Evalyn Parry SPIN - PA Performing Arts for Young Audiences

Evalyn Parry
SPIN
STUDY & ACTIVITY GUIDE
Study & Activity Guide for the PAPAYA + Painted Bride presentation of
SPIN
Written and Performed by Evalyn Parry
Directed by Ruth Madoc-Jones
Study Guide by Sebastienne Mundheim, White Box Theatre, and Whit MacLaughlin
in consultation with
Edward M. Epstein, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts & Graduate School of Education
University of Pennsylvania
For
PAPAYA (PA Performing Arts for Young Audiences)
Table of Contents
Evalyn and her Artistic Intentions........................................................................................................... 3 Questions for Before the Show ............................................................................................................... 3 Thoughts about Bicycles.............................................................................................................................. 4 Thoughts about Making a Play ................................................................................................................ 5 Activities for Later .............................................................................................................................................. 7 Questions for Discussion or Quiz-making ..................................................................................... 14 Some Vocabulary............................................................................................................................................. 17 Bibliography and Links ................................................................................................................................. 18 Note: State of Pennsylvania academic standards are listed in brackets for each section.
Standards can be accessed at http://www.pdesas.org/standard/pacore
For additional information on and activities for SPIN, see Evalyn Parry’s website,
http://evalynparry.com/spin/
© PAPAYA (PA Performing Arts for Young Audiences) 2015
2
Evalyn and her Artistic Intentions
[English Language Arts: 1.3 Reading Literature]
Evalyn Parry is a cabaret artist from Canada. Cabaret is a form of storytelling using songs. Evalyn tells
important stories through song, video, costume, and musical instrumentation. She performs with a
percussionist who plays a bicycle. Microphones amplify the sounds made by striking the frame, seat,
and fenders, or bowing and plucking the spokes. His bicycle is 10 musical instruments rolled into one.
Evalyn’s work is thoughtful, inventive, and inspiring. She sings about bicycle technology, the
women’s suffragist movement, and the importance of having courage to try new things. Her work
will inspire conversation about how we tell stories, women’s history, turn-of-the-century global
expansion and the role of technology in revolution and change. Her work provokes questions
relevant today. She asks: how do we use new technologies (or old ones) to break free from old
systems?
A bicycle can give us freedom:
•
•
•
from fossil fuels,
from the isolation of riding in cars,
from staring at lit screens all day (the national
average is 6-7 hours/day)
Evalyn’s performance is 45-minutes long, with an artist
talk-back afterwards. There will also be some handson activities afterwards where you can try your hand at
percussion on bicycles, write poems about revolution
and change, or explore the way the last century turned
into this one.
Our goal together is to have an experience that will
enliven us and set up the possibility for constructive
change, invention, and expression.
Questions for Before the Show
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
What leads someone to write songs? Do you ever get the urge?
Why would anyone write songs about bicycles?
Why do you think this show is called SPIN?
Think about or list different ways the word “spin” can be used. (You can spin a wheel, a tale, a
web, a roulette wheel. You can take a spin in a car. You can spin through space.) More?
Do you remember when you rode a bike for the first time?
What does it mean to bet your life on something? Is there anything you would bet your life
on?
How do you define freedom? Do you ever feel truly free? When? If you could, what might
you change about yourself or your circumstances to experience more freedom?
3
Thoughts about Bicycles
Bicycles: Freedom and Personal Experience
[Reading in History and Social Studies 8.5]
Evalyn is a folk-singer, a bike rider, and a woman. She likes the mobility, independence, and
pleasure of riding. Her bike takes her most places she needs to go. She can fix her bike herself. She
doesn’t have to pay for gas when she rides. A lot of people like Evalyn enjoy riding their bicycles and
realize that the bicycle is connected to freedom in a variety of ways.
Evalyn sings about the history of women and bicycles because she shares the experience, she
thinks the history is important and interesting, and because this story is still relevant today. The
bicycle still offers personal freedom – freedom from big expenses and freedom from fossils fuels
(ever more important in our times.) There are still many places in the world where women’s rights are
very, very limited, so the bicycle remains a powerful symbol and tool.
