The Nutcracker

Activity Pack 2

Rage Arts is a professional arts

organisation & educational

charity creating stories using

film, theatre and music and

giving others the opportunity to

work with professional artistes

to create productions. Through

these they develop their self-

esteem and confidence and

cultivate skills which help them

take the next step in life whether

that is at school, continuing in education, seeking employment or furthering their

careers.

We assist people to create their own productions by providing resources, advice and

expertise.

Rage Arts, established in 1996, is based in the West Midlands, England and works

throughout the region including Birmingham and surrounding counties.

Primary Theatre Company is the name of our professional theatre company taking

theatre and workshops to primary schools.

Website: www.primarytheatre.org.uk

For more information on our company and the work we do, please visit our

Website: www.ragearts.org.uk

Nutcracker Activity Pack

Dear parents and carers,

We are creating an exciting and stimulating show based on E. T. A. Hoffmann's story "The

Nutcracker and the Mouse King“ for children aged 4 to 11 which we will be touring to

schools this Christmas if it is safe to do so.

We actively involve children in creating the show through running workshops which

introduce them to the story and gather their ideas for various aspects of the show.

We haven't been able to run the workshops this year so we are producing Nutcracker

activity packs which have activities and exercises to entertain and educate children

during the lockdown.

We have put together a range of activities for the different ages and abilities, some they

may be able to do on their own and for some they will need a helping hand.

Some of the exercises will ask for things to be emailed in. We need your permission and

that of your child to use this on our website or in the show.

Owen & The Team @ Rage Arts / Primary Theatre Company

Nutcracker Permission Form

Child’s Name …....................................................................................

Sign

Legal Guardian’s Name........................................................................

Sign

Date..................................................

I am happy for my submitted contribution to be used either on the website or in the show

YES/NO

I am happy for my Name to be acknowledged YES/NO

We hope you find this edition of The Nutcracker activity pack useful. We’d love to hear

from you about any activities you like doing so that we may share with others during

these difficult times.

Hi everyone, my name’s Fritz. I’m the younger brother of my bossy sister Marie.

My friends and I are creating a show which we hope to take to primary schools this Christmas if it is safe to do so.

We have put together this activity pack with lots of exciting and interesting things for you to do at home.

I want to tell you all about my story. It’s a very exciting adventure and I’d love you to help me and my friends create this show by sending in your own ideas that we can use to create a story for children of your age.

We’ve come up with some activities to help you think about it.

There’s lots of different versions of the story; here’s my own special version...….

One Christmas Marie and me (her brother Fritz) got lots of presents including a toy Nutcracker from the inventor, Uncle Drosselmeyer. The Nutcracker was made of wood with a big head and great strong jaws to crack nuts with and a little wispy beard for decoration. He was dressed in a smart soldier’s uniform.

We loved him but when I tried to crack a big hard nut, the Nutcracker's jaw broke. We’ve all done that to our brand new Christmas toys haven’t we?

Uncle Drosselmeyer promised to repair the Nutcracker the next morning and that night Maria promised him that he would be fixed as good as new.

In the middle of the night, the Nutcracker grew to life size and battled with an army of sweets and gingerbread soldiers against the fearsome Mouse King and all of his mice, which came out from under Marie’s bed! Marie helped win the fight by throwing her slipper at the Mouse King. And then, she fainted. I think she’d eaten a bit too much Christmas chocolate.

I ate so much last Christmas I was sick!

The next morning Marie tried to tell her parents about the battle but they thought she had had a bad dream.

Anyway, when Uncle Drosselmeyer arrived, he believed Marie’s story and he told her another story that explained how the Nutcracker came to look the way he does.

It was a story of when Drosselmeyer was a court inventor to an Angry King and his spoiled daughter Princess Pirlipat.

In this story, the evil The Mouse King cast a spell, making Pirlipat look like a nutcracker, with a huge head, a wide grinning mouth, and a cottony beard. The Princess was saved by the handsome Prince Hans-Peter who broke the curse with a magic nut. Sadly the spell rebounded making Hans-Peter look like a Nutcracker instead and the ungrateful Princess banished him from the castle, (ooh, that’s a bit harsh!)

That very night when Marie went to bed after hearing Drosselmeyer’s story, the Mouse King whispered to her that he would bite the Nutcracker to pieces unless she gave him all of her sweets and toys, (what a bully!). Marie agreed, but the King only wanted more and more, (bullies always do). To save Marie, the Nutcracker borrowed my toy sword and everyone helped to beat the King in battle.

