Schools

The Fixing Girl

The Fixing Girl
By Kevin Dyer
Directed by Stephen Colella

Introduction

This guide was written by Stephanie Long, with contributions from Andrew Tavares-Pitts. As you scroll through the guide, you will find curriculum connections, discussion questions, units of study and more. If you wish to create your own lesson plan from the study guide copy, we have created a lesson plan template for your use. We hope you will find this guide to be a useful resource. Should you have any questions or feedback, or have inquiries about the use of this guide (which is copyright protected), please feel free to contact Karen Gilodo, Associate Artistic Director, Education at kgilodo@youngpeoplestheatre.org.

YPT thanks Professor Barry Freeman, and his Theatre & Education students at the University of Toronto Scarborough, for their work on The Fixing Girl.

Students: Sarvinoz Artaman, Elyse Au, Nabil Faizal, Eric Feng, Anna Gonchar, Leonardo Gongora Herrera-Mandelli, Jerry Guo, Andy Guo, Mason Hanna, Elijah Hudson, Parmeet Hunjan, Hannah Koyama, Shannora Lankanathar, Yebean Lee, Fengge Li, Cindy Lin, Ziheng Lin, Ethan Loy, Gjorg Luca, Leah Manz, Aliyah Newman, Jared Norris, Vaisnavi Panwar, Lucy Peng, Md Sakib, Layla Tavakoli, Sharanya Verman, Ruoyan Wang, Bob Wu, Arthur Xu, Joye Xu, Yini Zhou, Caroline Zhu.

Synopsis

Mum is lost in her own thoughts and it’s making Meghan’s horrible day even worse. So Meghan retreats to the backyard shed where she and Grandad have always fixed broken things. It’s there that she hopes to find the answer to feeling better – but instead finds only more questions. Can something that’s broken become whole again? Tender and uplifting, The Fixing Girl tells the heartfelt story of a young girl coming to terms with loss and grief.

Thematic Overview

In this play, Meg and her mother navigate the complicated journey of moving on while dealing with shared grief. Meg must confront the fact that her grandfather is not coming back, and must find a way to move through her pain while celebrating his legacy. Meg and her mum learn to support each other as they both come to terms with change and loss.

YPT has created some prompts for discussions here that can be sent home for parents/guardians to ask their children about their experience of seeing The Fixing Girl.

Curriculum Connections

The Arts – Drama

Language

Health and Physical Education (Social-Emotional Learning Skills, Healthy Living)

Ancestral Teachings

Honesty

Love

Themes

Coping with change

Navigating grief

Strengthening bonds

About the Playwright

Kevin Dyer

Kevin Dyer lives in Wales. He is Associate Writer for Theatre Porto and Lead Artist for Storm in the North – a company in England that makes theatre that isn’t just theatre. He writes, directs, leads writing courses, is a poet and a story-teller. He has been awarded the ‘International Inspirational Playwright Award’ by ASSITEJ at their World Congress in Cape Town, won the UK Writers’ Guild Award for Best Play for Young People, (and also the award for Best Play for adults). He has a long association with YPT (his favourite company in the world) for which he has also written The Monster Under the Bed, Minotaur and Under the Stairs.  

Interview with Playwright Kevin Dyer

What inspired you to write this play?

To be honest, I can’t remember. I know that might be a funny thing to say, but over the years, the play has become ‘the thing’. What I mean by that is that the story of the girl on that difficult afternoon has pushed everything else to the sides. The real thing is Meghan in her Grandad’s shed with her Mum outside trying to get her to come back in the house. 

Why focus on the idea of “fixing”?

In a throw-away world – where if something breaks we just chuck it away and get a new one – I think we can easily lose the satisfaction of ‘making something better.’ Also, of course, one way we can help the world is to make things last a bit longer. 

At home I have a box with different types of glue in it, and a toolbox with screwdrivers and stuff. I also have lots of things around the house that, when I look at them, give me a warm glow — because they wouldn’t be there unless I’d saved them from going into the trash. Of course, the play is really about fixing the old man who has always himself fixed things. I enjoyed, as a writer, coming to understand what happens when a person can’t be ‘fixed’. What does that feel like? This is tied up with the value of the things in our world: if our favourite sneakers wear out, that’s a bit sad, but what happens when our favourite people wear out? What do we do about that? But it’s not all doom and gloom — because I so enjoyed writing about a relationship where characters really DO get to fix each other. Although I’m not sure whether Mum fixes Meghan or Meghan fixes her Mum.

What do you hope the impact of the show will be for the audience?

