Equus – starring Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths.
Equus the Play has been a hot topic of discussion amongst the theatre community for a long time.
In the Fall 2008, Broadway was graced by Harry Potter stars, Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths. They starred in the West End, sell out transfer, of Peter Shaffer’s Equus at The Broadhurst Theatre, NYC.
In this article you will find opinion of Equus the play, Equus reviews, and interviews with the stars of Equus, as well as how to get your hands on a copy of Equus the film, as well as the Equus play script and the Equus study guide.
Equus Theatre Poster, featuring Daniel Radcliffe
Isn’t it beautiful?
So, What Did I Think of Daniel Radcliffe in Equus?
honest, I thought it was alright, but I wanted more from Radcliffe. I saw the second preview, so his performance was still finding it’s feet (there was a rather embarrasment moment at the end, where Richard Griffiths had to show him how to bow!)
I really wanted to love this show, as I was in a production of it with a theatre company a few years previously, but I was left with a strange taste in my mouth. I couldn’t help feeling that there are better actors out there who could take on the role. Radcliffe was, for me, just OK. He didn’t have enough diversity in his performance, the only diversity was in his vocal projection – quiet, loud, or shouting. Richard Griffiths was superb, as I had hoped. The production as a whole was ‘revived’ from it’s original conception in the 70s, recreating the wired horse masks, as using a minimalistic set.
This show has created huge controversy, primarily due to one scene in Equus that sees Daniel Radcliffe nude, completely starkers, naked, no clothes, nada (and we’re not talking just shirtless either)…yes, gasp you might!
Daniel Radcliffe gets nude on stage
…or Harry Potter Gets His Wand Out
seeing Radcliffe’s disappointingly bland and shouty performance, I couldn’t help feeling that it was stunt casting that gave him the part. Having a name like, Daniel Radcliffe, in a lead role that goes fully naked on stage, is a guaranteed sell out. Who isn’t interested to see whether or not he actually takes his clothes off?
I find something awkward about it. I don’t know why. I’m not a prude by any means. I only find it distasteful because Radcliffe is so strongly associated with Harry Potter – an icon of children’s literature. Millions of children look up to him and adore him…and in the late 2000′s he was still a teenager and is appeared naked infront of hundreds of people. It’s just, I don’t know, kinda weird.
I suppose I also wouldn’t mind so much, if it wasn’t the topic of conversation every time someone talks about the show. If there’s a publicity shot for the show, it’s of Radcliffe topless. No one stops and talks to him about the fundamental issues of playing a young teenage character growing up and needing psychiatric care. No one talks about the interesting stage design or the beautiful horse masks. All people seem to care about is Daniel Radcliffe getting taking his clothes off and showing everyone his wand, so to speak.
Is Daniel Radcliffe Right For The Part?
Is it stunt casting? Are there better actors out there? Is Radcliffe too associated with Children’s Literature to go naked on stage?
Is Daniel Radcliffe right for the part of Alan Strang?
Alan Strang (Radcliffe)
Equus Synopsis and Study notes
*may contain spoilers*
Equus tells the story of a troubled stable lad, Alan Strang, who has an unusual relationship with his horses. Worshipping his god, Equus, it all seems relatively harmless. Then interactions with the stable girl, Jill, takes a course of action that leads him to be submitted to a psychiatric care. Persuaded by his life long confident, Dr. Martin Dysart, child psychologist, takes on the boy and begins to unravel what happened, and what led him to brutally attack and blind six horses with a metal spike – all the time dealing with his own demons.
Originally opening as a play in the 1970s, starring Anthony Hopkins as Dysart, Equus has gone on to marvel audiences and inspire discussion. Amazon currently stock a study guide to Peter Shaffer’s
Equus as a digital download.many
universities and drama departments study the text and play, as it raises interesting debate about the nature of theatre and rituals, as well as innocence and loss. An intriguing set of characters guide us through this troublesome story. Questions are raised about identity, religion and sex. How did a teenage boy become so ensnared in a faith, to the extent that his staunch beliefs would give him such powerful feelings of guilt and shame, that would lead him to attempt destroying his very own god. Emotionally charged, gripping and captivating. An extraordinary play that will stay with you, even after you’ve left the theatre.
Want to Know More About Daniel Radcliffe?
What other theatre has Daniel Radcliffe been doing since Equus?
