Printable PDF - Syracuse Stage
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Printable PDF - Syracuse Stage
Study Guide Contents 3.) Production Information 4.)Introduction 5.) Letter from the Director 6.)Synopsis 7.) About the Author and Playwright 8.) Sherlock Holmes and Joseph Bell 9.) Sherlock Holmes Canon 10.) Sherlock on Screen & Stage 11.) Elements of Teaching Theatre 13.) Topics for Discussion and Resources 15.)References 2 | SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION Director of Educational Outreach Lauren Unbekant (315) 443-1150 Manager of Educational Outreach Kate Laissle (315) 442-7755 Group Sales & Student Matinees Tracey White (315) 443-9844 Box Office (315) 443-3275 Ken Ludwig’s Timothy Bond Producing Artistic Director Diana C. Coles Interim Managing Director BASKERVILLE: A SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY PRESENTING SPONSORS BASED ON A NOVEL BY Arthur Conan Doyle DIRECTED BY Peter Amster SPONSORS ORIGINAL MUSIC & MEDIA SPONSORS SCENIC DESIGNER COSTUME DESIGNER LIGHTING DESIGNER SOUND DESIGN Adam Koch Tracy Dorman Thomas C. Hase Victoria Deiorio HAIR, WIG & PROJECTION MAKEUP DESIGNER DESIGNER DIALECT COACH FIGHT DIRECTOR Dave Bova Mike Tutaj Celia Madeoy Felix Ivanov PRODUCTION SEASON SPONSOR STAGE MANAGER CASTING Stuart Plymesser Harriet Bass Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery (Ludwig) is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited. May 11 - 29, 2016 SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION | 3 welcome! A FEW REMINDERS... audience etiquette BE PROMPT Give your students plenty of time to arrive, find their seats, and get situated. Have them visit the restrooms before the show begins. RESPECT OTHERS Please remind your students that their behavior and responses affect the quality of the performance and the enjoyment of the production for the entire audience. Live theatre means the actors and the audience are in the same room, and just as the audience can see and hear the performers, the performers can see and hear the audience. Please ask your students to avoid disturbing those around them. Please no talking or unnecessary or disruptive movement during the performance. Also, please remind students that cellphones should be switched off completely. No texting or tweeting, please. When students give their full attention to the action on the stage, they will be rewarded with the best performance possible. 4 | As you take your students on the exciting journey into the world of live theatre we hope that you’ll take a moment to help prepare them to make the most of their experience. Unlike movies or television, live theatre offers the thrill of unpredictability. GOOD NOISE, BAD NOISE Instead of instructing students to remain totally silent, please discuss the difference between appropriate responses (laughter, applause, participation when requested) and inappropriate noise (talking, cell phones, etc). With the actors present on stage, the audience response becomes an integral part of the performance and the overall experience: the more involved and attentive the audience, the better the show. Please remind your students that they play an important part in the success of the performance. STAY WITH US Please do not leave or allow students to leave during the performance except in absolute emergencies. Again, reminding them to use the restrooms before the performance will help eliminate unnecessary disruption. SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION Dear Educator, Live theatre is a place for people to gather and experience the joys, triumphs, and sorrows life has to offer. The Syracuse Stage education department is committed to providing the tools to make learning in and through the arts possible to address varied learning styles and to make connections to curricula and life itself. It is our goal in the education department to maximize the theatre experience for our education partners with experiential learning and in-depth arts programming. Thank you for your interest and support. Sincerely, Lauren Unbekant Director of Educational Outreach 2015/2016 EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH SPONSORS Syracuse Stage is committed to providing students with rich theatre experiences that explore and examine what it is to be human. Research shows that children who participate in or are exposed to the arts show higher academic achievement, stronger self-esteem, and improved ability to plan and work toward a future goal. Many students in our community have their first taste of live theatre through Syracuse Stage’s outreach programs. Last season more than 15,500 students from across New York State attended or participated in the Bank of America Children’s Tour, artsEmerging, the Young Playwrights Festival, the Franklin Project, Young Adult Council, and our Student Matinee Program. We gratefully acknowledge the corporations and foundations who support our commitment to in-depth arts education for our comunity. SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION | 5 SYNOPSIS Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville, while faithful to the characters and plot of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles is a comedy/mystery using five actors to play more