Nothing seems to interest young Milo, not his toys, not his friends, and especially not school. But when a mysterious tollbooth materializes in his room, he discovers a world of inspiration! With the help of a time-keeping watchdog named Tock, Milo gets unstuck from the Doldrums and embarks on a quest to rescue the princesses of Rhyme and Reason. Adapted from Norton Juster's beloved children's book, Milo's many adventures lead him to realize that life is more exciting than his wildest dreams.
Based on the book by NORTON JUSTER Music by ARNOLD BLACK Lyrics by SHELDON HARNICK Adapted for the stage by NORTON JUSTER and SHELDON HARNICK Welcome to Cuesheet, a performance guide published by the Education Department of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. This Cuesheet is designed to help you enjoy the performance of The Phantom Tollbooth. Look for the castle for topics of discussion or activities you may want to do with other students, friends, or family. What’s in Cuesheet? Destination: The Castle in the Air, pages 2-3 The Game of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, foldout poster Journey to the Theater and Beyond, back page Nothing seems to interest young Milo—not his toys, not his friends, and especially not school. But when a mysterious tollbooth appears in his room, he discovers a world of inspiration!
Transcript
Based on the book by NORTON JUSTERMusic by ARNOLD BLACKLyrics by SHELDON HARNICKAdapted for the stage by NORTON JUSTER and SHELDON HARNICK
Welcome to Cuesheet,a performance guidepublished by theEducation Departmentof the John F. KennedyCenter for thePerforming Arts,Washington, D.C. ThisCuesheet is designed to help you enjoy the performance of ThePhantom Tollbooth.
Look for thecastle for topics of
discussion or activitiesyou may want to dowith other students,friends, or family.
What’s inCuesheet?Destination: The Castlein the Air, pages 2-3
The Game ofDictionopolis andDigitopolis, foldoutposter
Journey to the Theaterand Beyond, back page
Nothing seems to interest young Milo—not his toys, not his friends,
and especially not school. But when a mysterious tollbooth appears in
his room, he discovers a world of inspiration!
Milo’s Journey
n the musical, Milo thinks every day is boring.He doesn’t get excited about anything—not evenhanging out with friends. Suddenly a mysterious
tollbooth appears in his room. A voice from the tollbooth convinces Milo to go on an adventurousjourney and Milo decides to visit the Castle in the Air.But before he can visit, he must persuade the King ofDigitopolis and the King of Dictionopolis to makepeace after years of fighting. Then he must rescue two kind and wise princesses. Will Milo succeed?
Writing Your Journey
In the play, Milo travels to places he has never seenor heard of before. Before he left for his journey, hedidn’t know what to expect. During his journey, helearns many new things.
Do you remember a time when you traveledto a place you’d never been to before? Howdid you feel on the way to the new place?
What did you expect? Write one to two sentencesdescribing how you felt as you were traveling, then
draw yourself on the way to your destination. Next write one to two sentences about what you learned on your journey.
It Takes Brains and Bravery
Phantom Tollbooth explores several themes. To rescue the princesses, Milo must outwit the King of Digitopolis, face the demons who live in the Mountains of Ignorance, and climb up a dangerous, 2,000-step stairway. Three themes in the musical are:
• the power of thinking
• overcoming fear
• heroism
Write a brief paragraph about a time when: a) you solved a problem by using your wit, b) you had to be brave
even though you were scared, and c) you did something heroic, such as helping a stranger.
Main Characters
Milo—a boy too bored to have fun
Tock—a dog with an unusual alarm clock
Demons—evil spirits
Whether Man—the character who welcomespeople to the Land of Expectations
Lethargarians—creatures who live in the Doldrums
Princess of Sweet Rhyme—a princesswho likes to rhyme
Princess of Pure Reason—a wise princess
Azaz—king of Dictionopolis, a land where words rule
Mathemagician—king of Digitopolis,a land where numbers rule
Word Vendors—people who sell words in Dictionopolis
Miners—workers in the Numbers Mine in Digitopolis
From Page to Musical Stage
The story of the musical comes from the book titledThe Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. To adapt abook into a play, playwrights use dialogue andaction to tell a story. They often have to add newcharacters and situations to make the story come alive on stage.
Try your hand at adaptation. Choose a scene in a favorite book and bring the scene to life by improvising with a
couple of friends or classmates. Choose someone to be a narrator to tell parts of the story that couldn’t be expressed in dialogue.
After you have improvised the scene, write down the dialogue you came up with.
