Charlotte’s Web By Joseph Robinette

From the book by E.B. White

The Play

“People believe almost anything they see in print.” Charlotte A. Cavatica

With this in mind, I’ll be brief and as truthful as possible. Charlotte’s Web begins when a young girl named Fern rescues the runt of a pig litter from her father’s axe. She calls the pig Wilbur and cares for him until he is big enough to be raised at her uncle’s farm. At the Zuckerman farm he meets many other animals and makes a new friend, a beautiful gray spider

named Char-lotte, who lives in the eaves above Wilbur’s pen. When the

animals learn that Zuckerman is trying to fatten Wilbur up for slaughter, Charlotte hatches a plan to save her friend. In the meantime we learn about friendship, humility, injustice, and self-sacrifice.

~ Derek Lane

This Production of Charlotte’s Web is presented by Central Theatre Ensem-ble of Central Washington University. It is directed by Professor Derek Lane. Scenic design is by David Bar-nett and costume designs are by stu-dents Kari Glass and Connie Pyles. Other members of the design and management team are CWU Theatre Arts majors Scott Fulp, sound de-signer; Lexie Blessing, lighting de-signer; and Mikki Kunz, stage manager. Our cast and crew includes CWU stu-dents Christina Welch, Bride Schroe-der-LaPlatney, Maggie Hilding, Bridget Foley, Tina Perna, Elizabeth Eshinski, Daniel Zertuche, and Isaiah Crowson. Helping out with all aspects of tour is

Technical Director Kay Perisot.

While touring, a typical day will include many challenges and exciting moments for the company. The students days will often start in the pre-dawn hours, departing from Ellensburg. They arrive at a location and load the set in, per-form two shows, present workshops, load the set out and either head back to Ellensburg or on to the next town.

These Students will tour all over Washington State for 7 weeks includ-ing stops in Olympia for a week of per-formances for the Olympia Junior Pro-grams. Other stops include; Bremer-ton, Dayton, Connell, Mattawa, Rich-land, and many other communities around the state.

Inside this Study Guide:

About the authors and illustrator

2

Character infor-mation

3

New Vocabulary 3

Activities for before and after

4

Fun Spider Recipe 5

Resources

5

Supplementary Materials

6

The CTE production

Central Theatre Ensemble

presents PLAZA THEATRICAL’s

PRESENTS

“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.” Wilbur

And so was E. B. White. The story of Charlotte’s Web was written by Mr. White (1899-1985) who was considered by some to be the fin-est essayist in the United States after he published a collection of essays entitled The Second Tree from the Corner in 1954. Indeed, for many years, he was a contrib-uting editor to The New Yorker magazine. However, White is bet-ter known for his children’s books. He wrote Charlotte’s Web in 1952, and the book became one of the most popular books of all time.

The Children’s Literature Associa-tion dubbed it “the best American Children’s book of the past two hundred years.”

The book was inspired by a beauti-ful barn that White spotted while aboard a yacht off the coast of Maine. The year was 1933, and the next day White and his wife Katharine drove through the coun-tryside to look for the barn. What they found was a “For Sale” sign in front of a house that happened to be on the same property that the barn was on. The next day they bought the property, and it came to pass that this farm and its in-habitants would inspire White’s writings. One day White, who

loved ani-mals, was trying to figure out a way to save one of his pigs from the slaugh-terhouse when he observed a large gray spider near the barn. He let his imagination take over and the story was born.

Other books by E.B. White include Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan. We find that White often brings animals to life in his stories, using personification as a means to communicate with a younger audience.

~ Derek Lane

About Garth Williams, Illustrator

Garth Williams Was born in New York, a son of artists. At the age of 10 his family moved to the United Kingdom where he eventu-ally studied architecture.

Williams spent a short time illus-trating for The New Yorker but it

wasn’t until he was asked to illus-trate for E.B. White’s book Stuart Little that he found what he truly loved.

Williams decided to stick with il-lustrating children’s books. He is know for illustrating books like

The Little House on the Prairie series and other books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Of course, we remember Williams for his beautiful illustrations of Charlotte’s Web.

About E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web Author

Joseph Robinette is a professor of theatre at Rowan University in New Jersey. He is the author of more than 30 pub-lished plays and musicals including

this adaptation of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web along with a mu-sical adaptation of the same book.

E.B. White praised Robinette’s adaptation of his book, and after seeing it for himself, he said, “I was surprised and pleased at the

show. Never saw anything quite like it.”

Robinette has adapted many other favorites to the stage including The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , The Paper Chase, and A Rose for Emily.

About Joseph Robinette, Playwright

Page 2

Fern Arable: Young daughter of John and Martha. She rescues Wilbur from being slaughtered and keeps him as her pet.

John Arable: Father of Fern and Avery. Husband to Martha. John owns the farm where Wilbur was born.

Martha Arable: Mother to Fern and Avery. Wife to John. She helps tend to the small animals on the farm and takes care of her children.

Avery Arable: Older brother to Fern. Son of Martha and John. Avery sometimes likes to pick on Fern.

