Study Guide - Digital Ridge

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THE STUDY GUIDE
Created and Compiled by Jessica Robblee,
Buntport Theater Educational Team
Copyright 2012
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.
Yesterado Synopsis and Themes
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II.
Preparing for the Play
Discussion Questions
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III.
Historical Context for the Play with Exercises
Overview of Cultures
Timeline of 19th Century Inventions
Nature
Theater
Women’s Role in Society
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5
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IV.
Newspaper Stories and Biographical Information about People
Included in YESTERADO
“Fight with Shovels”
“A Great Curse is Inflicted Upon the Country”
“Soapy in the Soup”
Brown Family Strikes Gold & Margaret Brown Hits Denver,
Or “Little Johnnie Strikes Gold!”
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V.
Post-Show Theater Exercises
Reviewing the Play: Discussion Questions
Lesson Plan of On-Your-Feet Activities:
Character and Stage Adaptation
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VI.
Academic Standards Supported by this Guide
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VII.
About Buntport Theater & its Educational Programs
VIII.
Bibliography
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I. Yesterado Synopsis and Themes
Synopsis:
Traveling performers of the 19th century West-- Jack Langrishe and Marietta Ravel—perform stories
from an 1897 Colorado newspaper. While Marietta would like to perform her most famous play Jardine,
Jack insists upon performing Colorado stories for their Colorado audience. The two begin by recounting
Colorado’s history in broad strokes and then follow this up with four newspaper stories touching on
various characteristics of frontier life-- lawlessness, surviving nature’s challenges, the changing roles of
women, and social hierarchy. The newspaper stories adapted for the stage are: “Fight with Shovels”
about a conflict over water and property, “A Great Curse is Inflicted Upon Our Country” about bicycles’
growing popularity and women’s changing role in society, “Soapy in the Soup” about the scams of roving
con man Soapy Smith, and “Brown Family Strikes Gold & Margaret Brown Hits Denver” about how the
quick riches of mining shook up societal rules. Prominent players in these stories are con man Soapy
Smith, Col. John Arkins (editor of the Rocky Mountain News), socialite Margaret (Molly) Brown, socialite
Louise Crawford Hill, activist Charlotte Smith, and cyclist Dora Rinehart.
Themes
What is entertainment?
Theater’s Role in the West
Territorial Claims
Coexistence of Different Cultures
Westward Migration of Europeans in the U.S.
Humans v. Nature
Social change
Technology as agent in Social Change
III.
Women’s Role in Society
Role of the Press
Role of Law and Government
Law v. Physical Force
Mining Economy and Societal Hierarchy
East v. West
Nouveau Riche v. Old Money
Before Seeing Yesterado...Food for Thought
Buntport Theater is in its 12th year of creating original work. The company works collaboratively to
generate all of its plays--meaning they come up with show ideas together, and then they write the
scripts together, build the necessary sets, props, & costumes together, and finally act in the shows--how
else but?--together. Every step of the way the company members consult with each other to make sure
that the show can be as good as they can make it.
Yesterado: Stories of Colorado When It Was Young is no exception. This show is based upon Colorado
history--more specifically, newspaper clippings from the 1890's. Through the play, you'll hear about the
decisions, worries, and ideas of people who lived over a hundred years ago.
Notice what was important to people back then as they made choices everyday-- just as we do.
How are these people like you? How are they different?
Buntport Theater welcomes you back to the year 1897 with its presentation of YESTERADO.
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III. Historical Context for the Play: 19 century
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Cultures that Claimed the Area now known as Colorado, U.S.A.:
Colorado, which joined the union as the 38th state in 1876, is America's eighth largest state in
terms of land mass. Located in the Rocky Mountain region of the western United States, the
state's abundant and varied natural resources attracted the ancient Pueblo peoples and, later,
the Plains Indians. First explored by Europeans in the late 1500s (the Spanish referred to the
region as "Colorado" for its red-colored earth), the area was ceded to the United States in 1848
with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War (1846-48). In 1858,
the discovery of gold in Colorado attracted new settlers. During the Plains Indian Wars (1860s80s), Colorado's wild frontier was the scene of intense fighting between Native Americans and
white settlers. In the 21st century, Colorado continues to rely on its natural resources as well as
agriculture and tourism to sustain its economy. http://www.history.com/topics/colorado
Statehood Basics:
Date of Statehood: August 1, 1876
Capital: Denver
Population: 5,029,196 (2010)
Size: 104,094 square miles
Nickname(s): Centennial State; Colorful Colorado
Motto: Nil sine Numine (“Nothing without the Deity”)
Tree: Colorado Blue Spruce
Flower: White and Lavender Columbine
Bird: Lark Bunting
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Various Facts about People Who Have Lived Here and Their Conflicts
Mesa Verde National Park contains more than 4,000 archaeological sites—including around 600 cliff dwellings—from the Ancestral
Puebloans who inhabited the area from about AD 550 to 1300. By the late 13th century, they began to migrate south to New
Mexico and Arizona, where their descendants continue to live today.
Discovered by Lieutenant Zebulon Pike in 1806 during an expedition to determine the southwestern boundary of the Louisiana
Purchase, Pikes Peak became a landmark to the thousands of fortune hunters who traveled west with the slogan “Pikes Peak or
Bust” on their wagons after gold was found in the area in 1858.
On November 29, 1864, more than 150 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians—believing themselves to be under the protection
of the U.S. government—were slaughtered by close to 700 Colorado volunteer soldiers under the command of Colonel John
Chivington. The atrocity devastated the tribes and served as a catalyst for years of subsequent warfare between Native
American Indians and the U.S. Army.
The lyrics to “America the Beautiful” were written by Katharine Lee Bates after an awe-inspiring trip to the top of Pikes Peak in
1893. Although it is now commonly sung to the tune “Materna,” composed by Samuel Ward in 1882, the patriotic poem was often
sung to “Auld Lang Syne” in the early 20th century.
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The Colorado Rockies are part of the North American Cordillera, which sweeps the western part of the continent all the way
from Alaska into northern Mexico. With 58 named peaks over 14,000 feet and an average altitude of 6,800 feet, Colorado has the
highest elevation of all the states.
Timeline of 19th Century Inventions around the World,
plus some Colorado Historical Highlights
“The 19th century was the age of machine tools - tools that made tools - machines that made parts for
other machines, including interchangeable parts. The assembly line was invented during the 19th
century, speeding up the factory production of consumer goods. The 19th century gave birth to the
professional scientist, the word scientist was first used in 1833 by William Whewell.”
1800
(This quote and the list below are taken from http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/a/Nineteenth.htm.)
Count Alessandro Volta invents the battery.
1804
Richard Trevithick, an English mining engineer, developed the first steam-powered locomotive. Unfortunately, the
machine was too heavy and broke the very rails it was traveling on.
1809
Humphry Davy invents the first electric light - the first arc lamp.
1810
German, Frederick Koenig invents an improved printing press.
1811
Peter Durand invents the tin can.
