Download MR McGEE AND THE BITING FLEA

MR McGEE AND THE BITING FLEA
Teaching Resource
We invite you to read the following material in order to understand the intentions
of the activities we are offering in relation to this production
PATCH THEATRE COMPANY
VISION
To keep the artist alive in the child through theatre.
MISSION
To generate live theatre experiences that engage children,
inspire their imaginations and motivate their creative play.
HISTORY
Patch Theatre Company has presented 98 new works to more than 1.25 million
children and their families nationally and internationally since it began in 1972.
Patch Theatre specialises in presenting quality in-theatre works to 4-8 year old
children, their teachers, carers and families.
Since 2002, Patch has presented its repertoire of works for 4-8 year olds to schools and
families in Adelaide and regional South Australia, at the Sydney Opera House and
the Victorian Arts Centre, to 27 major Australian venues in a national Playing
Australia tour and at international children’s festivals in the US, Canada, Korea,
Singapore and Japan.
Every child is an artist; the challenge is to keep them so. Pablo Picasso
PATCH THEATRE COMPANY
WHAT WE DO AND WHY WE DO IT?
Children are evolving beings passing through the most complex and rapid
developmental phases of their lives, during which two thirds of their potential as humans
will be hard-wired! Our contribution to that development, we consider very seriously
indeed.
Patch Theatre celebrates story and play in the lives of children and their carers,
believing that if play is the engine for childhood learning; then the vehicle for their
communication is story.
Patch Theatre’s creative output is built upon three pillars of artistic exploration reference, assemblage, interactivity – each relating to the importance of story and
play in children’s lives.
Reference: It is not possible for children to assimilate new experiences without
having previous experience to build on. To this end, our work is strongly referential.
We source our content from literature, folklore, art, childhood culture or other areas of
relevant childhood experience, which allow opportunities for prior connection,
reflection and revisitation of the content presented in our productions.
Assemblage: Patch has been examining the possibilities of theatrical assemblages
of stories for children. Assemblages, because they comprise a collection of short
theatrical ideas, support children’s comprehension by providing manageable chunks
of experience for them to process. Story assemblages also allow variety and flexibility
within the one production, a factor that supports children’s engagement and cognition.
Interactivity: We believe that children’s theatre should have a sense of a
conversation about it because the deeper the sensory engagement is for children, the
more solidly the experience will be absorbed.
Our objective is to push well beyond the join in the chorus modes of interaction
common in children’s theatre, by extending our exploration to audience constructed
imagery and audience involvement in symbolic play, role play, game structures, story
construction and story sequencing.
Understanding Children: Patch Theatre believes an essential ingredient in the process
of producing work for young children is an awareness of their way of comprehending the
world. A confused or scared child will not process anything very well. Children need a
reassuring environment and concrete support for conceptual ideas. They can only
absorb meaning in relatively small chunks. Arts for children should refine, clarify and
extend their experience.
Our goal? Simple yet wondrous, mysterious and fantastical stories that are deeply
rendered at a child’s level of comprehension and perspective. Elegant simplicity!
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THE 100 LANGUAGES OF CHILDREN
Patch Theatre has been investigating the use of performance languages for and by
children. Our explorations are inspired by the renowned early childhood philosophy and
practice, taking place in the district of Reggio Emilia in northern Italy.
The term performance language we use simply as a device to challenge the range of
ways children use to construct meaning through play.
For example, leaves from trees can be collected and arranged in rows. This is a
collection of symbols but not a language because it tells us nothing in particular. But if
the children used the leaves combined with their own movement and sound to give their
impression of a strong wind, then the relationship between the leaves, the children’s
movements and sounds would represent a performance language.
It is the relationship among the symbols that converts the medium into the message and
it is the presence of a message that motivates children to construct meaning.
Another example of a performance language is when a DJ communicates meaning
through music, mixing, scratching and spoken word.
There are thousands of examples of performance languages. It is when we give children
the licence to explore and discover ways to make meaning through the use of a limited
palette of elements that we surprise ourselves with the amazing aptitude children have
for creation.