Homer Zuckerman: Uncle to Fern and Avery Arable. Homer owns a larger farm that is the home of all of the animals, including Wilbur and Char-lotte.

Edith Zuckerman: Aunt to Fern and Avery Arable. Wife of Homer. She lives on the farm and helps to take care of the chickens.

Lurvy: A family friend and long time employee of the Zuckerman’s. He works on the farm and helps to take care of Wilbur everyday.

Wilbur: Fern Arable's pig and good friend. He was born the runt of a lit-ter on the Arable’s farm and now lives in the Zuckerman’s farm. He is also a good friend to Charlotte the spider.

Templeton: A rat that lives in the Zuckerman’s barn. He likes to collect items that he finds around the farm. He also helps Charlotte by gathering newspaper clip-pings so that she can spell out new words for Wilbur each day.

Charlotte: A beautiful spider that lives in the Zuckerman’s barn. She is a good friend to Wilbur and tries her best to keep him out of harms way. She writes new words each day for Wilbur in her web.

Goose, Gander, Sheep, Lamb: Ani-mals that live on the Zuckerman’s farm with Wilbur and Charlotte.

Reporter and Photographer: People from the newspaper The Weekly Chronicle who visit the animals at the Zuckerman’s farm. They come to see the wonderful pig that the town is taking about.

Uncle: A very large pig that Wilbur meets at the county fair. Uncle is competing for the same blue ribbon as Wilbur. Uncle is confident that he will win because he is the biggest pig at the fair.

Character Information

Runt: The smallest animal in a litter. Specimen: A sample from a

group. Salutations: A greeting, like Hello! Terrific: Exciting, good. Slops: Leftover food that is used to feed Pigs. Radiant: Glowing

Humble: Not proud. Conspiracy: A plot against something or someone. Miraculous: Amazing event that wasn’t expected. Injustice: Not Fair. Descend: To lower yourself

New and Fun Vocabulary

Page 3

1. Charlotte’s Web is a live theat-rical production. Discuss the ways in which theatre differs from television and film. How will dif-ferent characters and settings be created? How do you think they will bring the animals to life?

2. Discuss the practice of proper theatre etiquette.

3. If need be, discuss the cycles

of life and death. Younger audi-ences will enjoy the show more if they are prepared for the events that will take place.

4. Read the book in class or assign reading at home

5. Try the attached word search.

6. Prepare the students with the

new and fun vo-cabulary that is in this packet.

7. Research differ-ent animals that may be on a farm. What do they look like? Can you guess what they may feel like? What sounds do they make?

Suggested Activities for After Seeing The Play

1. Discuss what you have experi-enced. Was it “real” to you? Did the play happen the way you thought it would? Were the ani-mals brought to life the way you thought they would be?

2. If you read the book, discuss how the play differs from the book.

3. In the play, both Fern and Charlotte help Wilbur. Can you think of a time that you helped a friend in a difficult situation? What about a time that a friend helped you?

4. Fern care’s for Wilbur and raises him. If you could have any pet in the world what would it be? How might you care for that pet?

Draw a picture and share with the class what your dream pet is.

5. Wilbur experiences a lot of dif-ferent emotions in the play. Can you remember one emotion that Wilbur had? Write it down and try to remember a time that you felt the same way.

6. Do one of the attached Math activities to integrate Charlotte’s Web into your curriculum.

7. Make the Spider Cupcake rec-ipe included in this study guide.

8. In the play, the animals are personified, or given human traits. Use the attached personification exercise to find out what other stories use personification.

9. Have the children draw a pic-ture of their favorite scene from the play. Ask them what they liked best about it. Write letters to the cast. You can mail them to: Central Theatre Ensemble ATTN: Charlotte’s Web 400 E. University Way Ellensburg, WA 98926-7460

10. Create a county fair in your classroom. Set up imaginary booths and animal pens. Imagine you are there and use your senses to describe everything. Have you been to a county fair? Is there one in your county? What do you remember smelling, seeing, hear-ing, tasting and feeling?

11. Read some of E.B. White’s other children’s books.

Suggested Activities Prior to Seeing The Play

Page 4

Plaza TheatricalAttn: Charlotte’s Web34 Forest AvenueLynbrook, NY 11563

Spider Cupcakes You’ll Need:

1 Package Chocolate Cake Mix 1 Pound Black Shoestring Licorice 1 can White Frosting Cinnamon Red Hot Candies Prepare cupcakes according to package directions and let cool

Cut licorice into 3 inch sections. Frost the cupcakes with white frosting and insert the licorice pieces into the sides of the cupcakes, creating the legs. Use Red Hot candies for eyes.

Enjoy your spider creation!

E.B. White information :

www.harperchildrens.com/authorintro/index.asp?authorid=10499

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramsyil/white.htm

Joseph Robinette information:

www.dramaticpublishing.com/robinette.html

Garth Williams Information:

http://www.ricochet-jeunes.org/eng/biblio/illus/williams.html

Activities:

www.splashpublications.com

www.familyeducation.com

www.abcteach.com

www.allrecipies.com

Other Resources and Bibliography