Limelight TEACHER LITERARY & CURRICULUM GUIDE 2008-2009
BY Richard Nelson DIRECTED BY
Jonathan Moscone B.U. Theatre World Premiere September 5 - October 5, 2008
HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY IN RESIDENCE AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
huntington theatre company in residence at boston university Peter DuBois
Michael Maso
Norma Jean Calderwood Artistic Director
Managing Director
STAFF This Teacher Literary and Curriculum Guide was prepared for the Huntington Theatre Company by Marisa Jones, Education Consultant With contributions by Donna Glick, Director of Education Lynne Johnson, Associate Director of Education Charles Haugland, Stone Literary Fellow Elisha Sawyer, Education Department Intern Melissa Wagner-O’Malley, Layout
How Shakespeare Won the West by Richard Nelson Directed by Jonathan Moscone Table of Contents 2 Synopsis 3 Richard Nelson: An American Iconoclast 5 Richard Nelson: Master of Storytelling 7 Shakespeare in the States: The Bard Takes a Democratic Turn
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Eureka! The Gold Rush is on: 1849-1864
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Chronology of the Era
11 Audience Etiquette 11 Characters & Objectives 12 Preparation for How Shakespeare Won the West 13 Open Response & Writing Assignments 14 Mastery Assessment 15 Arts Assessment 15 Related Works and Resources 16 Lesson Plans 16 For Further Exploration 18 Handout 1: Vocabulary 19 Handout 2: Troupe Movement 20 Curriculum Framework Ties
The production co-sponsors: Bill and Linda McQuillan Kate and Al Merck Student Matinee Sponsors: TJX Companies The Peabody Foundation (access for matinees)
SYNOPSIS
How Shakespeare Won the West I n the thriving New York theatre scene of the mid-19th century, two actors-turned-tavern-owners in the theatre district host a stranger with an amazing story of California, Shakespeare, and gold. The tale is tall, but so thrilling it must be true. As young Buck Buchanan relates stories he’s heard about California’s Gold Rush, Thomas and Alice Calhoun suddenly decide to revise their own life story and return to the stage in California. They’ll sell their tavern — The Bard — to buy a wagon, costumes, and supplies. They’ll form an acting company and travel west to find the rewards and incredible riches they’ve heard are there for the taking. A succession of bit players, characters, and a disgraced star soon stumble into their lives and into the Thomas Jefferson Calhoun Star Troupe. One thousand miles of the overland journey pass without serious incident — until the troupe comes upon a small city’s worth of other wagons, all awaiting the spring thaw of the Missouri River to continue west. It seems they aren’t the only entertainers en route to the golden promise of El Dorado, but the almost-unbelievable accounts of Shakespeare-starved miners sustain them. The Bard’s plays are apparently so well-loved that California gold rushers recite the lines along with the actors performing them, and celebratory prospectors rain pouches of gold dust, gold nuggets, and silver coins down after each wildly successful performance. After the thaw, the Midwestern plains, sheathed in miles of tall grasses, separate the band of actors from other wagon trains as hardships befall them. A series of unlikely events threatens to tear the company apart, yet still, they journey on. By the time they arrive in California the company’s number is diminished, and nothing is quite the way the stories foretold. When Thomas finally manages to arrange a show in a lean-to at the back of a saloon, they find no enthusiasm for Shakespeare, or theatre, in the unruly, hard-drinking miners. No bags of gold are thrown. Almost no audience can be found, and it turns out their hard-won playing space may once have been a latrine. Miraculously, a local producer takes the troupe in hand and sets them on a successful course with his rousing adaptation of Hamlet — a version in which no one dies. The happy ending is a hit that offers the troupe a reversal of their dire finances, and the show plays on. – KG
Grand opening announcement for the Union Pacific Railroad; courtesy of the Library of Congress
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RICHARD NELSON
An American Iconoclast R
ichard Nelson is one of a small number of playwrights who has made his living almost solely by writing plays (and occasionally directing), beginning in 1975 with his first professionally produced play, The Killing of Yablonski, at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. In 2005, Nelson took his first academic appointment, assuming the chairmanship of the playwriting program at Yale School of Drama — a
position he held until 2008. “It’s weird,” he said of working for someone other than himself. “I didn’t know what direct deposit was. I haven’t received a [regular] paycheck since 1981.” As an emerging playwright in the early 1980s, Nelson worked as a dramaturg with internationally acclaimed directors David Jones of Britain and Liviu Ciulei of Romania at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.
