2020 US tour teacher & venue resource - Fox Cities ...
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A MONKEY BAA THEATRE COMPANY PRODUCTION
© Introspective Bear, 2002, from Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley.
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Australia.
BASED ON THE BOOK BY
JACKIE FRENCH & BRUCE WHATLEY
CONCEPTUALISED
BY EVA DI CESARE, SANDRA ELDRIDGE & TIM MCGARRY
2020 US tour
teacher & venue
resource
OUR MISSION
about IS TO EXHILARATE YOUNG MINDS,
HEARTS AND IMAGINATIONS
monkey baa BY CREATING AND SHARING
EXCEPTIONAL AUSTRALIAN THEATRE
theatre NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY.
company
Monkey Baa was formed in Sydney, Australia
23 years ago by Sandra Eldridge (at left),
Eva Di Cesare (at right) and Tim McGarry
In 2017, Tim departed the company for new
horizons and Sandie and Eva continue their
collaboration to deliver the company’s
exciting artistic vision, alongside our
incredible staff and production team.
Monkey Baa is Australia’s widest reaching
touring company for young people,
having conducted over 28 national tours
to 135 regional and remote communities across
every state and territory of Australia,
5 international tours and over 2,500 performances,
engaging with over 1.5 million young people!
Youth are at the centre of what we do: theatre provokes empathy,
imagination, respect and understanding, allowing us all to see the world
from different perspectives. Young audiences, as equal citizens, deserve the
same dexterity, depth and rigour in theatre creation and presentation that adult
audiences demand. We tell stories that embrace social and cultural connectivity,
celebrate Australia’s rich cultural heritage, challenge and inspire.
Accessibility to a theatrical experience is deeply important to us.
We believe that rural and regional young audiences should have the same opportunities as their city cousins
to engage with excellent theatre, so we continue to tour from the bush to the coast and across the seas.
An integral part of our exciting process is our collaboration with young people from a work’s inception right
through to the opening performance, their voices reflected in the work we create for them. Through our
popular arts education programs we are committed to building confident, thriving communities, empowering
young people to self-expression, self-awareness and self-determination.
about
the book’s
author & illustrator
JACKIE FRENCH: AUTHOR
Jackie French is an Australian author, historian, ecologist, 2014-2015 Australian Children’s Laureate,
2015 Senior Australian of the Year and an honorary wombat (part-time). Jackie has written over 200 books,
some of which have sold millions of copies and won over 60 awards in Australia and internationally!
Jackie was born in Sydney and grew up on the outskirts of Brisbane, however she now lives in the
Araluen Valley where she researches the species that live in the surrounding bush land around her home.
Jackie has passionately written many environmental publications, and advocates for the protection of
endangered species. When Jackie isn’t writing, she enjoys lunch with friends, harvesting fruit from her
own trees, reading to her grandkids, trying to find her glasses, and eating dark chocolate.
Jackie is dyslexic and a patron of literacy programs across Australia, with a wide and deep experience in
learning differences, support methods, and their outcomes for students. Jackie is a passionate advocate
for equal education opportunities.
For more information about Jackie visit her website www.jackiefrench.com
BRUCE WHATLEY: ILLUSTRATOR
Bruce jumped into the unknown world of picture books after a career in advertising as an illustrator
and art director working in London and then Sydney. Since 1992 Bruce has written and/or illustrated
over 80 children’s picture books. Though based in Australia, his work is published internationally,
and in 2014 was included in the Bologna Children’s Book Fair Exhibition.
His main inspiration has been his family, who feature in several of his
earlier picture books. His wife Rosie Smith has often been co-author
on many of his projects. He uses a variety of illustration mediums,
including: gouache, pen and ink, pencil, oils, water colour and
more recently CGI software. His aim is to entertain
and surprise the reader with illustration styles that
vary considerably depending on the text and
the age group of his audience.
For more information about Bruce
visit his website brucewhatley.com
about the show:
things to know before
you see the show
THERE ARE 4 PERFORMERS ON THE STAGE
(NOT INCLUDING PUPPETS):
There are 3 actors in the show, and one cellist. The performers are Michael Cullen,
Samantha (Sam) Hickey and Kailah Cabanas. The ‘cellist is called Mary Rapp.
Mothball appears on stage as a puppet. The Mothball puppet you will see on stage is large,
and it is worthwhile informing students the puppet wombat is larger than a real life wombat.