Bicycles: Women and Social Justice
[Reading in History and Social Studies 8.5]
Evalyn remembers that there was a time when it was considered un-ladylike to ride a bicycle.
Certain women (and men) rejected this idea. Those individuals not only thought women should be
able to ride bicycles, but also should have the freedom to do things considered to be inappropriate
or wrong for women to do at the time, such as:
•
•
•
go places by themselves,
wear whatever clothing they wanted—including dresses that did not come to their ankles. Or
even pants!
vote (very important!)
The right to vote for all people is called suffrage, and women who fought for this right were called
suffragettes. Some famous suffragettes, including Susan B. Anthony, rode bicycles both because
they liked it, and because they saw the bicycle as a symbol, tool and a vehicle of freedom for
women.
Bicycles: Advice on Riding
Suffragette Frances Willard, who learned to ride a bike when she was 53, wrote a book about her
experience learning to ride. She gave these pieces of advice:
“She who succeeds in riding a bicycle gains mastery in life.”
“First the goal, then the momentum.”
“Do not look down.”
“You will do this thing best by not trying at all.”
“The microscope will not set you free.”
4
“The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into
momentum.”
Have you ever had an experience that changes how you understand other things in life?
Thoughts about Making a Play
Connecting Feelings to Facts
[English Language Arts 1.3 Reading Literature]
Evalyn begins by noticing the things she cares about (the things she feels): her feeling of freedom
when riding her bike, her feeling that women should be treated fairly, her feeling that the
environment is in danger. She remembers a story she heard about suffragists and bicycles. She pays
attention to her feelings and her memories.
In her first song, Evalyn remembers her first experience on a bicycle. She remembers how it felt to
have her Dad steadying the bike as she takes off. She describes this memory very specifically. We
can feel the seat, the handle bars, her dad’s hands, the pedals under her feet.
Evalyn then sings a song about a historical woman on a bicycle. She starts with an experience we can
observe and feel—how it felt to ride a bike for the first time, and the freedom involved there—and
connects it to someone in history. She brings history to life.
Playing with Words: Gearing up for Revolutions and Spoke-n Words
[English Language Arts 1.3 Reading Literature]
Evalyn likes to play with words. She creates refrains or phrases that use metaphor and rhythm.
A single word can hold several different ideas. When Evalyn finds multiple meanings in a word she
gives them to you over and over so your brain can put all the meanings together. Sometimes this
makes you laugh, sometimes it gives you a new understanding of the world.
A metaphor is a way of talking about the world using one object whose qualities can apply to
something else. For example, if I say you are my sunshine, I don’t mean you are a ball of a fire in the
sky, I mean that you and the sun share
qualities, you make me warm, I am happy
when you arrive, you make good things grow.
See if you can identify some metaphors in the
play.
A pun is a joke that uses two different
meanings of a word at once. For example, if
you ask “how is the soccer game going” and I
say, “I’m having a ball,” my answer is a pun
because ball means both a good time and the
thing we play with.
5
A double entendre is a special kind of pun in which one meaning is clear and the other one is
hidden—usually because it is not polite to talk about in public! For example, “If you can’t find your
money, look in your drawers” is a double entendre because drawers means underwear as well as a
storage spaces in a desk or dresser. In Annie Londonderry’s time, performers used double entendres
a lot because all speech had to be free of naughty words. Double entendres can be subversive—they
challenge the rules we’re supposed to follow by making taboo subjects discussable, but hidden.
Annie Londonderry’s behavior was also subversive because she wore pants instead of a dress and
rode a bike when if wasn’t accepted for women. Subversive speech is one method favored by people
trying to make change!
6
Activities for Later
1. Getting the Wheels Turning: Investigation
Materials: bicycle, pencil, sheet of paper,
Prepare yourself. Open your eyes and ears. Go out and ride! Look hard and listen carefully.
