 1957 Otto Frank founded the Anne Frank Foundation with the primary goal of sav-ing the building. It was graciously donated to the foundation the following year. In its first year as a historical site and museum it drew 9,000 visitors. In 2006 visitors numbered 982,000. For visiting information, visit www.annefrank.org.

(Photo sources L-R: mnorch.mightymedia.com; solarnavigator.com, annefrank.org)

PHOTOS



The Holocaust“I can remember that as early as 1932, groups of Storm Troopers came marching by singing: ‘When Jewish blood splatters from the knife.’” - Otto Frank

During World War II, Nazi Germany and its collaborators murdered approximately six million Jews. The Holocaust is the name used to refer to this state-sponsored persecution and murder. Beginning with racially discriminatory laws in Germany, the Nazi campaign expanded to the mass murder of all European Jews.

During the era of the Holocaust, the Nazis also targeted other groups because of their perceived “racial inferior-ity”: Gypsies, people with disabilities, and some Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others.) Other groups were persecuted on political and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals.

The Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. According to Nazi leadership, Germans were “racially superior” and the Jews, and others deemed “inferior” were “life unworthy of life.” They established Concentration Camps to im-prison Jews and other “inferior” people. Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) carried out mass-murder operations. More than a million Jewish men, women and children were murdered by these units, usually in mass shootings. Between 1942 and 1944, Nazi Germany deported millions more Jews from occupied territories to Extermination Camps, where they were murdered in specially developed killing facilities using poison gas. At the largest killing center, Auschwitz-Birkenau, transports of Jews arrived almost daily from across Europe.

In the final months of the war, as Allied forces moved across Europe they began to find and liberate concentration camp prisoners. By war’s end, close to 2 out of every 3 Jews in Europe had been murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators in the massive crime we now call the Holocaust.

“The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum” www.ushmm.org

Photos

Top L-R: (1) a line of prisoners out-side a gas chamber; (2) children were also sent to concentration camps; (3) hangings were a com-mon form of execution.

Bottom L-R: (1) bodies piled atop a wagon;(2) image of a living man, showing clear signs of extreme starvation.




Asking AnneWhen Anne Frank visits your class, you will have the chance to ask her any questions you like. Be creative! If something she says makes you wonder “why?” or “how?” make a note of it and ask her when it is appropriate. We’ve even given you some space below for your notes! Here are a few subjects you might want to consider, but just use this as a starting point. What do you really want to know?

Possible Topics:

Childhood History & World War II Anti-Semitism

Life in Hiding The Diary

You will also have a separate chance to question the actor playing Anne Frank. Here are a few topics you might want to consider:

Topics on Acting:

Preparation/Research Playing Historical Characters vs. Fictional Ones Acting as a Career Rehearsal Process


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NOTES___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




PRESENTS

Dreamprints:A Conversation with

Harriet Tubman

By Myxolydia TylerDirected by Lauren Unbekant

Sponsored by:

13Syracuse Stage

Dept. of Educational Outreach(315) 443-1150


Histio-Biographic Timeline

1830

1840

1850

1860

1870

1880

1890

1900

1910

U.S. History Harriet Tubman

1820. Missouri Compromise 1820. Tubman born in Dorchester County, MD

1831. ‘Underground Railroad’ given its name

1834. Riots in the Northeast over abolitionism 1834. Harriet is hit in the head by an overseer, causing fits of narcolepsy that last her whole life

1844. Marries John Tubman

1849. Makes her escape from slavery through the Underground Railroad. Begins working in a Phila-delphia hotel to raise money for the cause

1850. Begins plans to return for her sister and her family, which she did over the next few years

1857. Leads her parents to freedom

1859. Helps to plan the Harper’s Ferry raid

1850. Fugitive Slave Law requires federal agents to return escaped slaves to their owners

1852. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin1857. Dred Scott v. Sanford, Supreme Court de-

nies citizenship to ex-slaves and their descendants1859. John Brown leads the Harper’s Ferry Raid

1860. Makes last trip to MD and flees to Canada

1861. Begins nursing soldiers in South Carolina

1863. Begins spying and scouting for Union army

1865. Settles in Auburn, NY

1869. Re-marries to Nelson Davis. Sarah Bradford publishes a biography on Tubman’s life

1860. Abraham Lincoln elected President1861. SC and 10 other states secede to form the

Union of Confederate States. The Civil War begins1863. Emancipation Proclamation

1864. Fugitive Slave Law is repealed1865. War ends. 13th Amendment

abolishes slavery. Lincoln is shot1868. 14th Amendment grants citizenship to

American-born black people

1870. 15th Amendment ensures voting rights for black people; Joseph Hayne Rainey becomes

the first black Congressman

1886. Sarah Bradford writes a second biography on Tubman.

1888. Nelson Davis dies

1903. Harriet donates her home and property to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

1913. Harriet Tubman dies1913. Rosa Parks is born

1909. The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is founded

1896. Plessy v. Ferguson. Supreme Court rules to allow ‘separate but equal’ segregated facilities

1820

Harriet Tubman:A Brief Biography

Harriet Tubman is perhaps the most well-known of all the Underground Railroad’s ‘conductors.’ During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she “never lost a single passenger.”

Tubman was born a slave in Maryland’s Dorchester County around 1820. At age five or six, she began to work as a house servant. Seven years later she was sent to work in the fields. While she was still in her early teens, she suffered an injury that would follow her for the rest of her life. Always ready to stand up for someone else, Tubman blocked a doorway to pro-tect another field hand from an angry overseer. The overseer picked up and threw a two-pound weight at the field hand. It fell short, striking Tubman on the head. She never fully recovered from the blow, which subjected her to spells of narcolepsy (suddenly falling into a deep sleep.)