The exploration of performance languages by children bring together the key vehicles of
early childhood learning – story and play.
The 100 Languages of Children
A Poem by Loris Malaguzzi (founder of Reggio Emilia)
The child has a hundred languages
A hundred hands
A hundred thoughts
A hundred ways of thinking
Of playing, of speaking
A hundred ways of listening
Of marvelling
Of loving
A hundred joys
For singing and understanding
A hundred worlds to discover
A hundred worlds to invent
A hundred worlds to dream
The child has a hundred languages
And a hundred, hundred, hundred more …
But we steal ninety nine
We separate the head from the body
And tell the child to think without their hands
To do without their heads
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To listen and not to speak
To understand without joy
To love and to marvel
Only at Easter and Christmas
We tell the child
To discover the world already there
We tell the child
That work and play
That reality and fantasy
Science and imagination
Reason and dream
Are things
That do not belong together
And thus we tell the child
That the hundred is not there
But the child knows
The hundred is there!
MR McGEE AND THE BITING FLEA
The six Pamela Allen stories we tell in this production are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Mr McGee
Alexander’s Outing
Belinda
Brown Bread and Honey
Inside Mary Elizabeth’s House
Mr McGee and the Biting Flea
We build the presentation of these stories around a mix of musical treatments (from
barbershop to Beach Boys) linked to a range of visual elements common to children’s
play (toys, dolls, cushions, dress-ups, play-dough, bowls, pans, utensils, balloons etc.).
The stories emerge from dozens of suitcases, trunks and crates as three curious McGee
characters explore their contents.
The following poem explains the set up of the production.
The Three McGees
The three McGees have a job
In a place where stories lob
Arranged in cases, trunks and bags
A clue is written on the tags
Cos from her home, Pamela Allen
Sends in stories by the gallon
She packs them up just for fun
In trunks and cases – every one
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Every day a different way
So what we’ll get, well who can say
Cos no-one knows what’s there or not
You open up to see what’s what.
Then all together every day
The three McGees put on display
The very best of what they’ve got
Of cows and ducks and who knows what
Stories all to make us laugh
Though some are sad and some are daft
All are full of dance and din
One has wiggly apple skin
Another has a big fat king
In every one, a song to sing
The three McGees just love to play
With everything that comes their way
What stories will the three McGees
Have to tell us if you please?
What has Pamela packed today
For the three McGees to play?
Activities for children
What follows are some suggestions for small group explorations. We can’t predict what
children’s responses may be to these explorations. Every group will differ. The objective
is for children to discover new ways to express meaning through story by playing with
the possibilities of a limited palette of elements.
We have chosen three of the six stories around which to do these preperformance explorations – Mr McGee, Alexander’s Outing and Brown, Bread and
Honey. However, we urge you to read all the stories to the children as many times as
possible prior to the performance as this will enhance their experience of the production.
(See book list on Page 4.)
Mr McGee
A Small Group Project
Read ‘Mr McGee’ to the children.
The Languages of Apple Skins and Apple Peelers
Supply small groups of children (4-6) with apple peelers and an apple and demonstrate
how to peel an apple safely. Let the children practice peeling their apples. When they
have the hang of it, get them to try to peel a nice long piece of wiggly skin. When they
each have a piece of wiggly skin that they like, read the story again and get the children
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to be Mr McGee as you read. Let them each choose how they might play the story out as
you read. Some will do lots, others won’t and that’s OK because those that don’t will get
something from those that do.
Ask the children to use the apple peeler to help make the curious bird that is in the
story. Where are the bird’s wings and its beak? Show us how your bird flies. Show us
how your bird pecks Mr McGee.
The Languages of Balloons
This is project balloon for small groups. It could go anywhere or nowhere. It will depend
on your ability to provoke questions from the children and support them when they want
to test their ideas. Allow them time to play and explore possibilities. Tell them you want
to know everything they can find out about balloons. Encourage diagrams and
demonstration … expression of meaning through graphic languages and performance
languages.