than forty characters. Dr John Mortimer comes to Sherlock Holmes’s flat at 221B Baker Street to ask the great detective and his faithful friend Dr. Watson for help. Sir Charles Baskerville of Dartmoor is dead. He may have fallen victim to a family curse: to be torn apart by a demonic dog that roams the moor. Soon the American Baskerville heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, arrives from Texas. He has received a letter warning him from taking possession of Baskerville Hall, but scoffs at the threat and the curse. Watson accompanies him to the family estate where they meet a spurious-looking group: The Barrymores, the housekeepers; the naturalist Jack Stapleton and his beautiful sister, Beryl Stapleton; the convict Selden; and the mysterious lady, Mrs. Lyons. When Holmes arrives, the sleuths and their client have a frightening encounter with the ghostly hound. Along the way, we meet up with several old friends from the Holmesian world, including landlady Mrs Hudson, Inspector Lestrade, Jabez Wilson, and street urchin Cartwright of the Baker Street Irregulars. “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” - Sherlock Holmes 6 | SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE ABOUT Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland of Irish Catholic parents. He received his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh. While at university, he also published his first short stories. Lacking funds to continue his studies, he signed on as ship’s surgeon for a British whaler sailing in the Arctic circle. After returning to school and receiving his degree, he worked as a doctor on a steamship in Africa, then returned to practice first in Plymouth, England and then London. In 1886, he completed a mystery novella, A Tangled Skein, featuring a detective with amazing powers of observation and a physician narrator. Renamed A Study in Scarlet, it was published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual. Sherlock Holmes had been born. After the death of his first wife in 1906, Conan Doyle, who had renounced the Catholic faith, found solace in spiritualism, which was already an interest. In his later years, his passionate belief in spiritualism caused well-publicized rift in his friendship with magician and anti-spiritualist Harry Houdini. In 1902, Conan Doyle received knighthood for a pamphlet defending Britain’s position in the Boer War. It’s suspected that King Edward VII was really rewarding him as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Arthur Conan Doyle was a prolific writer. Besides the sixty stories about Holmes, he also authored many historical novels, non-fiction, science fiction and fantasy, most notably The Lost World (1912). He also selfpublished a two-volume book about spiritualism. In 1924, he published his autobiography, Mysteries and Adventures. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died July 7, 1930. The Playwright - Ken Ludwig Ken Ludwig has had six shows on Broadway and seven in London’s West End, and his plays and musicals have been performed in more than 30 countries in over 20 languages. His first play on Broadway, Lend Me A Tenor, which the Washington Post called “one of the classic comedies of the 20th century,” won two Tony Awards and was nominated for seven. He has also won two Laurence Olivier Awards (England’s highest theater honor), the Charles MacArthur Award, two Helen Hayes Awards, the Edgar Award for Best Mystery from The Mystery Writers of America, the SETC Distinguished Career Award, and the Edwin Forrest Award for Services to the American Theatre. His plays have been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Bristol Old Vic. He has written 22 plays and musicals, including Crazy for You (5 years on Broadway and the West End, Tony and Olivier Award Winner for Best Musical), Moon Over Buffalo (Broadway and West End), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Broadway), Treasure Island (West End), Twentieth Century (Broadway), Leading Ladies, Shakespeare in Hollywood,The Game’s Afoot,The Fox on the Fairway,The Three Musketeers and The Beaux’ Stratagem. His most recent plays include Baskerville, A Comedy of Tenors, and Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol (2015 Helen Hayes Award nominee for Outstanding Play). His newest book, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, (winner of the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare Book of 2014) is published by Random House. His plays have starred Alec Baldwin, Carol Burnett, Lynn Redgrave, Mickey Rooney, Hal Holbrook, Dixie Carter, Tony Shalhoub, Anne Heche, Joan Collins, and Kristin Bell. His work is published by the Yale Review, and he is a Sallie B. Goodman Fellow of the McCarter Theatre, Princeton. He holds degrees from Harvard, where he studied music with Leonard Bernstein, Haverford College and Cambridge University. from www.kenludwig.com SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION | 7 Sherlock Holmes and Joseph Bell In his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh, Conan Doyle made the acquaintance of surgeon and lecturer, Dr. Joseph Bell, who was already famous for his use of detail and observation as diagnostic tools. It is said Dr. Bell could tell where a sailor