I never never never write plays with messages – so I don’t ever intend to ‘teach’ anything. (I don’t like going to watch anything where people tell me what to think.) I just want anyone watching the play to spend time with a young girl who is having a really tough afternoon and watch her, hopefully, come through it. I think we enjoy stories because they are little worlds we can lose ourselves in. Yes, I just want the audience to watch, and feel, and empathize, and enjoy, and maybe have a chat about it all — either with themselves in their brain or with their friends afterwards.

Can you relate to any of the characters in the story?

I think when we write stories (or plays – which are stories acted out) we have to relate to all of the characters. That is, to write any of the character’s lines, I have to feel what they feel and think what they think. Only then can I write the lines they say, or write in the stage directions what they do.

I relate to Meghan when she has lost her Grandad — I think I felt like that when my own Dad died.

I relate to Grandad when he is in hospital and feeling very frail — I have felt like that myself (although I am healthy and well now!).

I relate to Mum when she is trying to connect with her child who is being very, very difficult (I am a Dad, and that happens sometimes).

I also relate to both characters at the end when they are finding each other again — because many times in my life people have reached out to me and wrapped me in their kindness. Lastly, there are lots of little elements in the story that link to my own life — like going to a garage sale in Toronto, which wasn’t even in a garage, or feeding the birds, or catching Maltesers in my mouth after throwing them in the air.

Curriculum Expectations

The Arts – Drama

  • express personal responses and make connections to characters, themes, and issues presented in their own and others’ drama works
  • engage actively in drama exploration and role play, with a focus on examining issues and themes in fiction and non-fiction sources from diverse communities, times, and places 
  • explain, using drama terminology, how different elements are used to communicate and reinforce the intended message in their own and others’ drama works

Language

  • select and use a variety of listening strategies before, during, and after listening to comprehend information communicated orally and non-verbally, seek clarification, and develop a relevant response appropriate to the context
  • explain how the ideas expressed in texts connect to their knowledge and lived experiences, the ideas in other texts, and the world around them
  • apply critical thinking skills to deepen understanding of texts, and analyze how various perspectives and topics are communicated and addressed in a variety of texts, including digital, media, and cultural texts

Health and Physical Education (Social-Emotional Learning Skills, Healthy Living)

  • apply skills that help them to recognize sources of stress and to cope with challenges, including help-seeking behaviours in order to support the development of personal resilience
  • apply skills that help them build relationships, develop empathy, and communicate with others in order to support healthy relationships, a sense of belonging, and respect for diversity
  • apply skills that help them develop self-awareness and self-confidence in order to support the development of a sense of identity and a sense of belonging

Glossary

Closure: the feeling or act of bringing an unpleasant situation, time, or experience to an end, so that you are able to start new activities

Grief: very great sadness, especially at the death of someone

Legacy: something that is a part of your history or that remains from an earlier time

Mourn: to feel or express great sadness, especially because of someone’s death

Support: to help someone emotionally or in a practical way

Units of Study

The units of study within this guide prompt students to think about the main themes in The Fixing Girl through engaging with drama and other creative outlets. Before you bring your students to the theatre, we encourage you to talk to them about what the experience of seeing a play is like, especially for those who will be experiencing it for the first time. Here is a prompt to share with your students, highlighting elements of the story and production they can take note of:

Pre-Show Unit of Study

You are about to experience live theatre– how exciting! Whether it’s your first, second or tenth time seeing a performance, there are always new things to discover. In theatre, the story is performed by the actors on stage but there are other production elements that contribute to the storytelling onstage. When you watch the play, take note of what these other elements are, and how they work together to help tell the story. Additionally, as you watch the performers, stay connected to the characters they are portraying, and their journeys. Notice the different situations and decisions being made. Here are some pre-show questions to discuss with your class:

Pre-Show Questions

  • Think about the title “The Fixing Girl”. What in life can easily be repaired? What things are harder to repair or replace?
  • Think about an object in your home that reminds you of a specific person or place. Describe the emotions attached to that item.
  • What do you do when something around you changes unexpectedly?
  • What can be scary about change?
  • What helps you when you miss someone?
  • When you feel sad, do you prefer to be alone or with other people?
  • How can talking to other people help us to feel better about scary or upsetting situations?

Pre-Show Activity #1

Moving Through Change

Objective

Students will use movement to explore physical reactions to challenging circumstances. 

Materials

Space in which to move, minimal distractions.

Instructions

  1. Ask students to move around the space slowly and silently, avoiding eye contact with others so that they can focus on their own feelings and reactions.
  2. Ask students to change how they walk and behave in response to the prompts listed below. 
  3. Periodically ask students to freeze and point out specific reactions that you are noticing.