Since Equus, Daniel Radcliffe has been busy! Not only did he have to finish off the Harry Potter films, but he has gained a few more theatrical accolades under his belt.
He went to Broadway and starred in the musical How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. The musical was a super hit and went down very well with critics.
In the middle of 2013, he then went to star in The Cripple on Inishmaan as part of the Michael Grandage season at the Noel Coward theatre, London. Another challenging role, not only by virtue of having to perfect an Irish accent, but also because he had to play his role with half his body contorted into a cripple-like stance. I saw it in June, and it was excellent!
What are the Twitterati saying about Equus?
Alan and Gill, the Stable Girl
This is the prelude to Daniel Radcliffe’s controversial sex scene that-never-actually-happens in Equus
Eponine is one of Les Miserables’ best-loved characters. This girl has it tough, dragged down into a life in the gutter by her parents, but she rises above their vulgarity and acts with courage and self-sacrificing love. In the musical theater version of ‘Les Miz’, Eponine is known above all for her song On My Own, a lament for non-requited love everywhere. Young British actress Samantha Barks is the newest on-screen Eponine in the major movie musical version of Les Misérables, having also played the role on stage.
Who Was Eponine Thenadier?
Hugo’s Ragged but Spirited Heroine
Eponine was the daughter of Monsieur and Madame Thénadier, an unpleasant couple who were paid to care for the young Cosette but instead treated her as a slave.
Eponine was the eldest of three Thenadier children. At the beginning of the story had only one sibling, a sister who was less than 2 years younger than ‘Ponine. The little sister was called Azelma. The girls were named after characters in the trashy romance novels their mother liked to read. A little later on there was also a baby brother who their mother disliked and ignored.
The Thénadiers at that time were not dirt poor but had a thriving business, though they were often in debt. The two girls were nicely dressed and healthy. In fact, Eponine and her sister were rather spoiled as children. Although their mother Mme Thénadier had a vicious streak, she took this out on Cosette. Hugo wrote that if it hadn’t been for Cosette, the Thénadier girls would have received blows from their mother as well as her caresses.
With no better role model than their own mother, the sisters were in turn mean to Cosette (who was almost exactly the same age as Eponine). It’s hard to blame them for this, when Eponine and Cosette first met the pair played together like sisters but in time they were taught to see her as no better than the family dog.
While Cosette was eventually adopted by Valjean and brought up as a young lady, Eponine shared the fate of her parents whose criminal activities dragged them all into living as thieves and scroungers on the streets of Paris.
‘Ponine and Gavroche
Brother and Sister
Gavroche Jondrette (aka Thénadier)
Gavroche is Eponine’s Brother
In the novel it is explained that Gavroche (pictured right), the streetwise lad who helps the student rebels, is in fact the younger brother of Eponine. This isn’t made clear in the stage musical. For some reason, though Mme. Thénadier loves her daughters, the boy is rejected and left to fend for himself on the streets. By this time the family is known by the alias Jondrette.
Eponine as a Young Woman
Eponine had no chance to make a decent person of herself, but in the staged version of Les Mis her actions showed that in spite of her circumstances she had a loving heart and a fighting spirit. In the novel she was much more of a lowlife, described as ‘creepy’ by modern-day readers for her stalking of Marius, almost luring him to his death. However, even in the book she redeems herself at the last moment.
Eponine dies a sad death, knowing her love is hopeless and that her hard life is unlikely to ever get any easier. More of a rebel than the naive and sheltered Cosette, tough but longing to be loved, Eponine is a favorite character for girls and women everywhere.
What Did Eponine Look Like?
Young French Orphan Girl, 1823
Eponine as a Child
Her hair was either dark or chestnut, and Eponine is usually played by brunettes in contrast to the (normally) blonde mother and daughter Fantine and Cosette.
Both as infants and as little girls Eponine and her sister were described as very pretty: “vivacious, neat, plump, rosy, and healthy, and a delight to the eye”.
Eponine the Teenager
When Marius first encounters Eponine she is 16 years old and looks younger. “She was a frail, emaciated, slender creature” wearing “nothing but a chemise and petticoat. She already had missing teeth and a “hoarse, strangled voice”.