Around 1844 she married a free black man named John Tubman and took his last name. (She was born Araminta Ross; she later changed her first name to Harriet, after her mother.) In 1849, in fear that she, along with the other slaves on the plantation, was to be sold, Tubman resolved to run away. She set out one night on foot. With some assistance from a friendly white woman, Tubman was on her way. She followed the North Star by night, making her way to Pennsyl-vania and soon after to Philadelphia, where she found work and saved money. The following year she re-turned to Maryland and escorted her sister and her sister’s two children to freedom. She made the dan-gerous trip back to the South soon after to rescue her brother and two other men. On her third return, she went after her husband, only to find he had taken an-other wife. Undeterred, she found other slaves seek-ing freedom and escorted them to the North.

Tubman returned to the South again and again. She devised clever techniques that helped make her “for-ays” successful, including: using the master’s horse and buggy for the first leg of the journey; leaving on a Saturday night, since runaway notices couldn’t be placed in newspapers until Monday morning; turning about and heading south if she encountered possible slave hunters; and carrying a drug to use on a baby if its crying might put the fugitives in danger. Tub-man even carried a gun which she used to threaten the fugitives if they became too tired or decided to turn back, telling them, “You’ll be free or die.”

By 1856, Tubman’s capture would have brought a $40,000 reward from the South. On one occassion, she overheard some men reading her wanted poster, which stated that she was illiterate. She promptly pulled out a book and feigned reading it. The ploy was enough to fool the men.

Tubman had made the perilous trip to slave country 19 times by 1860, including one especially challeng-ing journey in which she rescued her 70-year old par-ents. Of the famed heroine, who became known as “Moses,” Frederick Douglass said, “Excepting John Brown, I know of no one who has willingly encoun-tered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people.” And John Brown, who conferred with “Gen-eral Tubman” about his plans to raid Harper’s Ferry, once said that she was “one of the bravest persons on this continent.”

Becoming friends with the leading abolitionists of the day, Tubman took part in antislavery meetings. On the way to such a meeting in Boston in 1860, in an incident in Troy, NY, she helped a fugitive slave who had been captured.

During the Civil War Harriet Tubman worked for the Union as a cook, a nurse, and even a spy. After the war she settled in Auburn, NY, where she would spend the rest of her long life. She died in 1913.

www.pbs.org

15Syracuse Stage


“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” -Harriet Tubman


16

The Underground RailroadThe so-called “Father of the Underground Railroad” was a Quaker (a Christian religion) abolitionist from Pennsylvania named Isaac Hopper. He began helping runaway slaves in the 1790’s. Quakers, who believe strongly in equality, played an important role in both the Underground Railroad and the Women’s Rights Movement. Harriet Tubman herself said that Quakers were “almost as good as colored. They call themselves friends and you can trust them every time.”

The Railroad was not an organized system but more of a concept or a movement. Maps like the one below didn’t exist at the time because, if found, thousands of slaves could be caught and returned to slavery or killed. So without a planned structure or any maps to guide the way, how did it work?

To successfully escape, fugitive slaves needed: a change of clothes to disguise them, food and water to keep them going, a place to hide during daylight hours, and money to start a new life in Canada or anywhere else. At ‘safehouses’ or ‘sta-tions’ along the way, these necessities were be provided. ‘Passengers’ would travel 15-20 miles each night to reach a station by daybreak. Once they arrived, a messenger was sent to the next stop to prepare them for the train’s arrival. But ‘stationmasters’ only knew one or two stops North of their own. This was for safety: a stationmaster who was caught could be tortured or imprisoned, but without knowing the big picture they could never reveal enough information to hurt the cause.

The Railroad was so successful (an estimated 100,000 escapes between 1810-1850) that slaveowners demanded action from the government. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 created penalties for any federal agent that knew of a runaway slave but did not arrest them. It also increased penalties for anyone caught assisting a runaway. Slave catching became a big business. Bounty hunters would track fugitives all the way to Canada, hoping to cash in on a reward or simply sell the slave to another owner. But the danger of new laws and bounty hunters did not dissuade those who were committed to the cause (see the quote below right.)

“I would never obey it. I had assisted 30 slaves to escape to Canada during the last month. If the authorities wanted anything of me, my residence was at 39 Onondaga Street. I would admit that and they could take me and lock me up in the Penitentiary on the hill; but if they did such a foolish thing as that I had friends enough in Onondaga County to level it to the ground before the next morning.” Reverend Luther Lee Pastor, Wesleyan Methodist Church Syracuse, NY; Quote from 1855

TERMINOLOGYCodes kept the secret

Agents or Shepherds helped slaves find the railroadConductors guided them along the wayStations were hiding places owned by StationmastersPassengers or Cargo were the fugitives themselvesStockholders donated money to the causeHeaven and The Promised Land meant Canada


A Visit to the

HARRIET TUBMAN HOMELiving in Central New York, we are fortunate to have history right in our backyard! Central New York was a big part of the Underground Railroad (the last leg of a journey to freedom past Niagara Falls.) Nearby Seneca Falls, NY hosted conventions for Women’s Rights and the abolition of slavery. But it was Auburn, NY that Harriet Tubman called home after the Civil War.

Donated to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1903, her home was nearly demolished in 1944, but was saved when the AME Zion Church raised $30,000 to restore it. Since that time a library and a large assembly hall have been added, and many articles of furniture and art that belonged to Tubman are on display.

