If You Give a Mouse a Cookie » Arden Theatre Company Blog

Teaching If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

By Maureen Mullin Fowler, Education Director

For many in the theatre industry, Monday is the day of rest. No one would think that 8AM on a Monday would be a high traffic time at the Arden. But last Monday it was, and it will be for the next two months. Three caravans of cars being driven by Arden Professional Apprentices, actors and teaching artists all headed out for their first day of teaching the Arden’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie residencies. Third, fourth and fifth graders in Philadelphia, Camden and Ridley Park were eagerly anticipating the return of the Arden teaching artists with whom they had so much fun during the Peter Pan residencies.

Excitement was thick in the air. Not only was it the first day back from spring break, (translation = kids still think they are on spring break) they also had a double dose of energy upon learning their favorite theatre teachers were in the building. They were ready to play their favorite improv games, learn about the next Arden production, and get to act out scenes of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

This residency concentrates on some common Language Arts themes. Cause and Effect. Simple vs. Complex sentences. Writing narratives and dialogue. And at the end of each residency not only will each student have traveled to see If You Give a Mouse a Cookie here at the Arden; they will also have written their very own children’s book to share with their young brothers, sisters, cousins, and neighbors.

It’s exciting to know over 2,000 students throughout the region will be taking their first steps at become authors over the next few week. Check back here for more updates on our budding children’s book authors!

Drinking Tea at the Precipice

By Mark Kennedy, Arden Professional Apprentice

Whit MacLaughlin, director of If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, used a metaphor I loved one day in rehearsal as he was working with Steve Pacek, our Mouse, on the physicality of his character.

He described leaning out over the edge of a cliff, and how in that position, your body is one hundred percent ready for anything. He said that an actor, especially in physical comedy, always has to be in that state of high-octane readiness, but also has to translate that kind of energy into simple, every-day motions, like drinking tea.

As Mouse Cookie‘s ASM, or assistant stage manager, I’ve latched onto the idea of drinking tea at the precipice. My main responsibility is tracking all the props used in our Mousey mayhem. At any moment during the rehearsal process Stephanie Cook, my stage manager, could ask me to run down to our props master Meredith McEwen to ask questions about a prop or come up with a substitute prop for rehearsal. I’ve helped transform the rehearsal hall into a green screen studio for Jorge Cousineau, our video and sound designer, to film footage.

I’ve also had to be ready to reset the stage as we go back and work moments again and again (in one rehearsal we worked one sequence 78 times in a row!), refining the light and sound cues, the way the actors interact with the set, the props, and each other. That could mean putting a mop backstage in the place where it’s easiest for Davey Raphaely, our Boy, to grab. Or it could mean taking ten minutes to clean up rice flour, stuffed animals, streamers of tape, and hula hoops, among many other things.

As an apprentice, for me cleaning is now second nature. Those of you applying to the program for next year, take note: a lot of the time you are just shoes like the Boy, fighting with the physics of mops and trash bags and cleaning products. But, much like drinking tea, although these tasks and skills are simple, you are asked to do them consistently at the precipice.

And what does it all add up to? An hour of absolute chaos and certain hilarity. I have never laughed more, nor watched with more admiration as Steve, Davey, Whit, Stephanie, Meredith, Jorge, and everyone else work to make this Mouse as effortlessly joyful as possible.

Scaling the set for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

By David P. Gordon, Scenic Designer for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Having designed 23 previous productions at the Arden (some of them quite complex) I thought creating the set for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie would be a simple and fun project. Fun it has been, but simple? Not in the least!

Though this is my first design for Arden Children’s Theatre, I have taken my five year old son, Avery, to a number of past productions, and what has always impressed me is that the Arden treats its kid’s shows with no less care, support and attention to detail than it lavishes on its main stage productions. This is particularly important in the case of Mouse because Director Whit MacLaughlin made it clear from the very first design meeting that he wanted to emphasize the inherent theatrical qualities of the play, rather than trying to imitate the simple storybook world of the Laura Numeroff/ Felicia Bond book on which it is based.

In Whit’s conception, the fun of the story comes from the chaos created by the introduction of the hyperactive mouse into the ordered world of the young boy who must suddenly accept the responsibility of caring for him as a parent would care for a young, energetic child, all the while trying to contain the mess created by the mouse before mom gets home. For Whit, the play bears many similarities to Sam Shepard’s True West (a decidedly adult play which some older readers of this blog might be familiar with) that, like Mouse, takes place in a kitchen which is largely destroyed by two feuding characters over the course of the action.

The idea, then, for our production was to create a realistic and recognizable suburban kitchen, presented as seen from the perspective of the child (and rodent) characters. In order to do that, we’ve enlarged all of the elements (counters, appliances, doors, furniture) about 140%, so the adult actor playing the boy will appear to be the size of a nine year old in relation to the set. In addition, we wanted to give the audience the sense of looking up at the kitchen from below, like the mouse, so all the scenery is built in forced perspective, diminishing in size as it reaches the ceiling.

All of this, of course, makes the set a very complicated structure to build (and to design) with no right angles or simple dimensions of any kind, and every element, down to the last cabinet knob, having to be manufactured from scratch. Fortunately for me, the set is being built by Technical Director Glenn Perlman, a man who has consistently met every construction challenge I’ve ever thrown at him on previous Arden productions with artistry and aplomb, so I’m confident that all the craziness will look just right. We hope you enjoy it!

: Technical Director Glenn Perlman at work on the set for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

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