When he meets her again some time later, Eponine has “grown poorer and prettier… She was barefooted and in rags…”
Eponine has already been in prison thanks to her father’s activities, and she is already a little like a wild animal. “She had bits of straw and hay in her hair… because she had slept in the loft of some stable. And in spite of it all, she was beautiful.”
A Model for Eponine?
It wasn’t easy finding an image of someone who might look like Eponine. Not surprisingly, portraits were pretty much restricted to wealthy women in this era. They wore fine clothes and jewels, and were well-fed.
The image above is by Delacroix, the French artist who painted the famous French Revolution image Liberty Guiding the People and shows an orphan girl in 1823 who might well have been Hugo’s model for Eponine.
Eponine as She Appears in Les Miserables Illustrations
Actresses Who Have Played Eponine
Les Miserables Eponine Thénadier on Stage and Screen
Although Eponine is one of the most popular of the Les Misérables characters, it seems when being cast she is not seen as one of the big roles in quite the same way that Cosette is.
In the musical theater version of Les Mis, Eponine has one big solo (On My Own) and also a moving duet with Marius (A Little Fall of Rain), which makes it quite a substantial part to play.
However, in the non-sung film adaptations of the novel her role has often been made more marginal and has not attracted the big-name actresses who have been cast over the years as Fantine or even as Cosette. She doesn’t even appear in the 1978 TV film credits, suggesting her part was cut altogether.
Frances Ruffelle
The Les Miz Original London Cast’s Eponine
Frances Ruffelle was the first Eponine of musical theater, creating the role with the original London cast of Les Misérables and winning a Tony Award for her performance in the same role on Broadway.
Ruffelle made an appearance in the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert and she has a small role in the new Les Misérables movie musical as a prostitute.
She has done a variety of theatre and TV work and has released several albums. Frances Ruffelle was also the UK’s 1994 entry into the Eurovision Song Contest.
Her daughter is singer Eliza Doolittle. Eliza’s father is Les Misérables (stage) director John Caird. Ruffelle and Caird are no longer married.
Les Mis Original London Cast Recording
Frances Ruffelle, the Original Eponine
Frances Ruffelle joins Colm Wilkinson as Valjean, Patti LuPone as Fantine, Michael Ball as Marius, and the rest of the legendary original Les Miz cast.
Frances Ruffelle: We Will Be Free
1994 Entry for UK into Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision is an annual, Europe-wide song contest. These days the UK does not take it very seriously although some other countries do, but there were a number of high quality entrants in the 1990s including France Ruffelle and, a few years earlier, her Les Mis co-star Michael Ball. (Colm Wilkinson, original Valjean, was the entry for Ireland in 1978.)
The 1994 Eurovision Contest was famous as the event at which the interval-act Riverdance burst onto our screens and into our lives, becoming a global phenomenon.
Lea Salonga
A Musical Theater Star Who Has Been Both Eponine and Fantine
Lea Salonga (album available on Amazon.com)
Lea Salonga, from the Philippines was like Samantha Barks just a youngster when she first shot to fame. Already known in her home country, she became part of musical theatre history when cast as the original Kim in Miss Saigon back in 1989.
Lea has one of the most beautiful voices in musical theater (and beyond). Her career has seen her take a number of leading roles in London and on Broadway, in addition to releasing albums and even doing voice work for Disney.
She was Eponine in the Les Miserables: The 10th Anniversary Dream Cast in Concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall, with Colm Wilkinson as Valjean, Michael Ball as Marius and Ruthie Henshall as Fantine.
Fast forward 15 years and, Lea (more mature but not looking a day older!) rejoined a Les Misérables cast as Fantine in the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert, making her a Les Mis legend. (Samantha Barks made her screen debut as Eponine in the same concert.)
Lea Salonga as Eponine
Member of the Les Miserables ‘Dream Cast’
Linzi Hateley
Another Classic Stage Musical Eponine
Linzi Hateley is a name that will be familiar to many loyal Les Miserables fans. This stage actress played Eponine in London for 2 years.
Linzi was an enchanting Eponine who found a place in the heart of those lucky enough to see her in the role. Not only a beautiful voice but just the right youthful look, even more so if, as the novel seems to hint, Eponine was the Thénadier sister with chestnut hair. If you have never seen Linzi Hateley as Eponine or if you want to relive the magic, take a moment to watch the video below.