The Harriet Tubman Home is open to visitors Tuesday through Friday from 11AM to 4PM, and on Satur-days by appointment. Extended hours are available in February to honor Black History Month.

17Syracuse Stage


Directions from Syracuse

Take 690 W to exit 6 (Rt. 695) Follow Rt. 695 South Exit onto Rt. 5 West Turn right onto Turnpike Rd. (CR-10A) Turn left onto North Star Rd. (NY-34)

For More Information

Harriet Tubman Home 180 South Street Auburn, NY 13201 (315) 252-2081 www.nyhistory.com/harriettubman/


Talking to TubmanWhen Harriet Tubman visits your class, you will have the chance to ask her any questions you like. Be creative! If something she says makes you wonder “why?” or “how?” make a note of it and ask her when it is appropriate. We’ve even given you some space below for your notes! Here are a few subjects you might want to consider, but just use this as a starting point. What do you really want to know?

Possible Topics:

Life in Slavery The Underground Railroad The Civil War

Life in Central NY Her Legacy

You will also have a separate chance to question the actor playing Harriet Tubman. Here are a few topics you might want to consider: Topics on Acting:



18

NOTES___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




PRESENTS

Hip - Shake

By Len Fonte

Directed by Lauren UnbekantCostume Design by Meggan Kulczynski

Sponsored by:

19Syracuse Stage



Okay, this might seem like a strange comparison, but trust us, Shakespeare was a stone cold gangsta. With Hip-Shake, we’ll show you how the Grandmaster Bard and modern hip-hop artists use the English language in very similar ways. Here’s a few facts about Shakespeare that might just boost his street cred.


20

One. A 1589 production of Comedy of Errors probably felt more like a rap concert than a trip to the opera. While the royal and elite audience members sat in private boxes, the ‘floor seats’ (standing room only) were available to the lower-class masses of ‘groundlings,’ as they were called. We don’t think there was a mosh pit, but it could get pretty raucous down there. Check out page 8 for more on the groundlings.

Two. Shakespeare came from nothing. His parents couldn’t read or write, but he managed to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. Not bad, huh?

Three. Don’t let the frilly clothes fool you. Shakespeare was tough. The year he was born, his town was hit with the Black Plague, and Baby Shakes survived. 50 Cent may have been hit with a few shells (he don’t walk with a limp,) but he never had to deal with the Plague.

Four. Rap producer and artist Timbaland raised $800,000 for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Russell Simmons and Sean Combs are outspoken political activists. But Shakespeare wins again. Queen Elizabeth I was one of his biggest fans. Show me George Bush at a Snoop Dogg show and we’ll talk.

Five. He didn’t think to add “-izzle” to any of them, but Shakespeare invented an estimated 1,700 words. Here’s a few of our favorites: assassin, bloody, critic, generous, gloomy, gnarled, laughable, lonely, majestic, and puke.


Ye Olde Timeline Shakespeare’s Life Shakespeare’s Plays1560

1570

1580

1590

1600

1610

1564. William Shakespeare is born in Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, England

(100 miles north of London.)

1571. By tradition we can assume William began his formal education at age seven.

1582. William marries Anne Hathaway, who is three months pregnant with their daughter.

1583. Susanna Shakespeare is born.

1585. Hamnet (no, that’s not a typo) and Judith Shakespeare are born.

1593. All London theatres are closed until the following spring due to the Plague. Shakespeare takes up writing sonnets.

1596. Hamnet Shakespeare dies at age 11.

1597. Shakespeare’s company, Lord Chamberlain’s Men, move to a new theatre: The Curtain. Their old theatre is demolished and used to build The

Globe Theatre. Also, Shakespeare buys New Place, the second-largest home in Stratford.

1599. The Globe is finished, and Shakespeare is a part-owner.

1601. Shakespeare’s father dies.

1603. Queen Elizabeth dies. James I takes the throne. To keep their royal support, Chamberlain’s

Men change their name to The King’s Men.

1608. The King’s Men purchase London’s first indoor theatre: The Blackfriar. Shakespeare’s mother dies.

1609. The 154 sonnets are first published.

1613. The Globe Theatre burns down during a performance of Henry VIII.

1616. William Shakespeare dies.

The Comedy of Errors CThe Two Gentlemen of Verona CKing John HHenry VI [Parts 1-3] HRichard III HThe Taming of the Shrew CRomeo & Juliet TLove’s Labours Lost CRichard II HA Midsummer Night’s Dream CThe Merchant of Venice THenry IV [Parts 1 & 2] HMuch Ado About Nothing CAs You Like It CJulius Caesar THenry V HHamlet TTwelfth Night CAll’s Well That Ends Well COthello TMeasure for Measure CKing Lear TMacbeth TPericles TAntony & Cleopatra TThe Winter’s Tale RThe Tempest RThe Two Noble Kinsmen RHenry VIII H

[There is a lot of dispute about the exact order these were written. It seems likely that Shakespeare would work on several plays at one time, so the exact order in which they were finished is up for debate. This is only a partial list, some lesser-known plays have been left out in the interest of space.]

C = Comedy T = Tragedy H = History R = Romance

Understanding shakespeareHow to read Shakespeare...and actually get it!

Many students complain that Shakespeare is too hard to understand, that the language is outdated and unclear. But believe it or not, the English lan-guage has changed very little since Elizabethan times. Linguists (people who study languages) consider Shakespeare’s writing only one ‘genera-tion’ apart from our own. Grammar and sentence structure have only changed slightly in the last 400 years, so if Shakespeare’s language confuses you, it’s likely that the problem is only the individual words. Here’s how to get past that.