1814
The first plastic surgery is performed in England.
German, Joseph von Fraunhofer invents the spectrocope for the chemical analysis of glowing objects.
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was the first person to take a photograph. He took the picture by setting up a machine called
the camera obscura in the window of his home in France. It took eight hours for the camera to take the picture.
1815
Humphry Davy invents the miner's lamp.
1819
Samuel Fahnestock patents a soda fountain.
René Laënnec invents the stethoscope.
1823
1824
Mackintosh (raincoat) invented by Charles Mackintosh of Scotland.
Michael Faraday invents the first toy balloon.
Englishmen, Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement.
1825
William Sturgeon invented the electromagnet.
1827
John Walker invents modern matches.
1829
Frenchmen, Louis Braille invents braille printing for the blind.
1830
Frenchmen, Barthelemy Thimonnier invents a sewing machine.
1831
American, Cyrus McCormick invents the first commercially successful reaper.
(Regular magnets keep all the different characters’ and hats suspended in Yesterado!)
Louis Vasquez, a St. Louis fur trader, built a cottonwood log fort near the
confluence of the South Platte River and Clear Creek, originally called Vasquez Creek in
his honor.
1832
The first patented stereoscope was invented by Charles Wheatstone in 1832 and patented in 1838.
1834
Henry Blair patents a corn planter, he is the second black person to receive a U.S. patent.
Jacob Perkins invents an early refrigerator type device - an ether ice machine.
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1835
Solymon Merrick patents the wrench.
Englishmen, Francis Pettit Smith invents the propeller.
Charles Babbage invents a mechanical calculator.
1836
Francis Pettit Smith and John Ericcson co-invent the propellor.
1837
Samuel Morse invents the telegraph.
English schoolmaster, Rowland Hill invents the postage stamp.
1838
Samual Morse invents Morse Code.
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Frenchmen, Louis Daguerre and J.N. Niepce co-invent Daguerreotype photography.
Kirkpatrick Macmillan invents a bicycle.
1841
Samuel Slocum patents the stapler.
1842
Joseph Dart builds the first grain elevator.
1845
American, Elias Howe invents a sewing machine.
1846
Dr. William Morton, a Massachusetts dentist, is the first to use anesthesia for tooth extraction.
1847
Hungarian, Ignaz Semmelweis invents antiseptics.
1849
Walter Hunt invents the safety pin.
1851
Isaac Singer invents a sewing machine.
1852
Jean Bernard Léon Foucault invents gyroscope.
Henri Giffard builds an airship powered by the first aircraft engine - an unsuccessful design.
1853
George Cayley invents a manned glider.
1854
1856
John Tyndall demonstrates the principles of fiber optics.
Louis Pasteur invents pasteurization.
1857
George Pullman invents the Pullman Sleeping Car for train travel.
1858
Hamilton Smith patents the rotary washing machine.
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Discovery of gold along Platte River brought influx of white settlers. The William “Green” Russell party
founded the city of Auraria on the west side of Cherry Creek. Claim jumper General William Larimer,
Jr. founded the precursor to the city of Denver on the east side of Cherry Creek. Denver was part of
Arapahoe County in Kansas Territory.
Kristin Iverson describes this gold discovery as “a strike on the banks of the South Platte at Cherry
Creek, where the city of Denver now stands (a strike that amounted to only a few hundred dollars,
magnified substantially with each retelling of the story).”
1861
Elisha Otis patents elevator safety brakes, creating a safer elevator.
Pierre Michaux invents a bicycle.
(Important to America’s Greatest Cyclienne in 1897, Dora Rinehart!)
1862
Alexander Parkes invents the first man-made plastic.
1866
Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.
J. Osterhoudt patents the tin can with a key opener.
1867
Christopher Scholes invents the first practical and modern typewriter.
(Important to the Rocky Mountain News editor Col. John Arkins!)
1868
J P Knight invents traffic lights.
1872
J.S. Risdon patents the metal windmill.
A.M. Ward issues the first mail-order catalog.
1873
Joseph Glidden invents barbed wire.
1876
Colorado becomes a state in the United States of America.
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Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.
1877
Thomas Edison invents the ylinder phonograph or tin foil phonograph.
Eadweard Muybridge invents the first moving pictures.
1878
Sir Joseph Wilson Swan was the first person to invent a practical and longer-lasting electic lightbulb.
1880
The British Perforated Paper Company invents a form of toilet paper.
Englishmen, John Milne invents the modern seismograph.
1881
Edward Leveaux patents the automatic player piano.
1884
Lewis Edson Waterman invents the first practical fountain pen.
James Ritty invents the first working, mechanical cash register.
1885
Karl Benz invents the first practical automobile to be powered by an internal-combustion engine.
1886
Josephine Cochrane invents the dishwasher.
John Pemberton invents Coca Cola.
1887
German, Heinrich Hertz invents radar.
Emile Berliner invents the gramophone.
F.E. Muller and Adolph Fick invent the first wearable contact lenses.
1888
Marvin Stone patents the spiral winding process to manufacture the first paper drinking straws.
Nikola Tesla invents the AC motor and transformer.
1889
Joshua Pusey invents the matchbook.
1891
Jesse W. Reno invents the escalator.
1893
Colorado votes to give women the right to vote.
1895
1898
American, W.L. Judson invents the zipper.
Lumiere Brothers invent a portable motion-picture camera, film processing unit and projector called the Cinematographe.
Lumiere Brothers using their Cinematographe are the first to present a projected motion picture to an audience of more
than one person.
Edwin Prescott patents the roller coaster.
John Thurman patents the motor-driven vacuum cleaner.
RESEARCH & PERFORMANCE PROJECT: The invention of the bicycle played a role in the changing role of women in
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1890’s society, as well as changes in women’s fashion at that time. People of the 19 century had very strong feelings
about this.
Research an invention from the list above (or another of your choosing) and learn how it changed people’s lives for
better and for worse.
Write and perform a scene depicting the invention being used and people’s different reactions to it.
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Write and perform a scene depicting a 21 century invention that has changed your life.
Natural Resources of the 1890’s West
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From (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h937.html):
“It had long been believed in the United States that the supply of new lands and natural resources was
unlimited. In 1890, however, the Director of the Census announced that a western frontier no longer existed.
The last remaining reserved area, the Oklahoma Territory, had been opened for settlement in the previous year.
Other remaining unoccupied lands were largely either arid or mountainous.
A bitter debate followed—and continues today—between those who argued that America should exploit its
resources to the fullest for as long as they last and those who favored conservation as a means to sustain supply
over a longer time and preserve natural beauty.
By the turn of the century, several things were evident:
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Forests throughout the country were depleted; some estimate about 20 percent of the original
woodlands remained in 1900.
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Much of the nation’s farmland, particularly in the South and East was exhausted by overuse and was
marginally productive.
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Extractive industries such as oil, gas, and minerals were proceeding at an unfettered pace.
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Water rights were increasingly coming under the control of private parties, often operated without
concern for flood control or the preservation of natural features.