Here are some starting points:
 Give each child a balloon and show them how to blow them up safely.
 Ask if anyone can make noises with the air from a balloon.
 Talk about the fear of popping a balloon.
 Explore that fear … what is it that makes us scared? Can we overcome that fear?
 Get them to practice blowing up balloons and making sounds with the balloons.
Encourage experimentation.
 Put a piece of sticky tape on a balloon and push a needle into the balloon - it
won’t burst – it will just deflate. Without the sticky tape, it will burst.
 Try popping a balloon, if you have addressed the fear issue.
 Why does the sticky tape stop the balloon from popping? How can you test your
idea?
 Connect a long tube to the balloon. How can you use the air from a blown-up
balloon for other things?
 Why do some balloons float up into the air and others don’t? (Helium is lighter
than air.)
 Why does a hot air balloon float? (Hot air is lighter than cold air.)
 What about Zeppelins? The Hindenburg was full of hydrogen, which was
explosive and therefore dangerous. (Hydrogen is lighter than air too!)
 Make up a balloon game using different coloured balloons. What are the rules of
the game?
 Make up a story beginning “Once upon a time there were 3 balloons … a red
balloon, a white balloon, a blue balloon and they were the very best of friends
until … one day”. Act out your story using the balloons.
 Put some music on and do ‘the dance of the bouncing balloon(s).’ Can you make
your dance into a simple story? What happens in your story?
 Tell your ‘bouncing balloon’ story as a dance with music and movement but no
words. Try different music with your story-dance (slow sad music, happy bouncy
music, classical, jazz, pop, dance-beats). How does different music change the
way the story feels?
 We want you to tell us one of the special things you’ve discovered about balloons
in a simple song that you make up. (Maybe listen to some songs and take note
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that songs often have a verse and a chorus and ask the group to do a verse and
a chorus.)
Eg:
Verse
My face goes red when I blow up balloons
My face goes red when I blow up balloons
The more I blow; the redder it goes
The more I blow; the redder it goes
My face goes red when I blow up balloons
Chorus
I like balloons
I like balloons
I like balloons
I like to make them go boom!
Verse
My cheeks get tired when I blow up balloons
My cheeks get tired when I blow up balloons
The more they stretch; the tireder I get
The more they stretch; the tireder I get
My cheeks get tired when I blow up balloons
Chorus
I like balloons
I like balloons
I like balloons
I like to make them go boom!

Finally, use a pump and a big balloon for Mc McGee, some small balloons for the
townsfolk, an apple and an apple peeler and work out how you can tell the story
of Mr McGee using only the things listed above and someone to tell the story.
You can draw faces on the balloons with texta pens.
Alexander’s Outing
A Small Group Project
Read ‘Alexander’s Outing’ to the children.
Places and Maps
In Alexander’s Outing, Pamela Allen tells a story about places that really exist in Sydney.
She has painted pictures in her book of those real places. Discuss the idea of place and
how to show where a place is. Where do you live? Where is it? How do you show where
you live compared to where the school is? This can lead to a whole project on maps and
identifying where places are.
Where is Sydney? Who has been there? Who has seen it on TV? How can we imagine
where it is? How can we get there? What do maps tell us about where Sydney is?
Read the book again.
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Draw a simple map together showing how the ducks get from their home pond to Hyde
Park and back, showing the pond by the harbour, the bottle tree, the iron gates, Art
Gallery Road, the Art Gallery, College Street, Hyde Park and the Archibald Fountain.
After you have done this exercise, you may want to show the same on a street map of
Sydney.
Miniature Performances
Either buy a collection of rubber duckies – one big one for mum and little ones for her
children – or ask the children to bring their rubber duckies from home.
Use a big bowl of water as a starting point and float the duckies in the bowl. Announce
“Alexander lived with his mother and his four brothers and sisters in the most beautiful
place in the whole of Sydney”. Then get the children to decide what they’re going to use
or make to represent the bottle tree, the iron gates, the Art Gallery, College Street, the
hole in Hyde Park and the Archibald Fountain.
