Alma Flor Ada

Curtains Up!
Tablado de Doña Rosita

Book Descrip­tion

This over­size anthol­ogy, with vibrant and orig­i­nal illus­tra­tions, includes three plays that young chil­dren will delight in read­ing and acting.

The vibrant and delight­ful illus­tra­tions com­ple­ment the story of the plays while also offer sug­ges­tions on how they can be staged and rep­re­sented. The three plays included are:

In the Eng­lish Book
Mar­guerite

In the Span­ish book
Mar­garita

a drama­ti­za­tion of Rubén Darío famous poem

The Rainbow’s Nap

La siesta del arco iris

an orig­i­nal play by F. Isabel Campoy

Puss in Boots

a dra­matic retelling, of the tra­di­tional tale by Alma Flor Ada

About the The­atre Series of the Gate­ways to the Sun Collection

The­atri­cal adap­ta­tions of well known sto­ries and folk­tales as well as orig­i­nal plays are enhanced by beau­ti­ful art. The illus­tra­tions, by sev­eral His­panic artists, sug­gest cos­tumes, props and stage designs to help on the stag­ing of the play. There are four match­ing antholo­gies in Eng­lish and Spanish.

Rat-a-Tat Cat
Roll-n-Role
Top Hat
Cur­tains Up

Teatro del gato Gara­bato
Teatrín de don Crispín
Esce­nario de Polichinela

Teatro de doña Rosita




Author’s Not from Alma Flor Ada

Pro­mot­ing that chil­dren have access to read and act plays has always been one of my basic con­cerns. Even if it is done with great sim­plic­ity act­ing in a play can have very pos­i­tive results. It cer­tainly was so for me. Encour­aged by my extra­or­di­nary sixth grade teacher, Dra. Rosa María Peyrel­lade, I wrote my first play which we per­formed in class. As a high school stu­dent I wrote three plays, and while very sim­ple, my class­mates per­formed them with enthu­si­asm. We invited the High School Fac­ulty of the Insti­tuto de Cam­agüey to the pre­mier of one of them, which I enti­tled La sonám­bula or The Sleep-walker. Even though some of the pro­fes­sors did not enjoy the crit­i­cism to their very tra­di­tional ped­a­gogy which was part of the play, there was enough inter­ested pub­lic that we rented the best the­atre in town, el Teatro Prin­ci­pal, to give a cou­ple of pub­lic performances.

When I became a High School teacher at the Cole­gio Abra­ham Lin­coln in Lima, Perú, I invited my stu­dents to do the­atre and we had great fun doing so!

My mother, a coor­di­na­tor for FLES [For­eign Lan­guage in the Ele­men­tary School] in Atlanta, Geor­gia, used the­atre very effec­tively in the teach­ing of Span­ish, and wrote a num­ber of plays that were per­formed by chil­dren and broad­casted via the dis­trict TV station.

As a teacher edu­ca­tor in the United States I have con­tin­u­ously empha­sized the use of the­atre. I have had the priv­i­lege of hav­ing my mother co-direct with me three dif­fer­ent per­for­mances of His­to­ria de una muñeca aban­don­ada, by Alfonso Sas­tre dur­ing three sum­mer courses: at the Uni­ver­sity of Texas, at El Paso, in Philadel­phia, and in Puerto Rico. I was later able to con­tinue to invite teach­ers to per­form this out­stand­ing play, in Chicago, through the Asso­ciate Col­leges of the Mid­west, and in Madrid, both at the Uni­ver­si­dad Com­plutense and at the Fun­dación José Ortega y Gas­set. This play is included in in the book Ensayo gen­eral.

I am con­vinced that one is bet­ter able to teach some­thing one has enjoyed doing. And just as Isabel Cam­poy and I empha­size, in our courses of Authors in the Class­room, that teach­ers who cre­ate their own books will be bet­ter able to get their stu­dents to become authors, I believe that encour­ag­ing teach­ers to do the­atre and expe­ri­enc­ing the rich­ness of the process would bet­ter allow them to incor­po­rate plays in their reg­u­lar teaching.

For a delight­ful anec­dote that shows the magic of the­atre click here: Let’s Raise the Cur­tain! The Ben­e­fit of The­atre in the School.

You can also find more about my per­sonal expe­ri­ence with the­atre in the sec­tion “It’s Play Time!” in Alma Flor Ada and You vol­ume II, pub­lished by Libraries Unlimited.

About the Use of The­atre in the School

The val­ues of the use of involv­ing chil­dren with the­atre are mul­ti­ple. Plays can be an excel­lent tool for pro­mot­ing the abil­ity to speak in front of a group, which is a lead­er­ship skill. Since they offer chil­dren the oppor­tu­nity to uti­lize words and lan­guage reg­istries they may not have other oppor­tu­nity to use, plays can be strong vehi­cle for vocab­u­lary and lan­guage development.