Writing Lyrics
In a musical, playwrights work with peoplewho compose music and write lyrics—words that are sung to music.
Try adding lyrics to the dialogue you wrote. You can think of lyrics as poetry set to music. Write four to
six lines that rhyme. Next tap a steady beat while you read your lines aloud. To be able
to set lyrics to music, the words should have a consistent meter or rhythm.
Vocabulary
adapt—to change or modify
dialogue—words spoken in conversationby the characters in a play
doldrums—feeling down in the dumps
improvising—performing without practicing first
musical—a play that tells a storythrough dialogue and songs
narrator—a person in a play who comments on the action on stage
outwit—outsmart someone by being clever
theme—subjects or topics of discussionthat appear over and over again in literature and other works of art
Guess That Lyric
Read the song lyrics below and look over the list ofcharacters on page 2. Before the performance, guesswhich character sings each of the lyrics. During theperformance, listen for these lines and see if yourguesses are right.
“From eight to nine we take our morning nap.Then we lounge until half past.”
“Should I try to be a herowhen I know it’s do or die?Can I really face a demon?Am I brave enough to try?”
“It’s more important to knowwhether there will be weather
than what the weather will be!”
So Much to See
At the end of the musical, the voice of theTollbooth tells Milo, “There are manylands you’ve still to visit and wonderful
things to see.” Draw or describe an imaginary landthat you would like to visit. What does it look like?Who or what lives there? Anything is possible!
An Attentive Audience
In a theater, you are the audience. Being an audiencemember in a theater is different from watching moviesand television. In a theater, the actors are in the sameroom with you. To do their best, performers needyou to watch and listen closely.
The cast of The Phantom Tollbooth is made up ofseven actors who play more than 40 different characters. During the performance, watch how the actors portray these many roles.
Resources
You may want to...
Read:
Juster, Norton. Illustrations by Jules Feiffer. ThePhantom Tollbooth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961.
Go online:www.cre8tivedrama.com
Stephen A. SchwarzmanChairman
Michael M. KaiserPresident
Darrell M. AyersVice President, Education
Theater at the Kennedy Center is presented withthe generous support of Stephen and ChristineSchwarzman.
Additional support for the Kennedy CenterPerformances for Young Audiences is providedby the U.S. Department of Education, ThePresident’s Advisory Committee on the Arts, theEstate of Joseph R. Applegate, Chevy Chase Bank,The Clark Charitable Foundation, Alma and ColinPowell, and Aaron and Sondra Drutz.
The Phantom Tollbooth CuesheetEditor and Art Director: Cathy LipsWriter: Theresa SottoDesign: The Kirwan Company, Inc.
Cuesheets are produced by ARTSEDGE, a programof the Kennedy Center Education Department.
For more information about the performing artsand arts education, visit our Web sites:www.kennedy-center.org/educationwww.artsedge.kennedy-center.org
The U.S. Department of Education supports approximately one-third of the budget for the Kennedy Center EducationDepartment. The contents of this Cuesheet do not necessarilyrepresent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, andyou should not assume endorsement by the FederalGovernment.
Two-player challenge:
Each monster who lives in the Mountains of Ignorance
has a bad habit. For example, the Demon of Insincerity
does not say what he really feels. In one minute, list as
many names for demons with bad habits as you can.
The player with the longest list wins.
Two-player challenge:How many words can youthink of that rhyme with“Tock?” Write them onyour paper. The playerwith the most words after1 minute wins 1 point.
Two-player challenge:
Tock tells Milo a story about
the princes of Dictionopolis
and Digitopolis. Try to
memorize Tock’s lines
below like an actor would
learn lines for a play. The
player who memorizes the
lines first wins 1 point.
One little prince had a gift
for words; one had a gift for
numbers. But each prince
grew overly proud of his own
exceptional gift, which
caused, in time, I’m sorry to
say, a deep and serious rift.
On the set for the city ofDictionpolis, one fourth of the stagewill be full of vendors. Two fifths ofthe stage will be full of advisors toKing Azaz. What fraction of thestage will be full of vendors andadvisors?
Answer:13/20
How many proper nouns are in thefollowing lyrics from The PhantomTollbooth?We have mountains like Olympus.We have planets like Mars.We have Betelgeuse And Vege And a million other stars!
Answer:4Olympus,Mars,Betelgeuse,Vege
A set designer wants to build abackdrop for a stage. To build thebackdrop, he will line up severalsquare panels of wood. The stage is51 feet long and the square panelsare 3 feet wide each. How manypanels does the designer need tocover the length of the stage?
