A million or bajillion letters!
A few days ago, our friends at Word for Word dropped off a most magical thing…
A few days ago, our friends at Word for Word dropped off a most magical thing: a binder—bursting at the seams—full of drawings, letters, stories, and more by young San Franciscans who attended the production of The Eyes and the Impossible at Z Space last month! We are not math experts, but we believe there must be a million or even a bajillion messages and illustrations, including the ones above. We’ll post the binder’s marvelous contents for you all to behold! (And yes, ducks are morons.)
Thank you to our dear friends at Word for Word!
That’s a wrap! After two weeks of shows, our dear friends over at Word for WordPLAY and Z Space have wrapped their production of The Eyes and the Impossible.
That’s a wrap! After two weeks of shows, our dear friends over at Word for WordPLAY and Z Space have wrapped their production of The Eyes and the Impossible. Swipe through the above photos to see some of the magic. From the colorful sets, to the inventive costumes, to the remarkable actors and production, we were awed by it all.
Thank you, thank you to the incredible director, managers, cast, crew, creative team, and everyone at Word for WordPLAY and Z Space for bringing this story alive on the stage, and thank you to every member of the audience and community who went to see it. Ha ha hoooo!
Directed by Delia Macdougall
Stage Manager: Karen Runk
Assistant Stage Manager: Tina Mosier
Cast
Nic Moore
Sofia Ahmad
Michael Craig Patterson
Carolina Morones
Hannah Mae Sturges
Tasi Alabastro*
Chloris Li
Crew and Creative Team
Scenic Design: Colm McNally, Sarah Phykitt
Costume Design: Laura Hazlett
Light Design: Jim Cave
Sound Design: Ray Archie
Props Design: Devon Labelle
Study Guide Artist: Linda Maria Girón
Production Manager: Trinity Wicklund
Design & Illustration By
Anna Salazar
Momoheddo Studio
@momoheddo
On the loose! Real stories of Golden Gate Park’s bison
In San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, there is a long history of bison exploring the world beyond their paddock.
Photo courtesy of SF Gate.
Freya, Samuel, and Meredith are not the first bison to stage a clever and courageous escape from their pen. In San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, there is a long history of bison exploring the world beyond their paddock—whether or not they received assistance from any dogs, birds, squirrels, raccoons, goats, or even ducks.
In 1924, nearly 20 bison escaped from the paddock when one brave bison named Portland, charged the fence and knocked it over. He and his friends broke from their captivity and roamed around the nearby Richmond district, trampling residents’ gardens and lawns, wandering the city streets, and even climbing on top of porches. It took 12 hours and 30 police officers to round them back up again.
In 1932, two bison toppled the fence together but remained near the paddock, lounging on the grass. They were discovered the next morning and returned to the other side of the then-repaired fence.
In 1942, while park officials were moving the herd, Annie, a large female bison, charged from the group and was captured soon after on Fulton Street.
Read more about these bison, their escapes, and their history in Golden Gate Park here in SF Gate and here in SF Chronicle.
Photo courtesy of SF Chronicle.
Want to teach The Eyes and the Impossible? Check out our page for educators!
Teachers, librarians, and other educators often send us lesson plans that they use to teach The Eyes and the Impossible!
Snail mail is not the only thing we receive from schools around the country; teachers, librarians, and other educators often send us lesson plans that they use in their classrooms. These plans include learning objectives, independent and group activities, discussion questions, assessment opportunities, teaching standards, and culminating projects. Some of these educators have kindly allowed us to share their lessons on this site so that others can use them, too. Click over to our For Teachers & Librarians page and see how educators teach The Eyes and the Impossible!
If you have a lesson plan of your own to share, feel free to send it to India Claudy at india@thehawkinsproject.org. We’d love to feature it on our site!
Behold! A package transported on the shells of snails
A group of fourth graders at Hillendale Elementary School in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania mailed this wondrous package of drawings, stories, and more!
Not everything moves like Johannes, at the speed of light. Some things move less at the pace of a dog, and more at the pace of a shelled gastropod gliding along on a trail of mucin. That is, some things—often, the very best things—arrive by snail mail, and the package pictured above is perhaps the finest example of this great truth.
A group of fourth graders at Hillendale Elementary School mailed their drawings, their original song lyrics, their proposed epilogues, their hand-crafted bookmarks, their questions, their ideas, and their own stories all the way from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania to San Francisco, California. It is a treasure to behold their work, and so we are sharing it so that you can, too. A gigantic thank you to Ms. Fahey and her reading group for creating and mailing this wondrous package!
Would you like to write to the author? To write a letter to Dave Eggers, mail it to 849 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110. He loves receiving mail the old fashioned way and answers every letter.
Johannes and his friends take to the stage!
Z Space and Word for WordPLAY present a bold new stage adaptation of The Eyes and the Impossible.
Ha ha hooo! Z Space and Word for WordPLAY present a bold new stage adaptation of The Eyes and the Impossible. Experience the fully staged production on Z Space’s Steindler Stage, presented in classic Word for Word style. Directed by Delia MacDougall.
Show schedule:
Previews: Thursday 2/26 and Friday 2/27
Opening Night: Saturday 2/28
Run of Show: 2/26 - 3/15
Community Night: 3/6
Afternoon with the Author: Sat 3/7 at 2pm
The greatest map these eyes have ever seen
Take a look at the wonderful project created by Ms. Rovetto’s and Ms. Mattesky’s sixth grade students at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, Louisiana!
Take a look at the wonderful project created by sixth graders at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, Louisiana! Along with their teachers Ms. Rovetto, Ms. Mattesky, Mr. Valette ,and Mrs. Damare, these students creatively plotted locations in Johannes’s park where a notable character development took place. Follow their map to find Bertrand at the archery range, Freya, Samuel, and Meredith behind the fence, and, of course, Johannes wherever the eye can see! Thank you to these clever and imaginative 6th graders for sharing these characters’ perspectives—and theirs, too!
Possibly the best film made by humankind
We recently received this incredible video made by Mr. Johnson’s fifth graders at Grant Center for the Expressive Arts in Tacoma, Washington. Freedom really matters!
We recently received this incredible video made by Mr. Johnson’s fifth graders at Grant Center for the Expressive Arts in Tacoma, Washington. It has been truly remarkable to see students’ engagement with The Eyes &the Impossible , and this video is one of our favorite examples. The costumes! The backdrops! The detailed lyrics! Even the ducks! Thank you to Mr. Johnson’s class for this wonderful video and for transporting Johannes and his friends off the page. Freedom really matters!
Produced by: Caris, Cybele, and Ruby
Cast:
Johannes: Gwen
Bison: Caris, Cybele, and Ruby
Sonja: Audrey
Bertrand: Landon
Ducks: Eliana, Jacob, McKenzie
Goats: Cedar, Charlotte, Everett, Kaplin, Kai
Cameras: Kaplin, Quinn, Sebastian Lyrics: Audrey, Cailyn, Caris, Cedar, Charlotte, Cybele, Eliana, Enzo, Everett, Ezra, Gwen, Jacob, Jane, Kai, Kaplin, Landon, Maxine, McKenzie, Obie, Oliver, Parker, Quinn, Ruby, Ryder, Sam, Scarlett, Sebastian, Treyson, Zavier, Z