Some words from Shakespeare’s time have com-pletely disappeared from the language. For exam-ple, you’d be rightfully confused if someone asked you to bacarre the roisting wassail. Most published versions of Shakespeare’s plays include footnotes to explain these outdated words. Use these - they are there to help you.

If you are still hung up on a phrase or sentence, move on. Don’t frustrate yourself reading the same line over and over. Instead, get an idea of how the character is feeling, or what s/he wants in the scene, and see if it begins to make more sense as you continue.

But how can you know how a character is feel-ing if you don’t understand the words he says? Do what actors do. Modern actors are trained to pick out clues in Shakespeare’s writing. These clues re-ally do exist. In Shakespeare’s time, plays were barely rehearsed. Actors would quickly memorize their lines, then perform only days later. There was no time to sit around asking, “What is my moti-vation?” So Shakespeare, being an actor himself, knew that he needed to write in a style that would give his actors all the information they needed right inside the words.

Consonants and vowels are a great starting point for understanding a Shakespearean line. As a basic rule: the angrier someone is, the more consonants they use. The happier, the more vowels. This is a bit oversimplified, but think of examples in your own life. Say this sentence out loud (like you really mean it) and notice how prominent the consonants feel as you say them.

“I can’t believe you’d do that! You’re so selfish!”

Now try this one:

“I love how you look at me. I feel so wonderful!”

The vowels here are fuller, and make the whole sentence sound lighter and just plain nicer.

When the same consonant sound is used repeat-edly, this is called alliteration. Here’s an example from Sonnet 30: “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought.” If a vowel sound is repeated, this is called assonance: “Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks.” (Romeo & Juliet)

Rappers and hip-hop artists use alliteration and as-sonance all the time. They also use rhythm, and Shakespeare is no different. There is a beat that drives each line of Shakespearean text. Actors know this. Now you do, too.

This is just a small example of how the sound of Shakespeare’s lines contains their meaning. Don’t forget that he didn’t intend his plays to be stud-ied in classrooms. He wrote them to be spoken and heard. If you are stumped by the words he uses, think about the sound of the line, and use that to get the meaning of the line. Just like listening to a song, you don’t always need to understand every word to get the big picture.

For more of Shakespeare’s grammatical clues, visit:www.bardweb.net/grammar/02rhetoric.html

22Syracuse StageDept. of Educational Outreach(315) 443-1150


SONNETSThe Sonnet is a form of poetry that has a certain structure. This structure varied depending on location and era, but most sonnets are meant to compare and contrast two different things (emotions, beliefs, actions, images, etc.) and then to reach a conclusion of some sort about the nature of the two. We will focus on the English (or, Shakespear-ean) sonnet.

The basic structure of a Shakespearean sonnet is: 3 Quatrains (4 lines each) followed by 1 Couplet (2 lines) for a total of 14 lines. The rhyme structure is: A B A B, C D C D, E F E F, G G. So each Quatrain introduces two new alternating rhyme sounds, and the final Couplet rhymes with itself for an almost sing-song ‘hook.’

Each line of the sonnet is written in Iambic Pentameter. In the simplest terms, this means each line is made up of ten syllables, or five Iambs. An Iamb is a pair of syllables: one unstressed, one stressed. The most basic example of a line of iambic pentameter would sound like: de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM (ex. “In sooth I know not why I am so sad.”) Tupac Shakur once said, “Iambic pentameter is rap. It’s the structure.”

Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day? (A)Thou art more lovely and more temperate: (B)Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, (A) And Summer’s lease hath all too short a date: (B) Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines (C) And oft is his gold complexion dimm’d; (D) And every fair from fair sometime declines, (C) By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d: (D) But thy eternal Summer shall not fade (E) Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; (F) Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade, (E) When in eternal lines to time thou growest: (F) So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, (G) So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. (G)

Here is perhaps the most famous sonnet- #18. A little cliche, perhaps, but it is a great example of how a sonnet compares two things before reaching its final con-clusion. The rhyme scheme is outlined in the far-right column.

Layin’ it, sayin’ it, then you’re playin’ it Lyrics so heavy that you might try weighin’ itHated by many but I hate ‘em backLoved by troopers who know where it’s atYou might like me, might think I’m wackBut don’t step to me ‘cause the boy stays strappedI’m taking no shorts, hatin’ the courts, hatin’ the judgesPunk DAs with their personal grudgesI hate the clubs that think with their buttsNo hats, no jeans, no sneakers, no what?No beepers, no gold? Yo, kiss my ***We’ll wait and see who gets the last laughWe’ll have the power.

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Now check this out: a verse from ‘Power’ by Ice-T. It isn’t technically a sonnet, but it’s close. What similarities do you see? What are some of the differences? What rhyme scheme does Ice-T use? How does ending with a single line instead of a rhyming couplet change the feel of the song? What is he comparing?



24

Questions for the CharactersWhen Hip-Shake visits your class, you will have the chance to ask the characters any questions you like. Be creative! If something they say makes you wonder “why?” or “how?” make a note of it and ask when it is appropriate. We’ve even given you some space below for your notes! Here are a few subjects you might want to consider, but just use this as a starting point. What do you really want to know?