THE WOMBAT’S ‘VOICE’ IS A ‘CELLO:
Mothball’s character is represented by a puppet, but her ‘voice’ is characterised by a musical instrument
called a ‘cello. You will also hear the actor operating the puppet make sounds with her voice such
as grunting or breathing, and the actor is wearing a microphone to amplify these sounds.
THERE IS BARELY ANY SPOKEN DIALOGUE:
The book is written as a diary, which is not usually a spoken form of text.
It is also a diary as if written by Mothball the wombat - and wombats cannot speak (as far as we know...)
So in the production, instead of giving the wombat the ability to speak like a human,
the ‘cello music becomes Mothball’s ‘voice’, and the human characters speak.
They do not say very much though! So, much of the text, emotion, atmosphere
and story are created by music, and other theatrical elements.
THERE ARE SOME SURPRISES IN THE SET DESIGN:
Students can spot some of the surprising and interesting things that the set can do,
and some surprising things that happen with the puppets! There are moving elements to the set,
such as parts that revolve to show a change of place. Perspective and scale are also
manipulated through use of puppetry and through the set design. It’s useful to discuss
how time passing and changes in setting can be created on stage through changing
costume, lighting, sound, set configuration and/or music.
JOI
N
who -THE D
i
C r e s as
OTS
ate
for d e s leep
Mon ep ?
Br u key cially
ce W Baa b
hat y
ley
@ ILLUSTRATION BY BRUCE WHATLEY, 2016
COL
OU
C re
ME RING
ate I N!
fo de
rM spe
on ci a
Bru key Ba lly
ce W a by
hat
ley
@ ILLUSTRATION BY BRUCE WHATLEY, 2016
GROUP
SION
DISCUS Y DRAW A LINE BETWEEN THE JOB TITLE & MATCHING DESCRIPTION
T
ACTIVI
activity: who does
what in the theatre?
makes the
final decisions about SET & writes the
what you see ACTOR COSTUME original music
on stage: the ‘boss’ DESIGNER for the show
of the show
conceives the
decides what
ideas & oversees
colours & types PUPPET
COMPOSER construction of the
of lights shine MAKER set, costumes &
on the stage
props for the show
designs &
manages all the
constructs the
LIGHTING technical elements
puppets & repairs DIRECTOR
puppets DESIGNER on stage
& backstage
if necessary
shapes the
movement of the PUPPETRY
STAGE performs the
actors & puppets & MOVEMENT
on stage to help MANAGER show on the stage
DIRECTOR
tell the story
selects sound
effects & manages
SOUND all the levels
DESIGNER (volume) of all the
sounds you hear
on stage
make & create:
colour mixing activity
COLOUR PALETTE
The set & costume designer collaborates to create the physical world of the play - the set, costumes, and
props. One of the tools available to the designer is colour. Diary of a Wombat has a disctinct colour palette,
and the design reflects this palette on the stage. Designer Imogen Ross worked with the book’s
colour palette in mind as she chose the colours appearing on stage, in both the set and the costumes.
ARRANGE COLOURS TO CREATE A COLOUR MIXING CHART SHOWING
THE RESULTS OF MIXING TWO (OR MORE) COLOURS TOGETHER
RED PURPLE YELLOW
GREEN BLUE BROWN
ORANGE
research:
wombat investigation
SET YOUR STUDENTS AN ASSIGNMENT TO RESEARCH THE DIFFERENT
CHARACTERISTICS OF A WOMBAT. THEY CAN CHOOSE TO PRESENT THEIR
FINDINGS AS A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION OR A POSTER.
Here are some key inquiry questions for their research:
• What do Wombats eat?
• Where do Wombats live in the wild?
• How big are Wombats?
• What sounds do Wombats make?
• Are Wombats at risk of extinction?
• How many different types of Wombats are there?
• What are the physical characteristics of a Wombat?
• What is the scientific name of a Wombat?
WEBSITE RESOURCES
Australian Wildlife Protection Council https://awpc.org.au/wombats/
WIRES (NSW Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service)
https://www.wires.org.au/wildlife-info/wildlife-education/wombats
Australia Zoo https://www.australiazoo.com.au/our-animals/mammals/wombats/
Australian Museum https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/animals/mammals/common-wombat/
Australian Geographic https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2015/09/northern-hairy-nosed-wombat/
Encylopedia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/animal/wombat
WWF Posters and school resources http://www.wwf.org.uk/get-involved/schools/resourcesfrom Jackie French
to our US venues
20th January 2020
Our Land of Love and Flame
Today I saw blue sky, not smoke, for the first time in three months of bushfire. Then it rained. As I write this,
the ash turns to grass. The wombats will be happy.