Richard Nelson
European and other contemporary influences are evidenced in many of Nelson’s plays. In a co-authored book with Jones, Making Plays: The Writer-Director Relationship in the Theatre Today (1995), Nelson stated, “the relationship between the director and the playwright is the most life-giving for the playwright. You’re dealing with people who are very smart and articulate and manipulative. Your challenge is great in dealing with that very live force.” His work has seen success on Broadway, Off Broadway, in the regional theatres, and abroad — especially in London’s West End and Royal National Theatre, where he made his artistic home for many years. His plays and awards are numerous: James Joyce’s The Dead — Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, which he also directed (seen at the Huntington in the 2001 - 2002 season); Goodnight Children Everywhere — Olivier Award for Best Play (London); The Vienna Notes — OBIE Award for Playwriting; Principia Scriptoriae — London Time Out Award; Two Shakespearean Actors — Tony Award nomination for Best Play; Some Americans Abroad — Olivier Award nomination for Best Comedy; and Franny’s Way — Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Play. Nelson also won a special OBIE Award for his contributions as literary manager to the innovative programming at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Theatre Company (1979-1980 season). Nelson’s themes often tend toward revelations of culture shock or social clashes, whether in his comedies such as How Shakespeare Won the West and Some Americans Abroad, or in the more quietly serious plays such as Goodnight Children Everywhere and Franny’s Way. With so many plays produced in the United Kingdom, Nelson’s droll humor often showcases British/American culture and class differences, often to hilarious effect. “Having lived both in America and in England, he has acquired a sort of mid-Atlantic accent in his writing,” wrote John Simon in New York Magazine. “This equips him with both dryly English quips and juicy American humor.” The Royal Shakespeare Company named Nelson an honorary associate artist and has produced a number of his plays in Stratford-upon-Avon and London. In the Limelight Literary and Curriculum 2008-2009
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The cast of Huntington Theatre Company’s production of James Joyce’s The Dead; photo: T. Charles Erickson
Nelson’s droll humor often showcases British/American culture and class differences, often to hilarious effect. U.S., he has received the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Master Playwright Award, a Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Writing Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and National Endowment for the Arts playwriting fellowships. When Nelson received the Pels Award in 2007, he used the forum for his keynote address as a pulpit, declaring, “I am arguing for a theatre where the mindset is not to fix new plays, but to solve them.” Except for specific or well-defined reasons, Nelson decries the idea that playwrights or their plays require “help.” He wants theatre professionals to grapple with plays’ inconsistencies, not try to fix them, smoothing out dramatic tension and causing authorial intention to become unrecognizable. It’s a 4
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viewpoint that has brought no small measure of controversy to Nelson in play-development circles, but he has never been an artist to shy away from strong opinions. His bold stances in regard to his own work, and the work of the American theatre in general, have helped to make Nelson one of this country’s strongest advocates for the power of the playwright in the rehearsal and production process. In addition to his excellent original plays, Nelson has a deft hand with adaptations of classics. These include August Strindberg’s Miss Julie and The Father; Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, The Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard (seen at the Huntington in 2007), and The Wood Demon; and many others over the past 30 years. The New York
Times critic Charles Isherwood called Nelson’s adaptation of The Cherry Orchard, “brisk, unfussily funny and steeped in just enough emotion to give it a gloss of tender feeling without drowning it in teardrops.” Nelson is currently working on a new translation of Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, which will premiere in early 2009 at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art as the inaugural production of the Court Theatre’s commissioning program for new classics. Richard Nelson’s work for film and television includes the screenplay for Ethan Frome (Miramax Films), and Sensibility and Sense and The End of a Sentence (both for American Playhouse). He also has written numerous radio plays for the BBC. – KG
RICHARD NELSON:
Master of Storytelling Richard Nelson is many things: a Tony, Olivier, and OBIE Award-winning playwright with a decades long career, a respected translator, a director, an associate artist at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the head of the M.F.A. playwriting program at Yale Drama School. After bringing us a haunting play with music, James Joyce’s The Dead, and a beautifully poignant and humorous translation of The Cherry Orchard, he returns to the Huntington this season with How Shakespeare Won the West, a taste of something very different. Artistic Associate M. Bevin O’Gara spoke with the writer about his love of actor history and the Boston University Theatre.
