Northeastern Illinois University Children’s Theatre Workshop Presents

Anne and the Tiger Raja

by David Eliet

based on an Indonesian Folk Tale

Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 10.30 am
Fall - 2011

7 November - 7 December, 2011

For grades 5-8

Students $3, teachers free

For reservations by e-mail at any time: a-hartdegen@neiu.edu

For reservations by phone after 24 August, 2011: 773 442 5971

Script and lyrics by David Eliet

Music by Nancy Rosenberg

based on an Indonesian Folk Tale

Wit and folk wisdom help students battle, and understand, bullying and intimidation at school.

A middle school girl, Anne, is being bullied by two older girls on an urban playground.  The “Bully Sisters” tease her, take her money and, when Anne complains they call her names, taunting her with “Mama’s Girl”.  Anne threatens to get her older brother to beat up the Bully Sisters.  Her friend Isaac, a storyteller from Indonesia, reasons with her.

ANNE:        But why shouldn’t I get my brother to pulverize them?

ISAAC:    Because it won’t undo what’s already been done.  And it might lead to more fighting.  What if the Bully Sisters have an even bigger brother?  What will you do then?

ANNE:     But what am I supposed to do?  Nothing?

ISAAC:    That depends on the situation.  But violence never really solves anything.  You have to use your imagination to come up with other solutions. 

Isaac goes on to tell the children a story, “Why There Are No Tigers in Borneo”.  The Bully sisters play the bullying Tigers of Java (“The Meanest Nastiest Tiger in the World”), and Anne plays the timid but clever Mouse Deer of Borneo (“What Am I Going to Do?”).  They work together to tell the story and, joined by witty orangutans and a porcupine partial to puns (“get the point?”), conclude with “In the Land of Borneo”:

 

In the land of Borneo, we prefer to turn the other cheek.

And it’s not that we’re weak, but because we believe

That everyone has the right to live in peace.

 

Anne and the Tiger Raja introduces students to a charming Indonesian folk tale and Asian geography, but also examines the issue of bullying in schools from the point of view of both the aggressor and the victim.  We hope you will join us!

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