Children who see Diary of a Wombat across the world are happy too. It’s a joyous play. But there is a deeper
story behind it. Diary of a Wombat is the tale of two species, human and wombat, who will never truly
understand each other, but learn friendship, tolerance, and how to live together- even if the doormat is still
chewed up now and then, or the carrots not delivered quite on time.
In the last three months I’ve seen wombats who would normally bite any stranger, shelter quolls
(Australian native cats) bettongs, marsupial mice and even wallabies in their burrows as the flames have
swept across our land. Even Wild Whiskers, granddaughter of the wombat in the play, stopped attacking
my knees as I put out food for the starving animals who have sought refuge from flame and drought in our
Conservation Area. When the little Fire Wombat staggered to the feeding station, paws burnt, her fur black
with charcoal, too weak to walk the last few yards to water, Wild Whiskers carefully ignored her, and the
humans who came to help, too.
We still face a summer of bushfire. An area equal to three states of the USA has burnt. The animals who
have survived the flame in gullies or wombat holes starve, except where they get human help, desperately
needed if once common species like koalas, platypus and even wombats are to survive.
But we have also had a summer of extraordinary generosity. You should have heard the cheers when fire
fighters from the USA arrived, or seen my tears when at the height of the fires around our refuge, donations
came from across the world to buy food for starving animals. Sometimes humanity can be magnificent.
Like the humans and wombats in this play, we have linked hands- or paws- across the world.
To all who have given help to wildlife, and to all who will give, too, more thanks than I can say.
May you see Diary of a Wombat with utter joy, because when times are hard, joy and kindness will
see us through.
Jackie French AM
Author, Historian, Ecologist, Honorary Wombat
___
Senior Australian of the Year (2015)
Australian Children’s Laureate (2014-15)
Ambassador National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature, Patron Monkey Baa Theatre Company,
Patron Book Links, Patron SPELD QLD, Patron Wombat Protection Society & Code Read Ambassador
www. jackiefrench.com
f. @jackiefrenchauthor
t. @jackie_french
i. @jackie_french_1/20/2020 Australia Fires: From evacuation rooms, Diary of a Wombat author Jackie French pens her message: 'We must not forget'
CULTURE BOOKS BUSHFIRES
OPINION
From fire evacuation rooms,
Diary of a Wombat author pens
her message to Australia
Our coverage of the bushfire crisis is free for all readers. Please consider supporting
our journalism with a subscription.
By Jackie French
January 9, 2020 — 6.00am
A A A
1 View all comments
It is impossible to weep.
I cannot weep because this is only the beginning. Logs smoulder on our ridges, a
tide of injured wildlife is sweeping down into our refuge. I have been living out of
a suitcase for most of the past six weeks, evacuated twice, sleeping in many
different places and accepting generosity too great to count. I need to clean the
pink sludge from the fridge (hint: remove watermelon from fridge before
evacuating), keep putting out food and water stations, cope as desperately injured
wildlife emerges from the flames, and help others in every possible way I can.
Focus on what you can do. Don’t cry for what you can’t.1/20/2020 Australia Fires: From evacuation rooms, Diary of a Wombat author Jackie French pens her message: 'We must not forget'
Inspired by NSW's Southern Tablelands bush: Jackie French in her Araluen Valley garden in
2013. JANIE BARRETT
I also cannot weep because I dare not even imagine yet all that we’ve lost. Friends
have lost their houses and towns, entire communities have been displaced, the
social links that make us who we are, as social beings, turned to smoke. Tourist
towns have no tourists – or the heritage buildings that made them tourist towns.
Businesses are bankrupt. Evacuees like me have lost months of paid work, with
more lost months to come. I am OK. Many are not.
The carefully planted local Indigenous "food larder" landscape I have loved and
depended upon most of my life, and that has survived 200 years of colonisation,
cannot survive fires like these. Farms and vast areas of bush already teetered on a
knife-edge in the worst drought in history. Now they are ash. The Araluen Valley,
south-east of Braidwood in New South Wales' Southern Tablelands, has lost much
of its remaining peach orchards. Will the orchardists replant? We don’t know.
NSW bushfires Search for active fires
+
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Leaflet | © OpenStreetMap contributors
Updated every 15 minutes REFRESH
Emergency Warning Watch & Act Advice Info
Incidents
I do know our community will support them. And that I have never been prouder
of my nation.1/20/2020 Australia Fires: From evacuation rooms, Diary of a Wombat author Jackie French pens her message: 'We must not forget'
Leaderless, leaders emerged; the magnificent firies, but also those who defended
their houses and others with nothing but hoses and determination. Our
neighbour, Robyn, singlehandedly waited to defend her farm while checking on
the properties of those who had evacuated, knowing that with age or injury we
would now be a hindrance, not a help, on the fire front.