Marie promised the Nutcracker that she would always be his friend whatever he looked like. With that, the curse was broken once more and the Nutcracker came to life! He really was Hans-Peter!

They travelled together to the Land of Dancing Sweets, ruled by the Sugar Plum Fairy, where Marie was crowned Queen.

Wow! Quite a lot happened in that story! Lots of magic and adventure and baddies and goodies! In some versions of the story the Mouse King has twelve heads, Yuck!

The story has even been turned into a ballet with lots of fantastic dance and music!

You can watch an online version of the Nutcracker Ballet by Matthew Bourne.

Age guidance 7+ (with your parents’ permission!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jIeSq2FFhs

So now you know the story, have a think about it as you try the activities in the pack and come up with some tremendous ideas of your own.

Activity Pack Two

The Theme – Setting up a Show!

The Activities in this pack include lots of ideas on how to set up a show, so all the things that go together to bring a story to life; the costumes, the set, the lights, music and so on. And it’s not just for the Nutcracker but any show you want; perhaps something made up

entirely by you, or your own version of a favourite story from a book or film or TV.

Have fun and enjoy yourselves!

Activity Ideas

1. Costume cut-outs. Design your own costumes for the Nutcracker show.

Print out and use the paper cut-outs (or draw some of your own) to design costumes for our Nutcracker show.

Remember it’s a fantasy story so it doesn’t have to be like anything you’ve ever seen before.

Really use your imagination to produce fantastic designs.

The costumes can make the actors look like animals such as the King’s mice, or sweets or toys or anything at all.

Use lots of exciting colours to suggest what the characters are like and to make them really interesting to watch!

We really look forward to seeing your ideas and to using some of them in our show.

2. Fritz Investigates: Dance choreography!

Dances can show the mood and feelings of a character; what moves would you use?

I found this fantastic Hip-hop dance tutorial lesson for ages 4+ on YouTube. Ask an adult to watch it with you!

It’s called “Easy Kids Choreography” and has some great, easy to follow dance routines which you could learn and use in any show. Your audience will really start to tap their feet.

See if your Mum and Dad can join in!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWTyO8npkOQ

We’d love to see any videos you make,

Please send them in to me Fritz@primarytheatre.org.uk

3. Song writing pt2; Underneath the Bed

Let’s have a think about using a song to help with the setting of part of the show. Marie hears the Mouse King whispering to her from underneath her bed at night.

So it’s probably quite dark and a bit scary. Did you ever worry about monsters under your bed when you were little?

Well it’s a bit like that for Marie.

Try to make your song a bit scary and we could put scary music to it too and it’ll really add some atmosphere to the show.

Here’s another way of writing songs.

Remember, good songs need:

An idea or story: ours is Monsters underneath the Bed

A melody or tune: think of a simple tune you know, it could be a nursery rhyme like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” or a pop song that you like listening to. All you have to do is change the words!

A chorus: this is a repeating verse which you keep returning to. It should be all about the theme of the song. It can have a different way of rhyming to the real verses.

Verses: these usually have the same rhyming structure and push the story or theme of the song along. You can have as many verses as you want. And you don’t have to use all the ones you write.

A purpose: songs in plays and shows are there to carry on the story of the show in a different way than listening to the characters speak, they are fun and different and make the show even more watchable.

Let’s try one for “Underneath The Bed” using Twinkle Twinkle as the melody.

Here’s the story: Marie wakes up in the dark and wonders where she is. She hears noises from under the bed. It’s the Mouse King! He whispers that he will nibble the Nutcracker into pieces unless she gives him all her sweets. What can she do?

The melody is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which has 4 beats to each line and it rhymes at the end of the first two lines and differently at the end of the second two lines; star and are and then high and sky.

So let’s think of the chorus first. It’s going to repeat so it needs to remind us of the setting, darkness and night:

Let’s try:

It’s oh, so dark it must be night

I must try to find a light

But I’m too scared to move my head

I think something’s there beneath the bed.

Ooh I like that, it really gives the idea of night and creepiness! We can repeat that!

So now we can carry on the story, still using the same rhyming pattern. How do you think Marie would feel? How would you feel?

Am I awake? Is this a dream? Hmm, I can’t think of anything to rhyme with dream, I’ll swop the questions around. There, that’s better.

Is this a dream? Am I awake?

Have I eaten too much cake?