Prompts:  

  • You are having a nice day, feeling happy with your friends and family.
  • You are feeling worried that something might change.
  • Something has changed and you are not happy about it. 
  • You are feeling lonely.
  • You are feeling sad.
  • You are feeling comforted and supported once again.

Debriefing Questions:

  1. What was different about the way you behaved when you were feeling lonely, as opposed to when you were feeling comforted and supported?
  2. What felt different in your body when you were comforted once again?
  3. Why might someone be worried about change?
  4. Why can it be hard to keep moving when we are feeling sad, lonely, or afraid?

Pre-Show Activity #2: Broken Feelings and Relationships

Objective

Students will explore the process of support and repair in relationships.

Materials

Space in which to move.

Instructions

  1. Divide students into pairs.
  2. Ask them to label themselves A and B (A could be the taller one, the older one, the one with longer hair etc.)
  3. Ask students to imagine that A is feeling sad and having a rough day. A does not feel like smiling.
  4. Tell students that B must try to get A to smile.
  5. Tell students that A must try to resist B’s attempts to make them smile. 
  6. Give students two minutes to negotiate this relationship.
  7. Ask students to switch roles and try the activity again.
  8. Pause the activity and engage the class in a conversation guided by the mid-point debriefing questions below.
  9. After the above discussion, ask pairs to get back together and practice how B might get A to feel a bit better without smiling being the goal.

Mid-Point Debriefing Questions

a) What might it mean to feel “broken”?
b) When people are feeling upset, should the goal be to cheer them up? What else might be helpful?
c) How might a relationship get “broken”?
d) Why might it be better to repair something that is broken rather than just replace it?
e) Consider your answers to question d). How are broken relationships similar? How are they different?

Post-Show Unit of Study

Post-Show Questions

  1. Now that you have seen the play, why do you think the playwright chose The Fixing Girl as the title? 
  2. What or whom was Meg trying to fix in the play? 
  3. Does anything get fixed or at least somewhat repaired during the story?
  4. How can Meg and her Mom support or help each other?
  5. Why might talking about Grandad help both Meg and her mum to feel better? What are some ways that we can recognize and celebrate someone after they die?

Post-Show Activities

Post-Show Activity #1: Changing Together

Objective

Students will work in groups to focus on individual characters and discuss these characters’ perspectives, struggles, and support systems.

Materials

Chart paper and markers.

Instructions

  1. Assign students to groups of 4-5 people per group.
  2. Assign each group one of the following characters: Meg at the beginning of the play, Meg at the end of the play, Mum at the beginning of the play, Mum at the end of the play (having multiple groups working on the same character can be a benefit rather than a hindrance, and will be necessary in larger classes)
  3. Provide each group with a piece of chart paper and at least one marker.
  4. Draw the outline of a person on the paper. 
  5. Tell the groups that the outline represents the outline of their assigned character.
  6. Ask students to write words or sentences that represent the character’s feelings and struggles on the inside of the outline.
  7. Ask students to write or draw what is going on outside the character outside the outline. 
  8. Ask groups to share their character profiles with the class and use the debriefing questions to prompt connections and comparisons.

Debriefing Questions

  1. What is different for the characters at the end of the play as opposed to at the beginning?
  2. What has caused this change?
  3. How are Meg and Mum’s experiences different? How are they similar?
  4. How does coming together help both characters to process their grief and move forward together?

Post-Show Activity #2: Remembering Grandad

Objective

Students will write a letter “in role” from Meg to Grandad.

Materials

Journals or writing paper, and appropriate writing utensils.

Instructions

  1. Ask students to imagine that they are Meg or Mum, the day after the one on which the play takes place. 
  2. Ask each student to write a letter in role to Grandad, telling him about how they are doing and their fond memories of him.
  3. Ask students who feel comfortable doing so to share a phrase from their letters.

Debriefing Questions

  • How might Meg or Mum feel while writing a letter like this?
  • Why might writing a letter like this help them to mourn and/or find closure?
  • How might recognizing and celebrating fond memories help us to grieve and say goodbye?

Extension: Ask students to go back in role and write to each other (Meg writes to Mum, and Mum writes to Meg).  What might they say to help each other find peace as well as the ability to keep moving forward?

Activity Guide

The Fixing Girl Activity Guide image

Sophia Fabiano, YPT’s Technical Director, created an activity guide inspired by the set. Check it out!

Recommended Books:

Additional Resources