When used for choral read­ing plays can strengthen read­ing skills. In addi­tion, act­ing on a play enhances children’s self-confidence and self-esteem while pro­vid­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn about one’s self and oth­ers. Most impor­tantly, putting on a play, no mat­ter how sim­ple, pro­motes the val­ues of col­lab­o­ra­tion and solidarity.

To read more on the sig­nif­i­cance of the­atre click here: Let’s Raise the Cur­tain! The Ben­e­fit of The­atre in the School and for sug­ges­tions on its use in the class­room read the sec­tion “Plays and Dra­matic Games” in Chap­ter 3 of The Mag­i­cal Encounter: Latino Children’s Lit­er­a­ture in the Class­room and for dra­matic responses to books, see the sec­tion “Pro­mot­ing Dra­matic Expres­sion” in Chap­ter 4 of that same book.

Gath­er­ing the Sun/ Puer­tas al sol Col­lec­tion Description

This col­lec­tion high­lights the genius, the tenac­ity and the achieve­ment of His­panic cul­ture. For His­panic read­ers, the col­lec­tion pro­motes pride in their cul­ture; for non-Hispanic read­ers, it fos­ters an appre­ci­a­tion and an acknowl­edg­ment of—and a respect for—Latinos. The col­lec­tion com­prises the fol­low­ing 6 series. Each book and jour­nal is pub­lished in sep­a­rate edi­tions in Eng­lish and in Spanish.

Poetry Series Gate­ways to the Sun

These poetry antholo­gies are divided in sec­tions fea­tur­ing poets from var­i­ous coun­tries from the Span­ish speak­ing world. The sec­tions open with orig­i­nal poems by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Cam­poy cel­e­brat­ing the poets and the poet’s coun­try of ori­gin. Selected poems by the fea­tured poet com­pletes each sec­tion. The con­tri­bu­tion of Lati­nos is acknowl­edged as well as that of the anony­mous poets who cre­ated the rhymes of the tra­di­tional folk­lore, enrich­ing our heritage.

Art Series Gate­ways to the Sun

A wide vari­ety of gen­res, tech­niques, media, and his­tor­i­cal events in His­panic art are depicted in these over­size strik­ingly beau­ti­ful books. Each book includes repro­duc­tions of paint­ings selected from the best His­panic artists of all times, from clas­si­cal to con­tem­po­rary. Each paint­ing is accom­pa­nied by brief poetic readings.

Each book is paired with an inter­ac­tive jour­nal where chil­dren can learn more about art and begin their own artis­tic expressions.

Biog­ra­phy Series Gate­ways to the Sun

This series offers the biogra­phies of twelve sig­nif­i­cant fig­ures from var­i­ous coun­tries in the Spanish-speaking world, rep­re­sent­ing var­i­ous fields and occu­pa­tions. These his­tor­i­cal and con­tem­po­rary fig­ures are role mod­els, who over­came obsta­cles to make a dif­fer­ence in the world.

The­ater Series Gate­ways to the Sun

The­atri­cal adap­ta­tions of well known sto­ries and folk­tales as well as orig­i­nal plays are enhanced by beau­ti­ful art. The illus­tra­tions, by sev­eral His­panic artists, sug­gest cos­tumes, props and stage designs to help on the stag­ing of the play

• Rat-a-Tat Cat | Teatro del gato Garabato
• Roll ‘n Role | Teatrín de don Crispín
• Top Hat | Esce­nario de Polichinela
• Cur­tains Up | Teatro de doña Rosita

Lan­guage Series Gate­ways to the Sun

These frac­tured fairy tales books bring new twists to the lives of well-loved char­ac­ters from sto­ry­books. They pro­vide ample oppor­tu­ni­ties for lan­guage devel­op­ment as they use diverse forms of language.

• One, Two, Three… Who Can It Be? | Uno, dos, tres. ¡Dime, quién es?
• A New Home for the Seven Lit­tle Kids | El nuevo hogar de los siete cabritos
• Happy Birth­day, Lit­tle Red Rid­ing Hood | ¡Feliz cumpleaños, Cape­rucita Roja!
• A New Job for Pérez, the Mouse | Ratoncito Pérez, cartero

His­panic Lands Series Gate­ways to the Sun

Three over­size books on the rich­ness and diver­sity of the Spanish-speaking coun­tries of the Amer­i­cas. The poetic, but highly infor­ma­tive text, brings atten­tion to the extra­or­di­nary achieve­ment of the indige­nous peo­ple. The strik­ing illus­tra­tions are care­fully designed by Mae­stro Felipe Dáva­los. They offer ample infor­ma­tion to sup­port and enrich the text that reflects on the responses of human groups to the chal­lenges of their envi­ron­ment, and empha­size respect towards diver­sity, envi­ron­men­tal and eco­log­i­cal aware­ness, com­mu­nity involve­ment, and appre­ci­a­tion for education.

• The Quetzal’s Jour­ney | El vuelo del quetzal
• On the Wings of the Con­dor | En alas del cóndor
• Eyes of the Jaguar | Ojos del jaguar

READERS’ RESPONSES

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