I’ll pinch myself to double check

Oh, I’m quaking like a wreck!

I‘m pleased with that…just remember that if you have a really good idea but can’t find a rhyme, songs are like poems, you can shuffle the words around all over the place and they’ll still make sense.

Why don’t you try finishing this song off using the story to help you along? We’d love to hear what you come up with!

4. Stop-frame Animation:

This is a way of making animated films and is very similar to how Wallace & Gromit is made.

This “Baby Snake” You-tube video is a brilliant example of stop-motion animation, it uses drawing as well as objects and its set to a song written specially for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOP15Ep4gPU&feature=emb_rel_end

Download a simple to use stop-frame animation app and make your own animations!

Here is a free stop motion app for you to try

https://freeappsforme.com/stop-motion-apps/

Have fun and see what you can do!

This is a fun, simple film, using toys and a music sound track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=Xvb4-FfPR68&feature=emb_logo

All you need to do is follow the instructions on the app and think about what you want to make a film about. What story do you want to tell? What characters do you need?

Are you going to have interesting characters, like a timid dinosaur or a brave Lego-lady villainess or a naughty toothbrush?

Then:

Set up a background, just to make it easier to see the action. Just a sheet of coloured paper will do, or an exciting picture or a nice plain wall!

Choose some exciting toys and objects that will make a good story.

Set your smart phone or tablet up, on a tripod if you have one, pointing towards your background.

Move your objects around in very small steps and take a picture each time. The smaller the movements, the smoother the action.

With a bit of practice you can make brilliant little films.

Don’t forget to show us your exciting story.

We’d love to see them! Email them to me Fritz@primarytheatre.org.uk

5. Hand puppets: Mice from old socks.

You can make a whole army of naughty mice from old socks.

They’ll look great in a puppet theatre or even in a play of the Nutcracker!

Just make sure the socks are old, a few holes don’t matter, and wash them first unless you want a stinky cheese mouse army!

You’ll need some old socks, red and brown or pink felt and some googly eyes, (you can make the eyes out of felt too if you’d rather.

Spread the sock out on the table so that the heel is facing up.

Cut a long oval of red felt the same length as the heel to the toe of the sock. This will be the inside of the mouse’s mouth. And then cut a separate tongue out of the red felt too.

Glue one end of the tongue to the heel of the sock. Don’t glue it all down, so it can lollop around. Then put glue around the outside edge of the red felt oval and stick it so that it overlaps the tongue and covers the sock from toe to heel.

Cut round two ears out of pink or brown felt. You can make these as large or as small as you like. Next, cut a small circle for the nose.

Turn the sock over so the mouth side is down. Glue the nose and ears in place and then stick on two googly eyes.

Make sure you don’t use loads of glue and stick up the inside of the sock-you need to get your hand in there! Put your fingers inside the bottom of the toe end and your thumb inside the heel. You can then open and close the mouse’s mouth!

And there you have it, a fantastic mouse puppet to battle the Nutcracker! You can make loads of different characters with sock puppets, In fact you could do the entire Nutcracker show with them.

You could even make me a Fritz puppet!

Imagine that, “The Sock Puppet Nutcracker”! What a show!

There’s a great little video here, showing how to make sock puppets and ways of using them by “Wild Boor Ideas”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyQsHL0Gv7I

6. Cooking Gingerbread people

If you’ve got mice you might want some more characters.

How about some gingerbread people to be in the show with all the other sweets?

Or you could just eat them as they are rather yummy!

Here’s how to make some scrummy gingerbread people:

Ingredients

350g plain flour, plus a little extra for rolling out

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons of ground ginger

1 teaspoon of gourd cinnamon

125g butter

175g soft brown sugar

1 egg

4 tablespoons of golden syrup

And if you want to decorate them you can use icing and cake decorations!

Method

Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon into the bowl and rub the butter in with your (very clean!) fingers until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. (You can do all this bit in a food-processer if you’ve got one.)

Stir in the sugar.

Beat the egg and golden syrup together and stir into the mixture, or use the processer. Tip the dough out onto a clean, lightly floured surface and knead until it’s smooth, Wrap in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Roll the dough until it’s 0.5cm thick, on the lightly floured surface. Use cutters to cut out the gingerbread shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them.

Bake for 12–15 minutes, or until light golden-brown. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

When they are properly cool decorate them with writing icing and cake decorations,

And there you are! Scrumptious! And if you don’t have a gingerbread person shaped cutter you can make any shape you want. Round biscuits are just as nice! Make sure you ask an adult to help you!