She has appeared in many other stage productions, including starring opposite Philip Quast (the 10th Anniversary Les Miserables ‘Dream Cast’ Concert’s Javert) in the London cast of The Secret Garden (2000). She has released 3 albums of her own.
Linzi has a small role in the 2012 Les Misérables movie.
Linzi Hateley: An Enchanting Eponine
Linzi Played Eponine for 2 Years
Samantha Barks
Eponine on Stage and on Screen
Samantha Barks is set to be one of the most memorable Eponines of all time, having won the role not only in the 2012 Les Misérables movie musical with its all-star cast but also in the magnificent 2010 Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert and on-stage in London’s West End.
Samantha had a very public start to her career as an actress and singer. She was ‘discovered’ when she made it through to the final 10 young women auditioning for the part of Nancy in the London revival cast of Oliver! This 17 year old captured the hearts of the British public and of Andrew Lloyd Webber and legendary producer Cameron Mackintosh with her beauty and talent. She also proved she could move well, giving her an edge over the other finalists.
The part of Nancy went to Jodie Prenger, a young woman with a big voice who better fit the voting public’s image of the character. Samantha did however take on the role of Nancy in the touring production of Oliver! following her role of Eponine in Les Mis in London.
Samantha is from the Isle of Man in the British Isles. Gossip has it that she briefly dated Nick Jonas, who played her Marius in the 25th Anniversary Concert. Sam has a Twitter account SamanthaBarks where you can keep up with her news.
Samantha Barks Sings ‘Memory’ from Cats
Samantha Barks and Rachel Tucker Compete
Samantha and Rachel had to compete in a sing-off in I’d Do Anything, a reality TV show casting for the part of Nancy in the musical revival of Oliver! Neither won the role from this show, but Rachel went on to star as Elphaba in Wicked and Sam played Nancy in the UK tour of Oliver! as well as Eponine in Les Mis.
This is where they started. They’ve come a long way!
What About Taylor Swift?
Wasn’t Taylor Cast for Eponine?
There were reports at the beginning of 2012 that country singer Taylor Swift was to be Eponine, and she was rehearsing with the rest of the cast. For some reason, this particular casting decision was not set in stone and didn’t work out.
Swift is young, talented, popular and supremely successful. In 2011 she was the highest earning artist in the popular music industry, beating the likes of Celine Dion, U2, Bon Jovi, Lady Gaga and Adele.
It’s not known whether her voice or screen acting wasn’t quite the best fit for Eponine or whether she had too many other commitments. Either way, the role finally went to Samantha Barks who, while virtually unknown in the US, had proved herself as Eponine on stage and screen in the UK.
Asia Argento
Eponine in Les Miserables TV Film 2000
Italian actress Asia Argento was Eponine in the TV mini-series that starred Gerard Depardieu as Valjean and John Malkovich as Javert.
Asia’s was probably as big a role as Eponine has had in any of the major movie and TV versions of Les Misérables prior to the movie musical of 2012.
The actress was born in 1975 and can also be seen in Marie Antoinette, which starred Kirsten Dunst. Much of her work is in R-rated horror movies and erotic thrillers. She played Christine Daaé in a 1998 horror version of The Phantom of the Opera (not the musical version).
I Created a Theater Gift Shop on Zazzle to Raise Money for my Local Community Theaters!
I’ve been tinkering around with this Squidoo thing for a while now, and I am proud to say I finally have something I am excited to create a lens about! A while back, I decided my love for all things theater must not and cannot be contained any longer.
To this end, I have declared war on my “cubicle”, where I spend 40 hours per week. I am secretly developing plans to escape the cubicle and pursue my passion for theater full-time. This is going to take some money. So, among other top-secret missions, I have created an online store where I am selling gifts for theater lovers.
My shop is on Zazzle, a wonderful place where creative people can invent clever designs and have them professionally printed on hundreds of different products! With my store on Zazzle, all I have to do is create, and they handle the advertising, printing, shipping, payment, and customer service! I am loving it!
After I had spent a a little time building my store, I decided I wanted to share in my profits to help support two of my favorite local non-profit community theaters! So I am donating an equal split of a total of 20% of my royalties to Carrollwood Players Theatre in Tampa, Florida and The Manatee Players in Bradenton, Florida!
Help me escape the cubicle and help me support these two fantastic community theaters by visiting my online store!