Answer:17 panels
The script for The PhantomTollbooth is 65 pages long. Theactors playing young Azaz and TheMathemagician must appear onthe stage 4/13 of the way into thescript. On what page of the scriptdo they appear?
Answer:page 20
The school bus picks up Milo at 7:20a.m. It takes him 10 minutes to getdressed, 15 minutes to eat, and 5minutes to walk to the bus stop.What time should he get up?
Answer:6:50 AM
When playwrights adapt a book forthe stage, which of the following statements are NOT true:
a. Playwrights can make up new characters.
b. Playwrights add new dialogue.
c. Action is used instead of words to tell parts of the story.
d. A narrator is used to tell parts of the story.
e. All of the above are true.
Answer:e.All of the above are true.
Milo eats 3 cups of SubtractionStew and Tock eats 4 cups. Two cupsequals 1 pint, so how many pints ofstew did Milo and Tock eat alltogether?
Answer:3-1/2 pints
Pick the correct suffix to completethe sentence below.Is Milo cap of climbing theMountains of Ignorance to save theprincesses, Rhyme and Reason?
a. fulb. ablec. lessd. tion
Answer:b.able
If you are in charge of writing wordsfor songs in a musical, what is yourjob?
a. lyricistb. directorc. actord. editor
Answer:a.lyricist
FOLD HERE FOLD HERE FOLD HERE
Congratulations!You made it to the
Castle in the Air!
Ask your teacher or parent for instructions on how to play the game.
Or, go to: www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org/phantomtollbooth
Two-player challenge:
Each monster who lives in the Mountains of Ignorance
has a bad habit. For example, the Demon of Insincerity
does not say what he really feels. In one minute, list as
many names for demons with bad habits as you can.
The player with the longest list wins.
Two-player challenge:How many words can youthink of that rhyme with“Tock?” Write them onyour paper. The playerwith the most words after1 minute wins 1 point.
Two-player challenge:
Tock tells Milo a story about
the princes of Dictionopolis
and Digitopolis. Try to
memorize Tock’s lines
below like an actor would
learn lines for a play. The
player who memorizes the
lines first wins 1 point.
One little prince had a gift
for words; one had a gift for
numbers. But each prince
grew overly proud of his own
exceptional gift, which
caused, in time, I’m sorry to
say, a deep and serious rift.
On the set for the city ofDictionpolis, one fourth of the stagewill be full of vendors. Two fifths ofthe stage will be full of advisors toKing Azaz. What fraction of thestage will be full of vendors andadvisors?
Answer:13/20
How many proper nouns are in thefollowing lyrics from The PhantomTollbooth?We have mountains like Olympus.We have planets like Mars.We have Betelgeuse And Vege And a million other stars!
Answer:4Olympus,Mars,Betelgeuse,Vege
A set designer wants to build abackdrop for a stage. To build thebackdrop, he will line up severalsquare panels of wood. The stage is51 feet long and the square panelsare 3 feet wide each. How manypanels does the designer need tocover the length of the stage?
Answer:17 panels
The script for The PhantomTollbooth is 65 pages long. Theactors playing young Azaz and TheMathemagician must appear onthe stage 4/13 of the way into thescript. On what page of the scriptdo they appear?
Answer:page 20
The school bus picks up Milo at 7:20a.m. It takes him 10 minutes to getdressed, 15 minutes to eat, and 5minutes to walk to the bus stop.What time should he get up?
Answer:6:50 AM
When playwrights adapt a book forthe stage, which of the following statements are NOT true:
a. Playwrights can make up new characters.
b. Playwrights add new dialogue.
c. Action is used instead of words to tell parts of the story.
d. A narrator is used to tell parts of the story.
e. All of the above are true.
Answer:e.All of the above are true.
Milo eats 3 cups of SubtractionStew and Tock eats 4 cups. Two cupsequals 1 pint, so how many pints ofstew did Milo and Tock eat alltogether?
Answer:3-1/2 pints
Pick the correct suffix to completethe sentence below.Is Milo cap of climbing theMountains of Ignorance to save theprincesses, Rhyme and Reason?
a. fulb. ablec. lessd. tion
Answer:b.able
If you are in charge of writing wordsfor songs in a musical, what is yourjob?
a. lyricistb. directorc. actord. editor
Answer:a.lyricist
FOLD HERE FOLD HERE FOLD HERE
Congratulations!You made it to the
Castle in the Air!
Ask your teacher or parent for instructions on how to play the game.
