Kids’ Questions About “A Year with Frog and Toad”
Add your child’s question in the comment box and we will get it answered!
“How did they get the snow to fall?”
Adriane Heflin, Technical Director: We blow the tissue paper squares onto the stage using compressed air and it looks like a big cloud of snow falling during the sledding scene! Another time it snows in Frog and Toad is during the Christmas scene. This is the snow that is made from chopped up bits of white plastic. We put the plastic bits into a box that has holes in one side, and then we shake out the snow little by little like you do with a salt shaker. A crew person holds the box over the window and shakes it during the whole scene to make the snow fall outside the window of Toad’s house!
“Is the set real?”
Adriane Heflin, Technical Director: Yes, the set is very real! This set was built back in 2002 and has been used 4 times to present Frog and Toad. This set is actually the same one that was used when Frog and Toad played on Broadway in New York City! We used materials like wood, steel, fabric and foam to construct the scenery for Frog and Toad.
“What is Toad’s real name?” -First Graders, Le Center Elementary School
Reed Sigmund, Acting Company: All of his forest friends call him “Toad,” but when he leaves the stage he goes by a different name. Offstage, his name is Reed Sigmund and he is 39 years old. Also, away from the theatre, he really is great friends with Frog. Frog’s offstage name is Bradley Greenwald. Reed and Bradley have been close friends for 16 years!!
“What do the cookies taste like?”
Reed Sigmund, Acting Company: The cookies taste pretty delicious. They are meringue cookies, made from egg whites and sugar. They taste a lot like cocoa powder. So if you’ve ever made hot chocolate with those powder packets, it tastes exactly like that. As if you ate the powder right out of the packet, without adding it to milk or water. It’s tasty, but I definitely don’t recommend doing that.
“How do the characters change costumes so quickly?” -From Ms. Larson’s class at Calvin Christian School
Andi Soehren, Wardrobe Supervisor: There are a few factors to a quick change. The first is Dressers, the second is quick rigging/underdressing, and the third is choreography. On Frog and Toad we have two dressers back stage, Jennifer and I. We help the actors change and set the changes up so that they go smoothly. Sometimes both of us are needed for one actor and sometimes there are multiple actors changing at the same time and we help the group. The costumes themselves are quick rigged, which means that the buttons and zippers are often replaced with snaps or Velcro or magnets. This makes putting them on and taking them off quicker (snaps are good for fast off, Velcro is good for fast on, magnets are good for pieces.) Underdressing is where an actor wears more than one look at a time. At the beginning of the show, Frog is wearing his pajamas over his vest/pants base look over his swim suit! The third and most important part of a quick change is the choreography. We practice and practice with our actors so everyone knows exactly what to do and which order to put on the clothes. There is no wasted movement and no unnecessary arm flailing. A really good quick change is kind of like a dance.
“Why didn’t Frog & Toad have frog & toad faces?”
Andi Soehren, Wardrobe Supervisor: I cannot speak for the costume designer, Martin Pakledinaz, who passed away a few years ago, but I am certain that when the show was originally designed, using real Frog and Toad faces was discussed. There are a few ways in which that look could be achieved, using things like masks or full faces of makeup, but those methods make it harder for the audience to really see what the actors are doing with their faces. Even though the story is told through the lens of the animal world, it is really a story about the universality of friendship. That kind of story requires the expression and acting that is happening on the actor’s faces. The costumes are meant to suggest with pieces the various animals, for instance the Turtle wears a shell backpack and army helmet and the Birds wear feathered hats. Frog and Toad wear clothes that are the right colors and some of the right patterns for various frogs or toads. The designer trusts the audience to see a Frog and a Toad (and a snail, mouse, turtle, lizard, bird) even though they are not dressed like those animals look in real life.
“Who made that whip sound?”
Victor Zupanc, Music Director: That sound was made by our sound designer. The sound designer is responsible for everything you hear out of the speakers in the theater. He makes sure that the live orchestra has microphones and that they sound good to the audience. The sound designer also creates all of the sound effects that you hear, like wind, thunder, water splashing and that whip sound. The sound designer has a huge library of sound effects. Quite often these are sounds that the designer will actually go out and record. Then he puts in into a computer and plays it back during the performance.
