Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler

By Henrik Ibsen About the play: In Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen created an unmistakably modern character and play that were ahead of their time. As the newly married Hedda struggles to accept the parameters of 19th century domesticity, she finds her yearning for excitement and adventure stifled by her society’s expectations.

Unable to live the life she imagines, Hedda’s darker impulses take control. Is she a victim? Villain?

Both? Hedda Gabler explores the tensions between our public personas and the realities hidden underneath. Renowned Canadian director Jennifer Tarver helms the revival of this Ibsen masterpiece.

Grade Recommendation: 9th grade and up Content Advisory: Contains some suggestive language and depictions of alcoholism and suicide.

Topics:  Gender Roles  Psychology  Realism  Modern Drama

Themes:  Living a Heroic Life  Manipulation and Control  Freedom and Self-Fulfillment  The Dual Nature of Art (Creation and Destruction)

Student Performance date:  Thursday, September 20 at 10:30 a.m.

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/or reading and studying Hedda Gabler provides classroom links to the following Common Core standards in English Language Arts: 

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Reading Literature: Key Ideas and Details 3. 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 themes (Grades 9-10). Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop related elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed) (Grades 11-12).

Reading Literature: Craft and Structure 5. 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). 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).

Reading Literature: Craft and Structure 6. Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature (Grades 9-10). Analyze a case in which grasping point of view required distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement) (Grades 11-12).

Student Performance Series workshops also support the following Connecticut state standards in Theatre for grades 9-12:  2: Acting. Students will act by developing, communicating and sustaining characters.  5: Researching and Interpreting. Students will research, evaluate and apply cultural and historical information to make artistic choices.  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.

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.