Remember 5 things you see and 5 things you hear that were new observations. Jot them down.
Imagine having 10 new experiences every time you ride. Possible?
7
2. Getting the Wheels Turning: Listening and exploring
Materials: legs, words, whispers, memories, pencil, sheet of paper
Do one exercise, two, or all.
We will spend time in conversation: walking, whispering, noticing each other,
interviewing, and refreshing our experience of the performance. We are going to be like
journalists, scientists, story-collectors. We will write, collect, interview, and report.
[English Language Arts: 1.3, Reading Literature, 1.4 Writing]
¹ 5 minutes. List five things you remembered/liked about the performance.
¹ 5 minutes. Walk around the room; no bumping. Whisper and share your list with other people.
Compare notes. Share at least 3 times.
•
•
Find someone who shares something on your list in common. Notice what else is on
their list. Let them see your list. Remember what you have in common.
Talk a little bit about why you each liked what you liked. Remember the stories you
hear.
¹ 5 minutes. Now walk around the room and find someone who has something on their list that you
find surprising. Maybe you don’t remember that part, or maybe you didn’t like the thing they liked.
•
Ask them about what was interesting or memorable about what they wrote down.
¹ 10 minutes. Sit in a circle and share what you discovered a number of people remembered or
enjoyed about the performance.
¹ 15 minutes. Write a short essay: What do I remember from my experience? Did my experience of
the performance change as the result of what others thought? Did it enrich?
8
3. Getting the Wheels Turning: Calculation
Materials: tape measure, calculator, brain, string (optional), waterproof paint (optional),
bicycle (optional)
[Mathematics: 2.1 Numbers and Operations, 2.3 Geometry, 2.4 Measurement]
How many revolutions does it take for a woman to get around the world?
The bicycle is a very efficient machine for traveling around town. But how many times
would your wheels have to revolve to make it around the world? You figure it out.
How big is the world?
The earth is a sphere (ball) with a circumference of 24,901 miles.
How far do you travel each time you bicycle wheels go around?
The distance you travel on each revolution is equal to the circumference of your bike tire
(this is How do you figure out the wheel’s circumference?
•
•
Measuring: Use a tape measure, or wrap a string around the wheel and measure the
string.
Art: make a tire print. Apply washable paint to your rear tire and ride over a long
sheet of paper. Use a different color to mark the end of the cycle. Measure to where
the end color comes up.
How many wheel revolutions does it take to travel one mile?
Take a guess first.
Divide the number of feet in a mile (5,280) by how many feet you travel with each cycle of
the wheels. How close was your guess?
9
How many wheel turns does it take to travel around the earth?
Annie Londonderry claimed to have circumnavigated the globe—meaning she traveled the
earth’s circumference, the same distance as around the equator. Because she didn’t
actually pedal across oceans, the actual distance of her bicycle trip is much less. For this
calculation, however, let’s pretend she biked the entire way! Take a guess first.
Multiply the number of wheel turns per mile by the number of miles (24,901) around the
globe. How close was your guess?
10
4. Getting the Wheels Turning: Questions for Discussion
Discussion topics for classrooms and others
Use these topics according to your classroom needs and/or your own personal interests
and curiosity.
[English Language Arts 1.3 Reading Literature]
Topic 1: Mining Memory
What do you remember about the performance, storytelling techniques, story-content, and
about your feelings?
1.
What storytelling techniques did Evalyn use to tell her story?
• Words, music, video, instruments (of course you can get very detailed here:
words you remember, number of instruments, types of sound, images
remembered).
2. What were her songs about? What stories did she tell with her songs?
• Her first experience on a bicycle – what do you remember about that story?
• What was it like to be a girl in 1895 – What do you remember from the song?
• What did Amelia Bloomer design? Why did she invent this new fashion?
• Frances Willard’s Advice for Riding a Bicycle. What advice did she offer?
• Story of Annie Londonderry – what do you remember about her?
3. What kinds of things are important to Evalyn? How do you know?
Topic 2: Storytelling Techniques
Evalyn does a lot of interesting, smart things as a storyteller.