You’ve said that Broadway musicals were a significant part of your childhood. Did they initially spark your interest in the theatre?
Looking back on the ground you’ve covered in your lengthy career, can you draw any predictions about where you might be headed?
Yes, they did. My mother had been a dancer, and she took me to a lot of Broadway musicals. So the first fifteen or twenty times I went to the theatre were to see musicals, on Broadway or on the road. We traveled around a bit, and we lived in Detroit for a while — we saw a lot of shows in Detroit that were trying out.
I can, just because I’ve started to work on something that’s crystallized for me. I recently wrote a play, Frank’s Home, about the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s a play that attempts to bring two strands of my writing together. One is a sort of infinite yet domestic kind of writing, intense and somewhat influenced by Strindberg, that can be seen in my last four or so plays — from Goodnight Children Everywhere to Madame Melville, Franny’s Way, and Rodney’s Wife. Then there is a more overtly social playwriting of the type I did earlier in my career — plays that dealt with societal issues in a more obvious way. Now I’ve tried to do both of those things in one play. I’m at a point in my life where I’m trying to bring the disparate threads of what I’ve been doing together.
How did you find your way to the playwriting side of things in particular? It was a process of elimination. When I was very young I did a little acting — I was bad and I hated it and it was really scary, but there’s nothing else for a young person to do. You can’t become a director when you’re fifteen, or a set designer, or whatever. So if you really love the theatre you think, I’ll write a play.
You’ve cited Sam Shepard, Edward Bond, Bertolt Brecht, and William Faulkner among your influences. Who else might you count in that club? I’ve been writing a long time, and at different times in my life different people have been very influential. Most recently, it’s been Chekhov. Over the last ten years, Strindberg has been a great influence on me, as well as Ibsen.
The giants of modern theatre. There’s a reason why. They’re incredibly interesting, and they’re often misunderstood, so there’s a chance of rediscovering them for yourself.
What drew you to telling the story of How Shakespeare Won the West at this time? I’ve had this play on my desk in one form or another for probably for about eight years. I initially got involved because of an obituary I read in the The New York Times. A very tiny obituary for a woman, a scholar, and the obituary said she had written a scholarly book called How Shakespeare Won the West. And I thought, “Wow, that’s a great title.” It was about the Gold Rush and it was a very scholarly book about some of the things happening during the Gold Rush in terms of performance. Now I had written a play called Two Shakespearean Actors, which is set at almost the same time (in 1849 during the Astor Place Riots) and is also about theatre.
It’s a world that I was interested in and one I knew about and I saw the opportunity of talking about America and doing it in the context of a group of actors, going their journey with them.
How does Two Shakespearean Actors tie into the themes of How Shakespeare Won the West? Two Shakespearean Actors was written in the very late 1990s. The Royal Shakespeare Company commissioned it and was done there successfully. It was done on Broadway produced by Lincoln Center Theater. It’s a very, very big show with nearly 30 actors and it talked about the significance of art. It’s the story of a theatrical feud that precipitated a riot that killed more than 30 people and wounded 100 more. It deals with the relationship between art and society and how art and artists are perceived and how they perceive themselves and their relationship to society. That’s a theme I involve in all of my work. In HSWTW, I exported this theme too, but in a gentler way. It’s very, very narrative and deals with the hopes and aspirations of actors and their subsequent journey across America in relation to those aspirations and those hopes.