THEATREPALOOZA!
My Online Theater Gift Shop
Here are some links to my online theater gift shop and some of the cool products I am hoping to sell. Every item purchased brings me a little closer to escaping from the cubicle and also helps out two wonderful community theater groups. Oh, and I have included links to THEIR websites, too. Hope you’ll check them out!
THEATREPALOOZA
The place to find gifts for that theater-lover in your life! T-shirts, polo shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, hats, mugs, magnets, key chains, baby clothes, pet clothes, pet bowls, buttons, stickers, bumper stickers, greeting cards, note cards, invitations, calendars, mouse pads, pillows, neckties, necklaces, ornaments, place mats, napkins, stationery, stamps, real postage, water bottles, candy jars, cases for iphones and ipads and ipods, laptop and macbook sleeves, tote bags, messenger bags, plates, photo sculptures, skateboards, notebooks, binders, note pads, envelopes and much more!
Carrollwood Players Theatre
Carrollwood Players Theatre is one of the two community theaters I am donating part of my Zazzle royalties to. Check them out, they are a great organization. If you’re in the area, stop by and see a show!
The Manatee Players
The Manatee Players is one of the two community theaters I am donating part of my Zazzle royalties to. I got my start in theater here! If you’re in the area, stop by and see a show!
Open a Zazzle Store to Raise Money for YOUR theater!
Shakespeare is a great place to start for product ideas! Looking for a great fundraiser idea to help support YOUR local not-for-profit theater group? OPEN A STORE ON ZAZZLE! There is no cost to open your own online store and the potential for earnings is only limited by your imagination! You could even form a Zazzle Committee and work as a group to come up with great ideas to put on the quality merchandise Zazzle offers. How about taking some photos from your season and making a calendar, or mugs, or t-shirts that your theater members and fans can buy? What a great way to be creative, have fun, and support your theater! What are you waiting for?
I am not only a fan of the Phantom Opera musical and film, I am also a fan of Emmy Rossum. Her voice is amazing and it’s hard to believe that she was only 17-years-old when she began filming the 2004 Phantom of the Opera Movie. That’s quite an accomplishment for such a young singer and actress. I think Emmy Rossum made a perfect Christine and the costumes that were chosen for the movie were terrific. Christine’s hair and make up was innocent, yet seductive.
If you are planning to dress up as Christine for Halloween, Cosplay or for a Phantom of the Opera theater production you will need to figure out how to replicate her beautiful hair and make up. Her look is actually quite easy to achieve. You can get Christine Daae hair by styling your hair with a curling iron or using a more gentle no heat method.
If you don’t have long hair you can wear a spiral curl wig or a Christine Daae theater wig. Although the Christine Daae character in the Phantom of the Opera movie had dark hair, many theater productions feature a blonde Christine character. If you have blonde hair there is no need to buy a dark haired wig, just tell everyone you are a blonde Christine!
Christine Daae Wig Options
If you don’t have long hair or you don’t think that your hair color looks much like Christine’s then you can wear a wig as part of your Phantom of the Opera costume. You can choose a curly dark hair wig or blonde wig, depending on your personal preference. If you are an Emmy Rossum fan you will probably prefer to wear a dark brown wig, but if you fell in love with the musical featuring a blonde Christine Daae then you may want to wear a pretty blonde wig.
The Original Christine Daae Had Long Blonde Hair
In the original Phantom of the Opera novel, Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, Christine Daae was described as a beautiful young Swedish women with golden blonde hair and blue eyes. This is the reason that many people decide to dress up as blonde Christine for Cosplay events.
Christine Daae Theater Wigs
This dark brown Lace Front Christina Daae Wig is made by a professional theatrical wig maker. It is a terrific wig choice for those who need a wig that is durable and realistic looking for a Phantom of the Opera theater production or Cosplay event.
How to Create Beautiful Tight Spiral Curls
I personally love Christine’s feminine spiral curls. If you have long hair you can create beautiful Christine Daae hair using a curling iron. If you do not want to use heat on your hair you can use spiral hair curlers, but you will have to leave them in overnight. The following spiral hair tutorials show you how you can create the same type of curls as actress Emmy Rossum in the Phantom of the Opera film.
