Telling Stories That Matter: Gary Henderson

When you are revising for your live performance exam; thinking about the wider context of the play being staged, whether that is historical, political, social and/or geographical. Things That Matter draws from a rich wider context, drawing from Dr David Galler’s personal life, how he communicated this in his book Things That Matter and how Gary Henderson re-imagines this for the stage. While the exam is not about the way the play is written, when you explain and discuss moments depicted on stage, unpacking how those moments draw from the way the play is structured, the themes it identifies, and what inspired the story will enrich your answer. These activities will help you brainstorm and collate your ideas, as well as providing evidence or quotes to support your explanations and discussions around the exam questions.

PRE-READING AND LISTENING:

• Read Telling Stories That Matter

• Highlight ideas that interest you

• Circle quotes you think would enrich an answer in an exam

• Underline and annotate ideas that link to a specific moment in the performance.

• Listen to Dr David Galler speaking to Jesse Mulligan on Radio New Zealand: Dr David Galler's ED stories playing out on the stage | RNZ

• Write down ideas that interest you

• Record quotes you think would enrich an answer in an exam

• Record moments in the interview that surprised you or provided more context for something you saw on stage.

REVISION ACTIVITY:

Using the notes and annotations you made during the pre-reading and listening activity, discuss:

• how Dr Galler’s book inspired Gary Henderson

• what changed, give examples from the performance

• what remained the same, give examples from the performance

• on reflection, what moments are now richer or hold more meaning from the performance?

Collate your group's reflections and share these with the rest of the class. As each group feeds back, add to your own notes.

PRACTICAL ACTIVITY:

Dr David Gellar mentions in his RNZ interview that he wrote the book in a way that explored the different organs in the human body. Use this structure or point of view to create a short drama, based around a theme or storyline from the performance.

• Choose an interesting way to stage your performance; you could think about the placement of the audience or interesting formations on the stage

• Incorporate chorus of movement

• Use both narration or direct address and dialogue

• Use tableaux to highlight an important moment

Reflection question: How does embodying or using the ideas that interested you in a performance, enrich your understanding of Things That Matter?