The class discusses war from a civilian perspective. What would you do if the Nazis occupied your town -- resist, collaborate, hide, run away, try to ignore them? Then, each student writes a postcard to a friend recounting a specific event they experienced during the war. If able to write part or all of their postcard in French, vocabulary questions are written on the board.

The highest compliment to give an artist is to want to do what he or she does. Put on your own show! A group or a whole class can get into the act, by singing, reciting poetry, writing, directing, being emcee, being in the band and being in the audience.

Cabaret is an art form that, at its best, uses song to get straight to the heart, whether with biting sarcasm, romantic charm or realistic recounting of life's many stories.

For the single workshop, Claudia and her pianist share with the class the elements of "putting your act together." Extended residencies allow Claudia and the students to work together over the course of several weeks to create their own cabaret show.

Especially effective as a workshop before the show is a dissection of one or two of the songs in a classic "explication de texte" or textual analysis à la française.

There are several songs that lend themselves to this process: Barbara, L'Accordéoniste, Les Grands Boulevards, Les Feuilles Mortes, J'ai Deux Amours, and even The Charleston; all have aspects worth examining in detail, whether specific historical content, context of the song's creation, stories of its interpreters, analysis of its poetic form, grammar, musical construction, character and story lines.

Song circles are small discussion groups that meet after the performance to examine the songs and the program from different perspectives. For a single post-performance workshop, the process can be as simple as having students choose to be "historians," "music critics," "theatre critics," "news journalists," "People magazine interviewers" and "restaurant critics." Each student then follows the show with their specific role in mind. The workshop begins with each critics' circle meeting for a few minutes to prepare comments and questions as the historians, the music critics, etc.

A more extensive workshop (based on greater familiarity with the specific songs in the show) has the students divide into "song circles" -- one group per song. In these song circles, each student has a different role. Having critically examined the song and lyrics ahead of time (from prior recordings and hearing the current performance), each student comes to the group with notes needed to perform their specific job.

Curricular themes suggested by the cabaret program include:

• France, 1900-1950 (with special attention to World War II)

• French culture, especially music and poetry from the Left Bank period of 1947-1953 including the existentialists, the French "beatniks"

• The role of exiles and expatriates, including the history of African-American expatriates in Paris

• The mythology and image-making of Paris

Here is an opportunity for theatre and music students to strengthen their interpretative abilities in song. For the high school master class, we allot 15-20 minutes for each singer. A 90-minutes session will allow us a maximum of six performers. Each student prepares and performs a solo piece (small ensembles can also participate).

The essence of cabaret is sharing a heartfelt story. Cabaret songs can be in any language and of any genre (opera, folk, art song, rock, jazz, musical theatre, rap) as long as they tell a story. We ask each student to find their own truth about a song: what changes from beginning to end, has an emotional discovery, or recreates a scene or character.

Students may be accompanied by other students on piano, guitar, accordion. In fact, we encourage it. The auditors play an important role as well. Every performer needs an audience. And auditing is another way to learn what works and what doesn't. Details are provided in Guidelines for a Master Class with Claudia Hommel.

The artist-in-residency is our strongest offering because it brings to students the opportunity to link ideas across disciplines. Each Souvenirs of Paris program makes myriad connections between social studies, language arts, visual and performing arts. Our multi-disciplinary approach reinforces the work of teachers using thematic units (a unit on World War II or a unit on Paris, for example) and adds another "hands on" dimension for students as they investigate a piece of history, language or geography. The civilian side of war, the impact of African-American musicians bringing jazz to Paris, the very different perceptions held by Americans and French about race and sexual relations, the use of music to heighten our appreciation of the poetry of Jacques Prèvert, the use of song to help us learn language, the history of modern France, examining the artistic process itself -- all these themes can be brought up front and personal as Claudia explores them with your students

Within the greater Chicago area, we can organize a multiple-visit residency over the course of several weeks. When touring beyond the Chicago area, the artist-in-residency can be extended for several days in a row.

A whole-day visit to one school can incorporate any combination of performances, workshops, post-show discussions, master classes, informal lunches and French Club visits. Claudia can perform up to three short shows in one day, filling in the rest of the day with classroom workshops and classes. Activities can begin the first hour and go to the last hour of the school day, according to the school's schedule and priorities.

An evening performance offers the opportunity to share with the general public or the school's own community of parents, staff and friends a bit of what's going on during the school day.

The community performance can also serve as a fund-raiser for the daytime school programs by the price of admission and corporate sponsorships. In addition, many local and state arts councils provide fee support to schools when hosting programs open to the general public.

Cabaret concerts and seminars are also available for college and university audiences and for music and foreign language teachers conferences. Visit Claudia's website at www.cabaret-paree.com for a full listing of programs in addition to the Paris-based themes.

We strongly encourage coordinated bookings within a region. If you would like to introduce us to your local college activities coordinators or arts council, please let us know to whom we should send our university proposal or concert offerings.

Joëlle Productions | P. O. Box 259327 | Chicago, IL 60625 | (773) 509-9360 | (888) 590-9360
info@cabaret-paree.com

---