Possible Topics:

Use of Language Writing Process Performance

You will also have a separate chance to question the actors about acting. Here are a few topics you might want to consider: Topics on Acting:


NOTES___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




PRESENTS

Rosalie Randazzo:Portrait of a Child Garment Worker

By Sara Ariello and Anna CometaDirected by Lauren Unbekant

Sponsored by:

25Syracuse Stage



TIMELINEOF CHILD LABOR IN THE USA

1880 - 19401880

1890

1900

1910

1920

1930

1881. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions is formed and at its first convention urges

states to ban children under 14 from working.

1886. The FOTLU changes its name to the American Federation of Labor, which still exists (since

a 1955 merger it is now called the AFL-CIO.)

1883. Samuel Gompers and the FOTLU persuade NY State to pass legislation banning cigar manu-facturing within tenement housing. The law was ruled unconstitutional, but getting the law passed was a big first step for workers’ rights.

1892. The Democratic Party takes up the Child Labor issue, and supports a ban

on factory workers under age 15.

1904. The National Child Labor Committee forms and begins campaigning for labor reform. 1906. Rosalie Randazzo and family immigrate

to the United States from Italy.

1909. “Uprising of the 20,000” garment workers strike in New York City.

1910. 15-yr old Bessie Noramowitz leads a strike of Chicago clothing workers.

1912. Massachusetts adopts the first minimum wage for women and minors.

1916. The first federal child labor law creates sanctions to punish states that violate minimum age laws, but 2 years

later it is deemed unconstitutional.

1912. Children’s Bureaus are established in both the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and Dept. of Labor.

1924. Congress passes a Constitutional Amend-ment giving the federal government the right to regulate child labor, but not enough states ratify it and it never takes effect.

1936. The Walsh-Healey Act declares that the United States will not buy any goods made by underage children.

1937. The Sugar Act makes sugar beet farmers ineligible for benefit payments if they violate state minimum wage and work hours standards.

1937. Congress again tries to pass a Constitu-tional Amendment on child labor, and again it is shot down by the states.

1938. Finally, effective federal regulation on child labor is passed: the Fair Labor Standards Act. It regulates minimum wage, minimum age, and hours of work for all states in the union.

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Growing Up in the FactoriesPretend for a moment that you are the child of a family moving to America in 1906. You probably know very little English, you’ve left all your friends behind, and you live in a tiny, dirty, cramped tenement in New York City. Your family came here to find a better life, and you still believe there is hope for happiness, but your family is quickly running out of money. They ask you to help, and so you go to work.

You go to the nearest textile factory, a place where they make clothing, and you are hired on the spot. They make you a scavenger and quickly show you what to do. The machines the older workers use are enormous and noisy, with lots of moving parts. As the machine is used, bits of cotton fall to the floor beneath it, or get stuck between the moving parts. “This is wasted money,” your boss explains. “All you need to do is pick up the cotton when it falls, so we can re-use it.” He smiles and tells you it will be easy, and it does sound easy... at first.

Then you look up at the machine, with its sharp metal parts whirring around so quickly, and you realize how dan-gerous this job is. Your boss tells you to get to work, and so you do. You lay on the floor, making yourself as thin as possible while you carefully crawl underneath the machine. The noise is tremendous. The whirring pieces of the machine swoop just inches over your head. One mistake and your hair could get caught and ripped from your head. One mistake and you could lose an arm. Dust is everywhere and it rushes into your nose when you breathe. Already you want to quit, but you think about your family, and the few pennies you will earn for them today. “At least I am getting paid,” you think, as you look at the orphan boys and girls working beside you.

Orphans usually were not paid. Instead, the factory gave them food, clothing, and a place to sleep. That seems fair, but as you look at the tired, hungry orphans in their tat-tered clothes, you pity them. One orphan is in the corner being beaten with a cane by a supervisor. Another is forced to work with a heavy weight tied around their neck. You quickly learn not to make the supervisors angry.

Back to work. Dozens of other machines need to be cleaned, so you hurry along the line. A girl who has been working there for months says sometimes they count their steps to pass the time. Most days they walk twenty miles back and forth between the machines. Twenty miles? You feel a knot in your stomach thinking about the next four-teen hours. You will work well into the night, with only one short break.

You think about your family again. You are doing the right thing, aren’t you? You want to help, and you wouldn’t mind working, if only you had more breaks and a safer job. Best not to think about that, though. You have a long day ahead of you.

A young girl sneaks a look at the outside world. Behind her is a machine like the ones you work with. Can you see the crawl space underneath?


Louis HinePutting a Face on Child Labor in America

There is a show on cable television these days that looks inside the dirtiest jobs in America. One hundred years ago, Lewis Hine did the same. As the official photographer for the National Child Labor Committee and a freelance pho-tographer for a social reform magazine, Hine was a pioneer of ‘documentary photography” - using cameras to capture moments of everyday life that symbolize a period of his-tory. But Hine wasn’t just interested in recording history. He used photographs to change history.

Hine was a school teacher in New York City when he began photographing the arrival of immigrants to Ellis Island. He was also interested in issues of poverty, investigating the condition of cheap tenement housing and industrial work environments. By showing the public visual evidence of things they might normally be unaware of, Hines hoped he could inspire people to reform and improve our society.

Meanwhile, the National Child Labor Committee was lobbying for the government to protect childrens’ rights in the workforce, but they were facing resistance from big business owners who had a lot of political influence. The NCLC knew that if the public supported labor reform, the government would be forced to consider it a serious issue. Many adults, however, thought that children benefitted from jobs that taught them responsibility, and low-income families often depended on the extra money their children could bring home each week. The NCLC needed to prove to the public that child labor was hurting kids, not helping them. They needed proof. They needed Lewis Hine.