Or, go to: www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org/phantomtollbooth
Two-player challenge:
Each monster who lives in the Mountains of Ignorance
has a bad habit. For example, the Demon of Insincerity
does not say what he really feels. In one minute, list as
many names for demons with bad habits as you can.
The player with the longest list wins.
Two-player challenge:How many words can youthink of that rhyme with“Tock?” Write them onyour paper. The playerwith the most words after1 minute wins 1 point.
Two-player challenge:
Tock tells Milo a story about
the princes of Dictionopolis
and Digitopolis. Try to
memorize Tock’s lines
below like an actor would
learn lines for a play. The
player who memorizes the
lines first wins 1 point.
One little prince had a gift
for words; one had a gift for
numbers. But each prince
grew overly proud of his own
exceptional gift, which
caused, in time, I’m sorry to
say, a deep and serious rift.
On the set for the city ofDictionpolis, one fourth of the stagewill be full of vendors. Two fifths ofthe stage will be full of advisors toKing Azaz. What fraction of thestage will be full of vendors andadvisors?
Answer:13/20
How many proper nouns are in thefollowing lyrics from The PhantomTollbooth?We have mountains like Olympus.We have planets like Mars.We have Betelgeuse And Vege And a million other stars!
Answer:4Olympus,Mars,Betelgeuse,Vege
A set designer wants to build abackdrop for a stage. To build thebackdrop, he will line up severalsquare panels of wood. The stage is51 feet long and the square panelsare 3 feet wide each. How manypanels does the designer need tocover the length of the stage?
Answer:17 panels
The script for The PhantomTollbooth is 65 pages long. Theactors playing young Azaz and TheMathemagician must appear onthe stage 4/13 of the way into thescript. On what page of the scriptdo they appear?
Answer:page 20
The school bus picks up Milo at 7:20a.m. It takes him 10 minutes to getdressed, 15 minutes to eat, and 5minutes to walk to the bus stop.What time should he get up?
Answer:6:50 AM
When playwrights adapt a book forthe stage, which of the following statements are NOT true:
a. Playwrights can make up new characters.
b. Playwrights add new dialogue.
c. Action is used instead of words to tell parts of the story.
d. A narrator is used to tell parts of the story.
e. All of the above are true.
Answer:e.All of the above are true.
Milo eats 3 cups of SubtractionStew and Tock eats 4 cups. Two cupsequals 1 pint, so how many pints ofstew did Milo and Tock eat alltogether?
Answer:3-1/2 pints
Pick the correct suffix to completethe sentence below.Is Milo cap of climbing theMountains of Ignorance to save theprincesses, Rhyme and Reason?
a. fulb. ablec. lessd. tion
Answer:b.able
If you are in charge of writing wordsfor songs in a musical, what is yourjob?
a. lyricistb. directorc. actord. editor
Answer:a.lyricist
FOLD HERE FOLD HERE FOLD HERE
Congratulations!You made it to the
Castle in the Air!
Ask your teacher or parent for instructions on how to play the game.
Or, go to: www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org/phantomtollbooth
Two-player challenge:
Each monster who lives in the Mountains of Ignorance
has a bad habit. For example, the Demon of Insincerity
does not say what he really feels. In one minute, list as
many names for demons with bad habits as you can.
The player with the longest list wins.
Two-player challenge:How many words can youthink of that rhyme with“Tock?” Write them onyour paper. The playerwith the most words after1 minute wins 1 point.
Two-player challenge:
Tock tells Milo a story about
the princes of Dictionopolis
and Digitopolis. Try to
memorize Tock’s lines
below like an actor would
learn lines for a play. The
player who memorizes the
lines first wins 1 point.
One little prince had a gift
for words; one had a gift for
numbers. But each prince
grew overly proud of his own
exceptional gift, which
caused, in time, I’m sorry to
say, a deep and serious rift.
On the set for the city ofDictionpolis, one fourth of the stagewill be full of vendors. Two fifths ofthe stage will be full of advisors toKing Azaz. What fraction of thestage will be full of vendors andadvisors?
Answer:13/20
How many proper nouns are in thefollowing lyrics from The PhantomTollbooth?We have mountains like Olympus.We have planets like Mars.We have Betelgeuse And Vege And a million other stars!
Answer:4Olympus,Mars,Betelgeuse,Vege
A set designer wants to build abackdrop for a stage. To build thebackdrop, he will line up severalsquare panels of wood. The stage is51 feet long and the square panelsare 3 feet wide each. How manypanels does the designer need tocover the length of the stage?