I have never been prouder of my nation. Leaderless,
leaders emerged ... [And] this is the comfort we must give
our children: in the past weeks, Australia has been a
truly great nation. We must remain one. We must not
forget.
Jackie French
Friends in their 70s and 80s, who would not want to be called old men, have been
out for days or nights for three months with the tankers. I have seen a man, dying
in great pain, still struggle towards the flames to give his wisdom on where the
fire might go; I have seen wombats share their holes with snakes, quolls,
possums and a nervous swamp wallaby; a fridge on the highway kept
constantly stocked with cold drinks for those defending us; six firies leaning
against the hospital wall, too exhausted to stagger inside for first aid. The next
day they went out again.
In better times ... Jackie French has lived in the Araluen Valley for 46 years. MARINA NEIL
Last term, a local school was asked how many of their students were suffering
bushfire trauma. Their answer? All of them. Every child had either watched fire
rage and flicker round their house or has a best friend who is still white-faced and
silent. The teachers spent the final weeks of the school year creating joy: a school
rain dance, a book give-away, an ‘Academy Awards’ ceremony far more hilarious
than any real one. When kids look back in 20 years, I hope they will remember
community fun and kindness, not the terror.
Bryan and I have been offered rooms, clothes, help with tending the wildlife, cups
of tea, smiles. And the smiles meant a lot. I’m part of a daily network asking by
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/from-fire-evacuation-rooms-diary-of-a-wombat-author-pens-her-message-to-australia-20200107-p53piv.html 3/61/20/2020 Australia Fires: From evacuation rooms, Diary of a Wombat author Jackie French pens her message: 'We must not forget'
text and email: are you OK? Do you need help? How is Carol? Have you heard
from Harry?
Jackie French has established a conservation area to feed and protect wildlife in drought,
storm and fire. JACKIE FRENCH
Peter Marshall, who lent us the evacuation room where I began this article, has
faced the flames every night for the past week, as well as for months before that.
He described how the "fire came screaming at us out of Monga Forest like 10,000
B29s on full throttle". Eucalypts exploded in the heat. And then the fire reached
his farm, and stopped. For 30 years he slowly created a landscape that stops fire.
Yes, it can be done, just as we can – and must – now build homes that are fire,
flood and windproof. This is just the beginning.
What do we need?
1. National disaster management, with mobile teams that can be sent into
disaster regions with portable hospitals, medics, evacuation centres, rescue
gear. The expertise exists. But I bet you that non-experts will look at the
reports, then shove them in a bottom drawer.
2. A bushfire and emergency response system that does not depend on
volunteers. Yes, there will always be magnificent volunteers, but the job of
fighting for our nation’s fires, floods and cyclones should not be on their
shoulders. Volunteers must be supported, not just financially, but physically
and emotionally, and their families too. The Rural Fire Services should not
have to ask for donations. They are a government body and should be
funded by government.
3. We need more independence for local fire brigades. That old farmer or the
wrinkled woman with her walking stick are the ones who know that the wind
will change at 4.50pm exactly and the fire will leap across the ridges.
4. We need containment lines across the country from which fire can be safely
fought. We once built a rabbit-proof fence across Australia. We need
nationwide fire-resistant planted landscapes, a mosaic of thousands of
kilometres of fireproof walls, and burning regimes suited to each ecosystem,
not one size fits all.1/20/2020 Australia Fires: From evacuation rooms, Diary of a Wombat author Jackie French pens her message: 'We must not forget'
5. We need building codes that dictate that all houses, roads, rail, bridges,
power supplies, communications and essential services must be flood and
fireproof, in cities as well as rural areas.
6. We need redundancy. If one phone, water, bridge, road or energy system
goes down, there must be others to rely on. As I write my computer is
powered by our solar system. Our local grid is down, our phone is out, but
because of our solar system I can connect to the world and know where the
fires are. We have our own water storage and sewerage too. There must be
nowhere in Australia that does not have back-ups like these.
7. Most importantly?
DO NOT FORGET. This is most Australians’ first taste of climate change. But we
are the descendants of those who have faced Ice Ages, plagues, wars, famine. Most
humans died. Our ancestors did not. When times are hardest, humans are capable
of the greatest kindness and innovation. The best way to survive the decades to
come is by forging strong community links, because when disaster strikes, those
links will stand strong.
