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Education Program » General Information | Teacher Advisory Committee

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

9:30 AM & 11:30 AM

Tomie DePaola's Strega Nona

Tomie DePaola's Strega Nona: The Musical

Maximum Entertainment's

Audience: Grades 1 - 4

Discipline: Musical Theatre

VAPA: Artistic Perception Aesthetic Valuing Creative Expressions

Connections, Relationships, Applications: Language Arts Foreign Language Social Studies Music Dance/Creative Movement Visual Arts

The Performance

Based on the children's book by Tomie de Paola, Strega Nona is the musical tale of a friendly magical witch, with a funny name, who strives to cure the ills of her tiny Italian town of Calabria. The baker has bunions "as big as onions," his daughter wishes for witchery, and the single ladies are always unlucky in love. The town faces real problems when a local lug named Big Anthony sneaks a peek at Strega Nona's magic book and uses her magic for selfish means. When Anthony fools with the magic pasta pot and can't figure out how to turn it off, pasta threatens to engulf the whole town - unless Strega Nona saves the day. With an energetic and tuneful score, this fantastic tale teaches that some witches are good and that you can't judge a pot by its pasta!

	Wednesday, October 14, 2009 3:45 PM to 5:30 PM
	PDW at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts Playwright, director, and master teacher Kathryn Johnson will lead this workshop. Using an interactive approach, she will examine the elements that constitute interesting characters and great stories. Using examples from the musical, she will involve participants in enjoyable hands-on activities such as "tableaux" and collaborative creative playwriting. In addition, participants will learn how the set designer rendered the pop-up book effect onto the stage. A written curriculum guide will be distributed to facilitate implementation of activities in classrooms.