But before I do go on to discuss each play individually and in relation to the rest, I would like to present a format for the teaching of plays which I plan to follow in each presentation in order to establish a tragic rhythm of teaching drama. First of all, I intend to follow some useful traditional approaches which I believe are necessary for the presentation of such plays to inner-city thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds.
I check students’ understanding of material by questioning them on five levels of comprehension suggested to me by my department chairman. The first of these is the LITERAL: What are the names of the characters? What happened in the story, what is the plot? Quizzes like these convince me that students have read the material and understand the story-line. I often explain and test for vocabulary at the same time. Students are comfortable with this approach; characters’ names and explication of events are familiar entities, like spoons. There’s more to fine dining than that. What about the wine decanters? Students must be familiarized with technical language. The jargon of literature is as basic to its study as the jargon of chemistry is to an understanding of that subject. It is time for them, as first year high school students, to attempt a higher, more sophisticated level of evaluation, awareness, and appreciation. Although they may show an initial hostility to the unfamiliar, perseverance can be rewarding.
They should learn to look at the work from the viewpoint of the writer. They should understand how a work is put together and what skills are used to control the emotions of the reader. I attempted to convey this point of view last year by looking at propaganda and advertising and trying to extend this awareness of tactics to art. Is art propaganda? Maybe.
With this idea in mind, I ask students to learn terms like metaphor, simile, point-of-view, suspense, climax, conflict. I show them Freitag’s Triangle. I tell them that poetic meter controls heartbeat. My hyperbole is justified by any lasting impression it creates. What skills are hibernating in these snowbanks? Some of the most important.
Students need this awareness of the tools authors use to manipulate the minds of their audience. They can then appreciate the craft, the skill, the process, the form. In short, they can know that while they can admire anything they read, they don’t have to believe it. They can question it, even if it is a math textbook. It is for this reason I’m fond of telling them that history is gossip.
Beyond the literal I attempt to teach the technique and the purpose of the work. By purpose I mean what the author intended in terms of theme, audience response to characters, and structure of the work. This is, certainly, speculation on their part and on mine. Taking an additional step back from the text itself, I ask them to COMPARE it with other works. Lastly, I pose some questions on their RESPONSE to the work, being most pleased when they understand why they respond as they do. This requires objectivity and distance. These are skills. Composition exercises on comparison, response, dramatic history, and myth need much instructor input, library classes to search out information, in-class writing and supervision, and continuous explanation of theme.
Reading each play several times will allow the instructor to stress different aspects of drama which may be graded according to the difficulty of the concepts and the exercises which accompany them. These aspects may be defined as follows:
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Setting—including plot and staging.
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Language—including vocabulary, history and etymology,
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translation and dialect.
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Technique—including conflict, character, form and structure.
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Theme—including author’s purpose and audience.
Ideally, the class should do three readings of each play, although the instructor will know when a play has exhausted its classroom lifespan and when a play can survive yet another inspection. Each reading will appeal to a more difficult aspect of drama, will require more complex skills and awareness, and will be tested by questions of higher difficulty. We construct a pyramid.
The first reading is one without depth. Students become acquainted with the form of a script: the meaning of divisions like acts and scenes, the numbering of lines, the setting and the stage directions. They become familiar with the events of the plot, the names of the characters and their relationships. Knowledge of these facts is tested by a quiz on the literal level. Most importantly, during this first reading, students are asked to VISUALIZE the play. This reading concentrates on setting, historical milieu, construction of the various theaters, and the staging of productions. This is the time to inspire artistic renderings and model-building. One possible motivation is a class discussion or a writing assignment on how to build a model of a Greek, Roman, Elizabethan or modern stage.
On the second reading, you can ask questions about language and technique. These can be as simple as vocabulary which applies to every play. There are more specific language exercises which can be taught. I have included some examples of these below. The problem of translation is easily demonstrated when reading
Antigone
. I selected passages from three translations to submit to students. The variations are obvious. The translations mean different things. The students realize that each time they read any work in translation they are removed from the author yet another time by the addition of another mind. This can be reinforced when reading Ibsen and Ionesco. When we read
Everyman
and
Romeo and Juliet
, words like: “hie,” “appaireth,” “wete,” “ado,” “weenest,” and “God gi’godden,” are undeniable proof that language is always changing. I like to recite some of the Prologue to the
Canterbury Tales
when I teach the history of the English language. I am generally accused of having toys in the attic.
Exercises that deal with the text itself question the credibility of the dialogue in relation to character. Students are asked to make changes. Can speeches be improved by adding lines? Why? Are certain lines unnecessary, can they be left out? Why? Rewriting
Everyman
or
Romeo and Juliet
in modern slang forces students to pay close attention to language, conceits and figures of speech. It is such an old trick that I’m surprised it always pleases them.
The benefits and limitations of genres can be demonstrated by asking students to rewrite
Everyman
as a short story. Immediately, the question of point of view arises. Some students should write their story from Everyman’s point of view, some from the point of view of Death, God, or Good Deeds. Here is an opportunity to point out the need for exposition and description in narrative writing; the theater can be considered superior in this respect. On the other hand, characters can now have thoughts. Soliloquies, it should be pointed out, are peculiar to drama for a reason. What kind of a poem would
The Importance of Being Earnest
make? A limerick occurs to me BECAUSE of the meaning the form itself carries, and BECAUSE the sound of anapestic meter, even without words, is humorous.
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There was a young dandy named Jack,
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Whose morals were horribly slack.
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Oh, why should we worry,
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When we can bunbury,
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And end up with nothing we lack?
I just made that up. Well, the point is, why didn’t Wilde write a poem? Would it have said everything he wanted to say? E.B. White says that a piece of writing consists of what you have to say and how you say it. Conscious choices of form and content.
The structure of each play can be charted on the board. What is the climax, and how does the sequence of events serve to maintain suspense, interest, and effect? The arrangement of scenes is especially apparent in
The Importance of Being Earnest
which contains a microcosm of a detective story, and has a need for careful plotting in order to maintain confusion. Art is no accident.
I want to ask students to select favorite passages they would like to use in every-day conversation. This will cause them to make value judgements and perhaps add to their mental repertoire of learned responses. They can notice the different speech patterns and dialects of different characters. They can collect examples of the speech patterns of people they know. A recording at this time would be fine.
On the third reading, choose students to represent the characters. The class can read the parts standing, which will make it necessary to discuss the problems of blocking, entrances, exits, props, and historical period. The instructor can place six students on each side of the room to represent a chorus or place them on stage to decide what movements accompany each speech. Such actions as the switching of the foils while Laertes and Hamlet duel present good interpretive and directional problems. Does Antigone stand straight and still when she recites her final speech, or does she gesticulate with defiance? What does it mean when the servants of the Capulets and Montagues “bite their thumbs?” Do Mr. and Mrs. Martin stare at each other timidly when they are trying to discover that they are not really who they think that they are, or do they behave like robots?
After students have tried their parts, the class can select the single scene they feel is most important to the play. The act of choosing this scene should incite some discussion of climax, conflict, structure and characterization. Why is this scene the most important scene, and does anyone disagree? Using whatever scene is finally selected, assign three or more students to read each role and assign three as directors (or any number, so long as everyone is occupied). Students should rehearse their readings at home. The next class is devoted to rival readings which you can record. If students seem self-conscious, some acting exercises involving the whole class could precede the readings.
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The students explain WHY they read their parts as they do. This should lead to a discussion of motivation. The directors choose the best readers, and each directs the blocking and the reading of the scene. A vote is taken for Oscar winners. The final assignment is a theme on theme:. What are the messages of the play? Find lines in the text to support your answer.