 Hello, I'm Gillian Jorgensen. I'm the education director for Book at Repertory Theatre. My name is Nora, and I'm in the sixth grade. My name is Regina, and I'm in the second grade. Together, we are going to explore in today's lesson a story called Little City and Monster. It's a story that we are making up. It's got a little city and a monster. To build your city, you'll need a lot of imagination and a few props. To make our city, we use things we had in our home. Paper lunch sacks, paper grocery bags, and a few toilet paper rolls. We use construction paper, markers, and glue to fancy them up a bit. We also use scissors to cut out shapes. You can make your cities any way you want to. As you build your city, you will be thinking of ways to make it come together and then have it be crushed by a monster. Hey Nora, what do you think you'll build for your city? Well, I would build things that actually exist in a city, like a place for people to live and like stores where they can go, places where they can eat. Okay, cool. All right, so that sounds like it might take maybe 30 minutes, 45 minutes when you work on this. Okay, cool. Richie, what about you? I don't know. You're not sure yet? Oh, yeah. Sometimes we don't get our ideas until we start working. After you watch this video, you will get your ideas for your city as well. Okay, look at this city! Look at this city! We decided to build our city on this blue rug because it had a clear definition of the boundaries to show where our city begins and ends. I actually didn't make any of this city, so I'm going to talk to Nora and Rucci about their ideas. I can see holy cow, so much detail in these buildings. Rucci, Rucci, Rucci. What are three important things that you would like us to know about this city? Think for a second so you can wait for me or call on Nora. Okay, thanks. Hey, Nora, what are three things that you want us to know about this whole city setup? Well, we didn't like make the buildings, having in mind how it would set it up. We kind of just made them and set it up, but most of the shops ended up down there, so that's our downtown. Cool. So, lots of different shops. Is that a different thing? That's one thing. It's okay if it's just one thing. Compound thing. Yeah. Rucci, anything to add? The pizza zone is delicious. Good to know. Good to know. Thank you. Okay, I'm looking at pizza zone and some of these other buildings and I'm wondering, are there any of them that you want to protect from a monster foot crushing it? Crushing all your work? Of course. Nora, anything you want to make sure doesn't get crushed? Pizza zone. Pizza zone. Okay, cool. So, we have a choice. Is it pizza zone, memorialized, and we just take pizza zone out of the city? Does pizza zone stay in the city and like the monster loves it so it doesn't crush it? Or does pizza zone have like a, is the city able to get their defenses together and there's a force field around it so like the monster foot couldn't go down? What do you think? What sounds more fun? I think I like the city protecting pizza. It's the force field. Or maybe like what if like the tiny stick people in the city went like, you shall not destroy pizza zone. With their little squirt guns. Can you imagine that that's happening when you're the monster? Got easier imagination for some things. Okay, Rucci, are there any of your buildings that you want to force field, set aside, or protect somehow? Animal shelter. Which, which one's that? Which one's that? This one? And also I'd like to protect that plant sanctuary and also the bookstore that's right in front of me. Okay, so we're protecting, is this the sanctuary? Yeah, that's the sanctuary. Okay, I'm gonna put a heart on top of the bag so you know not to step on it. And then forever home, forever home. I feel like pizza zone, we know. Okay, all right, cool. So, we know to protect. Which one? The bookstore? Actually, no, I'm good. I'm good. Okay, thank you. All right, I guess we're ready for a monster. Smashing? Yeah, a monster smashing. Nora, when you were the monster, it doesn't take very much to crush these with your feet. Your monster, big voices, gentle footsteps. All right, you ready to give it a try? Tiny feet. Okay, here she goes. Here she goes, Rucci. Let's watch Nora. Okay, monster, destroy the little city. I'll do the bank. Let's do that. Okay. To activate the force field. Oops. Okay. The monster needs a reason to leave. Tired monster. Thank you, monster Nora. Awesome. Oh, do that again. Yeah, there it is. Okay, cool. Okay. So, now we had one monster destruction, but luckily we can refluff up our bags. So, now we will reset the city. We are ready for our second monster to come through this unsuspecting city, although it might suspect a little bit. So, we know we forgot to activate the force field last time. So, Rucci, when you're the monster, will you try to get pizza zone, but like, you cannot do it. That just makes me madder. Yes, and then you can go on a rampage. Okay. Oh, wait, hold on. Perfect. Thank you. Perfect, perfect. Sometimes our best ideas come when we're trying to figure out how to do something, and we want to save them as a surprise, even for ourselves. Okay, monster, activate. I don't know how to activate my monster, like, inner monster. Yeah, monster. I forgot to do that. Yeah, get it, get it, good one. Turn around all the way. Yes, yes, get it, get it. Okay, and a monster's got it. Monster was so tired. Okay, there's one, can I crush, can I crush this building? That was hard. The hospital room. Okay, I'm at this building. I like to use paper bags because then you can actually fold them back down and store them in case you want to do it again. Hey friends, children of mine, I am wondering if we were going to do this story again, what would you want to make sure we did the second time? Nora, what would you want to do? I would remember the force field on pizza's up here. Sometimes you have a really great idea and then forget it, but then you just do it again. That's really how theater works. We got to rehearse it, even sometimes even if we're just playing. Ruchi, what would you want to do? I would want to make more things with like things like money inside them because that was really fun to do. Oh right, so maybe if we had like little puff balls inside a building that you could shake out and make roll around? What if we had like puff ball people inside pizza's zone? No, not pizza's zone. No, we could like put puff ball pets inside for everyone's pets and we could dump them all out and the pets would like go rolling and running. Excellent. You know what I really like to do when I get ideas like this? What? Write them down. Do you need paper? Not yet. Okay. But my friends at home when you're working on this as well, you can do just the crushing part. That part is pretty fun. Yeah. You don't even really have to draw on your bags to do the crushing part, but you can make it into a whole story. Like what could happen next? What happens in the story after the monsters were there? We could write it down like kind of a chapter book. We could make it a graphic novel. We could make it just a drawing. We could do any of those things at all. Do you have some ideas buzzing in your mind? Maybe. Good. Keep them buzzing. Oh, most important, we got to clean up. Sometimes my favorite thing about acting out a story is that it lets me use big energy in a creative way. I don't really want to be a monster, but sometimes I feel like a monster. So I like to pretend to be one. How about you? Today I had helped with my kids, Nora and Ruchi, to make that story. You could make this story with your family, your siblings, your friends, or even all by yourself. Thanks for joining us today for Little City and Monster. Happy creating.