Steal This Idea

Last class, we offered some ideas for classroom activities connected in some way to the idea of performance in the classroom. Many of them are connected to A Comedy of Errors, but they could easily be adapted to other plays, and even to other modes like poetry or fiction.  You asked for them to be available electronically, so voila.

As you think about these activities, consider what aspects of literary analysis sneak in (to use David’s phrase) to the different approaches. We discussed how many of them are designed to get students working on close reading, but it’s probably more apt to think of these as exercises in rereading that offer students a way to get past that first reading that Blau calls necessary but not necessarily valuable. Emily’s exercise focuses on character, Kassidy’s work with genre, Tricia’s introduces students to performance history, Molly’s explores a literary theory concept. Clarissa and Justin have students think closely and carefully about language, whether through “telegramming” or memorizing.

These performance-oriented exercises offer students an authentic opportunity to collaborate—and collaborations that enhance the learning of the whole class. Amanda’s divide and conquer exercise allows the class to close read a section of the play and then, as the groups perform, see a condensed overview of the play as a whole.

Finally, many of these exercises all ask students to become physically active in the classroom, another (often neglected) form of learning that is likely to engage students who are not the usual suspects raising their hands from their seats in the classroom.  In his classic work on multiple intelligences, Howard Gardner identified seven distinct types of intelligences we all possess in one form or another, and urged teachers to draw on as many of these as possible in the classroom in order to engage as many students as possible. One of these is bodily-kinesthetic; people with a high level of this intelligence:

Bodily-kinesthetic - use the body effectively, like a dancer or a surgeon. Keen sense of body awareness. They like movement, making things, touching. They communicate well through body language and be taught through physical activity, hands-on learning, acting out, role playing. Tools include equipment and real objects. (http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html)

I can see no good reason to leave students who love to move and act and role play out of the learning of the literature classroom; drama gives us a perfect opportunity to work this intelligence into our classrooms.   Many of you did this, whether explicitly through role play or improv, or subtly by having students get up and move.  So now, without further ado, I present your lessons.

Emily Moeck

Group Therapy

A performance exercise to be used for Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors—or any dramatic work—to help students understand underlying character motivations and desires through close readings of specific scenes.

Genre: Drama

Course Level: introductory to intermediate

Student Difficulty: moderate

Teacher Preparation: moderate

Class Size: medium to large

Semester Time: after full text has been read

Writing Component: in class

Close Reading: medium

Estimated Time: 50 to 60 minutes

Exercise

Comedy of Errors is a play that takes place over the course of a single day filled with emotional reveals and scathing affairs. When looking past the play’s comedy, emotional trauma runs deep.

We have EGEON who is about to be killed for traveling to the wrong city in search of his family. EMILIA who chose a life of celibacy after having her husband and sons torn away from her. The ANTIPHOLUS’ who both somewhat yearn for their lost family and also undergo strange identity crises throughout the course of the play. The DROMIOS who have also been torn away from their family and are physically abused by their masters. ADRIANA who has long felt her husband’s distance and has potentially committed adultery for the first time. And LUCIANA who lives with her sister and her husband in a life of solitude and potential jealousy.      

This exercise is meant to get students to think more about these underlying character traumas and how they surface in the characters speech/actions of the play (intrinsically or extrinsically).

Divide the class up into five groups and assign them each a scene from a different act of the play to re-read before class (take time picking scenes where the potential for characters’ emotional depth is visible), keeping in mind the characters’ development within that scene in relation to the rest of the play. Tell each group they must assign themselves each to characters within the scene. If your groups are larger than the amount of characters in each scene, they may also assign themselves to characters within the play that are connected later with characters in the scene. For example, if a group is working on Act 2, Scene 1 (where we meet Adriana and Luciana) it would make sense for additional group members to assign themselves to Antipholus or Dromio of Ephesus.

For more introductory classes, you may want to assign the roles for the students.   

Pass out a prepared handout with 4-5 questions that probe into the emotional arcs of the characters. For example: What matters most to this character in this moment? What emotions are driving the character the most here? What is this character hiding/not saying about themselves/others? What would make this character most happy? Over the next 15 minutes, have each group work together close reading their scenes and briefly answering the questions for their own characters.

After students have filled out their worksheets, have them spend the next 10 minutes roll playing as their characters as they talk amongst themselves. Their goal is to uncover the other character’s inner motivations through dialogue. They might start with asking other members of the group: It hurt me when you… I know you said, but it felt like you meant… Why are you always?... How come you never?...I’m scared you’ll find out about… While they perform in their groups, feel comfortable walking around and interjecting/prodding into their dialogue from a “therapist” perspective.

Next, have the groups rearrange themselves by characters instead of scenes. For example, all the ADRIANAs in one group, EMILIAs in another, etc. Hopefully, what should emerge are groups with their character from different emotional moments within the play. For the next 15/20 minutes, have them share with each other their answers from the handout. Have them discuss how the character’s emotional arc/answers to the questions developed over the course of the play.  