7. Writing a rap!

Here’s a link introducing rap beats:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-5o11xZzwM

Clap or use a metronome or rhythm track.

Divide into bars: 4 beats in a bar… count 1.2.3,4

Put emphasis on 1 2 3 4

Double time 1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4

Try a simple sentence. “My name’s …………”

Find different ways of fitting it to the beat. Make some words longer, particularly your name as that’s the most important bit.

Say bits louder, quicker or quieter, faster or slower.

Find lots of words that rhyme with your name, you can go all the way through the alphabet to begin the rhyme, with the end of your name for the word.

You can use words that almost rhyme too.

Then all you need to do is write four sentences, I’ll do it with my name!

“My name’s Fritz!”

There’s lots of words that rhyme with Fritz, like bits and fits and hits and

kits and mits and knits and pits and quits and sits and wits.

So, not forgetting the four beats, we could go:

My name’s Fritz

And I love my Nan to bits

She sits and watches telly

And she knits and knits and knits!

There. I’m pleased with that, it’s a good start to a story, which is what a good rap is,

and it’s good to chant!

Have a go at writing your own rap and email it to Fritz@primarytheatre.org.uk

8. One minute speed writing exercise: The Seaside

Speed writing helps you to be creative, ideas come to you out of no-where, and you get all warmed up and ready to write.

Each piece of writing can be the start of a whole new story!

Find a timer, preferably one that makes a noise at the end of the time limit.

A phone is good, or a kitchen timer or the second hand on a watch or clock. Set it for 1minute. That’s all the time you’re going to have to write, so write anything and as many words as you can.

Think about being at the seaside; the sights, the smells, the sounds, the feel of sand in between your toes.

Set the timer and off you go!

Just get down as many words as you can. And when the timer stops, you must too, even in the middle of a word or sentence.

Count your words and the next time you try a speed writing exercise, see if you can write more words each time!

9. Fritz investigates: World Ocean Day

I love the sea, don’t you?

All those waves and seabirds, the smell of salt and seaside, the ice-cream and the sandy sandwiches! And there’s so much more!

If you’d like to know more about the Ocean, the resources from world ocean day are brilliant!

https://worldoceanday.school/resources-2020/?learning-area=wellbeing

And here are some fantastic classical music clips about the sea on Radio 3!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3Fm3H66YnxNZslLrSX3mMvh/top-six-sea-pieces

And how people have written brilliant ocean poems…

https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/storm-at-sea

10. Under the Ocean Shoebox Scenery: Design an undersea set for a show.

Wow, if all that investigating has given you loads of ideas about the sea, why not have a go at designing the set for a new scene in our Nutcracker show that could be set under water…

Lots of great new characters to make up too. Fish are full of character. And very tasty with chips!

I don’t know whether the Nutcracker could swim, but he is made of wood so he should be all right!

Anyway, you could draw a picture for your scene but why not have a go at making a 3 dimensional model like theatre designers do?

All you need is an old cardboard box, a shoe box is a nice shape but any box will do.

You don’t need the lid, so just lay the box on its side so you can see into it like a theatre. Now think about the floor, could be sandy? You could paint it yellowy/brown or even stick real sand to it for some texture. A much less messy way is to stick a sheet of sand paper down as the floor!

Now the background and sides, possibly blue for that deep under water ocean colour? You can paint or cover with blue paper or even stick shreds of green and blue tissue paper on to look like seaweed and running water…

Let your imagination go mad.

Are there things on the bottom of the sea that our actors could stand on or hide in?

An ancient ship wreck? Or sandy cave? You could model those out of plasticene or use old toys, how about a sunken car? Use pebbles and stones for huge rocks!

Fill your stage set with exciting ideas and take a picture for us to look at, we might use it in our show. Yes, an underwater Nutcracker scene, I can see it now!

There are some great ideas here! https://www.3dgeography.co.uk/ocean-diorama

11. Talent Show:

What act would you enter into a talent show like “Britain’s Got Talent”?

How could you make it part of the Nutcracker show?

I bet you’ve watched talent shows on telly or at school.

You might have even taken part in one.

Did you enjoy it? Did you win? Or is it just the sheer pleasure of doing something exciting and dramatic that you like about it? You can really let yourself go and show off a bit too!

Being in a show like the Nutcracker is just like being in a talent show.