Theodore Roosevelt, a sportsman and naturalist, sided emphatically with the conservationists. Legislative effort
was devoted to changing the way America used its land, especially in the West. The Newlands Act of 1902 placed
the federal government in an activist role in the areas of water management and reclamation.
The president, with the aid and encouragement of Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot, worked to preserve more than
170 million acres, mostly in the West, in the forms of national parks and monuments. The following constitute[s]
a portion of Roosevelt’s legacy: ...1906, Mesa Verde National Park.”
What side of the “bitter debate” do you think is right?
America should exploit its resources to the fullest for as long as they last, OR
America should conserve its resources as a means to sustain supply over a longer time and preserve
natural beauty
How does this argument continue in Colorado communities (fracking, drilling for oil, etc.)?
Is there a place in Colorado that you would like to preserve?
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Theater in Denver
The Princess opened in 1909 and was renamed the Victory in 1919 in honor of WW1. It was a larger theater with
seating for 1140. The Victory met its demise in 1951.
Curtis Street Theater Row in Denver, circa 1927
(http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=187061)
Jack Langrishe and Marietta Ravel, the performers in the frame story of Yesterado are actual figures
from the theater scene of the late 19th century. They did perform together for a time.
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From scholar Alice Cowan Cochran’s master’s thesis about
Jack Langrishe & Colorado Theater
-Langrishe came to Denver in 1860 and spent 35 years presenting plays to Pike’s Peak area mining camps
and towns. He has been called the Father of Colorado Theater. In various newspapers, he was described
with such phrases as: ‘the Old Favorite’ is in town,” “’the great character of the drama,” “celebrated and
popular comedian,” and “an artist by instinct, a gentleman by tradition.”
-Jack dressed as miners did: arrived here in dust-caked suit and stovepipe hat, and later wore slouch felt
hat, dark suit, and boots
-There were 12 candles used to light the Apollo Theater’s stage. (Denver’s first theater, where Jack
performed.)
-At the theater’s entrance, there was a scale for gold dust, veggies, and eggs. One could pay for
admission to the theater with these items. ...Audience members might toss gold dust if they liked the
show.
-Jack had a house rule against profanity. ”Langrishe forbade it.” And he donated monthly to a relief fund
for the poor. Also, signs dictated the “use of tobacco prohibited—don’t spit on the floor.”
-Langrishe refused to perform sensational plays....unless low box office receipts demanded it. He often
performed melodramas and Shakespeare. Examples of lines from his plays: “Oh, where are thou, my
brother?” “Then I am lost indeed!”
-Rocky Mountain News review of Langrishe’s work:
“Langrishe’s plays could be counted upon not to offend the eye or ear. His theatres were places where
‘the man of business or the matron—the gallant gent or blooming maiden, the newly married couple, or
the old folks at home’ could find amusement.
...Contrary to common public notions respecting theatrical people, Mr. and Mrs. Langrishe are as
esteemed as highly socially as any in Denver.”
-Mining towns didn’t question the morality of theater as Eastern society did.
“Franklin A. Buck, a merchant from New England, wrote to a friend in the East that while ‘some
people at home think the theater a very wicked institution, here it seems different.’ The theater was
the ‘most moral place to spend an evening—a perfect oasis in the desert.’”
-Theater and cultural events thrived in mining communities because of their growing populations, quick
wealth, leisure, and men who wanted amenities of life amid the wilds—“Men of education and culture
lured by chance of instant wealth.”
“Most frontier people were young, ambitious, adventurous...the gunman, miner, unruly
cowboy...are colorful, but the minority...most lived as environment demanded...homesteaders lives
were hard and unrewarding.”
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“The theater was the dominant cultural form in the early mining towns. The miners, living in
unspeakably rough surroundings, sought the respectability and gentility offered by the productions
of the pioneer thespians; they found that attending theaters which presented the tragedies,
melodramas and comedies popular in Europe and on the American eastern seaboard reassured them
they were not becoming barbarians”...also dominated the arts scene because it was social, a time to
“see and be seen.”
“The 1861 audience was almost all of the ‘sterner sex’ It is rude and boisterous, and gives vent to its
feelings in a most demonstrative way.”
Marietta Ravel
From http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/23454:
“Born in France, Marietta Ravel was a mime, tightrope walker,
and dancer from the celebrated Ravel family of pantomimists.
Her tight rope debut was at age 4. Ravel married the famous
songwriter, Dave Braham, in 1862. She became a star when she
first acted in the "French Spy" in 1865. In a Spanish costume,
Ravel poses at the Gurney studio in New York, circa 1865.”
From Vaudeville Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America, Volume 1
By Frank Cullen:
For more information about Jardine (spelled Jartine below), you can go here:
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Women’s Changing Role in Society in the 1890’s
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“Publisher Caroline Nichols Churchill also encouraged women to demand their rights. Churchill began
the monthly women-oriented Colorado Antelope in 1879. Three years later she shifted to a weekly
schedule and renamed her Denver-based paper Queen Bee. For more than a decade the Bee buzzed
loudly, damning the logic of those opposin equal suffrage. ‘All women,’ Churchill declared, ‘are victims,
more or less, all suffer in one way or another from a preponderance of masculine influence.’ Why did
men subjugate women? ‘Young men,’ wrote Churchill, ‘fear her emancipation will be the death blow to
their pet vices and darling sins.’ She had no doubt that if ‘the paternal [instinct] were half as strong as
the maternal, the numbers of beggardly children and dead mothers would be vastly lessened.’ At times
her vision was broad: ‘Society will never construct a government worthy of the respect [of its citizens]
...until women form a part of its councils.’ At other times she waxed sarcastic, suggesting that an antiequal suffrage editor in Silverton was going bald because his brain could not furnish ‘sufficient vitality or
nerve...to sustain the growth of hair.” Western voices: 125 years of Colorado writing - Page 228
Helen Ring Robinson—
“Though Colorado women had voted since 1893, the federal
battle for woman suffrage continued another twenty-seven
years. As late as the spring of 1918 only ten western states and
New York had woman suffrage, though by 1919 there were
twenty-seven states.
...
In her speeches [Helen Ring Robinson] indignantly defended
Colorado against the ‘incessant criticism of the suffrage States by
Eastern people.’
‘I am tired of these constant slurs,’ she said. ‘I am tired of being
used as an anti-suffrage argument. We have a more humane
Legislature in Colorado than in the non-suffrage States. Our
canning industries are as important as those of New Jersey. In
New Jersey’s canning factories the workers may keep at their
work as long as flesh and blood will stand it. In Colorado we have
an eight-hour day for the workers in the canneries. Colorado
women stand as a unit for humane laws.
The last Colorado General Assembly passed an Industrial Disputes act which has already prevented one
strike that threatened Denver. By this act both sides in a dispute between employer and employes [sic]
must appear before an industrial commission. This is the most advanced industrial commission. This is
the most advanced industrial legislation now in force in any State in the Union. It is time other States
stopped pointing their fingers at Colorado and began to think of following her example.