My daughter Heather (featured in the photo) has gorgeous blonde hair. Her hair is naturally wavy and straightens out as the day goes on. Heather wanted to have pretty spiral curls for her Grade 8 graduation so we made an appointment with our hairdresser. I am able to do a pretty good basic curling job, but I’d rather rely on a professional for special events.
To achieve this look Heather washed her hair and let it dry naturally. The hairdresser used regular large size curlers (the hard kind) and regular hard plastic hair clips. Heather slept overnight with the curlers in her head (she propped her head up on pillows) then went back to the hairdresser at 2:30 p.m. the next day to have the curlers removed. The hairdresser then used a curling wand to define the curls and sprayed her hair with hairspray.
This look is perfect for graduations, weddings and of course it would be an ideal hairstyle for a blonde Christine Daae for Halloween or Cosplay. If you do not have the hair styling tools needed to get dreamy spiral curls then you may want to consider having a professional hairdresser do your hair for you. Although some hairdressers cost a fortune you may be able to find one that will curl your hair for a reasonable price (Heather’s hair cost $45) Just remember to bring along a photo of Christine Daae so the hairdresser knows exactly what type of curls you want.
Whether it’s a tiny table-top sized puppet theater or a full kid-sized mock-up, it’s easier than you think to bring home the fun of a full-fledged “theater.”
A real theater is not necessary, but part of the fun of putting on a show can be all the fuss and fanciness of a real theater – the curtains, the lights, the costumes, the sound effects. Sure, some real New York actor started an actual theater in his as-is living room (so can you), but a little embellishment adds to the sense of dramatic occasion!
Makes a great family project too.
This Lens will talk about creating (or buying, that works) and using theaters in your home with your children.
(The photo is from Benjamin Pollok’s Toy Shop.)
A Full Kid-Size Theater
Easier than you think!
Romeo and Juliet and Balcony LEVELS – Often there is a feature in your house that just screams “Show Biz!” Maybe a step or two – a change in level – between, say, the entry and the living room. Set dining room chairs in a row facing this and the higher lever is now “on-stage.” If your stairs are nearby that’s a bonus – now there are multi-levels for more dramatic blocking and Juliet can stand up a couple steps for her balcony (a tall stool twined with roses works well too).
DOORWAYS & CURTAINS – If there’s a wide doorway or opening between two spaces, add a curtain and that opening – Voila! – becomes a proscenium stage. This could be done as simply as by installing strong hooks at the upper corners of the opening, then tying a nylon cord clothes-line-style between them. A couple bedsheets (with the cord pulled through the biggest hem) become a pair of Grand Drapes. If you sew, then hemming lengths of a light-weight velour (red!) would make even more satisfying theater curtains. If feeling lavish, you could add fringe at the bottom. A more permanent version of this idea would be to install a drapery rod and velvet drapes. If your house is old enough or your decor traditional, these may be decorative: portieres were once very popular, partly because they look nice, partly because they stop drafts. (In “Gone With the Wind,” Scarlet wears her mother’s green velvet portieres as a dress.)
BED CURTAINS – This idea works well at a child’s bed, where a footboard and draperies make an easy puppet theater. (I knew one much-loved puppet theater that was the foot of a lower bunk plus gingham curtains – perfect.) In the book “Little Women,” Jo and her sisters performed their plays using the curtains of an old four-poster bed.
Curtains are always popular with junior thespians. If you have drapes covering a big patio door, have the actors do their acting on the patio, while the audience sits inside looking out. Or vice versa depending on whether the play is set in an interior or exterior. Do both! Make the audience move as real theaters do when performing “House and Garden.”
SCREENS – A pair of folding screens could make sides for a theater (mini-wings). You could paint these with theatrical motifs like Comedy and Tragedy masks. Would the kid version could be Smiley and Frowny Faces?
Do a little research on grand historic theaters to get ideas. (Researching with the kids might be a good lesson in history, architecture, and in library/research skills too. Then you get the messy fun of painting!) If very ambitious and with older children or teens, you could together design and build these “wing” screens. It would be easy with thin plywood and a scroll saw to give the wing-screens either the architectural profile of an old theater – then paint on the architecture – or to cut tree shapes for a more pastoral look.
Most ambitiously, perhaps for Scouts of a church youth group, you could create a whole demountable mini proscenium built from traditional theater flats of fabric stretched on 1×4 wood frames and painted.