In the time HSWTW takes place, Shakespeare was viewed as much more accessible to audiences. What in your mind has changed? Why do you feel like people today see it as more of an elitist venture? One, in terms of it being so potent back then, I think that they’re just great stories. There are great, great stories in Shakespeare. I think today the language gets between people and the plays, between the people and the stories sometimes. And so they feel it’s sort of a hard slog to figure out. But I think something also changed. I have a book called High Art, Low Art, just talking about how we divided high art and low art in this country when in fact they’re mixed at times. Crowds of people would go and see Edwin Forrest in Macbeth and it’s very hard to imagine that existing today. How that transpired is complicated. There are lots and lots of reasons — television, film, things like that. Narratives are not necessarily language-based; the visual images can create the narratives. Generations grow up with non-language Limelight Literary and Curriculum 2008-2009
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based editions. Back in 1849 people, any educated person, would sit around and read the Bible and that language, in the King James version, was very much the mode of high language, Shakespeare’s language. It wasn’t quite so off-putting, I guess.
You’ve chosen to use the ensemble to tell the story versus the more traditional, single narrator helping the audience along with the journey. Where did that idea come from and why is it important for this story? It’s very, very important because it’s a play about a group of people. It’s not about an individual or any one story. It’s important that these actors are not successful. One of them is successful but he is in big trouble back East, so he has to join the group, but by and large these are journeymen. I wanted to tell a journeymen story, a story of the aspirations of actors who are indomitable and I wanted to do a play about a company. The first part of the play is about making the company and the second part is about that company’s journeying to their conclusion. So what the real voice of the play needed was to be the voice of the company and that seemed to be a multi-narrator approach.
How did you research this play? The book I mentioned lays down the facts: there were a lot of actors in the Gold Rush who performed Shakespeare. The time that keeps popping up for me is the mid-late 1840s to early 1850s. I’m not quite sure why, but that period of time really interests me. It became an exploration for me. The very first thing was to, once again, plunge into the territory I had mined in Two Shakespearean Actors which was about New York City theatre during the time. In the very beginning of HSWTW there’s a good deal about what’s playing in New York at that time, so I started there since I was already familiar with it. Then there was the research of various travels across the country.
You use specific works by Shakespeare in this play. What was it about these particular plays that you felt enhanced your story? Some of the plays came up in my mind for different themes. In one instance, when two people are rehearsing Katharine and 6
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Will LeBow and Kate Burton in the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of The Cherry Orchard; photo: T. Charles Erickson
Petrucchio in Taming of the Shrew, it’s a very famous scene, and the theme of wooing is clear. In the plat the young girl is trying to replace the actress both on stage and with the husband. I wanted to mine a series of ironies about how just rehearsing a play can have a greater meaning in one’s own life. I looked for those moments where the meaning of the play has a deeper or more personal reverberation to how it all comes about. The idea of King Lear and the Indians came from me trying to show the universality very deep within the stories of Shakespeare that crosses border and language and time. The Chief is looking for something so mythic that it would transcend and be conveyed to other cultures, and I felt that tied in very nicely. I was looking for those kinds of things all the way through. Each one specifically tied to an actor or character development except, of course, in the early part with the little girls doing bits from Shakespearean tragedies, that was just pure farce.
There was a need for entertainment, for Shakespeare in particular, out in California during the Gold Rush. What do you think it was about the lifestyle that made these plays so important and so riveting to people? In the early days of the Gold Rush, the miners were quite educated because for the most part it was the educated people who could travel. They weren’t stuck on their farms having to plant or grow their crops;
they had the mobility to rush out to try to deal with this Gold Rush. You’re already getting an educated population who were all alone, nothing to do, standing in water all day, doing grunge work, and anything to lift their hearts and souls, or made them think more or reminded them of the things left behind was welcomed.