DO NOT FORGET. Because those who make vast sums of money from businesses
that, as a side effect, destroy our planet, put vast sums into PR or political
campaigns so that laws are never made to hinder their actions. The politicians
who denied climate change, the need for disaster planning and firefighting
equipment, and who cut fire budgets by 30-40 per cent this year alone – despite
warnings from their own experts that we faced catastrophes this year – will use
political spin ... let’s just call it lying … to try to make you forget before the next
election.
DO NOT FORGET. Because the federal fire aid has only been offered now because
of the rage of "quiet Australians". You and I and every Australian who expressed
contempt has achieved this. We must keep demanding what is needed. Unless we
keep up the rage, the passion and compassion, our children and our children’s
children will die in more climatic disasters, from winds to cyclones, floods,
tornadoes, bushfires and storm surges: the "new normal' of the Anthropocene.
DO NOT FORGET. Because long after these flames are doused, there will be
traumatised kids, fireys who collapse when the adrenalin seeps away, businesses
destroyed, half a billion wildlife killed, with just as many injured, starving,
needing food and water stations if their species is to survive.
DO NOT FORGET. How we have worked together, fighting disaster without
political leadership, leaders emerging in their own communities, from those who
fought the flames to those who offered rooms, diverted traffic amidst red smoke,
raised funds or simply offered all the smiles they could find. Do not forget that
when we acted together we achieved miracles.
This is the comfort we must give our children: in the past weeks, Australia has
been a truly great nation. We must remain one.
We must not forget.
Jackie French was the 2015 Senior Australian of the Year and the 2014-2015
Children's Laureate. The author of more than 200 books for children and
adults, she has lived in the Araluen Valley, west of Batemans Bay, for 46
years, an area now under attack from the Charleys Forest Fire. Jackie
French's fee for this article will be donated to buy books for schools that
have lost their libraries.
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/from-fire-evacuation-rooms-diary-of-a-wombat-author-pens-her-message-to-australia-20200107-p53piv.html 5/6other articles
& resources
THE GUARDIAN
Good source of impartial articles https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/bushfires
The Guardian Australian Facebook @theguardianaustralia
Rescued animals https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/24/heartbreaking-and-heartwarming-animals-rescued-from-australias-bushfires-devastation
ABC NEWS (AUSTRALIA)
Good source of impartial articles https://www.abc.net.au/news/topic/bushfire
ABC News @abcnews.au
ABC Landline Facebook @LandlineABC
Koala detection dog https://www.facebook.com/abcnews.au/posts/10160405768299988
Wombat survivor video: https://www.facebook.com/abcinsydney/videos/631023610981692/
Firefighters on the front line video: https://www.facebook.com/frnsw/videos/767392247078617/
Orphaned wildife https://www.facebook.com/abcnews.au/videos/457509754925499/
Koala rescue creche https://www.facebook.com/abcnews.au/videos/2423663711280589/
Army feeding koalas https://www.facebook.com/LandlineABC/photos/a.655982667795317/2834452649948297/?type=3&theater
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (SMH)
Good source of impartial articles https:/www.smh.com.au/topic/bushfires-5vj
SMH Facebook @sydneymorningherald
Fire documentation https://www.facebook.com/sydneymorningherald/videos/2407904222797297/
SMH/Age photographer Nick Moir https://www.facebook.com/NickMoir
Species Extiction article https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/uncharted-territory-as-species-likely-go-extinct-in-bushfires-20200113-p53r3z.html?fbclid=IwAR1mfKdfZFipyuv3GZXg7TsMI50mPEYNz7kJcHszmN2jJPBOjJHczSvaYZA
Saving the Wollemi Pine https://www.facebook.com/Australian.Greens/videos/803196393480948/
OTHER VIDEOS
Koala rescue https://www.sbs.com.au/news/koalas-saved-just-ahead-of-blue-mountains-bushfires-in-daring-rescue
Watch a wombat grow up https://www.facebook.com/thedodosite/videos/770660043438057/UzpfSTExMTcxNTAyMzYyMDM1NjoxMzg3ODgyMjA5MTMwMzY/
RESCUE ORGANISATIONS
Wombat Protection Society of Australia https://www.wombatprotection.org.au/
Facebook @wombatprotectionsociety
Wild to Free https://wild2free.org.au/
Facebook @wild2free
Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park https://kangarooislandwildlifepark.com/
Animal Rescue Collective Craft Guild Facebook @arfsncraftsYou can also read