At this time Helen believed in a state-by-state suffrage strategy, and she urged the leaders of the
national suffrage organizations to focus on one state at a time, particularly those where there was a
good prospect of passage.” (p. 130-31)
--Helen Ring Robinson: Colorado Senator and Suffragist by Pat Pascoe
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Amelia Bloomer
Amelia Bloomer edited the first newspaper for women, The Lily. It was
issued from 1849 until 1853. The newspaper began as a temperance
journal. Bloomer felt that as women lecturers were considered
unseemly, writing was the best way for women to work for reform.
...
it was not at first a radical paper. Its editorial stance conformed to the
emerging stereotype of women as “defenders of the home.” In the
first issue, Bloomer wrote:
It is woman that speaks through The Lily…Intemperance is the great
foe to her peace and happiness. It is that above all that has made her
Home desolate and beggared her offspring…. Surely, she has the right
to wield her pen for its Suppression. Surely, she may without throwing
aside the modest refinements which so much become her sex, use her
influence to lead her fellow mortals from the destroyer’s path.
The Lily always maintained its focus on temperance. Fillers often told
horror stories about the effects of alcohol. For example, the May 1849
issue noted, “A man when drunk fell into a kettle of boiling brine at Liverpool, Onondaga Co. and was scaled to
death.” But gradually, the newspaper began to include articles about other subjects of interest to women. Many
were from the pen of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, writing under the pseudonym “sunflower.” The earliest Stanton’s
articles dealt with the temperance, child-bearing, and education, but she soon turned to the issue of women’s
rights. She wrote about laws unfair to women and demanded change.
Bloomer was greatly influenced by Stanton and gradually became a convert to the cause of women’s rights.
Recalling the case of an elderly friend who was turned out of her home when her husband died without a will she
wrote:
Later, other similar cases coming to my knowledge made me familiar with cruelty of the laws towards women; and
when the women rights convention put forth its Declaration of Sentiments. I was ready to join with that party in
demanding for women such change in laws as would give her a right to her earnings, and her children a right to
wider fields of employment and a better education, and also a right to protect her interest at the ballot box.
Bloomer became interested in dress reform, advocating that women wear the outfit that came to be known as
the “Bloomer costume.” Stanton and others copied a knee-length dress with pants worn byElizabeth Smith
Miller of Geneva, New York. Although Bloomer refused to take credit for inventing the pants-and-tunic outfit,
her name became associated with it because she wrote articles about the unusual dress, printed illustrations
in The Lily, and wore the costume herself. In reference to her advocacy of the costume, she once wrote, “I stood
amazed at the furor I had unwittingly caused.” But people certainly were interested in the new fashion. She
remembered: “As soon as it became known that I was wearing the new dress, letters came pouring in upon me by
the hundreds from women all over the country making inquiries about the dress and asking for patterns –
showing how ready and anxious women were to throw off the burden of long, heavy skirts.”
(http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/wori/shs4.htm)
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Susan B. Anthony
Oh, if I could but live another century and see the
fruition of all the work for women! There is so much
yet to be done. – Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony was a prominent civil rights leader
during the women's suffrage movement of the 1800s.
She become involved in the anti-slavery movement, but
it was in doing that work that she encountered gender
inequality. With Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she began her
work for women's right to vote. Anthony established a
weekly paper called Revolution,co-founded the
National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), and
gave many lectures in the U.S. and Europe.
Born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts,
Anthony grew up in a politically active family. They
worked to end slavery in what was called the
abolitionist movement. They were also part of the temperance movement, which wanted the production and sale
of alcohol limited or stopped completely. Anthony was inspired to fight for women's rights while campaigning
against alcohol. She denied a chance to speak at a temperance convention because she was a woman. Anthony
later realized that no one would take women in politics seriously unless they had the right to vote.
(http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905)
“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than
anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel.”
--Susan B. Anthony in Champion of Her Sex by Nellie Bly New York World, 2/2/1896
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VI.
Stories Included in YESTERADO
Yesterado Story #1“Fight with Shovels”
Water
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“Long before the city of Denver was established, the South Platte River and Cherry Creek were oases for people
who traveled the dry Great Plains. These early travelers could do without many things, but not water. That's why
pioneers, and the American Indians before them, camped along the banks of Cherry Creek and the South Platte
River. The first residents of the area drank water directly from the creek and river. Surface wells and buckets of
water sufficed for a while as a delivery system, but they soon proved inadequate. Irrigation ditches were the next
step forward.
Soon,w ater com panies began offering service to se
(http://www.denverwater.org/AboutUs/History/historicaltimeline/)
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Yesterado Story #2 “A Great Curse is Inflicted Upon the Country”
Dora Rinehart was an avid cyclist at a time when bicycles were coming into vogue in a huge way. The
real importance of this lay in the fact that bicycles gave women greater independence. The ability to
travel on their own! AND...bicycles were a motivator to change cumbersome fashions that also
hindered women's independence. Women's roles were changing at this time in all sorts of ways. 1893 is
the year women got the vote in Colorado! Colorado was the first state to pass women's
suffrage...Wyoming passed it first (1869) when it was still a territory.
from 5280 Magazine, July 2006
“The wearers of the bloomers are usually young women who have minds of their own and tongues that
know how to talk.” -Editorial from the Chicago Sunday Times-Herald
From the book about the history of bicycles and women’s role in society titled Wheels of Change:
“Dora Rinehart loved her husband, but said, ’I don’t like to go on a hard run when my husband is with
me. For you know it does take so much starch out of a man to ride a century, especially if he be not in
the best of shape.’
...
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Few people could keep up with Rinehart on the bicycle...her “’long rides through rain, darkness, mud,
snow and slush,’ her battles against sandstorms, sleet, and ‘rain blizzards’” and her constant desire to go
faster and farther than she had before. ‘She is an intellectual student of nature, a philosopher and a
lady of self-possession in whose composition is embodied determination, grit and firmness.’
...
She testified before the Colorado State Medical society about the benefits of the divided skirt for female
cyclists. “’It is almost impossible for a lady to ride any distance...with the ordinary skirt,’ she told the
mostly male audience. ‘You get too much of the dress on the one side of the wheel, and you do not get
enough of the dress on the other side.’
Rinehart’s success brought her a number of product endorsements, including Stearns bicycles, Samson
tires, and the Rinehart skirt, a divided skirt designed in her honor by a seamstress in Denver.”