She tells a story with: Costumes. Music. Humor. Video.
•
•
•
•
She connects history to her own experience of a riding a bike.
She grounds her big ideas in concrete images, using the bicycle literally and
metaphorically as a vehicle for understanding autobiography, biography, and
political movements.
She also uses refrains to reinforce big ideas.
She plays with words, finding double meanings.
Identify some storytelling techniques as a group and use them as prompts. Here are some
ideas.
•
Have students sketch a bicycle. Focus on the drawing the functional elements,
rather than being concerned about proportion and detail. Have them label the parts
of the bike. Have them make a list of truths about a riding a bicycle. Ask them to
then use the words and images they have created to write something about their
experience of the performance.
11
•
•
Songs are like a series of short stories. Recall songs from the show, and maybe
write a song about your personal experience of adventures on a bicycle.
Make a list of things girls shouldn’t do in 1895. Make a list of things girls shouldn’t do
now. How do you feel about these lists?
12
5. Make Your Own Cabaret: Object, Sounds, Words, Metaphors, and Friends
[English Language Arts: 1.3 Reading Literature]
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Find an ordinary object (a box, a chair, a book).
Make six different sounds with the object.
Make patterns or phrases with those sounds.
Write six observations about your object in six lines.
Make one line metaphoric.
Have you begun to write a song?
Keep going. Turn this into a duet (that means invite someone to “play” with you).
13
Questions for Discussion or Quiz-making
Pick eight questions (or so) and make a quiz. Perhaps each child or family member could
add a question.
About Amelia Bloomer.
[Reading in History and Social Studies 8.5]
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Why does Evalyn use the phrase “go out on a limb” at the end of her song about
Amelia Bloomer?
What does “going out on a limb” have to do with Amelia Bloomer’s story? Literally
and metaphorically?
Do you remember what would make a table seem immodest in the 1890s?
Is there a rule in your life that you think is ridiculous?
There was a political movement called The Rational Dress Reform Movement that
grew out of the impracticality of certain clothes for bike-riding women. For instance,
a wet petticoat could weigh 30 pounds. A corset made it hard to take a breath sometimes women actually fainted from tight corsets.
Are there fashions now that don’t make sense to you?
What is a better use for a corset?
What things are people protesting now?
How do you think making change in 1895 is similar to making change now? How is it
different?
About taking a dare. About making a bet.
•
•
•
•
Why does Annie Kopochovesky take a new last name? What is it?
Why does Evalyn sing about spouses and sponsors as though they are the same
thing?
Why do women traditionally take their husband’s last name?
If you were going to change your last name, what would it become, and why?
About Annie Londonderry having to peddle and pedal to get around the world.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
What does she pedal?
-­‐ She starts on a woman’s Columbia and ends up on a men’s Sterling …
What does she peddle?
-­‐ She peddles the surface of her body and bike, and she peddles her stories.
Do you think she always told the truth? If no, what do you think about that?
Why do you think Annie Londonderry chose to ride around the world?
What do think it would be like to do that?
How do you think she felt?
How would you feel?
14
•
Are there a lot of books about Annie Londonderry? Why do you think she was or
wasn’t remembered?
About
all sorts of things; still more questions
[English Language Arts: 1.3 Reading Literature; Reading in History and Social Studies 8.5]
•
•
•
•
•
What are some different storytelling techniques that Evalyn uses?
How many instruments were in the performance?
How many different parts of the bicycle did the percussionist use?
When does Evalyn use “theater” in her work?
What was the color of Evalyn's bike when she was a little girl?
•
How did Annie Londonderry get her last name?
Can you name a word that Evalyn uses that has two meanings? (WHEELED, WIELD)
Can you list some parts of the bicycle? Can you use one of those words in a sentence about
a bicycle? Can you use one of those words in a sentence that is not about a bicycle? SPIN,
GEAR, SPOKE, PEDAL, WHEELED, TIRE
Why does Evalyn sing the song would you want to be a girl? What was hard about being a
girl in 1895?
