Vaudevillian, Here We Come!
Overview:
This unit looks at the many aspects involved with creating a fair using vaudeville as the main performing art. Activities can culminate with a school event after students have created their own characters made from paper mache and learned about parades and organizing such an event.
Featured Artist: Country Fair
Video Description: This video follows the process of creating a new vaudevillian performance for the Oregon Country Fair, while illustrating what the event is all about. The video shows performances, parades and rehearsals.
Clip Length: 7:01 minutes
Themes Explored in this Unit:
- Learning about new and old vaudeville as a performing art.
- Creatively developing characters.
- Costume as an art form.
- Learning history and significance of parades.
- Imagining and building your own country fair.
Notes to Teachers About this Lesson Plan:
This is an intensive unit, with all activities culminating in a student-created fair, similar to the country fair in the video. The instructor may want to think about making connections between the project and what is being studied in other classes. Historical connections and themes could be applied to this activity. For instance, the fair and pole puppet activities could be tied into a social studies unit about Mexico. This could also culminate with a school event, possibly an end of the year celebration.
ACTIVITY 1: Pole Puppets!
Objectives:
- Learn about reuse in artwork.
- Practice building strong armatures.
- Learn how to make and apply archival papier-mache.
- Explore methods of binding and adhesion.
- Examine puppetry as an art form.
Estimated Time Needed for Activity:
Five 60-minute classes
Notes:
- This class can get messy! Make sure the room has tarps to cover tables for papier-macheing. Although the mache is non toxic and does not stain, it is slimy and some kids may be less enthused than others. Also make sure there is sufficient drying space for the pole puppets.
- Most of the materials used for this activity are scraps and reused containers. Encourage your students before the class to bring in scrap material for the project, especially objects they might be interested in using. Experiment with papier-mache before teaching this class. It is easy enough to use, but you should be familiar with the media.
Addressing Cultural Diversity in the Learning Environment:
The celebration of carnivale in Trinidad is one example of diverse cultures coming together for a large scale street celebration, complete with colorful parades, costumes and giant puppets.Materials Needed for this Activity:
- Cardboard strips
- Masking Tape
- Paper cups
- Yogurt cups
- Paper towel and toilet paper tubes
- Soda bottles (cleaned)
- Scissors
- String and yarn
- Old broom or mop handles, yardsticks or other rod-like material
- Newspaper
- Other assorted scrap containers
- Tapioca starch
- Bowls to put starch in
- Lots of ripped up grocery bags
- Paint
- Brushes
- Styrofoam trays to use as pallets
- Fabric
Additional Resources:
- Giant papier-mache puppets were pioneered in America by the Bread and Puppet Theater in Glover, Vermont. Today puppet companies such as the Spiral Q Puppet Theater, Red Moon, Heart of the Beast and the Mudeye Puppet Company all use reused materials to make puppets for street parades and pageantry. Here are some good websites:
- http://www.spiralq.org
- http://www.zeiteist.net/wfca/radpup.htm
- http://www.heartofthebeasttheatre.org
- http://www.puppetuprising.org
- The Puppeteer’s cooperative homepage is an excellent resource for this genre of puppetry.
Procedure:
- Begin the class by showing an example, either a photograph or 3d
example of a “pole puppet.”
- Introduce the project.
- Students select poles for their puppets.
- Students tape scrap materials together to make animals, creatures
and people.
- Encourage students to use lots of tape. Smoother surfaces with
more tape are better.
- Stick poles inside structures and tape thoroughly.
- The second class is spent papier-macheing. Mache is made by
filling a pot of boiling water.
- Fill a second pot with cold water, half the amount as the boiling
water.
- Dilute the starch in the cold water.
- This solution should be half starch and half water.
- Slowly add starch solution to boiling water, stirring thoroughly,
until desired consistency.
- Mache should be syrupy, but not runny or pudding-like.
- Allow one hour to cool.
- Again, experiment with mache before teaching.
- For class, apply strips of ripped grocery bags over surface of
puppets.
- Strips should be well-saturated but not dripping.
- Cover one side of puppet as smoothly as possible.
- If sunny, dry outside. If not, allow overnight to dry.
- The third class is spent papier-macheing the other side of the puppet.
- For the fourth class, paint the puppet.
- For the fifth class, glue fabric and scraps to surface of puppet. Continue painting if necessary.
Assessment
- Use the Creation Scoring Guide to assess this activity.
Extensions and Adaptations
Pole puppets could be made in conjunction with cultural and historical studies. For instance, the class could make mythological creatures for the culture being studied. Also, puppets could be made representing animals for science class. Large puppets have historically played an important role in American turn-of-the-century pageantry. These could be used to perform a pageant from that time period.ACTIVITY 2: Invent Your Own Vaudevillian Character
Objectives:
- Learn about vaudeville in history.
- Practice performing skills.
- Creativity with costume.
