2019/20 SEASON 17 BORDER CROSSINGS
LESSON PLAN DAY 1: LEARN ABOUT THE HISTORY OF SOLO PERFORMANCE, BEGIN WRITING PROCESS Mini Lesson: What is Theatre? Start the unit by having a class discussion on your students experience with theatre. First, ask students to identify an experience that they had with theatre (seeing a live performance, watching a play online, watching a magic show as a kid, etc.). Where were you? Were you performing or watching someone else perform? What type of theatre was it? How did you feel when experiencing or watching the performance? Have them share their theatre experience with a partner. After pair sharing, come back together as a class and ask for a few examples. Next, have students brainstorm and share out things they believe are “elements of theatre” or in other words, what you need to have for live theatre to happen. Some examples include actors, an audience, props, costumes, etc. Write these down on the board as students share out. Once all student suggestions are on the board, write down and review the six elements of theatre from Aristotle’s Poetics. Aristotle’s Poetics was one of the first texts on dramatic theory written around 350 BCE. The six elements of theatre from the Poetics include: 1. Plot: what happens in the play 2. Character: who it happens to 3. Thought: the themes of the play 4. Diction: the type of speech used in the play 5. Music: the sound (this can be what we know as music or sound effects) in the play 6. Spectacle: the visual aspects of a play (ex. Costumes, props, set, masks) Ask students how the suggestions they gave fit into the six elements of theatre. As a follow-up question, ask if they believe these elements have expanded today. MAIN LESSON Part 1: Introduction to Solo Performance Pass out Handout 1: Timeline of Solo Performance to students. Tell students that they should annotate the handout and take notes on the document when they read through. Have a brief class discussion where students share out what stood out to them in the timeline. Explain the difference between a solo performance and a monologue to students. A monologue is a speech given by a single character that can be in a play with multiple characters or a solo performance. A solo performance can have monologue where just one character is talking, but also can have dialogue between multiple characters played by the same person.
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