There’s lots of singing and dancing as well as acting; you do a bit of everything!

Some people are really good at singing, or dancing, or acting or even doing magic tricks or puppeteering or gymnastics!

What are you good at?

Do you do an act on your own or with a group of friends?

What’s your favourite thing to do and how do you organise it?

Do you rehearse lots and lots?

Do you copy acts that you’ve seen?

Do you help your friends by directing their act and not actually take part.

Lots of people love being theatre directors, you don’t have to learn all those words!

If you have an act, we’d love to hear about it. We might put something like it into our show. You could write about it, or, with your parents’ permission, if you have a recording of it, we’d love to see it!

Please email Fritz@primarytheatre.org.uk

12. A Letter From Fritz:

Dear Auntie Vi

What a surprise I had when I went into my bedroom this evening to find that you

had repainted it completely!

I wondered why I wasn’t allowed in there today, I quite often get sent to my room

for being naughty and other things that are NOT FAIR!

But this evening was BRILLIANT!

I’ve always wanted a Space bedroom and now I’ve got one!

I love the stars that glow all over the ceiling and the black and dark blue walls, with

alien planets all over them. I love the sparkly galaxies painted in glitter paint and the

solar system hanging from the ceiling. Saturn is my favourite, I like the rings!

Even the grey fluffy carpet makes me think of walking on the moon without my moon

boots on!

How did you make my bed look like a space rocket? There’s some serious woodwork

there! It’s brilliant the way I have to crawl in through the hatch, although Dad does

say that it might make changing the duvet cover a bit tricky. And there are loads of

little lights inside so I can read my space books.

The spacy sounds are fantastic too, when I found the switch that turns them on,

they’re very soothing and great to help me go to sleep.

It’s just like being in space, I hope I’m going to dream about being weightless tonight

and wake up stuck to the ceiling!

Thanks ever so much again!

Much love

Your young astronaut

Fritz.

Have you ever wanted you bedroom to have a theme like I did?

It’s exactly the same as designing a stage set, all the different colours and objects and lights and sounds.

Write a letter describing your dream bedroom, it can be a thankyou letter like mine or it could be a letter telling someone how you’d like your bedroom to be. Don’t forget to put in lots of detail!

13. Under the Bed Quiz: Matching Doorways into Stories

Marie hears the Mouse King whispering to her from under her bed from where he comes to life. In the ballet, the characters travel to the Land of Sweets through the toy cupboard.

There are lots of really good books that have a magic doorway or portals leading to fantasy lands where anything can happen!

Match the mixed up doorways to the stories. If you’re not sure, try to get hold of a copy of the book!

1. The Harry Potter Books by J.K. Rowling a. Wardrobe

2. “His Dark Materials” by Philip Pullman b. Rabbit hole

3. “The Faraway Tree” by Enid Blyton c. Clock strikes 13

4. “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll

d. Ladder

5. “Tom’s Midnight Garden” by Philippa Pearce e. Tornado

6. “Marianne Dreams” by Catherine Storr f. Platform 9 and ¾ Kings Cross Station

7. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

g. Sketch book

8. “The Wizard of Oz” by Frank Baum h. Subtle Knife

Do you know any other stories with magic doorways?

There’s loads, they’re very popular.

Could you invent a magic doorway to another world? We’d love to hear about it. You could write a short story or draw a picture of the doorway. Perhaps we could use your idea in our show? Please email me Fritz@primarytheatre.org.uk with all your ideas!

(Answers to the quiz are at the end of the pack!)

14. Sugar Plum Fairy Music: Where does she Dance? Stage set design

If you watched this clip last time:

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky / Nina Kaptsova - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy / 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz_f9B4pPtg

Or watched the Matthew Bourne version of the story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jIeSq2FFhs (at 1:15:00)

…you’ll probably remember the music; it’s very famous! The Sugar Plum Fairy is a very well-known character and she dances in the magic Kingdom of Sweets.

In the Russian version, the setting is a Christmas snowy wonderland, all white and sparkly.

In Matthew Bourne’s show the set has a massive candle-lit sugary cake as a background.

They both work very well and are quite different. The Sugar Plum Fairy is quite serious, I think it’s because she’s supposed to be in charge of the other sweets…who enter the stage a bit earlier through a giant mouth!

Stage designer’s produce their sets with the characters in mind. So what sort of set would you have for a serious character like the Sugar Plum Fairy?