had sailed from his tattoos. A look at a patient’s hand could tell him what the person’s occupation was. A perusal of someone’s face could show whether the subject was a drinker. There is some evidence that he may have consulted on the Jack the Ripper murders and even named a suspect, but his notes have been lost. After reading A Study in Scarlet, one of Bell’s many admirers, author Rudyard Kipling, asked about Holmes, “Isn’t that my old friend Dr. Joe?” In Sidney Paget’s famed illustrations, Sherlock Holmes shares Bell’s appearance and avocations. Even the long cape and deerstalker hat are affectations that Joseph Bell favored. JOSEPH BELL Dr. Watson MARTIN FREEMAN AS DR. JOHN WATSON IN SHERLOCK 8 | SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION Arthur Conan Doyle created Watson as the narrator of the story and Holmes’s biographer. The first book, A Study in Scarlet is subtitled “Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D.” In the early stories, Watson is the detective’s flat-mate, but in The Sign of the Four he is engaged to Mary Morstan, a governess. In The Adventure of the Empty House, it is implied that his wife has died. Soon, Watson has moved back to 221B Baker Street. However, in the later The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier, one of two stories narrated by Holmes himself, he states that, “Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife.” She is never named or identified. The Great Detective’s Methods Where would the science geek gumshoes of TV’s CSI and Bones be without the pioneering crime solving methods of Sherlock Holmes? The fictional detective called his method deduction, although it is really induction, inferences made through observation. Aside from observation, Holmes was an early expert at finger examination, analysis of typewritten documents, chemical analysis, and handwriting analysis. He made close examination of footprints, and was fascinated by cryptology. Holmes was also a master of disguise. He even studied the behavior of dogs. The Sherlock Holmes Canon Conan Doyle wrote four Sherlock Holmes novels: A Study in Scarlet (1887), The Sign of the Four (890), The Hound of the Baskervilles, (serialized 1901–1902 in The Strand), and The Valley of Fear (serialized 1914-1915). There are fifty-six short stories, collected in five volumes: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894), The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905), His Last Bow (1917), and The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (1927). Although all the Holmes short stories are engaging, a handful are essential to the creation of the character. Three essential Sherlock Holmes stories are: • A Scandal in Bohemia - the first to feature illustrations by Sidney Paget, which set the image of Holmes. The story also introduces American opera singer Irene Adler, who often appears as a romantic interest for Holmes in films and plays. • The Adventure of the Speckled Band - Conan Doyle’s favorite Holmes story, which has the great detective investigating the mysterious death of Julia Stoner, whose last words were, “The Speckled Band!” • The Final Problem - Sherlock Holmes dies! Well, maybe. Killing Off a Hero In 1893, Conan Doyle decided to kill off Holmes so he could spend more time writing about and studying spiritualism. In “The Final Problem,” the saddened Dr. Watson reports that Holmes and his arch-enemy Professor Moriarty tumbled together off Reichenbach Falls, presumably to their deaths. Holmes proved to be more resilient. The public clamored for more Sherlock Holmes, so like a modern soap opera hero, he re-emerged in 1901 in The Hound of the Baskervilles, which is presented as taking place before his fatal fall. In 1903’s “The Adventure of the Empty House” Holmes was resurrected formally. He explains to Watson that only Moriarty had fallen to his death. SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION | 9 Sherlock on Screen There have been 226 films featuring Conan Doyle’s super sleuth. Notable screen portrayals include William Gillette, the originator of the role; John Barrymore; Basil Rathbone; Peter Cushing; Nicol Williamson; and Robert Downy Jr, who turned Holmes into an action hero in director Guy Ritchie’s popular films. Television Holmeses include Peter Cushing, former Dr.Who Tom Baker, and memorably Jeremy Brett, who re-energized the sleuth’s popularity in the 1980s. Most recently, we’ve seen Hugh Laurie (as Dr. Gregory House, based on Holmes), Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Masterpiece Mystery) and Johnny Lee Miller (Elementary), three series that place our hero in the twenty-first century. The Hound of the Baskervilles has been adapted for film and television over twenty-five times, beginning with the German Der Hund von Baskerville (1914). Some interesting Sherlock Holmes films include: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939, first in a series of films starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson) A Study in Terror (1965, Holmes faces Jack the Ripper.) The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) The Seven Percent Solution (1976, Holmes and Sigmund Freud solve a mystery together.) Murder by Decree (1978) Young Sherlock Holmes (1985, He’s a university