Somewhere Curriculum Guide

Somewhere

By Matthew Lopez

About the play: In 1959, West Side Story is storming Broadway, and a movie version is on the way. It fuels the show-business dreams of Inez Candelaria, who works as an usher but hopes that her children will succeed on the other side of the footlights. The author of The Whipping Man brings us this captivating, dance-filled saga of a Puerto-Rican family in New York. Featuring Tony Award-winner Priscilla Lopez.

Grade Recommendation: 9th grade and up Content Advisory: Contains adult language, alcohol use, brief sexual reference Topics  History of performing arts and Broadway  Dance  Racism  Immigration and first generation experiences

Themes  Pursuing One’s Dreams  Family Loyalty  Overcoming Obstacles  Keeping Secrets

Student Performance Series dates (both at 10:30 a.m.):  Tuesday, April 29  Thursday, May 1 Curriculum Standards Student Performance Series performances and workshops provide unique opportunities for experiential learning and support various combinations of Common Core standards in English Language Arts. They may also support standards in other subject areas such as Social Studies and History, depending on each play’s subject matter.

The experience of seeing and discussing Somewhere provides classroom links to the following Common Core standards in English Language Arts: Reading Literature: Key Ideas and Details.  Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme (Grades 9-10).  Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain (Grades 11-12).  Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text (Grades 11-12).

Reading Literature: Craft and Structure.  Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise (Grades 9-10).

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Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact (Grades 11-12).

Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement) (Grades 11-12).

Reading Literature: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.  Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play

by Shakespeare) (Grades 9-10).  Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.) (Grades 11-12).

Student Performance Series workshops also support the following Connecticut state standards in Theatre and Dance for grades 9-12: Theatre  1: Creating. Students will create theatre through improvising, writing and refining scripts.  6: Connections. Students will make connections between theatre, other disciplines and daily life.  7: Analysis, Criticism and Meaning. Students will analyze, critique and construct meanings from works of theatre.  8: History and Cultures. Students will demonstrate an understanding of context by analyzing and comparing theatre in various cultures and historical periods.

Dance  3: Meaning. Students will understand how dance creates and communicates meaning.  7: Connections. Students will make connections between dance, other disciplines and daily life.

About the Student Performance Series: Our Student Performance Series packages include  1 free chaperone ticket for every 20 student tickets  Free study guides that include historical context, thematic analysis, questions for discussion, and suggestions for learning activities (emailed to you in PDF format).  A talk back immediately following the performance. Hosted by a member of our education department staff and featuring actors from the play, the talk back provides students with the opportunity to ask questions and express their initial reactions to the play-going experience through dialogue with artists and each other.

Pre- and post-show workshops are also available for an additional fee. Designed to help integrate the play into your curriculum, our interactive workshops are led by a Hartford Stage teaching artist who visits your classroom and gets students on their feet to explore the play’s major themes, plot points, and connections to history and culture.

To book tickets for the Student Performance Series, please contact Chelsea Caplan, Education Sales Coordinator at (860) 520-7244 or ccaplan@hartfordstage.org.