Charlotte Smith
Activist and Nationally Known Woman
during the late 19th Century:
Smith spoke out on many causes—
Workers’ Rights
Women’s Rights
Regarding the labeling of foods and cosmetics with ingredient lists:
20
3/17/1892 New York Times
Abstract of an 1897 New York Times article on Smith:
(http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0D11F63F5913738DDDAC0A94DF405B8785F0D3)
Smith’s views on marriage between races:
21
Smith’s Points of View on Bicycling:
“Many a girl has come to her ruin through a spin on a country road.” –Charlotte Smith, Brooklyn Eagle,
August 20, 1896
“Bicycling by young women has helped to swell the ranks of reckless girls who finally drift into the
standing army of outcast women of the United States. The bicycle is the devil’s advance agent morally
and physically in thousands of instances.” –Charlotte Smith
“Join me in denouncing the bicycle craze among women as ’indecent and vulgar.’” –Charlotte Smith
Smith’s anti-bicycling stance earned her a spot in Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary:
Others’ Points of View on Bicycles
22
“Of course I do not believe that bicycling is immoral. A girl who rides a wheel is lifted out of herself and
her surroundings. She is made to breathe purer air, see fresher and more beautiful scenes, and get an
amount of exercise she would not otherwise get. All this is highly beneficial.” Pastor’s wife, Ellen
Parkhurst (NY)
“I am delighted with my wheel. I am equally as fond of it as my horse.”
–Annie Oakley, sharpshooter in the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show
“..To men, the bicycle in the beginning was merely a new toy, another machine added to the long list of
devices they knew in their work and play. To women, it was a steed upon which they rode into a new
world.” –Woman and the Wheel, Munsey’s Magazine May 1896
In England, bicycling ladies formed Rational Dress Society. This society called for ...limiting the weight of
a woman’s undergarments to seven pounds. The group’s leader, Lady Harberton, introduced a divided
skirt, a garment that looked like a skirt, but actually had separate compartment for each leg.
Songs were based on bicycling, e.g., “Daisy Bell....ped’ling away on the road of life” on a “bicycle built for
two.”
From the cycling newspaper The Cycling West:
‘The subject of cycling costumes,’ says Mrs. Mary Sargent Hopkins, ‘has become so important
that it cannot be sneered at nor lightly put aside; and as cycling is taking the place that it
deserves as a factor in physical development and health, so must the dress which is worn upon
the wheel have proper and timely consideration.”
And is not Mrs. Hopkins’ word entitled to as much consideration as the prudish notions of a large
majority of men and women who have never mounted a wheel and whose only hostility to
rational dress is born of a stinted imagination or through ignorance of the virtues of cycling.
Cyclienne Column Cycling West Apr. 1897
The bicycle girl who has been in doubt as to the propriety and modesty of the bloomer garb need
have no further quiverings of conscience so far as this matter is concerned, for the Fellowship for
Ethical Research has set its stamp of approval on the much-discussed garment which some
cycling women wear and others wish to don, but lack the courage. Dr. Isaac Hull Platt in a recent
lecture on the ‘Moral Influence of the Bicycle, ‘ said the bicycle and the bloomer were all right, so
that settles it. So glad.
Another lecturer, it was a man, too, says:
“That a reasonable human being should ever adopt a long skirt as an article of daily apparel is
incredible. It must have been forced upon woman in some prehistoric age by her lord and master
to mark her servitude and to act as a shackle to hamper her movements and prevent her from
getting away, as a ball and chain are attached to the ankle of a prisoner. Imagine a man going
about his daily avocation in a long skirt.’
23
A List of Don’ts for Women on Bicycles Circa 1895
by Maria Popova
“Don’t ask, ‘What do you think of my bloomers?’”
We’ve already seen how the bicycle emancipated women, but
it wasn’t exactly a smooth ride. The following list of 41 don’ts
for female cyclists was published in 1895 in the newspaper New
York World by an author of unknown gender. Equal parts
amusing and appalling, the list is the best (or worst, depending
on you look at it) thing since the Victorian map of woman’s
heart.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Don’t be a fright.
Don’t faint on the road.
Don’t wear a man’s cap.
Don’t wear tight garters.
Don’t forget your toolbag
Don’t attempt a “century.”
Don’t coast. It is dangerous.
Don’t boast of your long rides.
Don’t criticize people’s “legs.”
Don’t wear loud hued leggings.
• Don’t cultivate a “bicycle face.”
• Don’t refuse assistance up a hill.
• Don’t wear clothes that don’t fit.
• Don’t neglect a “light’s out” cry.
• Don’t wear jewelry while on a tour.
• Don’t race. Leave that to the scorchers.
• Don’t wear laced boots. They are tiresome.
• Don’t imagine everybody is looking at you.
• Don’t go to church in your bicycle costume.
• Don’t wear a garden party hat with bloomers.
• Don’t contest the right of way with cable cars.
• Don’t chew gum. Exercise your jaws in private.
• Don’t wear white kid gloves. Silk is the thing.
• Don’t ask, “What do you think of my bloomers?”
• Don’t use bicycle slang. Leave that to the boys.
• Don’t go out after dark without a male escort.
• Don’t without a needle, thread and thimble.
• Don’t try to have every article of your attire “match.”
• Don’t let your golden hair be hanging down your back.
• Don’t allow dear little Fido to accompany you
• Don’t scratch a match on the seat of your bloomers.
• Don’t discuss bloomers with every man you know.
• Don’t appear in public until you have learned to ride well.
• Don’t overdo things. Let cycling be a recreation, not a labor.
• Don’t ignore the laws of the road because you are a woman.
• Don’t try to ride in your brother’s clothes “to see how it feels.”
• Don’t scream if you meet a cow. If she sees you first, she will run.
• Don’t cultivate everything that is up to date because yon ride a wheel.
• Don’t emulate your brother’s attitude if he rides parallel with the ground.
• Don’t undertake a long ride if you are not confident of performing it easily.
• Don’t appear to be up on “records” and “record smashing.” That is sporty.
For more on the history of women and bikes, see the excellent Wheels of Change, among both the best
photography books and the best history books of 2011.
(http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/01/03/donts-for-women-on-bicycles-1895/)
•
24
Yesterado Story #3
“Soapy in the Soup”
25
Soapy Smith was a notorious scam artist of the old West...he took advantage of the relative lawlessness
of the time. He is most famous for his soap scams that were “not quite illegal” to cheat people
...ultimately a campaign led by the editor of the Rocky Mountain News drove Soapy out of Denver.
Rocky Mountain News Aug. 6, 1889
Rocky Mountain News, July 30, 1889
26
27
“Soapy Smith canes Colonel John Arkins”
(http://soapysmiths.blogspot.com/2012/10/soapy-smith-and-act-of-caning.html)
Col. John Arkins, Editor of the Rocky Mountain News
“... it may come as a surprise to learn that the members of the
journalism profession were so revered 120 years ago that they were
actually featured on their very own trading cards.
Trading cards – as in, “I’ll give you two James Gordon Bennetts for your
Joseph Pulitzer.”
Bennett and Pulitzer, lions of nineteenth century New York
journalism, were among 50 newspapermen from across the country who
were featured in a set of collectible “American Editors” cards issued in
1887 by the Allen & Ginter tobacco company of Richmond, VA.
Like many tobacco companies of the late 1800s and early 1900s, Allen & Ginter produced a variety of
card subjects that were inserted in their tobacco packages. Popular sets included Native American chiefs,
world monarchs, pirates, and athletes.