Hine accepted the job and travelled the country documenting working conditions. Factory owners began to recog-nize him, and they would often refuse to let him inside, or else they would hide their young workers. Hine would fool them by posing as a fire inspector or another important figure.

After Hine and the NCLC achieved their goal of labor reform legislation, Hine began photographing Red Cross workers during World War I, and later was hired to cap-ture images of the Empire State Building construction and New Deal work programs during the Great Depres-sion. He dedicated his life to improving society, but never earned much money for it. He died in extreme poverty in 1940.



The Fair Labor Standards ActMany attempts were made to stop unfair child labor with laws and regulation, but all of them faced the problem of constitutionality. The Constitution protects the rights of all its citizens, including business owners. The question was: is it fair to tell a business owner how to run his/her business? Would that violate their right to negotiate contracts with their employees?

Of course no employer has the right to abuse their employees, and in 1938 the Fair Labor Stan-dards Act (FLSA) was passed. In 1941, the Supreme Court ‘upheld’ the law, deciding that it did not violate the employer’s rights.

Since then, the law has been amended many times to keep up with the changing times. The most recent change came in 2007. Here is a look at the FLSA then, and now.

Original Minimum Wage (1938): $0.25/hr Current Minimum Wage (2007): $7.25/hr

Original Maximum Hours per Week (1938): 44 Current Maximum Hours per Week (2007): 40

‘Overtime’: Employees working more than the maximum number of hours per week must be paid 1.5 times their normal wage for the hours they worked past the maximum. Many jobs are exempt from this regulation, but most hourly jobs held by children are covered.

Children 16-17 yrs. old: May work unlimited hours in any occupation that is not hazardous. Hazardous jobs include those requiring use of heavy machinery, meat slicers, grinders, or choppers.

Children 14-15 yrs. old: On school days, limited to 3 hrs./day, 18 hrs./wk. May not work later than 7:00PM. Weekends and summers, may work 8 hrs./day, 40 hrs./wk. May not work later than 9:00PM.

Jobs that Have Rules Different Than These: Farm work, performing (ex. acting), businesses owned by the child’s parents, newspaper delivery, etc.

If you have a job, or are thinking about getting one, make sure you know your rights! Information is available through the U.S. Dept. of Labor (www.dol.gov) and the NYS Dept. of Labor (www.labor.state.ny.us). You will also need ‘working papers.’ Your school should have these forms and can help you understand them.

29Syracuse Stage



Questions for RosalieWhen Rosalie Randazzo visits your class, you will have the chance to ask her any questions you like. Be creative! If something she says makes you wonder “why?” or “how?” make a note of it and ask her when it is appropriate. We’ve even given you some space below for your notes! Here are a few subjects you might want to consider, but just use this as a starting point. What do you really want to know?

Possible Topics:

Immigration Life in the Factories Child Labor Laws

You will also have a separate chance to question the actor playing Rosalie Randazzo. Here are a few topics you might want to consider:

Topics on Acting:



30

NOTES___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




PRESENTS

Hopeful Horizons:Zora Neale Hurston

By Veanna BlackDirected by Lauren Unbekant

Sponsored by:

31Syracuse Stage



Histio-Biographic TimelineZORA NEALE HURSTON

1891. Born January 7 in Notasulga, AL

1894. Hurston family moves to Eatonville, FL

1897. Zora’s father (John Hurston)elected mayor 1904. Zora’s mother (Lucy Ann Potts) dies; Zora

is sent to school in Jacksonville, FL

1905. John Hurston re-marries

1915. Zora goes on tour with a Gilbert & Sullivan singer, working as her maid

1917. Zora enters the Morgan Academy

1918. Graduates from the Morgan Academy

1920. Receives an Associate Degree from Howard University, majoring in English

1921. Publishes first story, John Redding Goes to Sea

1924. Short story - Drenched in Light

1925. Moves to NYC and becomes the only black student at Barnard College, studies anthropology.

1927. Leaves NYC to collect folklore in the south; Marries Herbert Sheen

1931. Divorces Herbert Sheen

1934. Publishes her first novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine

1935. Mules and Men, a collection of folklore

1936. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study West Indian culture, travels to Haiti and Jamaica

1937. Novel - Their Eyes Were Watching God

1938. Tell My Horse, volume of Caribbean folklore

1939. Marries Albert Price III and divorces in the same year; Writes Moses, Man of the Mountain

1942. Autobiography - Dust Tracks on a Road

1948. Novel - Seraph on the Suwanee

1950. Writes political articles and works as a maid

1956. Takes job as a library clerk at Patrick AFB

1957. Fired from library; Starts writing for The Fort Pierce Chronicle, a black newspaper

1958. Begins substitute teaching

1960. Dies January 28

1890

1900

1910

1920

1930

1940

1950

U.S. HISTORY

1896. Plessy v. Ferguson allows segregation when facilities are “separate but equal”

1909. The NAACP is founded by W.E.B DuBois

1914. Marcus Garvey founds the Universal Negro Improvement Association; US enters World War I

1921. Bessie Coleman becomes the first black female pilot

1926. Negro History Week is established in February by Carter G. Woodson

1927. Charles Lindburgh makes the first transat-lantic flight

1929. US Stock Market crashes

1933. Etta Moten becomes the first African American to perform at the White House

1935. Murray v. Pearson. Supreme Court demands the University of Maryland must either admit black students to its law school or establish a sep-arate school for blacks. They admit the students.

