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Welcome
Welcome to our 2022 English and Drama catalogue!
Inside you’ll fi nd the latest play editions for your core set texts, inspiring new plays to introduce to your students, and essential teacher guides for every English and Drama teacher.
Some of our 2022 highlights include three new Student Editions of Arthur Miller’s greatest plays, Death of a Salesman, A View from the Bridge and The Crucible (see page 5). Our popular Plays for Young People series continues to grow with Beyond The Canon’s Plays for Young Activists, the fi rst-of-its kind anthology with three plays by BIPOC women (see page 8). The highly anticipated collection of Monologues and Duologues For Young Performers (see page 11) publishes in May.
We hope you enjoy browsing!
With very best wishes for the year ahead,
The English and Drama for Schools Team
KEY
Additional teacher resources available to download from this book’s webpage on bloomsbury.com
NEW FOR 2022
Look out for these new titles throughout the catalogue
Author blog post - the author of this book has written an accompanying blog post on
bloomsburyeducation. wordpress.com
TEACHER SUPPORT
Alongside our published plays, we also work with our authors and playwrights to provide you with additional support for teaching our plays.
Visit bloomsbury.com/DramaForSchools to view all additional resources or visit each book’s webpage for more details (look out for symbol throughout this catalogue).
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Playwright and author Q&As Lesson ideas Discussion questions
Willy Russell
Dennis Kelly
Key themes and discussion points for Dennis Kelly’s DNA
These ideas are taken from, and explored further, in the new Methuen Drama Student Edition of DNA with introductory notes by Clare Finburgh Delijani.
HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT
• DNA was Kelly’s rst play to be produced at the DNA was Kelly’s rst play to be produced at the
National Theatre, originally commissioned as part National Theatre, originally commissioned as part of ‘Connections’, where each year 10 established authors write plays of under an hour for school pupils and youth theatres to perform. • In Kelly’s theatre, violence is presented as a human impulse, and also as the result of historical and political events. Personal stories about school pupils, of ce workers, siblings or neighbours spread outwards, becoming critiques of global politics. • Kelly wrote DNA during the ‘War on Terror’ at the start of the 21st century while the world witnessed violent attacks on civilians, invasion, occupation, war, rebellion and torture.
Why do you think Dennis Kelly represents violence in his theatre? KEY THEMES AND QUESTIONS TO EXPLORE
Dennis Kelly treats themes common to us all: love, death, violence, power, inequality, ecology. What is unique about Kelly is how he grafts these timeless themes on to the everyday lives of people in average, recognisable settings in contemporary Britain. • Fear. Why do the characters in DNA nd their lives frightening? Why might they nd the world frightening? • Violence. The violence in the play isn’t shown – we’re told about it. How can you use lighting or sound to convey it? • DNA and nature. Which characters would you describe as ‘chimps’? Which would you describe as ‘bonobos’? Or are humans not that clear-cut?
• Fate and transformation. Which characters in
DNA break the cycle of violence?
SETTING AND STAGE DESIGN
Kelly gives no indication of the decade or locality in which the play is set, although we can assume, from references to the names of supermarkets or brands of sweets, that it is the UK. DNA is set in a street, eld and wood, and alternates quickly between settings. This means you are encouraged to nd symbolic, imaginative ways to conjure a bustling public street, open eld and shadowy wood. How would you depict the street, eld and woods for the audience? What colours and textures would you use? ANALYSING CHARACTERS
When analysing characters or preparing to play them, consider their relationship within their pair, and with the wider group. • While Jan and Mark are not main characters, they play the important role of opening each of the four sections of the play, or ‘acts’. In pairs, practise Jan and Mark’s
‘curtain-raisers’. See if you can ‘speak as one’. • John Tate and Lou. Lou is a minor character, her presence serving mainly to illustrate John Tate’s dominance over her and the rest of the gang. Why do you think John Tate is the only character with a surname?
• Leah and Phil are DNA’s central pairing. Their relationship might appear dysfunctional, since no matter what Leah does, she gets no reaction from Phil.
However, their dynamic also works, since he provides a sounding board for her numerous philosophical and sociological theories, and she provides him with the company he evidently misses when she is gone. What is the signi cance of Phil’s eating?
For more resources watch the Dennis Kelly and Clare Finburgh Delijani Q&A at