Among swashbucklers and baseball heroes, editors might seem, at first blush, an unlikely subject for a card
set. But when one considers the era, the production of editor cards makes perfect sense, according to Robert
Forbes, co-author of American Tobacco Cards.
“You’ve got to think like the time,” Forbes says. “You’ve got to block TV, radio and national
magazines out of your head. When you do that, what do you have left as your primary means of
communication? Newspapers. So editors were the big power brokers. They influenced popular opinion.
They controlled the news.”
28
Forbes’ co-author Terry Mitchell adds: “Editors of that era were famous. They were well known.”
http://www.american-journalism.org/2012/09/13/when-editors-were-trading-card-heroes/
A description from National Magazine: A Monthly Journal of American History, Volume 13
About the early days of the Rocky Mountain News—the first newspaper in Denver
Story of How Rocky Mountain News Ignored Arapaho Advice about Flooding
“William Byers walked toward the edge of Denver City, wandering down street after street as he tried
to figure out where to build the headquarters for his newspaper. When he reached Cherry Creek, a small
stream with sandy beds lined by chokecherry bushes, he suddenly knew exactly where he should build:
right in the middle of the creek. He would place his Rocky Mountain News office diplomatically between
two rival towns-Denver City on one side of the creek, Auraria on the other. Sales of his newspaper
wouldn’t limited ineither place. Pleased by his brianstorm, Byers hurried through town, looking for
someone who could sink piles into the bed of the creek and begin constructing his headquarters.
29
Indians and mountain men had warned gold seekers in Denver that the trickling waters of Cherry Creek
could quickly turn into a raging torrent during times of heavy rain, but the settlers thought the
mountain men were crazy, and they had no interest in the knowledge Native Americans had gleaned
from living close to the land. Denver’s citizens paid the waters of Cherry Creek little attention other than
to use them as a source for panning gold. They put ramshackle buildings on the banks of Cherry Creek,
and even built some structures on stilts in its bed.
The Arapaho and mountain men who saw people building in the middle of the stream scolded them, but
the stubborn pioneers continued to build. Soon Cherry Creek was crammed with shacks and shanties
and rickety buildings tottering on wooden stilts. Stores and offices straddled the creek. A Methodist
church and a jail were constructed int he streambed. Even City Hall, in an effort to appear impartial
betweeen the feuding towns of Auraria and Denver City, followed the example of William Byrs and built
midstream on neutral groudn. The dribbling creek alarmed none of the newcomers.
(p. 25, It Happened in Denver, by Stephen Grace)
This photo was used as the model for the costume of the Chief of Police puppet used in YESTERADO.
Yesterado Story #4: Brown Family Strikes Gold & Margaret Brown Hits Denver,
Or the actual headline “Little Jonnie Strike to Revive Leadville!”
30
Molly Brown's story deals with how mining enabled regular folks to strike it rich. It wasn't easy, and it
happened for precious few, but mining contributed to a societal change toward a socioeconomic
structure that was less based upon the family and money you were born into, and more based upon
people's actions and entrepreneurship. Old-school definitions about who belonged in society and who
didn't were looser in the West than in the more established towns in the East.
The Browns had a mine they called the Little Johnnie. And in the article titled ““Little Jonny Strike to
Revive Leadville” it was reported that ”the Little Jonnie is shipping 135 tons of gold ore per day” and that
“it is practically a lake of ore...$60 to the pound in gold” “Little Jonny Strike to Revive Leadville.” (Iverson
103).
“Denver Times reported that ‘ Mrs. J.J. Brown is giving a series of luncheons in the country. No invitation
received by any one of her friends is more eagerly anticipated than an invitation from this charming
entertainer...” Margaret was always fashionable but didn’t necessarily follow fashion rules. One story
claims that after a party, a friend of Margaret’s pointed out another woman and remarked that it
‘wasn’t proper to wear diamonds in the daytime.’ Margaret retorted, “I didn’t think so either, until I had
some!”(Iverson 118)
“it wasn’t until the late 1870’s that the ‘black cement’ that had interfered with early gold-mining efforts
was recognized as silver-bearing lead ore, or carbonate, that could be refined to silver-lead bullion and
shipped back east for refining. The carbonate boom was on, and by 1880 Leadville was not only ‘ the
most important mining center in Colorado” but the second largest city in Colorado.”
Margaret Brown a.k.a Mrs. J.J. Brown a.k.a. Molly Brown
Molly Brown (known in her time as Margaret Brown) was an American human-rights activist, philanthropist,
and actress who survived the sinking of the Titanic.
31
Philanthropist. Born Margaret Tobin on July 18, 1867, inHannibal, Missouri. Sometimes referred to as the
"Unsinkable Molly Brown," this survivor of the 1912 Titanic disaster has become the subject of many myths and
legends throughout the years. Her early years were relatively quiet; she grew up in an Irish-Catholic family with
five siblings.
At the age of thirteen, Molly Brown went to work in a factory. After two of her siblings headed to Colorado to
seek opportunity with the silver mines there, she followed, moving to Leadville in 1886. The town was like a giant
mining camp, and Brown found work doing sewing for a local store. Her life soon changed when she met J. J.
Brown, a mining superintendent. The couple fell in love and married in September of 1886.
Molly and J. J. Brown struggled financially in the early days of their marriage. They had their first child, Lawrence
Palmer Brown, in 1887, and a daughter, Catherine Ellen, followed two years later. As her husband rose up the
ranks at the mining company, Brown became active in the community, helping miners and their families and
working to improve the town's schools. Molly Brown was never interested in fitting in with the other leading
citizens of Leadville, preferring to dress in dramatic hats.
Achieving great prosperity through the discovery of silver at one of J. J.'s mines in 1893, the Brown family moved
to Denver. Molly Brown helped found the Denver Women's Club. She also raised money for children's causes and
continued to help mine workers. With her wealth, Brown also expanded her own horizons, taking numerous trips
around the world. It was during one such trip in April 1912, after hearing that her grandson was ill, that Brown
decided to take the first ship back to the United States; a ship named the Titanic. It was the maiden voyage of the
vessel that was supposed to be nearly indestructible. However, on the night of April 14, the ship failed to live up
to its reputation.
The Titanic struck an iceberg at around 11:40 p.m. and sank in only a few hours. Molly Brown was able to get on
one of the ship's few lifeboats and was later rescued by the Carpathia. Aboard the Carpathia, she did whatever
she could to help the other survivors. Her acts of heroism, which made news, earned her the nickname "the
unsinkable Mrs. Brown."
With her newfound fame after the disaster, Molly Brown spoke out for many causes, including women's suffrage
and workers' rights. During World War I, she worked with the Red Cross in France. Molly Brown died on October
26, 1932.” (http://www.biography.com/people/molly-brown-20638583)
* The biography of Margaret Brown entitled Unraveling the Myth by Kristen Iverson reports that the Browns
struck gold in Leadville and became rich, rather than silver as the above article states.
