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Drama Workshop

Drama Workshop. Strategies for Reading a Play. Drama Workshop. Drama Workshop. Read the title and ask yourself: What does this mean? Why did the playwright select this title? Make some predictions – hypotheses that you can test periodically as you read. Drama Workshop. A Christmas Carol

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Drama Workshop

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  1. Drama Workshop Strategies for Reading a Play

  2. Drama Workshop

  3. Drama Workshop Read the title and ask yourself: • What does this mean? • Why did the playwright select this title? • Make some predictions – hypotheses that you can test periodically as you read.

  4. Drama Workshop A Christmas Carol • So, is it safe to assume that the setting will be Christmas time? • Now, what are the connotations associated with the word carol? Positive? Negative? Neutral? • Where are you usually when you hear the word carol? At church? At a football game? • Do we typically learn things from a carol? Or does a carol usually give us deep thoughts to consider?

  5. Drama Workshop A Christmas Carol was originally a novel written by Charles Dickens. If you’ll look on page 388, you’ll see “Dramatized by Frederick Gaines” beneath Charles Dickens’ name. What does this tell us? So, what characteristics can we expect to find if the play is based on a novel? We will have chapters (which will now be presented in acts); we will have a conflict (often a novel has more than one).We will have at least one dynamic character. We can expect that a certain mood might be created – with words, stage directions, lighting, music, etc. If we start our reading of the play expecting to find these characteristics, we will be more engaged.

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  7. Drama Workshop Stage directions • Read the stage directions to help you VISUALIZE the setting and the characters. Look at page R108 to find the following definition of stage directions: • In a script of a play, the instructions to the actors, director, and stage crew are called stage directions. Stage directions might suggest scenery, lighting, sound effects, and ways for actors to move and speak. Stage directions often appear in parentheses and in italic type.

  8. Drama Workshop • How important are stage directions? Well, let’s play with this question a little bit. What if I read the following lines (spoken by Sally Sue to her best friend Nora Nan) but there is no textual indication telling me how these words are to be said: Sally Sue: Wow, Nora, I really like those shoes. Nora Nan: Really?

  9. Drama Workshop • Let’s try adding some of these stage directions to Sally Sue’s lines. How does each different direction impact the mood? The conflict? The tone? The resolution? Sally Sue: Wow, Nora, I really like those shoes (sarcastically as she flips her hair off her shoulders). OR Sally Sue: Wow, Nora, I really like those shoes (frowning and squinting her eyes). OR Sally Sue: Wow, Nora, I really like those shoes (laughing with all of her friends).

  10. Drama Workshop • How are Nora Nan’s reactions different with each variation of the stage directions? Nora Nan: Really? (hanging her head in shame, she exits) OR Nora Nan: Really? (smiling from ear to ear) Really? OR Nora Nan: Really? (puffing her chest up in anger) Really?

  11. Drama Workshop • Identify the main conflict (the struggle or problem in the play). • Remember that you should still be able to create a plot triangle, so look for those elements.

  12. Drama Workshop • Evaluate the characters. What drives them to do what they do? What do they want? Which character (or characters) change during the play?

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  14. Drama Workshop Supposedly, Charles Dickens was walking through a cemetery one day and saw a tombstone of a man named Ebeneezer Scrooge. Dickens thought that the man’s epitaph read “A Mean Man,” when, in fact, it read “A Meal Man” because he had been a caterer. Thinking that the man was so hated that even his tombstone mentioned his meanness, Dickens named his main character Scrooge. That name has become synonymous with “penny pinching mean person.” We know that main characters are DYNAMIC (in other words, they change). Let’s track how Scrooge changes throughout the play.

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  18. Drama Workshop A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (dramatized by Frederick Gaines)

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