1939. Jane Bolin becomes the first black female judge in the United States (NYC)

1940. Hattie McDaniel becomes the first black ac-tor to win an Academy Award (Gone with the Wind)1941. The US enters World War II

1948. Harry Truman orders the desegregation of the armed forces

1954. Brown vs. Board of Education. Reverses the Plessy decision and ends legal segregation

1955. Rosa Parks incites the Montgomery Bus Boycott

1957. Congress passes the Civil Rights Act

1958. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference selects Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as president

Zora Neale Hurston:

A BIOGRAPHYZora Neale Hurston knew how to make an entrance. On May 1, 1925, at a literary awards dinner sponsored by Opportunity Magazine, the earthy Harlem newcomer turned heads and raised eyebrows as she claimed four awards. Hurston made a wholly memorable entrance at a party following the awards dinner. She strode into the room - jammed with writers and arts patrons, black and white - and flung a long, richly colored scarf around her neck with dramatic flourish as she bellowed a reminder of the title of her winning play: “Coloooor Struuckkk!” By all accounts, Zora Neale Hurston could walk into a roomful of stangers and, a few minutes and a few sto-ries later, leave them so completely charmed that they often found themselves offering to help her in any way they could.

Gamely accepting such offers - and employing her own talent and scrappiness - Hurston became the most suc-cessful and most significant black woman writer of the first half of the 20th century. Over a career that spanned more than 30 years, she published four novels, two books of folklore, an autobiography, numerous short stories, and several essays, articles and plays.

Born on Jan. 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama, Hurston moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida when she was still a toddler. Established in 1887, the rural com-munity near Orlando was the nation’s first incorporated black township.

In Eatonville, Zora was never indoctinated in inferior-ity, and she could see the evidence of black achieve-ment all around her. She could look to town hall and see black men, including her father, formulating the laws that governed Eatonville. She could look to the Sunday Schools of the town’s two churches and see black wom-en, including her mother, directing the Christian curri-cula. She could look to the porch of the village store and see black men and women passing worlds through their mouths in the form of colorful, engaging stories.

Growing up in this culturally affirming setting in an eight-room house on five acres of land, Zora had a rela-tively happy childhood. Her mother urged young Zora and her seven siblings to “jump at de sun.” Hurston ex-plained, “We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.”

Hurston’s idyllic childhood came to an abrupt end, though, when her mother died in 1904. Zora was only 13 years old. “That hour began my wanderings,” she later wrote. “Not so much in geography, but in time. Then not so much in time as in spirit.”

After Lucy Hurston’s death, Zora’s father remarried quickly and seemed to have little time or money for his children. “Bare and bony of comfort and love,” Zora worked a series of menial jobs over the ensuing years, struggled to finish her schooling, and eventually joined a Gilbert & Sullivan traveling troupe as a maid to the lead singer.

Zora had a fiery intellect, an infectious sense of hu-mor, and “the gift,” as one friend put it, “of walking into hearts.” Zora used these talents - and dozens more - to elbow her way into the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s. By 1935 Hurston - who’d graduated from Bar-nard College in 1928 - had published several short sto-ries and articles, as well as a novel and a well-received collection of black Southern folklore. But the late 1930’s and early 40’s marked the real zenith of her career. She published her masterwork, Their Eyes Were Watching God, in 1937; Tell My Horse, her study of Caribbean Voodoo practices, in 1938; and another masterful novel, Moses, Man of the Mountain, in 1939. When her au-tobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road, was published in 1942, Hurston finally received the well-earned acclaim that had long eluded her. She went on to publish another novel, Seraph on the Suwanee, in 1948.

Still, Hurston never received the financial rewards she deserved (the largest royalty she ever earned from any of her books was $943.75.) So when she died on Jan. 28, 1960 - at age 69, after suffering a stroke - her neigh-bors in Fort Pierce, Florida had to take up a collection for her funeral. The collection didn’t yield enough for a headstone, however, so Hurston was buried in a grave that remained unmarked until 1973, when it was dressed with a fitting epitaph: “Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South.”

Valerie Boydwww.ZoraNealeHurston.com

33Syracuse Stage


The Harlem RenaissanceOriginally called the “New Negro Movement,” the Harlem Renaissance marked the first time that mainstream pub-lishers and critics took African American literature seriously and that African American literature and arts attracted significant attention from the nation at large. Although it was primarily a literary movement, it was closely related to developments in African American music, theatre, art, and politics.

ORIGINS. Several factors laid the groundwork for the movement. A black middle class had developed by the turn of the century, fostered by increased education and employment opportunities following the Civil War. During a phenomenon known as the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of black Americans moved from an economically depressed ru-ral South to industrial cities of the North to take advantage of the employ-ment opportunities created by World War I. As more and more educated and socially conscious blacks settled in New York’s neighborhood of Har-lem, it developed into the political and cultural center of black America. Equally important, during the 1910’s a new political agenda advocating racial equality arose in the African American community, particularly in its growing middle class.

LITERATURE. Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Jessie Fauset, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, Alain Locke, Eric D. Walrond, Wallace Thurman, Countee Cullen

POLITICS. W.E.B. DuBois and the NAACP, Marcus Garvey and the “Back to Africa” movement

MUSIC. Jazz and blues; Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Elling-ton, Eubie Blake, Bessie Smith, Fats Waller, Billie Holliday, Count Basie

VISUAL ART. William H. Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones, Sargent Claude Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Archibald Motley, Romare Bearden, Aaron Douglas

Source: MSN Encarta Encyclopedia

Photos, Starting at Top:Author Langston Hughes

Political Leader W.E.B. DuBoisMusician Duke Ellington

Street Musicians by William H. Johnson


34

What is

ANTHROPOLOGY?If you trace the word back to its Greek origins, “Anthropology” literally means “To talk about humans.” We use it to refer to the scientific study of human cultures. At Barnard College, Zora Neale Hurston studied Anthropology and though she is generally remembered as a fiction writer, she always examined her characters through the “spyglass of anthropology.”