List the ideas and then get the children to decide which ideas are best. Let everyone
contribute and go with the ideas that most excite the children and support the children in
seeing their ideas realised. (Even if you see that an idea won’t work, allow the children to
discover that, so that they learn to modify their own choices from a need to - the best
learning comes from trying things out - good learning involves frustration and wrong
choices.)
Some guiding questions may be: Can the hole hold water so that the rubber duckie will
float to the top? Will the duckie fit into the hole? What will we use for the fountain? Can
we get water from it with containers to fill the hole?
See if you can get a full miniature storytelling production underway, designed and
created by the children themselves. It can be as simple or as complicated as the
children’s imaginations dictate. Often complex solutions will lead to simpler ones … the
journey is what is important.
“We will never cease from exploration and the end of our exploring will be to
arrive at the beginning and know the place for the first time.” T.S. Elliot
Record the outcome on video and take stills of each scene. The children may want to
show their stories to other children.
Brown Bread and Honey
Activities
Read the story ’Brown Bread and Honey’ to the children.
Listen to the song. (An MP3 of the song is downloadable for teaching purposes from the
Patch website - www.patchtheatre.org.au)
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Playing with Chants – this can be done with a larger group.
There are some lovely rhythmic chants in this story.
Have the children chant the first two chants in rhythm and until they know them and the
story quite well.
Then every time you read the story, get them to join in on those chants. Encourage the
children to clap in rhythm as they chant.
Chant One:
STIRRING AND WHIRRING
MIXING AND FIXING
BASTING AND TASTING
SNIFFING AND WHIFFING
SIPPING AND DIPPING
MAKING AND BAKING
CHOPPING AND LOPPING
STEWING AND BREWING
Chant Two:
MILKSHAKES AND MUFFINS
PUDDINGS AND PUMPKINS
CHICKEN AND CHOCOLATE
PAVLOVA AND PIKELETS
CURRY AND CORDIAL
LAMINGTONS AND LIQUORICE
CUSTARD AND CAKE
AND MORE AND MORE
Then begin to read the following version of the story and have the children learn
the CAPITALISED section as CHANTS (with clapping) and RESPONSES so that the
story becomes interactive. An adult reads the lower case sections.
BROWN, BREAD AND HONEY (interactive version)
THE KING’S COOKS COOKED
THE KING’S COOKS COOKED
ALL DAY, EVERY DAY IN THE CASTLE KITCHEN
THE KING’S COOKS COOKED
MEALS FOR THE KING
STIRRING AND WHIRRING
MIXING AND FIXING
BASTING AND TASTING
SNIFFING AND WHIFFING
SIPPING AND DIPPING
MAKING AND BAKING
CHOPPING AND LOPPING
STEWING AND BREWING
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THE KING’S COOKS COOKED
THE KING’S COOKS COOKED
ALL DAY, EVERY DAY IN THE CASTLE KITCHEN
THE KING’S COOKS COOKED
THE KING’S COOKS COOKED
MEALS FOR THE KING
The King was the most important person in the land.
He lived in a big castle on the top of a high hill.
With his friend the stable boy, the king loved to jump, he loved to run
and he loved to ride his horse.
But what the King loved most of all was food
THE KING’S COOKS COOKED
THE KING’S COOKS COOKED
ALL DAY, EVERY DAY IN THE CASTLE KITCHEN
THE KING’S COOKS COOKED
MEALS FOR THE KING
THERE WERE …
MILKSHAKES AND MUFFINS
PUDDINGS AND PUMPKINS
CHICKEN AND CHOCOLATE
PAVLOVA AND PIKELETS
CURRY, CORDIAL
LAMINGTONS, LIQUORICE
CUSTARD, CAKE
AND THE KING …
HE MANAGED…
TO EAT IT ALL
But gradually … little by little … bit by bit … he got slower ... and
slower … and heavier … and heavier …
Until he was … too slow to run … too tired to jump … and too heavy for
his poor horse.