What is a bloomer? Where does the word come from?
Why was there an
organization called the
Rational Dress Reform
Movement? What did women
where in 1895 that made
riding a bicycle difficult?
Can you name a woman who
rode a bicycle in 1895?
How did Annie Londonderry
use her experience in
advertising to help her travel
around the world?
How did Annie Londonderry
use the newspaper and
storytelling to help her get
around the world?
How was a bicycle a vehicle
of freedom in 1895?
How is a bicycle a vehicle of freedom in 2015?
How does a wager or betting help Annie Londonderry get around the world?
Have you ever done anything based on a dare?
Have you ever tried to get someone to do something by betting that they CAN’T do it?
Why do you think Annie Londonderry rode around the world?
What was it like to leave her family behind?
What was it like to ride when a lot of roads were made of dirt?
What was like to ride when you couldn’t call ahead to tell someone you are coming?
What would it be like to ride a 42 pound bicycle? What about with 30 pounds of petticoats?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
15
•
•
•
•
•
Why does Evalyn sing “I don’t want to ride at the side of the road?”
What does she mean?
What part of history inspires you?
Could you write a song about it?
Can you write a song that is a call to
action starting with the phrase “I bet you
can’t?”
•
Why would someone write a bunch of
songs about bicycles?
•
•
•
What is special about bicycles?
•
•
•
•
•
•
What is a singer-songwriter?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Who was Amelia Bloomer?
Why are bicycles forms of freedom?
What do like to do that makes you feel
happy when you are alone?
What is cabaret?
What makes someone want to write songs?
Is there anybody from history that you admire?
Why?
Why did Evalyn decide to learn about women who rode bicycles at the turn of the last
century?
Who was Annie Londonderry?
Who was Frances Willard?
Who was Susan B. Anthony?
What is interesting or courageous about each of these women?
Which women do you admire?
16
Some Vocabulary
amplify: in music, to use electrical equipment to boost the volume of a sound
biography: a life story
cabaret: a lively show that includes a variety of performance types, such as music, dance
and comedy; also, the space in which such a performance is held
circumference: the distance around a circle or sphere
circumnavigate: to travel around the circumference of the earth
double entendre: a pun in which one meaning is obvious and the other is hidden and usually
off-color
duet: a song performed by two people
emancipate: to set free
freedom: being able to act on your own, without anyone telling you what to do
jingle: a catchy tune, often used as a theme music
metaphor: figurative language that uses one object to describe another, e.g. “All the world’s
a stage” from Shakespeare
percussionist: a musician who plays instruments that are struck, such as the drums, triangle
or tambourine
pun: a phrase that uses two meanings of a word, or two different words that sound alike
refrain: a repeated part of a song or poem
revolution: 1. the cycle of a turning wheel. 2. an upheaval that causes a change in the way
society is run
singer-songwriter: a musician who writes and performs his or her own songs, including
words and music
subversive: challenging accepted (and sometimes unfair) rules of behavior
suffragette: a woman who fought for the right to vote
turn-of-the-century:, the end of one 100-year period and the beginning of another. Turn-ofthe-century is often used to denote the period from the 1890s through the beginning of the
First World War
17
Bibliography and Links
Emancipation: Bicycling for Ladies (2011). “Bloomers, Bicycles, and Suffragettes.”
http://www.oldbike.eu/emancipation/?page_id=138
Cooney, Robert P. J. (2005). Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman
Suffrage Movement. American Graphic Press.
Monsell, Helen A. (1986). Susan B. Anthony: Champion of Women’s Rights. Alladin.
Murphy, Claire R. (2011) Marching with Aunt Susan: Susan B. Anthony and the Fight for
Women's Suffrage. Peachtree.
Parry, Evalyn (2014). SPIN website. http://evalynparry.com/spin/
Science Buddies (2014). “Calculating the Circumference of the Earth.”
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Astro_p018.shtml
Zeutlin, Peter (2007). Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary
Ride. Citadel
18