Your play begins a new chapter in the Huntington’s history. After being a favorite here, what excites you most about being here at this time? It’s wonderful to be back. The Boston University Theatre is a beautiful, beautiful theatre. I love that space, I think it’s a great size, and it has a great warmth. You’re never far away from the stage and yet it’s a large house. It has a history about it, too — you feel like you’re walking into a place with some weight to it. I’ve very much enjoyed the audiences of the shows I’ve done there. It was great to work under Nicholas Martin, who was the first who brought me to the Huntington. I did a translation at The Public Theater a few years ago when I first met Peter DuBois and I very, very much like him. It’s a great honor to open someone’s term. It’s something special to open a whole regime with a play about the indomitable spirit of a group of actors. It seems like it has a fitting tone at the beginning of Peter’s time at the Huntington. Note: Some of these questions are taken from a previous interview with Richard Nelson.
SHAKESPEARE IN THE STATES
The Bard Takes a Democratic Turn W
illiam Shakespeare was the most popular playwright in 19th-century America, 300 years after his plays first appeared onstage in England. His plays had been staged here as early as 1750, attracting broad audiences. European commentators as diverse as Alexis de Tocqueville and Oscar Wilde noted that the pioneers had volumes of Shakespeare and the King James Bible among their few precious books. Performers and audiences alike knew Shakespeare’s plays, which were taught in school as recitation. At that time, an oratorical mode of delivery was prevalent in most entertainment. Productions of Shakespeare’s work were regularly supplemented with other forms of amusement. Two favorite acts of a play might be performed with variety songs, slapstick farces, or illusions and magic tricks inserted between acts. All types of attractions were received with equal enthusiasm: audiences recited speeches along with actors, sang the popular songs, stamped, whistled, and clapped in time to dances, minstrel shows, and other novelty acts. The work of the Bard carried no strains of elitist or high art with which it would later come to be associated. As immigrants from every profession entered the United States, Shakespearean actors from England arrived, too, eager to join the numerous troupes that toured the country. American theatrical families such as the Starks, Chapmans, Bakers, and most famously, the Booths, were the earliest stars of the West. Their reputations were made in East Coast cities, England, and even Australia. Junius Brutus Booth, English by birth and education, was the greatest actor of the time, a genius, and a mentally unstable alcoholic. He and his son, Edwin Booth, dominated the American stage for a halfcentury. Edwin, too, was an alcoholic. Wild and undisciplined, he drank constantly, gambled, rode his horse like a madman, and was beset by bad luck. In California, the
Edwin Booth as Iago from Shakespeare’s Othello
whole town of Placerville burned a week after he played there, then Georgetown and Diamond Springs suffered the same fate. The Nevada City theatre went up in flames the day before he arrived, and the neighboring town of Grass Valley burned, too. Edwin became known as “The Fiery Star.” His brother June was an important actor-manager who produced the best Shakespeare in California. A final family member, John Wilkes Booth, remained in the East, and found infamy as the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Stars and leading players had colorful stock pieces of costumes such as tights, capes, swords, and plumes that were worn for any role. McKean “Buck” Buchanan, a real-life actor who appears in character — as himself — in Richard Nelson’s How Shakespeare Won the West, distinguished his wildly popular Macbeth by sauntering onstage wearing a flowing cape with Western riding boots, yellow gauntlets, and
