In this Learning Guide, you’ll:

• Experience a theater performance that takes you on a journey of self-discovery, determination, and facing your fears.
• Understand what it means to embrace your emotions and believe in yourself as it relates to Spells of the Sea.
• Examine how theater and various production elements contribute to the development of the characters, setting, and plot of a story.

Education Standards Alignment

• Theater - Responding (TH:Re8.1.4.a): Compare and contrast multiple personal experiences when participating in or observing a drama/theatre work.
• Theater - Responding (TH:Re8.1.5.c): Investigate the effects of emotions on posture, gesture, breathing, and vocal intonation in a drama/theatre work.
• Theater - Responding (TH:Re9.1.7.b): Consider the aesthetics of the production elements in a drama/theatre work.
• Theater - Connecting (TH:Cn11.1.7.a): Incorporate music, dance, art, and/or media to strengthen the meaning and conflict in a drama/theatre work with a particular cultural, global, or historic context.

Common Core Standards

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL 4.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL 4.2: Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL 4.3: Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL 5.1.C: Pose and respond to specific questions by making comments that contribute to the discussion and elaborate on the remarks of others.

(Social and Emotional Learning)

• Self-Awareness: The abilities to understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts. This includes capacities to recognize one’s strengths and limitations with a well-grounded sense of confidence and purpose.
  • Identifying one’s emotions
  • Linking feelings, values, and thoughts
• Self-Management: The abilities to manage one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations. This includes the capacities to delay gratification, manage stress, and feel motivation and agency to accomplish personal and collective goals.
  • Managing one’s emotions
  • Exhibiting self-discipline and self-motivation

Crank (left: Lance Roberts) and Finley (right: Livvy Marcus) sail the sea. Photo by Elman Studio.

What to Expect

Performance

• The performance is approximately 70 minutes with no intermission.
• The story is told through dialogue, song, dance, movement, puppetry, sound, and lighting effects.

Performers

• The characters in the story are:
• Mermaid: A bit of a narrator, she’s as old, as wise, and as dimensional as the Sea. Mermaid keeps an eye on Finley in a few magical and mysterious ways.
• Finley Frankfurter: Feisty, full of wonder, and newly fifteen. She is the daughter of the town’s only fisherman, Ferris Frankfurter (also known as Dad). Finley is the protagonist.
• Ferris Frankfurter: A man of many names, including Ferris, Bleary’s fishing king, and Finley’s Pa. Finley is a single parent, and the story begins with the family of two and their unbreakable bond.
• H.S. Crank: The retired lighthouse keeper. Familiar with the Big Bad Sickness, Crank joins Finley on her quest to save her Dad.
• Kelpssandra Clamantha Coral, Princess of the Royal Kingdom of Meltem: Rich and bored, she is coincidentally looking for a little change when Finley and Crank come along.
• The other characters in the story are the people of fishing town Bleary, the creatures of the deep blue sea, and magical in-betweens.

• Some of the actors play multiple characters in the show. To become different characters, the actors add or remove costume pieces, and change their voices and movements.
• Some of the actors are also puppeteers that perform puppet characters—fish of all shapes, sizes, and textures.

Sound

• The prerecorded music and sound effects during the performance are occasionally exuberant and can be loud for some audience members.
• The music and soundscape throughout the performance includes up-tempo songs, sea shanties, ballads, choral singing, eerie sounds, a foghorn, crashes of thunder, and sounds of the ocean.

Lighting

• Lighting effects are used throughout the show on stage to help set the mood of the scene.
• Occasionally, there are flashes of light on stage to represent lightning and stormy weather. This includes flickering lights during the whirlpool scene.

Visuals

• Fog and spooky shapes on stage are occasionally used in the production to create atmospheric effects.

What to Bring

• Everyone is encouraged to bring any sensory or accessibility tools that will help make the experience most comfortable for them. A few suggestions of items audience members may find useful include noise-canceling headphones, sunglasses or visors, fidgets, and communication devices.

Resources

• Review our .

