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ARM-OF-THE-SEA THEATERTURTLE ISLAND MEDICINE SHOWA Study Guide for Students and Teachers

Teachers: This Guide will help prepare students for Arm-of-the-Sea Theaters production Turtle Island MedicineShow. First and foremost: The play is an arts experience. It presents many sights and sounds and many things tothink about. The show features mask and puppet characters ranging in size from 12 inches to 15 feet tall, togetherwith live music in a story about global warming. Since the show is a fableor allegory, there are various ways tounderstand it. Please adapt this Guide to the comprehension level of your students. By introducing some of theimages and themes from the show students will be able to enjoy and learn more from the performance. Do not bedaunted by some of the subject matter: the play has many surfaces and even the youngest students will find levelsof understanding.First ImpressionsUpon entering the performance space, the first image the audience sees on stage is a giant thermometer.Temperature is a major theme in the play. Also visible on stage is an array of musical instruments. All the sounds inthe show are created live by our composer & musician, Dean Jones. He also does the voices of the characters. Inthis way, one could say that the performance is like a live cartoon. With his music Dean creates the mood and the

pacing of the show. Watch how he keeps the music changing, with many different kinds of sound.

FablesWe describe this play as a contemporary fable. A fableis a story usually involving animal characters in place ofpeople. Most fables teach a lesson. Some of the best know fables were written long ago by a writer named Aesop.Contemporarymeans right now, in this time. So Turtle Island Medicine Showis told mainly by animal charactersand has a lesson about whats happening right now. That lesson or message is that human activity is causing thean increase in the temperature of the earths atmosphere. This global warming may have disastrous effects onecosystems and on human civilizations.

Turtle Island and the Great FloodThe beginning of the show is based on the origin story of the Lenape Indians. Origin stories tell how things came tobe. The Lenape and other Indian nations call the continent of North America Turtle Island. Their genesis story

recounts that long ago there was a great flood that covered the land. The animals---Duck, Frog, Turtle and Muskrat--- were sick and tired of swimming so they decided to dive to the bottom to bring up mud. But the only one to reachthe bottom was Muskrat, and he drowned in the effort. When he floated to the surface, the others took the mudfrom his little paws and spread it on Turtles back. This tiny turtle island magically grew into a mighty continent thatwe now call North America. Then the Tree of Life rose from the center of Turtle Islandand sheltered all the plants,animals and people that came to re-inhabit the Island/ Continent.

Many cultures around the world have a similar kind of Great Flood story in which animals retrieve the mud andbring the land back to life, thereby overcoming disaster. Can you think of recent examples of a terrible flood wherepeople have had to repair their homes and start life over again?

Air, Breath & AtmosphereThis show is about the layer of air that surrounds the earth like a very thin bubble. We call that bubble of air the

atmosphere. We usually cant see the air but we can feel it when we breathe and when the wind blows. The air ismade up of oxygen, nitrogen and other gases. Most living things have some kind of breathing process---- which isto say they exchange gases with the atmosphere. Plants take in a gas called carbon dioxide (symbolized as CO2)from the atmosphere and breathe out oxygen (symbolized as O2). When animals and people take a breath of airinto our lungs, we absorb oxygen (O2) from the air into our bodies. When we exhale we give carbon dioxide (CO2)back to the atmosphere. Can you see an interesting connection here between plants and animals? Watch for thepart in the show where the Tree of Life and the Breathing Person play out this interaction.

Also, watch how many times the symbol of carbon dioxide (CO2) appears in the play. Scientists have discoveredthat CO2 is one of the gases in the atmosphere that traps the earths heat. When there is more carbon dioxide(CO2) in the atmosphere, the overall temperature of the earth rises. This changes the climate conditions for livingthings all over the world.

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A Brief Illustrated History of Fossil FuelsThe second scene of the play illustrates the origin of fossil (which means buried) fuels. The scene features aseries of paintings accompanied by a poem. For almost three billion years green plants have been changingsunlight into carbon-based chemical energy. When those ancient plants died some became buried in the ground orunder the sea. Their chemical energy was also buried. Under certain conditions and over great spans of time, thoseplants turned into oil and coal. When we use oil or coal as fuel we are we burning the stored energy of ancientsunlight. We are also releasing the carbon back into the atmosphere.

A Changing Climate

Climate is the general weather conditions of a particular place. For example, some places receive much rain whileother places are very dry. Some places are cold and others are warm. For the past ten thousand years the earthsoverall climate has been remarkably stable. If the weather is basically the same year after year then plants, animalsand people can figure out how to live in many parts of the earth. If the climate changes very quickly, the plants,animals and people may not have time to adapt to the sudden changes.

For countless generations people burned wood for heat and harnessed the power of wind, water and draft animalsto help do their work. Beginning about two hundred years ago we discovered that oil and coal could be taken fromthe earth and burned as fuel. The energy contained in these fuels powered great changes in how people lived.Factories, cars, airplanes, electrical generating stations and many other things we take for granted all run on thepower of ancient sunlight contained in fossil fuels.

Only recently have we realized that by burning great quantities of oil, coal and natural gas we release large

amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. And this increase in CO2 is one of the main factors causingthe earths temperature to rise. As a result, climate conditions are changing in many places, and these changes arehappening at a faster rate than many plants, animals and people can adapt to.

Turtle Island Medicine Show asks this question:Since our way of life is changing the earths climate, can we change our patterns of energy consumption before itstoo late?

What We Can DoTo slow global warming and reverse climate change is a big challenge facing all the people of the world. Asindividuals, the first thing we can do is become aware of how we use energy. Then we can begin taking steps toconserve energy. Turning off lights, walking, bicycling, and using public transportation all conserve energy. We canalso support politicians who are willing to tackle global warming issues. Clearly, societies need to harnessrenewable sources of energy like wind power and water power. Energy from renewable sources does not add CO2to the atmosphere. Perhaps the most interesting part of this challenge will be designing machines that require farless energy. This is where the creativity of young people will really matter.

Some global warming web sites for young people include:www.epa.gov/globalwarming/kids/http://tiki.oneworld.net/global_warming/climate_home.htmlwww.pewclimate.org/global-warming-basics/kidspage.cfm

ARM-OF-THE-SEA THEATERArt invites people to see the world in new ways, connecting things that may seem very separate and unconnected.Arm-of-the-Sea combines visual storytelling with live music in a contemporary style of mask and puppet theatre. Asartists, we are interested in this form of theatre because it can hold the peoples attention. Since 1982 we have

been combining the arts with themes from history and science to portray how humans are part of the largercommunity of living things.

You can find out more about Arm-of-the-Sea on our web site: www.armofthesea.org.You can also write to us and let us know what you liked and didnt like about Turtle Island Medicine Show.

Arm-of-the-Sea Theater, PO Box 175, Malden-on-Hudson, NY 12453Email: Art@armofthesea.org