She is quite sparkly, so you might have sparkles, like stars, and she is a sweet so you might have something sugary like the cake, or a giant doughnut!

Do remember that she might have to dance, so what would you have for the floor?

Please design us a set for her dance. You could draw it or use a shoebox model again.

Whatever you do, please send us photos by email Fritz@primarytheatre.org.uk

15. Facial Expressions: Feeling Sad or Happy.

Mask making.

In ballet, the characters hardly ever speak, the story is told through the way they dance and move.

In mime, there’s no speaking either and the actors can wear masks

which show their characters and emotions.

Here’s a great way to make masks for shows:

You will need

Balloons

Newspaper strips, about 1cm wide

White craft glue

Paper

Scissors

Rubber band

Hole puncher

Markers

Paint

What to do:

Blow the balloon up to the same size as your head; careful all of you with big heads!

Now for the really messy bit; watch the carpet! Use a paint brush to paint the glue onto the strips of newspaper sticking them to the balloon. Make them follow the curve of the balloon. Cover the balloon completely in the strips, making sure there are no gaps. And then stick on another layer and then a final third layer.

Let it dry completely!

This bit’s fun. Carefully pop the balloon by poking a needle through the paper layers; BANG!

Use scissors to cut the ball into two halves, both the shape of your face, which will make two masks.

Cut eye shapes out of the mask with the scissors, where you’ll want to look out! You can cut a mouth as well if you want.

Paint or draw the face features such as a nose, eyes and mouth. This is where you can decide on the character of your mask. Will it be sad, or happy, or surprised or cross? It will help you act in your show!

Make two small holes on the sides near the ears using a hole puncher and put a rubber band through the holes and knot them.

And now you’re ready to put on your show.

Take care when you have your mask on that you can see where you are going!

16. Contrasting Stage Sets:

The Land of Cold or The Hot Place?- Using Colour in Stage Design

Did you know that some people think different colours can make you feel different things?

Colours can inspire, excite, soothe, heal and even make you a bit cross! Children can be more sensitive to colours than grown-ups. Wow, that’s like a super-power! So it’s important to pick just the right colours for a show’s costumes and sets, let alone a dentist’s waiting room or your bedroom!

Here are some ideas about how colours might affect our minds and bodies,

A) Red. Red has the ability to energize the body and excite the mind, It can make you lose focus and get a bit cross so you might not want too much of it, perhaps not a whole bedroom full! What sort of mood do you think a red stage set might make. Perhaps somewhere set under a volcano!

B) Orange This warm, friendly and youthful colour can actually encourage confidence and independence. It can relax you too. So perhaps not good for an action scene but nice for when characters are having rest or a chat!

C) Yellow. A happy, bright and cheery colour which can help you concentrate if it’s not too bright. Lots of yellow can be a bit annoying!

D) Green. Calming and it might even help you read! Use as much as you want!

E) Blue. Very soothing and calm, the opposite of red. What might happen if you mixed the two?

F) Purple. Quite often a royal colour. It can be creative and confident. Good for deep thinking perhaps?

G) Pink. Pink can make anyone calm and quiet…but not too much!!!

The show’s production team will bear this in mind when thinking about the

set, costumes and lighting.

Pink, Yellow and Orange lights look warm and Amber & Red very warm, and

Red can even make us think of evil like we’re near a fire or in a bad place.

A wash of colour with Yellow in it will give the effect of a warm sunny day.

A wash of colour with Blue in it will give the effect of a snowy or cold day.

A Green wash will give a sinister effect and can be used for a Baddie or a Witch

I didn’t know all this!

It really makes you think how the colour of the set, costumes and lights might affect you when you’re watching a show.

So a blue ocean scene might make you all calm; lovely!

What colours would you use for a battle scene?

How about a quiet scene at the end when it’s all happy ever after?

How about a sad character meeting a happy character on a very windy day? You might have to mix your colours!

Design some sets for those scenes and have fun with your ideas and let us know what you come up with by emailing Fritz@primarytheatre.org.uk

17. Writing a Haiku: Dreams

Here’s a fantastic little YouTube clip about poetry by Miles McLeod talking about how to write a haiku from the point of view of the character. Great for a play.

Imagine having a character who only speaks in poems. Brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrZ9WsAkVuQ&feature=youtu.be

A haiku is particular sort of poem. We’ll stick with the simple rules of: 3 lines: 5 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables in the second line and 5 syllables again in the last line.