“What is the musical pit in the front?”
Victor Zupanc, Music Director: I am in charge of all the music in the show. I play the keyboard during the show and I also conduct a small orchestra of seven musicians. These seven musicians play flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, bass and percussion. All of these musicians including myself are in a big hole in front of the stage. That big hole is called the orchestra pit. We are down there so that the audience can hear all of the wonderful music we play but we are not in the way of the stage so the audience can still watch the play. If we were up at the stage level then we would be in the way of the actors. So they put us about eight feet down in the orchestra pit. That way the audience can hear us but can’t see us. What’s fun for me is when people come down to the edge of the pit to look in. They’re always amazed by all the cool instruments down there.
“What’s it like to be an actor?”- Kindergarteners at l’Etoile du Nord French Immersion
Autumn Ness, Acting Company: Think of it this way; it’s hard to decide what you want to be when you grow up- a teacher, a firefighter, a singer, a magician- I get to be all of those things! Different characters mean I get to step into different shoes with every show!
Being an actor means you need to train your voice, body, and imagination to tell stories. You need to be willing to try things 100 times until it’s perfect, and being a good listener is a must! It’s okay to be nervous or shy- some of the very best actors are very quiet in real life. But you have to be willing to take risks and have confidence on stage. It’s hard work, and sometimes I am hard on myself when I’m not happy with a performance, but I love audiences and I love telling stories. I wouldn’t want to do anything else!
“When do you start rehearsing?”
Autumn Ness, Acting Company: The actors will start rehearsing five weeks before the play has its first show. For four of those weeks, we are in an empty room with no costumes or lights. We use that time to memorize our lines, learn dances and music, and try things out. Then we have one very important week called “tech week.” That’s when we go onto the stage and add costumes, scenery, sound, lights, crew, orchestra, all the “real” things! This week has long hours, but it is exciting to see the play come together. Something that you may not know is, the actors start five weeks before, but the writer and director can start working on the play YEARS before it is shown to an audience!
“How do you play so many different parts?” — Lonnquist Home School
Autumn Ness, Acting Company: Many times at CTC, the actors will play more than one role. This can be because the writer of the play likes the idea of just a few actors telling the story in multiple voices, or simply because there are so many characters that people need to double-up. Whatever the reason is, I love to play multiple roles. In a single play, you could be very different characters, and that makes you think very creatively about how you want to portray each one with its own voice, walk, and energy.
“What was real and what was make believe?” — Ms. LaMere’s class, Anishinabe Academy
Autumn Ness, Acting Company: We tend to use a lot of make believe in plays, because we do two of them a day. So, if your character had to fall down a well, or eat an octopus, or roll in garbage, you wouldn’t really be able to do those things every day, twice a day, right?
So we will use pretend food, or prop garbage that only looks disgusting. We would carefully choreograph and plan out something that is meant to look dangerous, so that it is safe to do as many times as we do the play. In Frog and Toad for example, we have real cookies to eat, but pretend water.
“Can we do a play?”
Autumn Ness, Acting Company: YES! YES you can, always! You don’t need a big theatre, or expensive costumes. You need your imagination, and a desire to tell a story! At home, in class, in your backyard — all of these are great places to pretend and invent a play.
If you want to be in a play at CTC, then you need to be at least eight years old, and you need to come to an audition or try-out. You can find out about auditions on our website, we’d love to see you there!
“Was the clock real?”
Sue Brockman, Props Director: The gift clock has a real clock built into the clock that we made to match the book.
The alarm clock that Toad breaks in the beginning is all prop shop built.
“Were the cookies real? What were they made from?”
Sue Brockman, Props Director: Some of the cookies are real, meringue cookies, some are paper that blow out of the oven, and some are made from ethafoam and painted to look like chocolate chip cookies.
“Where did the Large and Terrible Frog come from?”