Answer:17 panels
The script for The PhantomTollbooth is 65 pages long. Theactors playing young Azaz and TheMathemagician must appear onthe stage 4/13 of the way into thescript. On what page of the scriptdo they appear?
Answer:page 20
The school bus picks up Milo at 7:20a.m. It takes him 10 minutes to getdressed, 15 minutes to eat, and 5minutes to walk to the bus stop.What time should he get up?
Answer:6:50 AM
When playwrights adapt a book forthe stage, which of the following statements are NOT true:
a. Playwrights can make up new characters.
b. Playwrights add new dialogue.
c. Action is used instead of words to tell parts of the story.
d. A narrator is used to tell parts of the story.
e. All of the above are true.
Answer:e.All of the above are true.
Milo eats 3 cups of SubtractionStew and Tock eats 4 cups. Two cupsequals 1 pint, so how many pints ofstew did Milo and Tock eat alltogether?
Answer:3-1/2 pints
Pick the correct suffix to completethe sentence below.Is Milo cap of climbing theMountains of Ignorance to save theprincesses, Rhyme and Reason?
a. fulb. ablec. lessd. tion
Answer:b.able
If you are in charge of writing wordsfor songs in a musical, what is yourjob?
a. lyricistb. directorc. actord. editor
Answer:a.lyricist
FOLD HERE FOLD HERE FOLD HERE
Congratulations!You made it to the
Castle in the Air!
Ask your teacher or parent for instructions on how to play the game.
Or, go to: www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org/phantomtollbooth
Two-player challenge:
Each monster who lives in the Mountains of Ignorance
has a bad habit. For example, the Demon of Insincerity
does not say what he really feels. In one minute, list as
many names for demons with bad habits as you can.
The player with the longest list wins.
Two-player challenge:How many words can youthink of that rhyme with“Tock?” Write them onyour paper. The playerwith the most words after1 minute wins 1 point.
Two-player challenge:
Tock tells Milo a story about
the princes of Dictionopolis
and Digitopolis. Try to
memorize Tock’s lines
below like an actor would
learn lines for a play. The
player who memorizes the
lines first wins 1 point.
One little prince had a gift
for words; one had a gift for
numbers. But each prince
grew overly proud of his own
exceptional gift, which
caused, in time, I’m sorry to
say, a deep and serious rift.
On the set for the city ofDictionpolis, one fourth of the stagewill be full of vendors. Two fifths ofthe stage will be full of advisors toKing Azaz. What fraction of thestage will be full of vendors andadvisors?
Answer:13/20
How many proper nouns are in thefollowing lyrics from The PhantomTollbooth?We have mountains like Olympus.We have planets like Mars.We have Betelgeuse And Vege And a million other stars!
Answer:4Olympus,Mars,Betelgeuse,Vege
A set designer wants to build abackdrop for a stage. To build thebackdrop, he will line up severalsquare panels of wood. The stage is51 feet long and the square panelsare 3 feet wide each. How manypanels does the designer need tocover the length of the stage?
Answer:17 panels
The script for The PhantomTollbooth is 65 pages long. Theactors playing young Azaz and TheMathemagician must appear onthe stage 4/13 of the way into thescript. On what page of the scriptdo they appear?
Answer:page 20
The school bus picks up Milo at 7:20a.m. It takes him 10 minutes to getdressed, 15 minutes to eat, and 5minutes to walk to the bus stop.What time should he get up?
Answer:6:50 AM
When playwrights adapt a book forthe stage, which of the following statements are NOT true:
a. Playwrights can make up new characters.
b. Playwrights add new dialogue.
c. Action is used instead of words to tell parts of the story.
d. A narrator is used to tell parts of the story.
e. All of the above are true.
Answer:e.All of the above are true.
Milo eats 3 cups of SubtractionStew and Tock eats 4 cups. Two cupsequals 1 pint, so how many pints ofstew did Milo and Tock eat alltogether?
Answer:3-1/2 pints
Pick the correct suffix to completethe sentence below.Is Milo cap of climbing theMountains of Ignorance to save theprincesses, Rhyme and Reason?
a. fulb. ablec. lessd. tion
Answer:b.able
If you are in charge of writing wordsfor songs in a musical, what is yourjob?
a. lyricistb. directorc. actord. editor
Answer:a.lyricist
FOLD HERE FOLD HERE FOLD HERE
Congratulations!You made it to the
Castle in the Air!
Ask your teacher or parent for instructions on how to play the game.
Or, go to: www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org/phantomtollbooth
