Extension Activities

Adaptation

Find a passage from a novel you enjoy and try to adapt it into a monologue no longer than 250 words.

• What are the steps that it takes to turn prose into dialogue?

• How can you make prose more theatrical?

• Are there any sections of the original text that you have to cut or expand to make it flow better when spoken?

Breaking The Fourth Wall

Group activity: Discuss the use of asides, soliloquies, and monologues in theatre productions.

• Are there any monologues, asides or soliloquies in Things That Matter? If so, what is the purpose behind them?

• How does an aside or soliloquy change the relationship between character and audience?

• What does an aside or soliloquy develop in a story that a monologue doesn’t?

• What is the purpose of breaking the fourth wall in theatre?

In pairs: Try to perform an aside or soliloquy as a monologue and a monologue as an aside or soliloquy.

• Why does an aside or soliloquy not work as a monologue?

• What language would have to be changed to make a monologue work as an aside or soliloquy?

• How can an actor use a monologue, aside or soliloquy to a character’s advantage?

Time And Place In Theatre

Group activity: Discuss how time and place are manipulated throughout this play through transitions between settings and conversations with characters.

• Does it feel like a linear narrative, or does it feel like we are jumping between different times?

• How does the set help to establish different places and times? What characters help to indicate place and time?

• Why do we not get lost in the different settings and storylines? What can we always hold on to throughout the story?