Look and Listen for

Before you watch the performance, check out this list of important moments and ideas. Look and listen for:

• How the songs in the musical allow a moment for you to reflect on and connect to the characters’ emotions
• How the music and sound effects affect your understanding and enjoyment of the play
• How the props and scenery help you understand the setting and plot of the story
• How the lighting transforms the theater space to create different environments and settings
• How the puppets move to appear like they are swimming underwater while being onstage
• How Finley’s posture, gestures, and voice show her determination in finding a cure for her Pa
• How Crank’s posture, gestures, and voice express his emotions, and how this expression changes during the story

Think About

After you’ve experienced the performance, consider these questions:

• Why do you think the playwright used the sea as the setting of this story?
• What emotions arose for you as you listened to the songs?
• How did the songs help you connect with the characters?
• In the story, Finley faces her fears in order to continue on her journey. Has there ever been a time when you have had to face a fear? What makes you feel safe during scary and sad moments?
• In what ways were Finley and Crank dealing with the loss of loved ones?
• How did Finley and Crank individually grow from their journey together to find the Elixir of Life?
• What do you think the playwright wants you to think about when it comes to managing your emotions in the face of a challenge?

Listen to the Story

Did you know that this story can also be experienced in audio form? Listen to one or all of the episodes in the . Then, compare how you visualize the story to how it’s portrayed on the stage. Was it produced how you imagined it? What surprised you?

Learn about the Playwright

Guinevere “Gwenny” Govea was in college during the pandemic when she started writing what came to be Spells of the Sea. of bringing her own fears and imagination to life through creativity and determination!

Facing Fears

We all have fears. In Spells of the Sea, Finley faces her fears of self-doubt. to find an activity to do in the classroom that helps students understand that everyone has fears.

Building Friendships

You can be a friend for someone in hard times just like Finley and Crank were for each other! , your entire classroom can show how to extend a friendly hand to someone in need.

Dealing With Grief

Spells of the Sea is about love and loss. Fears, loneliness, and death are part of the story, which can make you feel uncomfortable feelings—what can we learn from feeling them? Visit this resource for .

Process Themes Through Drama

Process drama is a way to experience a deeper connection with a theme as you improvise a situation. Consider using this method with your students to reenact pivotal scenes from Spells of the Sea or have students come up with their own scenarios that involve such themes as friendship, overcoming challenges, self-discovery, or believing in yourself.

Dive Into More Activities

Interested in more things to do related to the musical? Download the Spells of the Sea activity book for puzzles, prompts, and crafting activities. To request this workbook in an alternate format, please contact the Accessibility Office at [email protected] or 202-416-8727.

What’s Something You’re Good At?

Finley discovers what she is good at. Now it’s your turn! Build a 3-D section of sea coral showcasing at least three things you are good at! Use a combination of recycled materials, pipe cleaners, paint, glue, clay, colored paper, and craft supplies. (As an alternative, draw your coral on paper.) Make each piece of your coral represent a different talent or interest you have. For example, a bright red piece of coral could represent your soccer skills and a blue piece could represent playing the piano. If you want, you can label each piece of coral.

Your Bottle of Kindness

In Spells of the Sea, Finley and Crank search for a “Bottle of Kindness.” Take some time to brainstorm what might go inside your own Bottle of Kindness. Write it out on paper, draw an illustration, or gather things that represent your ideas for what kindness is. Then, put these things inside a bottle that you can decorate. Leave your Bottle of Kindness somewhere for someone special to find so that they can see what it means to be kind!

Emotion Ocean

It’s okay to feel your feelings, no matter how small or big they are. On poster board, create a visual chart of three ocean waves of varying sizes (small, medium, and large) representing the different sizes of emotions. You can draw, paint, or use ripped scrap paper to create the three waves. The smallest wave represents small emotions and the largest wave represents more intense emotions. Then, label each wave with different emotions such as “calm,” “happy,” “angry,” “excited,” “scared,” and “frustrated.” Design and decorate the waves with colors, drawings, and stickers that go with each emotion. You can refer to this chart to identify just how big your emotions are throughout the week.

Kennedy Center Education

Generous support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Bank of America; Capital One; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; The Ednah Root Foundation; Harman Family Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; the Kimsey Endowment; The Kiplinger Foundation; Laird Norton Family Foundation; Lois and Richard England Family Foundation; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; The Markow Totevy Foundation; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Morningstar Foundation; Myra and Leura Younker Endowment Fund; The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives;

Prince Charitable Trusts; Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk; Rosemary Kennedy Education Fund; The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates; The Victory Foundation; The Volgenau Foundation; Volkswagen Group of America; Jackie Washington; GRoW @ Annenberg and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Family; Wells Fargo; and generous contributors to the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund and by a major gift to the fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts..

The content of these programs may have been developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education but does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the federal government.