a slouch hat. Famously popular child actors Little Ellen and Kate Bateman presented major Shakespearean scenes clothed in crowns, ermine, and tiny, fitted armor to play Richard III (Ellen) and Richmond (Kate). These historic girls, too, are recalled in Nelson’s play, another case of either art imitating life or the truth being stranger than fiction. In California theatres and throughout the West, plays’ historical and textual accuracy were considered unimportant, but Shakespeare was still taken seriously. Audiences were rowdy but not uneducated, and amateurish performances garnered a rain of refuse instead of applause. Poor actors were occasionally driven from town, only to appear soon after in the next venue on the circuit. But bad actors’ reputations were wellknown by the also-transient miners. Richard III was a ubiquitous choice of melodramatic amateurs. One determined poseur, Hugh McDermott, called himself a master tragedian and played Richard to an unhappy but well-equipped audience in Sacramento. “Cabbages, carrots, pumpkins, potatoes, a wreath of vegetables, a sack of flour and one of soot, a dead goose…simultaneously made their appearance upon the stage,” the Union newspaper reported. The stabbed King Henry rose from death and fled the stage when hit by a “well-aimed potato,” and McDermott as Richard exited the stage with “his head enveloped in a halo of vegetable glory.” A week later in Nevada City, McDermott’s Richard “was interred under a fusillade of vegetables.” The rough young male audiences of Forty-Niners loved forceful delivery, energetic action, and powerful conflict in Shakespeare’s tragedies. Their own lives of hardship and epic struggle mirrored those of characters like Richard, Iago, Lear, and King Henry. Violent conflict laced with deeply felt emotions in the plays was not so different from daily life in towns such as Limelight Literary and Curriculum 2008-2009
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Poker Flat, Hangtown, Hell’s Delight, and Skunk Gulch. But the miners were sentimental in their reception of female players. Alexina Baker’s Juliet earned her $30,000 in gold dust from the adoring audience. But many actors failed, as did thousands of miners who didn’t strike it rich. Early Western stages were primitive, makeshift, and dangerous affairs. Rats and fleas infested all buildings. Nevada City’s Dramatic Hall was formerly a barn, Grass Valley’s theatre was a room above a saloon, and Rough and Ready’s venue was the second floor of a hotel. Saloons and hotels were the only buildings that could accommodate audiences. In Richard Nelson’s play, the saloon’s attached privy became its theatre — not as far-fetched as one might imagine. In 1849, the Eagle in Sacramento was California’s first real theatre, built of canvas, wood, and tin as an addition to a saloon. Its stage was packing boxes lit by kerosene lanterns. Candles stuck in beer bottles were often used as footlights. Horse blankets were hung as wings or to cover holes in the stage’s playing surface. The floor was dirt, with seats of rough planks placed on beer kegs. A balcony, reached by an outdoor ladder, was reserved for modest ladies who didn’t want to enter the saloon. A flood washed the entire structure away within three months. San Francisco was California’s theatrical center, with three to seven theatres in 1850, depending on the outcome of nearconstant fires. The impresario Thomas Maguire built three successive Jenny Lind Theatres between 1850 and 1852. The first burned down in six months, the second after only two weeks, and the third was sold to become City Hall before it burned to the ground. By 1853, Maguire opened the gas-lit Metropolitan, which didn’t burn down until 1857. He replaced it with the Opera House, his most elegant theatre among the many he opened throughout California and Nevada. Operating theatre companies was a gamble of great profits and great losses, as was every other enterprise in the West. But as the actors find at the conclusion of How Shakespeare Won the West, the show must go on — and it did. – KG 8
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Gold mining in California; courtesy of the New York Public Library
EUREKA!