The first two lines set the story and the last line finishes it off. It’s a high speed story, you don’t even need to rhyme!

To come up with an idea for a story just concentrate on your senses; seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, Then note down your ideas.

So, I’m going to think about waking up in bed in the dark like Marie did:

Darkness, am I awake?

Under-bed sounds, squeaks, voices!

Mouse King bullies me.

There you go, I stuck to the rules and got a nice little haiku to go in the show!

Now you try! Write about anything you want. Haikus are really good for poetry writing.

18. Calming Colouring!

Have a bit of a rest and carefully colour in this funny Nutcracker picture. I think that squirrel really ought to be a mouse!

You can email a photo of your coloured pictures in if you like we will include them in our gallery.

19. Writing a short play scene: Getting in with a Group.

How would a character behave if they wanted to be with the in-crowd?

How would you do it?

Do you sometime feel left out?

Do you do things that some of your friends can’t do?

How does that feel for you?

How does it feel for them?

We want feeling like that in a play because it makes it more interesting to watch.

You want a character to do something that will solve a problem. It’s sometimes called dramatic tension. Without it, nothing much happens.

So: try imagining that you haven’t been invited to a friend’s birthday party and all your other friends have. You might have thought that they were your best friend. What has happened? How are you going to find out? How could you fix it?

Here’s the start of a script for just that situation. I’ve written the lines of one character, the “so-called best friend” and you can try writing in the spaces, you can make your answers as long or as short as you want.

Of course the story might go in a completely different direction so why don’t you carry it on for as long as you want, writing both characters.

Here goes, I’ve called it:

Birthday Party Mix-Up

Best Friend: Oh hello.

Me: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Besty: You sound sad. Is anything the matter?

Me: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Besty: I’ve been meaning to tell you something.

Me: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Besty: Oh don’t be like that…

Me: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Besty: And you keep interrupting me.

Me: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Besty: I know I haven’t been very nice recently

Me: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Besty: Oh I’m sorry, I haven’t been well!

Me: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Besty: Oh dear, I think there’s been a terrible mistake.

Me: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

And so on! Did you sort it out, or did things get worse?

Could you re-write the scene so it’s completely different at the end? Would it make a good scene in the play? It would be great to read your short scenes!

20. Actions and Words: Sign Language

We’ve talked about mime and you can have characters who can’t speak, or perhaps can’t hear or see.

Different characters add extra interest and excitement so I thought we could look at using Sign Language in our show. It’s great to learn as well,

Here’s a web-site that tells you all about it!

https://www.british-sign.co.uk/

There’s a page where you can learn how to say your own name in Fingerspelling!

https://www.british-sign.co.uk/print-a-word-in-fingerspelling/

Here’s mine: Fritz

And this is Nutcracker:

Here’s how to do some basic signs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyicdRl3ULg

Some signs for the weather:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ52k5uEMSY

And some signs for food:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ52k5uEMSY

And there are many more.

Have you learnt some signs? Are you deaf or do you know anyone you can talk to using sign language?

We could have a character in the show who speaks using sign language. Can you think of any useful signs for the Nutcracker show?

Please let us know Fritz@primarytheatre.org.uk

21. Fritz Investigates: The School of Noise!

And finally, if you want to learn more about producing music for shows have a look at this brilliant web-site; The school of Noise https://www.schoolofnoise.com/

There’s a great series of activities, along with all the other stuff, called the Global Graphic Score Project. Check it out, it’s brilliant.

And if you have any ideas for how to score our Nutcracker show we’d love to hear them!

Phew, that’s a lot of activities, you must be exhausted, just like I was after all my adventures!

Before you get started on sending in all of your brilliant ideas to us,

Here are the answers to the Magic Door Quiz: 1.f / 2.h / 3.d / 4.b / 5.c / 6.g / 7.a / 8.e.

Did you get all of them right?

Please get an adult to help you send in all your character and story ideas for our Nutcracker show.

You will probably have some large files that are not possible to be sent by most emails.

If you like you can collect them altogether in a folder,

You can then email them to me by visiting the website www.wetransfer.com and uploading your files or folder and then emailing them to me fritz@primarytheatre.org.uk

We will be setting up a gallery and including your ideas on the website. www.primarytheatre.org.uk which is where you will also find future activity packs to download.

We will use as many of your ideas as possible in the show and we hope that one day in the future we can visit your school and put on a show for you and your friends.

Goodbye, from your friend Fritz!