Rogue Education Program Mission Statement
Through Hyper-theater, our unique storytelling approach, Rogue Artists Ensemble Education Program seeks to capture the imagination of a generation raised on television and popular media, in order to awaken their sense of personal ability and responsibility. By creating works with current and vital messages and by supporting educators in their approach to the work, we aim to educate and inspire children and the adults who care for them. We aspire to cultivate a new generation of theatergoers by presenting honest, exciting, and relevant theatrical productions appropriate for audience members of any age.
Project History
In 2006, The Story of Frog Belly Rat Bone was discovered by the Rogues. The story’s lovable characters, quirky aesthetic, and solid messages of environmentalism and friendship immediately endeared the story to the entire ensemble. We wasted no time in contacting Candlewick Press for permission to adapt this wonderful book into a children's play. To our great delight, Timothy Basil Ering agreed to allow us this honor and we became the only company ever granted permission to adapt this work. Now the gears are beginning to turn on a world-class stage production of this incredibly unique story.
An early workshop staging of this production was presented in July 2007 to much audience enthusiasm. Rogue Artists Ensemble worked diligently to create the production pictured in the next few pages.
Work is currently underway to redevelop the show with a talented cast into two distinct versions. For the first, we are creating a streamlined production capable of touring to school sites and will feature the main cast of four. We are also preparing a larger touring production with additional technical elements, which will require more infrastructure, performers, and a tech crew.
Play Synopsis
In Cementland lives a very special Boy with a singular wish to find a treasure. Amidst heaping piles of greasy toaster ovens, broken TVs, and wet smelly socks, he discovers a rusty old box promising wondrous riches, but all he finds inside the box are colorful packets filled with tiny grey specks. Even his new friends Rat, Rabbit, and Fruit Fly don't know how to make treasure out of specks. Frustrated, the Boy leaves the box–and the treasure–unprotected. Thieves come in the night and the Boy builds a monster called Frog Belly Rat Bone to scare them away. Frog Belly protects the specks, and in doing so teaches all the friends a very valuable lesson.
Meet the Characters
Boy lives in Cementland. His singular wish is to find treasure, and he believes that when he finds treasure, he will also find popularity.
Frog Belly Rat Bone was built out of scraps in a junk heap by the Boy. Though he was created as a monster to protect the Boy's treasure, his real gift is teaching those around him the value of friendship.
Rat thinks the only way to make friends is to bully others into following him. He gets Rat and Rabbit to help him steal the Boy's treasure, but learns along the way that friendship is a two-way street.
Fruit Fly is small, but tenacious. She speaks up (or buzzes) when things go wrong, and is the only one of the friends who can travel fast enough to bring dirt back for the specks.
Rabbit, the sweet-natured earth-lover, follows Rat because he wants to please his new friends. By the end of the story, though, Rabbit finds that he has knowledge that can help the Boy…and gain him some true friends in the process.
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