Nothing he did was fun anymore.
Nothing he ate tasted good anymore.
This curry your highness?
TOO HOT!
Gravy … your majesty?
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TOO GREASY!
Muffins sir?
TOO MUSHY!
Stuffing my lord?
TOO STICKY!
The cooks were sad and they tried harder and harder to make bigger
and better meals to please the King.
THE KING’S COOKS COOKED
THE KING’S COOKS COOKED
ALL DAY, EVERY DAY IN THE CASTLE KITCHEN
THE KING’S COOKS COOKED
MEALS FOR THE KING
AND THE KING
HE MANAGED
TO EAT IT ALL
One night after a big dinner, the king got very, very sick
“Oooowww … my tummy hurts!
Oooowww … I feel terrible!
Oo oooh! … I never want to see another pie ever again!
Oo oooh! … and it’s all your fault!
You cooks! You did this to me! You’re fired!
All of you! Go away! Leave me alone!
Pack your bags and leave! Ooooowwwwhhhh!”
So the cooks went away.
Next morning the King felt a little better and wanted some breakfast…
“Cooks! Cooks!!”
But there were no cooks left in the castle.
(THE FOLLOWING CAN BE DONE AS A CHANT WITH HAND
CLAPPING)
He asked the maid
Who cleaned in the kitchen …
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CAN YOU COOK? CAN YOU COOK?
But the maid had heard him
Complain about the curry
So she said,
“NO! I CAN’T.”
He asked the gardener
Who grew the gardenias …
CAN YOU COOK? CAN YOU COOK?
The gardener had heard him
Grizzle about the gravy so he said,
“NO I CAN’T.”
He asked the minister
In charge of the money …
CAN YOU COOK? CAN YOU COOK?
The minister had heard him
Moan about the muffins so he said,
“NO I CAN’T”.
He asked the soldier
Who served as the sentry …
CAN YOU COOK? CAN YOU COOK?
The soldier had heard him
Screeching about the stuffing so he said,
“NO, I CAN’T.”
(CHANT FINISHES HERE)
And when there was no-one left to ask, the king sat down just where
he was and cried.
And he was still sitting there the next day, when the stable boy found
him.
“Would you like some brown bread and honey, your majesty?”
“Thank you.” the King said.
“This is yummy!”
“Can I have some more?”
“There isn’t any more,” said the stable boy.
“That’s all there is!”
“I’m so sorry,” said the King, “but I was so-o-o-o-o hungry.”
“It’s okay … I can bring some more tomorrow.”
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And he did. Then next day the stable boy brought two lunches in two
little boxes.
“That’s for you,” he said giving one to the King.
“Thank you,“ said the King.
“Yum…
Brown bread and honey!”
Every day
From then on
The stable boy and the King
Would sit under a shady tree to eat their lunch
From two little boxes
Until …
At last …
One day …
The King could jump and run
And ride his horse again.
This made the King very happy.
And as for the cooks,
well they all ended up performing a story called …
(WE FINISH OFF WITH ONE FINAL HAND CLAPPING CHANT)
BROWN, BREAD AND HONEY …
It’s the King’s favourite food …
BROWN, BREAD AND HONEY
And the King loves the story of …
BROWN, BREAD AND HONEY
And when the story’s over …
they all sit down to eat together …
BROWN, BREAD AND HONEY
Yum!
PLAY DOUGH
A Small Group Project
Finally provide a small group with a big wad of play dough. Ask the children to see if they
can make a performance of the story very simply, using mainly the play-dough and the
chant version of the story. They may want to include a few other elements but ask them
to try to use only things that are used in a kitchen for cooking or eating. (That’s their
performance limited palette) They might want to bring them from home after a planning
session.
Get them to talk about the things that are important in the story:
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





The king becoming a big blob, and then becoming thin again.
The two main characters … the stable boy and the king.
The way the stable boy helps the king become less greedy and selfish.
What they like about the story.
What they want to show people when they make a performance of the story.
How can they best do that?
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