Impromptu Theater!
Wonderful Cardboard! (from photos-public-domain.com) After all this planning for a theater at home, don’t forget how much fun – how creative – a spur-of-the-moment activity can be.
If your family gets a nice new appliance, throw away the new refrigerator or dishwasher and play with the box1 Cut out holes in it for a puppet theater and use socks straight out of the drawer with eyes etc. quickly pinned or sewn on. Or turn that box into the gingerbread house for a retelling of Hanzel and Gretel. I bet you could draw or paint on all the “candy” needed for that… or paint pop bottle caps and glue those on as “candies” or… Your imaginations are the only limits!
Midsummer’s Night’s Dream
Books on Theater for Kids
Here’s some material to use on-stage. Theater is all about story telling!
This is a great time to encourage your kid to make up stories, to take old stories like fairy tales and retell them as little stage dramas, to go looking (and reading) for new stories to tell.
Theater Buildings
A cultural history lesson (disguised as fun)
Shakespeare’s Globe Theater Researching theater buildings could be both fun and, well, educational. It will help in designing and decorating your at-home theater. Look at books and the internet for historic theaters like Shakespeare’s Globe Theater.
The Globe is particularly worth discussing. There’s the Shakespeare connection, of course. Even quite young children enjoy the story of “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream” with it’s feuding fairies, it’s silly mortals running around, and the goofy guy with the donkey ears. Easy to slip in a history lesson here, filled with fascinating characters like Queen Elizabeth I and events like the discovery of America. (Try acting out the wreck of the Spanish Armada at bath time. Sink some duckies!)
The Globe Theater is also interesting as a building, with its construction of timbers infilled with brick and mud and its straw roof. A cannon shot during Shakespeare’s “Henry VIII” set fire to the thatch roof – another fun fact! (Perfect opportunity for Mom to perform the ever popular no-playing-with-matches speech.) This historic theater has been recently rebuilt – a interesting example of archeology and a potential field trip.
Visiting a local theater, especially if you’re lucky enough to have a good children’s theater and/or a historic theater in your area, would make a great (slightly less expensive) field trip. When you go, have a contest to see who can spot the most how-theater-works items off of the stage: notice the lobby; the box office and ticket collector; the program and what’s in it; the way seats, aisles, and balconies are designed; the many fire exits (fire has always been a problem in theaters even without cannons); the way the curtains, if any, work; the sets and lighting; the costumes. And the performances and story.
Or research the great opera houses of Paris and Milan. (More great field trips!) Talk about the Paris Opera House and the story of the Phantom. Play music from the musical. (There really IS a subterranean lake under the Opera. Really, truly.)
Assemble a Prop Box
Prop Box You can’t play theater without props and costumes!
First find a big box – or maybe two marked “Props” and “Costumes” in florid lettering.
Now fill the “Costume” box with Mom’s old shoes and party dresses for princess-wear and Dad’s ties or lumberjack flannel shirts. Add hats, red hoods and hero capes, shopkeepers’ aprons, fishermen’s hats, striped witchy socks, and anything else interesting that you can scrounge (scrounging is half the fun).
Then fill the “Prop” box with plastic swords and goblets and crowns, astronaut helmets (is that costume?), wood-choppers’ rubber axes and light sabers, baby bottles, toy animals, three bear-sizes of bowls with plastic porridge and other fake food including a poisoned plastic apple… plus all the other intriguing clutter that kids need to swash and buckle with.
Creating these theatrical trunks could be a lot of fun – and using them even more so!
(Remember in the book Little Women the contents of those sisters’ theater trunk? Most treasured was a pair of tall leather boots for the heroes to wear. For my kid, it was a pair of my boots from college – tall red leather with miles of laces – that became beloved pirate wear.)
Historic (and violent!) Puppetry
Puppets of Palermo (You might want to look this over before your kids do.)
This puppetry troupe from Palermo, or one very like it, visited Dallas years ago. My kid and I saw a performance. This is AUTHENTIC Medieval-style puppetry – which means Monty Pythonesque whacking with wooden swords and carved wooden limbs getting hacked off. My kid loved it! But I definitely saw some moms covering their younger children’s eyes.
The following website has a video clip (full of funny puppet beheadings etc.), interesting photos of puppets and workshops, and a link to Palermo’s marionette museum.
