Schools

SensoryBox TYA Study Guide

SensoryBox TYA
Co-written by Eric Rose and Christopher Duthie
Directed by Eric Rose
Featuring Richard Lee and Gaitrie Persaud (ASL-English interpreter)
Designer: Emily Promise Allison
Stage Manager: Michaela Steven
Dramaturg: Stephen Colella
Developed in association with Ghost River Theatre

In preparation for your SensoryBox TYA performance, please ensure you’ve read these important instructions.

Introduction

As you scroll through this guide, you will find the usual sections included in all our study guides: curriculum connections, discussion questions, activities and more. We hope you will find this resource useful. This study guide was written by Yvonne Addai, YPT’s Education & Participation Programs Coordinator and Aimee Bouchard, YPT’s Education & Participation Programs Manager.

Should you have any questions or feedback, or have inquiries about the use of this guide (which is copyright protected), please direct them to Karen Gilodo, Associate Artistic Director, Education at kgilodo@youngpeoplestheatre.org.

Thematic Overview

SensoryBox TYA is a very different kind of performance experience, and you may want to share that with your students in advance. The adventure begins with wrapped boxes for all of your students delivered to your classroom (no peeking until the event!). On the day of your performance, you’ll tune into a livestream, pop on a blindfold (included), and begin your tactile trek. In the comfort of your classroom, and alongside the gentle guiding voices of the host, you’ll discover the mysterious contents of your box – and the pure fun of play!

If you are participating in one of our Deaf-friendly performances, you will be tuning into a pre-recorded performance and meeting a Deaf actor and ASL-English interpreter who will guide your students on their tactile journey. There is no blindfold as part of the experience, you will have the option to pause and return to the video as needed, and captions will also be available.

It is important that young people feel comfortable with all aspects of their participation. If there are accommodations that need to be made, such as closing their eyes instead of wearing a blindfold if they are anxious, please provide them any assistance you see fit.

SensoryBox TYA is both a delightful exploration of the unknown and a comforting reframing of everyday items. The experience offers a sense of connectivity, discovery and delight from afar, creating a bridge to the immediacy of live performance.

Thematically, this experience is all about activating the senses, exploring the unknown, and reflecting on the idea of change in the world around us and within ourselves.

Curriculum Connections

SensoryBox TYA connects to the Ontario Arts and Language curricula in the following ways.
By participating in SensoryBox TYA, students will:

  • focus on awareness and communication of emotional and intellectual responses in the various art forms (Reflecting, Responding and Analyzing)
  • make meaningful connections between themselves, what they encounter in texts and the world around them
  • make use of processing skills including making inferences, interpreting, analyzing, evaluating, and forming conclusions
  • listen to understand elements of story.

Pre-Show Discussion Questions

  1. What are senses? What senses do we experience, and how?
  2. What is your favourite thing to touch? Why? (you may repeat this question, replacing “touch” with the other senses that your students experience)
  3. What is your favourite thing about receiving a gift?
  4. What might be inside the SensoryBoxes?

Pre-Show Activity

Everyone sits comfortably on the floor in a circle and imagines that there is a magic box in the middle.

  • Ask students to go around the circle and, using their imaginations, describe the box. One student might say “the box is purple”, the next student might say “the box is as big as the TV in my living room.” The important thing is for students to build on one another’s description. i.e. a student should not say “it is not purple, it is blue.”
  • Once everyone has had a chance to describe the appearance of the box, ask for a student to volunteer to go into the middle and mime (pretend, using physical and facial expressions) opening the box and taking out an object. That person mimes holding the object and using it. It might be a sandwich, a hair brush, a soccer ball, a book, a chocolate bar, a guitar, a flower, a computer, or anything of their choice.
  • Others sitting in the circle take turns guessing what it is. When the correct answer is guessed, the student mimes putting it back in the box and closing it.
  • The person who guessed correctly has the next turn at taking a new and different object out of the box.

Post-Show Discussion Questions

  1. What senses did you enjoy exploring the most and why?
  2. Was there anything in the box that surprised you? If so, what was it? Why did it surprise you?
  3. Many of your gifts represented the idea of “change” in some way. What is change? How did you notice the idea of “change” in the play?
  4. What are some things that change around us?
  5. Do you like or dislike change? How does it feel to adapt to change?

Post-Show Activity

After you have completed the SensoryBox TYA experience, here are some activities that you can do as a class or individually with your boxes!

  • Throughout the next year, 2022, each student can use their SensoryBox to collect the objects that remind you that you and the world around you are changing. Make sure that your objects are meaningful to you (e.g., a lost tooth, a fallen leaf, your favorite candy wrapper, etc.). One year from today, re-open your box, reach in and explore all the items. Think about all the ways that you’ve changed.
  • Throughout the rest of the school year, create a time capsule as a class. Ask students to collect meaningful objects to the students in the class (e.g., a class picture, a leaf you found on the playground, your favorite class book). At the end of the school year the entire class can explore everything that has been collected and discuss the ways in which they, as a class, have changed over the course of the school year.