The Gold Rush is On: 1849-1864 P icture this: a wagon train, full of healthy, strong, and virtuous pioneer families, snaking its way across sunny prairies en route to the West. This idealized image couldn’t be further from the serious dangers and harsh realities faced by the “Forty-Niners” during the California Gold Rush. The truth of those journeys is nearly too extreme to be believed but for the multiple accounts that the variety of ills met along the way. To get to California, most men traveled overland in trains of fifteen to twenty wagons, each pulled by teams of oxen, with three to five men per wagon. Few women made the trip. Rarely did horses or the occasional donkey cross the country. One account notes that 30,000 men gathered at launch points in early 1849, waiting for spring to enable travel across the plains and mountains. No roads led the way for wagoneers, who choked on dust in the searing heat of summer and dragged their possessions through deep mud during spring and fall storms. As the gold rushers traveled through Indian territories, they were often raided by night and attacked during the day. Bears, wolves, and poisonous snake attacks were not uncommon. For those who could afford passage, travel by sea through the Isthmus of Panama (then part of Columbia) or around Cape Horn was considered a far better option. A letter survives from a man who was aboard the steamer Panama with 200 other fortune-hunters on
May 11, 1849 from New York. At the Isthmus of Panama, he describes being rowed in canoes by “natives,” and finding the scenery, monkeys, and parrots “very enjoyable.” The party apparently left the steamer and camped in tents for several weeks, then went on to Panama to seek passage up the Pacific coast. By this time, several men had died, but the rest bought passage on a German ship that sailed south to the equator before turning west. They arrived in San Francisco Harbor 85 days later. Though sea voyages were, in many ways, easier than overland passage, they had their own perils. To reach Sacramento, the original passengers of the Panama boarded a schooner that ran aground and nearly sunk on the Sacramento River. Some men disembarked but nearly drowned. Those onboard were swamped in the boat. After several tidal swells, the boat came loose and the party traveled for a week, but again ran aground more than once before arriving at Sacramento. There, they hired an ox team to traverse ten miles to Sutter’s Fort. On the fourth day, they arrived in the dark, but awoke the next morning in the midst of the diggings, and joined in. The entire journey had taken months and it was late autumn. Men from every walk of life abandoned their families, homes, and jobs to seek a fortune in the gold fields. Many considered the trip temporary, expecting to make money for a year or two then return home to their families to live an easy life.
By June of 1848, The California Star reported that “every seaport as far south as San Diego, and every interior town, and nearly every rancho from the base of the mountains in which the gold has been found, to the Mission of San Luis, south, has become suddenly drained of human beings.” Where had they gone? Americans, Californians, Oregonians, Indians, and Sandwich Islanders, men, women, and children were engaged in “gold washing,” as the panning process was called. All along the Pacific coast, towns and settlements emptied of all but a handful of men, leaving women and children behind to fend for themselves. In fewer than six months, more than 1,000 people had begun to prospect in an area 100 miles long and twenty miles wide. In Benicia (near San Francisco), the doctor was the only male in town during 1848 and 1849. While huge discoveries were made by a few lucky Forty-Niners (called such because the rush hit its stride in 1849), the yield per day per person was estimated at $15 to $20. One man tallied $42 for the low week of a month and $112 for the highest, with $61 and $82 the other weeks. In today’s dollars, a monthly total of about $6,800. Prices were exorbitant as people tried to profit by selling goods and necessities to miners. A barrel of flour cost $125 ($2,861 in today’s dollars) and butter $200 ($4,577). Gambling, a constant pastime along with drinking, at $5 or $10 a game ($115 to $225 today), meant that men made or lost thousands of dollars in a night. One man wrote in a letter, “There is a great deal of sin and wickedness going on here, stealing, lying, swearing, drinking, gambling, and murdering…. Almost every public house is a place for gambling, and this appears to be the greatest evil that prevails.” The poor and limited diet of the FortyNiners resulted in scurvy, rickets, and all manner of disease. With no medical care available, almost any illness quickly became life-threatening. Disappointments and difficulties were also known to make a man become deranged or die. Lawlessness meant many disputes ended in murder, and duels to the death were common. Civilization only came to California as the Gold Rush waned, replaced by mining companies with hired employees. – KG
Chronology of the Era 1846 May - The Mexican-American War disputed claims to the independent Republic of Texas and the Mexicancontrolled New Mexico and California, along with other claims. June - The U.S. acquired the Oregon Territory in a treaty with Great Britain. The California Republic raised its Bear Flag in Sonoma under William B. Ide as President; its American population was 700. September - The first American election in California was held in Yerba Buena. The population was 200; fewer than 100 were eligible voters.