Louise Crawford Hill
From p. 142 of Iverson’s Unraveling the Myth:
32
33
And another excerpt from Unraveling the Myth:
Mary Elitch Long (info from the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame)
34
http://www.jogtheweb.com/run/qYIgjlI13hw4/People-in-Colorado-History#8
1856-1936
Inducted 1996
More than the found
Mary Elitch Long has
In the male-dominat
Long served as a pow
far fewer non- tradi
she was the only wo
Born in Philadelphia
childhood in Californ
and fruit business. A
Elitch, Jr., whom she
to Durango in 1880,
years later they mov
called Elitch's.The co
north of Denver inte
for the restaurant.
died two weeks later, March 10, 1891.
With Long's love for
ambitious dream wa
into Elitch's Zoologic
of exotic animals, or
entertainment: from
After the close of the
theater troupe, whi
was in San Francisco
It was a sad but determined woman who returned to Denver. A 34-year old widow,
of her garden's stock to a group of Denver capitalists. She remained in an administra
and by 1894 had regained total control of the gardens. Over the next 20 years Long
entertainment for thousand of visitors from around the world. Elitch's was the first p
Edison's Warograph (animated pictures that were the precursor to movies").
In 1897, Long formed the country's first summer stock company. A who's who of sta
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and Jr., Vincent Price, Gloria Swanson, Ginger Rogers, and Lan
1906 Sarah Bernhardt was brought to Denver to play "Camille" and "LaSorcier," both
Music was always an important factor at the gardens. Not only were brass bands po
outdoor symphony concerts were drawing large crowds. By then, there were swing
which added to the merry atmosphere of the gardens.
...
By 1916, however, the park had fallen on hard times, and the entire property was so
provided in the sale contract that she would live rent-free in her cottage on the grou
until she died. She spent the last four years of her life with relatives and died at age
Ivy Baldwin
From Only in Boulder: The County's Colorful Characters By Silvia Pettem
35
36
37
V. Theater Exercises
Reviewing the Play: Discussion Questions and Activities
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
What different cultures have lived in this area of the country over time?
What drew those people to this area? What tactics did they use to stay here?
What character/s from the play would you like to meet? Why?
What were your favorite moments in the play?
Did any moments in the play surprise you? How so?
What were moments in which characters showed strong character (a sense of integrity)?
What were moments in which characters showed weak character?
Why did the two men fight with shovels? What was at stake for them?
What does it mean to “ride a century”?
What were Charlotte Smith’s and Doctor Shadwell’s concerns about bicycle riding?
What do you think of those concerns?
How would you describe the changing role of women during the time of the play?
What societal attitudes did Margaret Brown’s arrival in Denver reveal?
What activities took place at Elitch’s Gardens during the 1890’s?
What does this play leave you curious to learn more about?
How did you feel when Dr. Shadwell said that pants look good on men, but not on women?
Critical Language:
Primary source, secondary source, adaptation, dated, tableau, vignette, point of view, historical
context
LESSON PLAN:
Partner-Sculpt Characters from the Show
Ask students to stand with a partner in their own space in the room.
Name characters from the play and ask for adjectives about each of the characters or for examples of
what the characters value.
Then, ask students to take turns molding their partner into a frozen statue (or tableau) of the various
figures from history.
Remind students of communicative tools of theater: gesture, facial expressions, body position
-Jack Langrishe
-Marietta Ravel
-J.C. Downing (the man who cared about water)
-Charles Nicks (the man who cared about his
road)
(Team Tableau: Road with Water all over it)
-Doctor Shadwell
-Dora Rinehart
-Charlotte Smith
38
***How does your sculpture of Charlotte change if you know more about her? (point of view and
historical context) You know she didn’t approve of women riding bikes, but she was also a strong
advocate for women getting the right to vote, she loved her brother dearly, and a person who fought for
the average worker to have a better life. Moving vignettes...a portrait of how it was then.
Try on the circumstances of women of the time:
-Walk as though you are wearing a boned corset laced tightly up your back.
-Your skirts are long and heavy-25 lbs. (hand weight around)
-Your hair is up.
-You begin to feel lightheaded because your lungs can’t take in enough air. You need to lay down,
because you can’t easily bend your body to sit.
-Rise, but this time as though you’ve changed your undergarments so they weigh only 7 lbs. (hand
weight)
-Corsets off!
-Ride a bicycle side-saddle at first.
-Then ride as we do now.
-Bicycle riders known as “scorchers” riding through city streets as fast as they could, dodging carriages
and pedestrians.
-Some people condemned women’s bicycling as too dangerous.
-Some said it would keep them from being able to have children.
-Some thought the women looked funny in their new bloomers.
Class-Sculpt the meaning of Primary Source and Secondary Source.
Student Guide to Research in the Digital Age:
How to Locate And Evaluate Information Sources, by Leslie Foster Stebbins
39
Is Yesterado a primary or secondary source? What primary sources did it draw from?
Primary Source Limerick -New York Town Topics (Recreation, Vol. 3 by American Canoe Association,
1895)
Info: Poems were published all the time in newspapers during the 19th century. These poems or jokes or
fictional stories reflected attitudes of the time. Newspapers could be very dramatic, gossipy, and flashy
in the language they chose. Same with history books!
Adapt a limerick for the stage!
There’s a bicycle girl from Weehawken
Who set all the neighbors a tawken
This feminine biped
Had bloomers bright-striped
And red was the shade of her stawken.
What is the point of view of the writer of this limerick?
In groups of 5 or 6, perform a line from this limerick from around 1895.
Add a repetitive sound and a movement to each line.
What do we know about attitudes about women riding bicycles during the 1890’s?
How can we unite these to tell one story?
-Combine ideas spatially for the audience to see in order?
-Make all the bicycle girls look more similar? (costumes, posture)
-Perform the entire thing in unison? Some parts in unison?
-Which characters speak which lines?
Primary Source 2: ADAPTATION
The following list of 41 don’ts for female cyclists was published in 1895 in the newspaper New York
World by an author of unknown gender.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Don’t be a fright.
Don’t faint on the road.
Don’t wear a man’s cap.
Don’t wear tight garters.
Don’t forget your toolbag
Don’t attempt a “century.”
Don’t coast. It is dangerous.
Don’t boast of your long rides.
Don’t criticize people’s “legs.”
Don’t wear loud hued leggings.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Don’t cultivate a “bicycle face.”
Don’t refuse assistance up a hill.
Don’t wear clothes that don’t fit.
Don’t neglect a “light’s out” cry.
Don’t wear jewelry while on a tour.
Don’t race. Leave that to the scorchers.
Don’t wear laced boots. They are tiresome.
Don’t imagine everybody is looking at you.
Don’t go to church in your bicycle costume.
Don’t wear a garden party hat with bloomers.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Don’t contest the right of way with cable cars.
Don’t chew gum. Exercise your jaws in
private.
Don’t wear white kid gloves. Silk is the thing.