Finally, if time/engagement permits (additional 15/20 minutes), have each group of like-characters map out their character’s emotional arc on the board to share with the rest of the class. Where did they start the day and where did they end? What emotional baggage did they start the play with? What emotional baggage remains at the end? What new baggage might they have to deal with after the curtains close?

Reflection

The goal of this exercise is to get students to actively engage with interpreting text and characterization, getting them to think about how the “part” plays into the “whole” within a dramatic arc. At the end of class, they should feel more comfortable with the complexities of the text, while also understanding how round characters develop within plot.

“15-minute Shakespeare”

Amanda Rose

Genre: Shakespeare

Course Level: Any

Student Difficulty: Easy

Teacher Preparation: Minimal

Class Size: Minimum 15 students

Semester Time: Any

Writing Component: Optional

Close Reading: High

Estimated Time: Roughly 60 minutes

Exercise:

Students will be divided into five groups (at least 3 students per group) and each group will be assigned one act of the play. The groups must create a three-minute version of their act, using only Shakespeare’s words within the play. When each group has prepared, a 15-minute version of The Comedy of Errors will have been created. Students can then perform their scenes one by one.

Afterwards, the class can discuss their process in creating the scene. There are many questions that could be discussed, and this could be a class-wide discussion or a reflective assignment for homework.

Questions for discussion:

What did you most struggle with as a group?

Why did you choose the lines you did and why do you consider them to represent the entire scene?

How did you adjust based on the environment and amount of characters in the scene?

Did the acting process go as well as you might have hoped?

Is there anything in the scene you wish you had included?

Did we include all the essential components to the story?

What would have been most helpful to add?

Kassidy Kelley

Genre Work & Acting Style

Assignment: Partner with your seat neighbor, and each pair will be assigned an Act 1-5. Skim over your act together and find a scene that could be interpreted in a different genre, perhaps tragedy or history—but creative straying from those categories is allowed.

Example-- Perhaps S. Antipholus declaration of love to Luciana is a tragic deathbed confession-- complete with crying, falling, and a dramatic final word. Or a haunting horror scene, with ghosts/witches a la Macbeth.

Take 10 minutes to adapt your scene’s genre and be ready to perform it. Pay attention to tone, gesture, dramatic acting, and stress of language. Each pair will perform their scene—if you need an additional actor: get creative (or ask me to step in)!

Questions to Consider:

·      Are there specific words or phrases that support comedic interpretation? Can they change meaning?

·      How important is established genre? Does it modify or influence how you interpret the play as you read?

·      What scenes from your act were easily adapted to a new genre? What scenes were most difficult? Why?

·      Did you change words or phrases of the original text? If you didn’t, what did you use to convey a new meaning?

Justin Saret

            For this lesson, you’ll need a short segment of snappy (if not necessarily funny) back-and-forth dialogue. Ask students to try memorizing it the night before. In the first part of the class, get students comfortable with performing the text from memory. Pair them up and have them rehearse – but emphasize that they are not preparing for a performance, but rather a game. The second part: have each pair come to the front of the class to perform the dialogue. However, they will, at your signal, remove one line of dialogue and instead improvise a line – then continue the dialogue as usual. Invite them to say something that honestly comes to mind, not to try to craft something “clever” – to follow whatever impulse of sound or sense is at the tip of their tongue. (It might not make sense!) It would be worth experimenting, also, with improvising two lines – consecutive or not – or building the number of lines improvised, working backwards from the end, until only the first line initiates a whole new scene. This exercise also might be worth trying with a piece of prose, with the students performing alternating sentences – just pick something with a distinctive sound and a tight series of points.

My expectation is that students would, at least, get something like the experience of paraphrasing – attention to both what the words mean in general, and what particularly about them makes them fit. They’ll also encounter some semi-lucid snippets of criticism, made with whatever associative, affective, rhythmic impulses their peers have rattling around in their heads. And then, of course, they’ll get to have the experience of participating in the collaborative act of improvisation – even if it’s only one line, the build-up and response to that line will shift in the moment.

Clarissa Eaton

Telegramming

An exercise that uses rephrasing and movement to examine the importance of language in a play.

Genre: Drama

Course level: Intermediate or advanced

Teacher preparation: low

Class size: small

Writing component: minimal

Close reading: high

Time required 30 – 50 minutes

Lesson suggestion adapted from Miriam Gilbert “Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance.” 

This exercise has two parts.  For the first part, choose a long section of speech – one which appears to be lengthy and wandering or could be interpreted in differing ways. Each student should have a copy of the section that can be marked up. Ask students to work together to reduce this speech to the shortest amount of words possible that still convey the message they believe the speaker is attempting to give. This should be a short examination allowing them to acquire first impressions of the section’s purpose.

Each group will then choose one speaker to present their shortened speech, using as much emotion and movement as possible to convey what they see as the primary message.

In a short debrief discussion first examine differences in message that might arise.  For example, why did group A emphasize a feeling of desperation while group B portrayed anger?

For the second part return to the original lines. Given time, it is ideal to break the original lines into sections that would include hand gestures, body movement, changes of expression, and changes in tone and delivery. Again, the students should use as much emotion and movement as the scene allows. Ask for a volunteer to deliver the speech incorporating these notes.