Estimated Time Needed for Activity:
Two 90-minute classes
Notes:
- Do some research on oldtime Vaudeville Theater. Short video clips should be shown of Buster Keaton, the Three Stooges and other vaudevillian entertainers, all of which should be available at the local library.
- This is another activity where students are encouraged to bring
in their own funny costumes, props and objects. The more variety, the
better possibilities for characters. It is important for the students
to understand the potential of new vaudeville.
- Explain what the themes are, use of talents (juggling, singing, dancing etc.) slapstick humor, use of costume, use of props and overall silliness. Encourage them to be wacky with this activity, because that is one of the things that makes for good vaudeville. Keep in mind that slapstick is done correctly through lots of training and practice. You don’t want anyone hurting themselves.
Addressing Cultural Diversity in the Learning Environment:
Invite students to create characters based on who they are culturally and personally. Ask them if they have ever been to a fair that celebrated a specific culture and the traditions. Cite examples of this in the classroom. How does your background effect the characters you choose?Materials Needed for this Activity:
- Assorted fabric
- Assorted costume objects (eyepatch, fake nose, swimming mask, etc.)
- Assorted props (rubber chicken, fake stethoscope, cane, umbrella, etc.)
- Cardboard boxes
Additional Resources:
The television show, “Whose Line is it Anyway?” shows excellent examples of improvisational theater and work with objects and props.Procedure:
- Begin class by showing some brief clips of old time vaudeville. Give some historical context. Ask students what similarities and differences they see in the new and old vaudeville performers. This should take about ten minutes.
- Divide class into groups of four or five, depending on class size.
- Each group gets a box of fabric, costume objects and props.
- Instruct students that they have ten minutes to dress themselves up as their own vaudevillian character, using what is inside their boxes.
- When they have finished dressing up, give them five to ten
minutes to come up with a skit.
- If the instructor feels their class needs more structure, each group can be assigned a theme like “looking for a lost pet” or “a really bad job interview” or “the worst hockey team in the world”.
- Encourage students to use what talents they feel they have, whether it’s impersonation or even drawing.
- Each group performs their skit. Encourage improvisation!
Assessment
- Use the following scoring guides to assess this activity:
- Creation Scoring Guide
- Group Collaboration Scoring Guide
Extensions and Adaptations
- There are many different ways this task can be modified.
- This does not necessarily have to be a single class.
- More time could be spent making costumes and developing skits.
- Characters generated from this activity can be used for the
school fair activity at the end of this unit.
- With more time, students could be encouraged to generate skits at home and even bring in musical instruments if they wanted to.
ACTIVITY 3: Your Own School Fair!
Objectives:
- Create own activities for event.
- Practice 3D skills.
- Learn how visual art and theater interact.
- Explore the art of games.
- Learn traditions of fairs.
Estimated Time Needed for Activity:
This may vary from class to class, depending on age and investment in project. Allow 3 one-hour long classes initially, but allow for more time with other classes.Notes:
- In this activity, the class creates games and booths for a fair. Plan ahead so that there is an event for the students to plug their fair into, like for the end of the school year. Accumulate lots of materials and encourage students to bring in their own materials from their booths.
- This project gives the students lots of freedom, but may need more structure for some classes. This is at your discretion. Encourage students to bring in as many scraps as possible, and give them at least a week to think about it before they begin making their activity. Make sure they understand they can be as imaginative as they want to be with this.
Addressing Cultural Diversity in the Learning Environment:
- More rural areas may be more familiar with the town fair, whereas urban students may not be. Explain what a fair is and illustrate with visuals. In many ways, a fair is a celebration of the neighborhood. In this case, the fair is a celebration of the school as a community. Encourage students to bring their cultural identities, traditions and experiences to their booths.
Materials Needed for this Activity:
- Cardboard boxes.
- Scissors
- Construction paper
- Tape
- Glue
- Markers
- Paint and paintbrushes
- Flat sheets of cardboard
- Staplers
- Assorted plastic scrap
- Assorted fabric scrap
- Cups, containers and tubes
- Utility blade (for cutting cardboard)
- The more scrap the better!
Additional Resources:
- The following websites offer information about the celebration of carnival:
Procedure:
- Introduce the project as the (your school name here) Fair!
- Divide students up into groups of three or four.
- Talk about the fair. Give examples of the kinds of things that can be in the fair. These can be things like a mini-golfing game, a magic booth, a fortune teller, a face-painting booth, a mini puppet theater, a dress-up booth, etc. Make sure the examples are a combination of traditional and non-traditional fair booths.
- Talk about what each group will make before starting. Some groups may want to do the same thing, which may take some negotiations.
- Begin handing out boxes, cardboard and other supplies.
- Each group will be doing something different, but spend this first class making the basic shape of the booths, signs, theaters, etc out of cardboard.
- The second class is for painting signs and booths.
- The third class is for painting more and finishing up projects if possible.
- Additional classes may be needed for more in depth projects.
Assessment
- Use the Creation Scoring Guide to assess this activity.