Don’t ask, “What do you think of my
bloomers?”
Don’t use bicycle slang. Leave that to the
boys.
Don’t go out after dark without a male escort.
Don’t go without a needle, thread and
thimble.
Don’t try to have every article of your attire
“match.”
Don’t let your golden hair be hanging down
your back.
Don’t allow dear little Fido to accompany you
Don’t scratch a match on the seat of your
bloomers.
Don’t discuss bloomers with every man you
know.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
40
Don’t appear in public until you have
learned to ride well.
Don’t overdo things. Let cycling be a
recreation, not a labor.
Don’t ignore the laws of the road because you
are a woman.
Don’t try to ride in your brother’s clothes “to
see how it feels.”
Don’t scream if you meet a cow. If she sees
you first, she will run.
Don’t cultivate everything that is up to date
because yon ride a wheel.
Don’t emulate your brother’s attitude if he
rides parallel with the ground.
Don’t undertake a long ride if you are not
confident of performing it easily.
Don’t appear to be up on “records” and
“record smashing.” That is sporty.
Assign each group of students a set of “Don’ts” that they will prepare to perform for the whole class in a short period of
time (5 minutes tops). Ask them to say “Don’t “in unison and then have individuals or small groups act out each point—
whatever conveys the meaning of each rule most clearly.
-What is the point of view of this list?
-What does this primary document tell you that you didn’t know before?
-What do you agree with? What don’t you?
-Does physicalizing primary documents change your knowledge of the stories? How?
-Why do people continue to research historical questions and events if books have already been written
on the topic?
VI. Academic Standards Supported by this Guide
41
THEATER ARTS STANDARDS (K-12)
Standard 1. CREATE
Prepared Graduates:
Employ drama and theatre skills, and articulate the aesthetics of a variety of characters
and roles
Create drama and theatre by interpreting and appreciating theatrical works, culture, and
experience through scenes and scenarios, improvisation, creating environments,
purposeful movement, and research
Use a variety of methods, new media, and technology to create theatrical works through
the use of the creative process for performance, directing, design, construction,
choreography, playwriting, scriptwriting, and dramaturgy
Standard 2. PERFORM
Prepared Graduates:
Express drama and theatre arts skills in a variety of performances, including plays,
monologues, improvisation, purposeful movement, scenes, design, technical
craftsmanship, media, ensemble works, and public speaking
Standard 3. CRITICALLY RESPOND
Prepared Graduates:
Demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of theatre history, dramatic structure, dramatic
literature, elements of style, genre, artistic theory, script analysis, and roles of theatre
practitioners through research and application
Make informed, critical evaluations of theatrical performance from an audience member and a
participant point of view, and develop a framework for making informed theatrical choices
Discern and demonstrate appropriate theatre etiquette and content for the audience, self,
venue, technician, and performer
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS: HISTORY
Prepared Graduates will:
Develop an understanding of how people view, construct, and interpret history
Analyze key historical periods and patterns of change over time within and across nations and cultures
READING, WRITING, AND COMMUNICATING STANDARDS
42
Standard 1. ORAL EXPRESSION AND LISTENING
Prepared Graduates:
Deliver organized and effective oral presentations for diverse audiences and varied
purposes
Collaborate effectively as group members or leaders who listen actively and respectfully
pose thoughtful questions, acknowledge the ideas of others, and contribute ideas to
further the group's attainment of an objective
Use language appropriate for purpose and audience
Demonstrate skill in inferential and evaluative listening
Standard 2: READING FOR ALL PURPOSES
Prepared Graduates:
Evaluate how an author uses words to create mental imagery, suggest mood, and set
tone
Engage in a wide range of nonfiction and real-life reading experiences to solve problems,
judge the quality of ideas, or complete daily tasks
Seek feedback, self-assess, and reflect on personal learning while engaging with
increasingly more difficult texts
Read a wide range of literature (American and world literature) to understand important
universal themes and the human experience
Standard 3: WRITING AND COMPOSITION
Prepared Graduates:
Effectively use content-specific language, style, tone, and text structure to compose or
adapt writing for different audiences and purposes
Apply standard English conventions to effectively communicate with written language
Write with a clear focus, coherent organization, sufficient elaboration, and detail
Implement the writing process successfully to plan, revise, and edit written work
VII. About Buntport Theater & its Educational Programs
43
Buntport Theater Company is a vibrant ensemble of eight people located in Denver, Colorado. Intent on
creating innovative and affordable entertainment, they write and produce all of their work. Each piece
grows from a collaborative process, without specific directors or designers. They brainstorm their way to
any given solution, relying on the combined skills of the whole ensemble. They are the writers, the
directors, the performers, the technicians...even the administrators.
Known for unusual adaptations and quirky original comedies, we keep our seasons packed, debuting
several new full-length productions in addition to a variety of less traditional programming. From live sitcoms to unique open-mic nights to family-friendly entertainment, to an ongoing series at the Denver Art
Museum, they offer programs that appeal to all walks of life.
Buntport’s all-ages live comic book is in
Its 8th season, debuting a new episode
every two weeks from November to February.
Workshops teach theater skills and teambuilding,
as well as integrating theater with other topics.
Considering themselves to be on the fringe of traditional theater while at the same time focusing on
remaining extremely accessible. Come to a Buntport production and you see a world premiere unique to
their black-box space just off of the Santa Fe Arts District. Find out more about our creative work, our
all-ages plays, and educational programs at www.buntport.com.
VII. Bibliography and Resources
44
* There are additional internal citations throughout this study guide.
Buntport Favorites:
Iverson, Kristen. Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth, the true life story of the Titanic’s most famous
survivor. Johnson Books, 1999
Labode, Modupe. “Colorado’s Cycliennes.” Western Voices: 125 Years of Colorado Writing. Grinstead
and Fogelberg, eds. Colorado Historical Society. Fulcrum Publishing, 2004.
Macy, Sue. Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom. National Geographic, 2011.
Essays/Journals by Francis Parkman, Horace Greeley, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Zane Grey, Samuel
Bowles, Helen Hunt Jackson, Emily Faithfull, Rudyard Kipling, Enos Mills, Theodore Roosevelt, Chronicles
of Colorado. Roberts Rinehart, Inc. 1984
Fay, Abbott. More That I Never Knew About Colorado (various short stories). Western Reflections
Publishing Company, 2000.
Fisher, Christiane, ed. Let them Speak for themselves: Women in the American West 1849-1900.
Shoestring Press, 1977.
Grace, Stephen. It Happened in Denver. Morris Book Publishing, 2007.
Mead, Rebecca J. How the Vote Was Won: Women Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868-1914.
Pascoe, Pat. Helen Ring Robinson: Colorado Senator and Suffragist. University Press of Colorado, 2011.
Shirley, Gayle C. Remarkable Colorado Women: More than Petticoats. Morris Book Publishing, 2002 &
2012.
Smith, Jeff. Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Times of a Scoundrel.
Warren, Louis S. Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and The Wild West Show. Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.