The exercise then accomplishes two goals. First, the students will understand the central point of the speech. Second, by reintroducing the original speech, with greater consideration and detail, the student will notice how the language advances the message and adds nuance.  Gilbert says: “By first reducing a speech to its central point… the telegram allows students to see first what is central … and then how the language which seems unnecessary is actually useful to the speaker”. Students could identify different fine distinctions in the language in which interpretation would depend upon choice of delivery style. This work will allow students to collaborate and closely interpret how to convey they meaning they see in the lines.  Close reading is necessary in the second part to add physicality to the scene. An additional benefit in first depriving the group of complex language then restoring it, is that it dispels the fear many students feel when approaching Shakespeare’s works. Simply encouraging a minimal message, which may contain a bit of humor all its own, will make Shakespearean language more approachable.

Molly Booth

Model Lesson: Emplotment

Age: middle school+

Teaching: Paul Ricoeur’s narrative concept Emplotment

For: I’ve used this for plays, but I think it’s transferable and could be adapted for other kinds of narratives.

You’ll need: a way to write so the students can see. A chalkboard, easel, etc. I think easiest is a white board and a dry erase marker.

Objective: This is a simple activity, but all students I’ve done it with have responded really well. It’s a quick way to understand how writers construct a narrative out of a story. It also helps students recall/understand the plot of the play.

Activity:

1.     Draw a horizontal line on the white board. Somewhere toward the beginning and end of the line, draw two vertical lines and label “play begins” and “play ends.”

2.     Ask students to list the basic plot of the play, and draw vertical lines through the horizontal line to signify each event. Label the lines with funny shorthand. I.E. “Antipholus S. <3’s Luciana.”

3.     After that, ask students to list everything we kow that happens before the actual play begins. For example, in Comedy of Errors, they could list the twins being born and separated, Antihpilous E. marrying Adriana, etc. Write all of these in a big cloud before your “play begins” line.

4.     Then ask them to list everything that happens during the play that we don’t see on stage. For example: “Adriana and Antipholus S. dine.” Write these underneath the horizontal line.

5.     Discuss with the group why the playwright chose to show those specific scenes from the story. Ask why they might’ve left out the ones they did. Ask how the play would be different if they’d chosen different scenes.

6.     Tell students that choosing the scenes from the story to show the audience is constructing a narrative. French narrative philosopher Paul Ricoeur calls the act of choosing moments from the story emplotment.

7.     As a fun bonus activity, ask students to hypothesize what might’ve happened once the play ended. Write these in a big cloud after the “play ends” line.

Patricia Case

Commedia Del Arte Exercise

This activity is great if used before reading any play that has been heavily influenced by Commedia Del Arte, in a high school or college classroom. It is an introduction to the form of improvised comedic theater which originated in Italy in the early 16th century and had a sizeable influence on comedies following that time. I’ll be using Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, in which the character types and stock gags (Lazzi) are especially distinct. This exercise could be used either before or after reading the play, but it may be more useful if read before. It gives the slapstick and pun-heavy comedy of the play some context as a received form, and students will be able to make connections between the Commedia Del Arte character types and gags to those in the play.

You will need a handout including a list of stock gags (Lazzi), and descriptions of the four different types of characters (servants, old men, lovers, and captains), and scraps of paper with potential scenes written on them (these can be either prepared by the instructor before class, or written down by students at the beginning of class.)

Students will either take the handouts home to read and familiarize themselves with as homework or read them in class. Once the introductory handouts have been looked over and discussed for a short time, the instructor should ask students to write down potential scenes if she has not already brought them with her. These scenes should be simple and could be anything - someone is trying to order food at a restaurant, someone has lost her keys in a parking lot, someone is getting her hair cut. Once you have these scenes, break the students up into groups of two or three. Hand out the scenes or have students pick them out of a hat. Each student should pick a character type and a stock gag to use, and they should design a short scene (3-4 minutes) in which they stick to the characteristics of their type, and each person must use one lazzi. Remind students that even in these short scenes, we should be able to tell which character type they have chosen, and how their characters feel about each other. Their short scenes should also have a beginning, middle, and end. Students should have 10-15 minutes to design their scenes. This seems like a short amount of time, but you can remind students that Commedia Del Arte also usually involved an element of improvisation, so as long as they know basically what their story and gags and characters are, they can plan to improvise a bit. Once their time is up, have students perform their scenes for each other. After each scene, students should ask the performers any questions they might have about the scene before the next group performs.

This may be a good exercise to use alongside an exercise about more modern slapstick, in order to show where the form came from before The Comedy of Errors as well as where it has gone since. Showing a clip from Charlie Chaplin and/or Home Alone if there is extra time at the end of the class period could bring this lesson full circle, and might help students to put the play in context more successfully, as well as give students a great deal of connections to make with the characters and gags as they read.

This plan adapted from the one on Paul Hricik’s blog: https://shakespeareanstudent.wordpress.com/activities-for-teachers