student.) The Great Mouse Detective ( 1986, Disney animation with a rodent hero) Sherlock Holmes (2009) Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) 10 | SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE (1986) Sherlock holmes onstage The Sherlock Holmes stories and their characters are now in public domain, which means that there are very many incarnations of the character on stage, film, television and even in video games. The first stage version of Sherlock Holmes did as much to set the public’s vision of the detective as did Conan Doyle and illustrator Sidney Paget. Written in 1899, the play Sherlock Holmes, by Conan Doyle and American actor/playwright/manager William Gillette, incorporates new material as well as draw from A Scandal in Bohemia, A Study in Scarlet, and The Final Problem. Gillette himself, playing Holmes, was the first actor to use the signature curved pipe and utter, “Elementary, my dear Watson,” which is never said in the stories. Holmes became William Gillette’s signature role, and he played the sleuth until 1923. He also appeared in a 1916 silent film production. In 1922, the play was filmed again, this time with John Barrymore wearing the deerstalker cap. Interestingly, one of Sherlock Holmes’s earliest performances dates was in Syracuse in 1899, before the show was brought to Broadway, where it enjoyed enormous success. elements of drama PLOT What is the story line? What happened before the play started? What do the characters want? What do they do to achieve their goals? What do they stand to gain/lose? THEME What ideas are wrestled with in the play? What questions does the play pose? Does it present an opinion? CHARACTER Who are the people in the story? What are their relationships? Why do they do what they do? How does age/status/etc. affect them? LANGUAGE What do the characters say? How do they say it? When do they say it? MUSIC How do music and sound help to tell the story? SPECTACLE How do the elements come together to create the whole performance? Other Elements: Conflict/Resolution, Action, Improvisation, Non-verbal communication, Staging, Humor, Realism and other styles, Metaphor, Language, Tone, Pattern & Repetition, Emotion, Point of view. Any piece of theatre comprises multiple art forms. As you explore this production with your students, examine the use of: WRITING VISUAL ART/DESIGN MUSIC/SOUND DANCE/MOVEMENT ACTIVITY At its core, drama is about characters working toward goals and overcoming obstacles. Ask students to use their bodies and voices to create characters who are: very old, very young, very strong, very weak, very tired, very energetic, very cold, very warm. Have their characters interact with others. Give them an objective to fulfill despite environmental obstacles. Later, recap by asking how these obstacles affected their characters and the pursuit of their objectives. INQUIRY How are each of these art forms used in this production? Why are they used? How do they help to tell the story? SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION | 11 elements of design LINE can have length, width, texture, direction, and curve. There are 5 basic varieties: vertical, horizontal, diagonal, curved, and zig-zag. SHAPE is two-dimensional and encloses space. It can be geometric (e.g. squares and circles), man-made, or free-form. FORM is three-dimensional. It encloses space and fills space. It can be geometric (e.g. cubes and cylinders), man-made, or free-form. COLOR has three basic properties: HUE is the name of the color (e.g. red, blue, green), INTENSITY is the strength of the color (bright or dull), VALUE is the range of lightness to darkness. 12 | SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION TEXTURE refers to the “feel” of an object’s surface. It can be smooth, rough, soft, etc. Textures may be ACTUAL (able to be felt) or IMPLIED (suggested visually through the artist’s technique). SPACE is defined and determined by shapes and forms. Positive space is enclosed by shapes and forms, while negative space exists around them. Is Holmes’s use of observation plausible? The current Sherlock and Elementary place him in a modern setting. Consider how this modifies his method? Baskerville starts off as a ghost story. How is the supernatural treated? The novel and the play hook us with the story of Sir Charles and the spectral hound. What are some local scary stories or urban legends in your area? What is the role of Dr. Watson in Baskerville? Imagine the play without him. How would it change? Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville is a comedy/mystery. How do the comic antics affect the overall impact of the play? How does the use of five actors to portray a huge cast of characters change your understanding of the play? Does the playwright stay true to your vision of Sherlock Holmes? SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION | 13 Clue! Using the game as a springboard for writing Using the familiar board game Clue!, divide the class into teams corresponding to the number of allowable players. Then, play the game to determine the who, where, and with what weapon of the classic game (eg. Colonel Mustard in the library with the rope.) Then the four teams meet to develop short stories that explain what happened. Within the groups, one student writes a story from the perspective of the detective, another becomes a Dr. Watson-style narrator, and the others become witnesses or the killer. The observation game Before students arrive for class, the instructor subtly changes details of the classroom (perhaps remove or replace a poster, change position of objects on the desk, etc.) and his/her personal appearance (two different socks, mismatched shoes, etc.) Perhaps there is an enigmatic message on the blackboard. Group—discover the changes, individuals students write a story explaining the changes. Local Legends Baskerville uses the legend of the hound on the moors as a springboard. The class identifies some local ghost stories or urban legends, and then students use those tales to inspire a story. The writ ten pieces can take the form of short stories, oral storytelling, or plays. 14 | SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION REFERENCES: Sources and Resources Sir Arthur Conan Doyle http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/doyle/bio.html William Gillette, the First Holmes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gillette William Gillette: Five Ways He Transformed How Holmes looks and Talks http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30932322 Sherlock Everywhere: Stage, Film, TV http://sherlockholmesonstage.com/sherlock-everywhere/ http://bakerstreet.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Sherlock_Holmes_Adaptations:_Films Joseph Bell http://www.sherlockian-sherlock.com/dr-joseph-bell-the-real-sherlock-holmes.php Ranking the Stories http://www.bestofsherlock.com/story/storyhm.htm The Hound of the Baskervilles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hound_of_the_Baskervilles The Hound of the Baskervilles Complete Text https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2852/2852-h/2852-h.htm SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION | 15 Sherlock Holmes’s Methods http://sherlockspy.blogspot.com/p/methods-of-detection.html http://blog.oup.com/2013/09/six-methods-forensic-detection-sherlock-holmes/ http://www.wikihow.com/Develop-the-’Sherlock-Holmes’-Intuition Useful Video Ken Ludwig on Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo-Y7FJaXWQ The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939, Basil Rathbone) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgaU-W2mZ0E Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet (Peter Cushing) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD2LT5dRCKM The Best Ever Sherlock Holmes Quotes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UOTIW83oXs Twelve Mysterious Facts about Sherlock Holmes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt9rvrtvsHM 16 | SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION There have been many adaptations ands sequels to Peter Pan. Of special interest are: Barry, Dave and Ridley Pearson. Peter and the Starcatchers. Hyperion Books: 2004. The first in the Starcatchers series, an unauthorized and hilarious prequel to Peter Pan. McCaughrean, Geraldine. Peter Pan in Scarlet. Oxford University Press, Oxford: 2006. The authorized sequel to Peter Pan brings the Darling children and the Lost Boys back to Neverland after World War I. Notable film versions: Peter Pan (1924) directed by Herbert Brenon, starring Betty Bronson as Pan. A silent film, it’s the only film produced during Barrie’s lifetime. Long thought lost, it’s now available free online: https://archive.org/details/PeterPan1924. Peter Pan, animated from Walt Disney 1953, featuring the voice of Bobby Driscoll. Notable for its stereotypical version of the Indians. Peter Pan, The 1960 color recording of the Mary Martin stage version is available on video. Hook, (1991) directed by Stephen Spielberg, with Dustin Hoffman as Hook and Robin Williams as a grown-up Pan. Available on video. Peter Pan (2003) directed by P.J.Hogan, with Jeremy Sumpter as Peter. Available on video. Pan (2015) directed by Joe Wright, an origin story with Levi Miller as Peter, Garrett Hedlund as Hook, and Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard. SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION | 17 SEASON 15.16 THE UNDERPANTS STUPID F***ING BIRD OCTOBER 21 – NOVEMBER 8 JANUARY 20 – FEBRUARY 7 PETER PAN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD STEVE MARTIN’S BY STEVE MARTIN ADAPTED FROM CARL STERNHEIM LYRICS BY CAROLYN LEIGH MUSIC BY MORRIS "MOOSE" CHARLAP ADDITIONAL LYRICS BY BETTY COMDEN AND ADOLPH GREEN ADDITIONAL MUSIC BY JULE STYNE BASED ON THE PLAY BY SIR JAMES M. BARRIE FLYING EFFECTS PROVIDED BY ZFX, INC. CO-PRODUCED WITH SU DRAMA NOVEMBER 28 – JANUARY 3 THE SANTALAND DIARIES BY DAVID SEDARIS ADAPTED BY JOE MANTELLO 18 | SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION BY AARON POSNER SORT OF ADAPTED FROM CHEKHOV’S THE SEAGULL ADAPTED BY CHRISTOPHER SERGEL FROM THE NOVEL BY HARPER LEE FEBRUARY 24 – MARCH 26 THE CHRISTIANS BY LUCAS HNATH APRIL 6 – 24 KEN LUDWIG’S BASKERVILLE: A SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY BASED ON A NOVEL BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE DECEMBER 9 – JANUARY 3 MAY 11 – 29 Lila Coogan, Aurelia Williams, and Mary DiGangi in Hairspray. Marc Safran Photography. SE AS ON SPONS OR: