Musical Study Guides
First Inform Yourself - Then Take Action!
INTRODUCTION
A Key Peace Child principle which we urge EVERY young person to follow is this:
“FIRST INFORM YOURSELF – THEN TAKE ACTION”
Because to take ill-informed action is foolish – and to gather information without taking action on it is just plain laziness! Doing a musical play like Peace Child is a HUGE action: writing the script, rehearsing the songs, learning the lines, building the sets, preparing music, the backdrop slides, the posters – getting an audience there: it is a BIG effort. So – before you start, it is worth taking the time to make sure that the young people performing the play know what they are talking about. There is a ton of mis-information and fake news about these issues – and plenty of controversy: so these Study Guides have been prepared to help you navigate the stormy waters you are setting out on as you start to develop your Peace Child show.
The Original 1983 Peace Child Study Guide For Schools
This contains the 10 x original Lesson Plans, with Discussion Points, suggestions for Background reading, homework and improvisations. Lesson 10 – SOLUTIONS – remains worth reading today. It also contains production notes, ideas for Follow-up Activities along with the Script and Alternate scenes – which we later called “Drop-Ins.” It also includes a speech by President Reagan and a Soviet Opinion Piece. At the time, it was innovative to use the medium of a musical play to study life and death issues like Nuclear War. This Study Guide blazed a trail which many others have now followed. The 10 x Lesson Plans are as follows:
Lesson ONE: The Read-through – circulate the parts amongst the cast
Lesson TWO: What would a world at Peace look like?
Lesson THREE: What would nuclear war be like?
Lesson FOUR: What is the business of Diplomacy?
Lesson FIVE: What is the role of the Media?
Lesson SIX: What is the US Government position?
Lesson SEVEN: What is the Soviet Government position?
Lesson EIGHT: What is the Spiritual Component of Peace?
Lesson NINE: What are the main Obstacles to Peace?
Lesson TEN: SOLUTIONS?
The Kids on Strike Lesson Plans 2008
This version of the Peace Child musical was created by students in Rochester, New York under the direction of Rick Staropoli – a veteran of several US-Soviet Peace Child tours and internships. It became important when, ten years later, a 15-year old Swedish student, Greta Thunberg, started a School Strike to raise awareness of the Climate Emergency – just as the Kids on Strike story did. Though there is no clear link between the two events, the Rochester Students can take credit for having this important idea. It has been a key feature of all Peace Child productions since. And the Lesson Plans that accompany provide students, and their teachers, with ways of exploring the issues behind what Greta did, and what she might have done differently to achieve her aims.
Lesson ONE: An introduction to Climate Change
Lesson TWO: A History of Protest Movements
Lesson THREE: An Introduction to Contemporary China
Lesson FOUR: The problem with Coal
Lesson FIVE: The Limits of Democracy
Lesson SIX: Inter-cultural Dialogue: How to get agreement across Culture and Religion;
Lesson SEVEN: The Science of Climate Change: what is the right PPM? Lesson EIGHT: Model UNs: Introducing the UN System
Lesson NINE: The Post-Carbon Future – and how to construct it?
Lesson TEN: Where do we go from here? The Challenges of the COP Process;
The Peace Child / alpha omega lesson pack – 2010
The Study Guide is part of the Peace Child Alpha Omega project sponsored by the European Commission, which involved productions in the UK, Estonia and Turkey. Each show was slightly different: in the UK, we looked at multi faith issues; the Estonians looked at inter generational differences while the Turks created a musical focusing on cultural prejudices. This Study Guide is designed to encourage schools and groups to create their own versions of the show. It includes the 3 different scripts, the orchestra and choral scores and the 6 x lesson plans each based around a song from the production.
Lesson ONE: War and Peace
Lesson TWO: Stewardship of the Earth
Lesson THREE: Religion and Science
Lesson FOUR: Rights and Responsibilities
Lesson FIVE: Culture and Stereotypes
Lesson SIX: Intergenerational Dialogue
Peace Child 2050 Study Guide 2013
What will our world be like in 2050? If you are a “young” cast member, will you be enjoying the “Future YOU want” or will today’s leaders have passed on to you a future in which life has become increasingly uncomfortable? That is the challenge that this musical addresses. These lesson plans allow you to research the background on each issue, so that you can understand and put into words your own answers to the question: “How do we create the Future we want?”
The Peace Child 2050: Creating the Future We Want musical marked the 20th anniversary of Green Cross International, the organisation founded by President Mikhail Gorbachev to do for the environment what the Red Cross and Red Crescent has done for human beings in times of war. It asks many questions:
- How do we create the Future We Want?
- How can we stop today’s leaders continuing on their deadly “business as usual” approach which fails to tackle the central challenges confronting humanity – over-consumption, unsustainable development and profit-driven, not people-driven economics?
- How can we persuade them to stop tinkering around the edges and embrace the desperately needed “transformational change”?
- Will they continue with mere rhetoric and political grand-standing or can we persuade them to demonstrate new thinking and commitment to rise to the challenge of making the rapid transition to a green, sustainable economy?
- How can we create a United Nations, or other international institutions that will assist governments to rise to the challenge of transformational change?
- Who can send the much-needed wake up call to break the “deadlock” of impotent political will and inadequate intellectual inquiry?
Lesson ONE: Imagining the Future
Lesson TWO: “Our World is Dying – today!”
Lesson THREE: Solutions Central
Lesson FOUR: Recent History
Lesson FIVE: The Treaties
Lesson SIX: Protest and Survive
Lesson SEVEN: ACTION! – what young people can do?
The Peace Child Study Guide For Primary Schools - 2018
I find it hard – very hard! - to get the average 10-year old to concentrate for more than a few seconds on issues like the ones raised in this Peace Child show. However, there are many, many teachers, parents, theatre people and voluntary workers who know far better than I how to work with younger children – and get them fired up to explore global issues that affect their future and feel empowered to act upon them. Those are the people for whom these Lesson Plans are written. These lessons are designed to help the teacher and/or producer-director of a Peace Child show to get Primary School age children to start to think seriously about the issues that they will face as they grow older – in a way that relates to their experience, and does not worry them. It is never too early to start learning about these issues – and, in our experience, if done in the right way, primary school children enjoying taking those first steps...
Lesson ONE: Imagining the Future
Lesson TWO: Where are we now?
Lesson THREE: What needs to be done?
Lesson FOUR: Blessed are the Peace-makers
Lesson FIVE: The power of the Media
Lesson SIX: ACTION! – what young people can do?