Sue Brockman, Props Director: We built the Large and Terrible Frog who lives in the fly loft of the stage. Two crew people fly him in when it’s his time to be on stage. The fly loft is the space above the stage that has pipes we can move up and down to hang scenery & props.
“How do the puppets work or were operated?” -From Ms. Larson’s class at Calvin Christian School
Sue Brockman, Props Director: The fish and snake puppets are hand puppets. They have a puppeteer behind the rocks who are operating them. The puppeteers hand is inside of the puppet.
“How did the flowers pop up out of the stage all at the same time?” -From Ms. Larson’s class at Calvin Christian School
Sue Brockman, Props Director: The flowers are attached to small air cylinders that when the air is switched on it makes them pop up and when the button is pushed in the other direction it makes them retract. The air system is called pneumatics.
“Where did the snow come from?” -From Ms. Larson’s class at Calvin Christian School
Sue Brockman, Props Director: We bought the snow. There are two types of snow used in the show. One is ¾-inch square pieces of tissue, which is called tissue confetti and the other is a stage product that is shredded plastic that looks more like real snow. In the sledding scene the snow is tossed in the air by the actors and also shot out of confetti cannons mounted under the stage.
“How did they make the storm?”
Craig Gottschalk, Lighting & Video Director: What a great question! The storm that takes place during the brief time Toad is traveling to Frog’s house for some tea and a scary story is created using three different elements:
The first is lightning, which is created by several strobe lights that are above the stage. Those lights flash together to give us this sense of lighting in the air.
The second is rain, which is created using what is called a Film F/X Loop. This is a continuous metal band that has very thin lines stamped through it — just like what you see in my picture. The metal band is put into a device that stretches the band and uses a motor to make the band move in a circular loop. That device is then placed into a lighting instrument. The light shining through the thin lines and the motor moving the band projects the thin lines onto the curtains and proscenium of the theater and gives it a downward motion. Of course it does not look like ‘real’ rain, but is a fun theatrical trick for giving the audience the sense that rain is pouring down on Toad as he huddles under a leaf.
The third is thunder, which is created through pre-recorded sound cues. The sound designer selects recordings of thunder and plays them back through the speakers in the theater.
Put all three of those together, and you have yourself a scary storm that Toad needs to navigate through in order to get to Frog’s house. The lightning and thunder are used several more times to heighten the mood while Frog tells the story of the Large and Terrible Frog. What other things do you think we could have done to help make the storm feel real to you?
“How did the floor get cleaned up after all those crumbs from the cookies?” -Cedar Island Elementary
Ann Segar, Master Stage Carpenter: We use 19 meringue cookies each show & they make a big mess!! Luckily immediately after the cookie scene we have an intermission so the stage crew wipes down all the scenery and then sweeps the stage. Sweeping doesn’t get rid of all the cookie dust so we also have to wet mop the stage at intermission. We put vinegar and sometimes dish soap in our mop water to cut through all the sticky sugar of the cookies to help get the stage cleaner. At the end of the show we have snow confetti all over the stage that we sweep and vacuum up. We also use an air hose to help blow all the cookie and snow particles out of our automation tracks into a vacuum after the show so we come into a clean theatre and there is no build up of debris!
“How did the fences slide across the floor?” -Emma Rodriguez, age 7
Ann Segar, Master Stage Carpenter: Frog and Toad has automation within the floor. The deck is made of an 8” raised show floor that is on top of our regular stage floor. Within the floor we have two tracks that travel across the full stage width. Tracks are slots in the floor in which we have a system of sheaves and wire cables traveling through. The wire cables connect to a metal block we refer to as a “dog” which has holes that receive metal pins. These pins drop through connecting holes on the fence first and then they connect to the dog in the floor. The wire cables are connected offstage to a motorized winch. A winch is a cylindrical drum connected to a motor that spools on and off the wire cable to allow the dog to move to different locations within the track. The motion is controlled by writing a cue into the automation computer program and run by an operator during the show! We connect both fences, the blue chair, bathtub and sleds to the automated tracks!
Do your children have questions after seeing A Year with Frog and Toad? Submit them in the comments below and we will answer them!