As a child, Hurston was intrigued by stories and tales. After studying anthropology with the “father of modern an-thropology” Franz Boas, she came to the opinion that folklore is “the boiled-down juice of human living.” With folklore as her subject, Hurston used the scientific process of acquiring her data first-hand. She travelled constantly, talking to people and collecting stories that portrayed the values, ideals, and traditions of the cultures she examined.

When Mules and Men was published in 1935, no black author or anthropologist had ever published a book on black cul-ture for a mainstream audience. Hurston was a pioneer in both the fields of literature and anthropology, and the key to her success was the way she skillfully combined the two. While most anthropologists use the scientific approach of distancing themselves from the subject in order to gain an objective perspective, Hurston wrote with a more intimate style of narration. By collecting her data scientifically, then communicating it on a more personal level, Hurston was able to bring her cultural findings to a wider audience.

This was a technique that Hurston had to learn. In 1927, Boas helped her to secure a fellowship that would fund a research trip to her hometown of Eatonville, FL. Hurston later admitted the first trip was a failure, mainly because she did not have “the right approach.” She adjusted her techniques and got much better results on a second trip to Eatonville, which became the basis for the first half of Mules and Men. By “the right approach,” Hurston is referring to her method of collecting data. She is one of many anthropologists who use Ethnography in their research. Ethnog-raphy is a style of research in which the anthropologist immerses herself in a community and interviews members of the community first-hand. While some anthropologists prefer to look at the individual elements of culture (tradition, folklore, economics, etc.) ethnologists observe the total sum of these elements as a cohesive environment.

“Hurston embraced anthropology’s belief that rigorous and systematic training provided its practitioners with a unique vision of the world. And her metaphor of anthropology as a spy-glass, as an illuminating lens, still resonates today. But where she departed from convention was in her choice of subject matter. To study her own people as a native anthropologist ran counter to the prevailing intellectual winds. Further, her blurring of literary conven-tions with ethnographic data was a challenge of which she was keenly aware. Hurston’s will-ingness to go against the grain and to experiment with new ethnographic styles and methods positions her as the foremother of what is today called interpretive anthropology, or the new ethnography.” - Irma McClaurin, Anthropologist

35Syracuse Stage



Talking to ZoraWhen Zora Neale Hurston visits your class, you will have the chance to ask her any questions you like. Be creative! If something she says makes you wonder “why?” or “how?” make a note of it and ask her when it is appropriate. We’ve even given you some space below for your notes! Here are a few subjects you might want to consider, but just use this as a starting point. What do you really want to know?

Possible Topics:

Childhood Harlem Renaissance Writing

Anthropology Her Legacy

You will also have a separate chance to question the actor playing Zora Neale Hurston. Here are a few topics you might want to consider:

Topics on Acting:



36

NOTES___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


RESOURCESEach of our Backstory! characters have lived fascinating lives. There is so much to learn about them, we couldn’t possibly fit everything in this guide. On this page you will find websites you can visit to get the full story.

ANNE FRANKAnne Frank Museum (www.AnneFrank.org)

Anne Frank Center (www.AnneFrank.com)

Anne Frank Tree (www.AnneFrankTree.com)

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (www.ushmm.com)

Time Magazine (www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/frank01.html)

WWII (www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ww-2time.htm)

http://teacher.scholastic.com/frank/

http://www.annefrank.eril.net/contents.htm

http://www.uen.org/annefrank/

HARRIET TUBMANwww.HarrietTubman.com

NY History Net (www.nyhistory.com/harriettubman/)

PBS (www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1535.html)

America’s Library (www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/tubman)

Civil War (www.civilwar.com)

Abolition (www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam005.html)

www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/hwny-tubman.html

HIP-SHAKEwww.Shakespeare.com

www.Shakespeare-online.com

www.bardweb.net

Complete Works (http://shakespeare.mit.edu)

Shakespeare/Hip-Hop (www.stylusmagazine.com/ar-ticles/staff_top_10/top-ten-shakespeare-hip-hop-ana-logues.htm)

37Syracuse Stage


HIP-SHAKE (Continued)Poetics of Hip-Hop (http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/3656/)

Flocabulary (www.flocabulary.com/shakes/shakeshome.html)

ROSALIE RANDAZZOThe History Place (www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html)

www.pickens.k12.sc.us/pmsteachers/jordanrg/Child%20Labor/webquest.htm

Century of Immigration (www.loc.gov/exhibits/haven-tohome/haven-century.html)

Industrial Revolution (http://members.aol.com/Teach-erNet/Industrial.html#CLA)

www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson289/web-child-labor.html

ZORA NEALE HURSTONwww.ZoraNealeHurston.com

PAL (http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/hurston.html)

PAL (http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/9intro.html)

Teacher Resources (http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/hurston.htm)

www.fatherryan.org/harlemrenaissance

www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/harlem/harlem.html

EXTRASwww.syracusestage.orgNow, you can be Stage Man’s friend at:



the carrier backstory program 2008

Documents

syracuse community

syracuse stage

lockheed martin employees

programdirectors circle

introduction theatre

elements of theatre

targetstage manager

fundstage manager