1847 January - Yerba Buena’s name was changed to San Francisco. February - Survivors of the Donner Party were found after being trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains since October while en route to California’s gold fields. Some had resorted to cannibalism when their food ran out. March - American troops captured Vera Cruz, Mexico. April - A San Francisco census counted seventy-nine buildings. September - American troops captured Mexico City.
1848 January - Gold was discovered by James Wilson Marshall at John A. Sutter’s Mill in Coloma. February - The Mexican-American War ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. Mexico ceded land in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and California to the U.S. April - The first American public school in California opened in San Francisco.
May - Sam Brannon waved a bottle of gold dust in the streets of San Francisco shouting “Gold! Gold! Gold from American River!” The Gold Rush was born. June - The California Star ceased publication because the staff all left for the gold fields. More than 12,000 men had already crossed the Mississippi River en route to California. August - The New York Herald printed news of the gold discovery and the Gold Rush spread across the U.S. November - The Star and Californian newspaper closed when employees quit to rush to the gold fields.
1849 January - The Star and Californian is restarted and renamed the Alta California, becoming the first daily newspaper in California. April - More than 60,000 men and nearly 2,000 women had arrived in San Francisco. June - The Panama arrived in San Francisco Bay, joining 200 abandoned ships whose crews had rushed to the gold fields. October-November - A California state constitution was approved by voters, the governor was Peter H. Burnett, and the state motto was “Eureka!” December - The first great fire in San Francisco destroyed $1 million worth of property. San Francisco’s population swelled to an estimated 100,000, including 35,000 who came by sea, 3,000 sailors who deserted their ships, and 42,000 who came overland. Limelight Literary and Curriculum 2008-2009
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The 1850s brought constant threat of fire, frequent earthquakes, extreme lawlessness, and vigilanteeism, including public hangings and numerous prison- and jail-breaks. The population of all cities near gold discoveries exploded.
1850 January-February - San Francisco’s Fire Department was formed. May - A second great fire in San Francisco destroyed three city blocks with an estimated $4 million worth of property and 300 buildings. June - San Francisco Daily Herald began publication. In the third great fire in San Francisco, 300 more buildings were destroyed causing $5 million damage. A 500-pound grizzly bear was caught near the Mission Dolores in San Francisco. July - The California Courier newspaper was established. August - The Evening Picayune newspaper was established. September - California was admitted to the Union as the 31st state. The first issue of La Gazette Republicaine appeared. The fourth great fire in San Francisco caused only $500,000 damage — the same district had burned in a previous fire so only 150 one-story buildings were destroyed. December - A fifth great fire in San Francisco caused $1 million in damages. The newspaper Public Balance was established.
1851 May - A sixth great fire in San Francisco caused more damage than all the preceding ones. The wind had the ferocity of a hurricane; the fire could be seen one hundred miles at sea; and it burned for ten hours. Nearly 2000 houses and eighteen blocks in the business 10
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Wagon train heading West by W.H. Jackson
district were destroyed. The decimated area extended three-fourths of a mile from north to south and a third of a mile from east to west. The damage was estimated at $12 million. June - Another great fire destroyed ten full blocks and six partial blocks. City Hall, purchased for $150,000 and improved at even greater cost, was destroyed. The loss was estimated at $3 million. The Jenny Lind Theatre was one of the most valuable buildings destroyed; this was the sixth time its owner had lost everything in a fire. July - There were 465 vessels in port at San Francisco, several hundred were abandoned by crews who deserted their posts to seek gold. The 1860s brought increasing caucasian “civilization” to California, while the Civil War seemed very far-removed . Most immigrant residents were satisfied to fly the American flag (of the North), and had endured enough hardship in their rough country that most were disinclined to participate in the Civil War. California’s white population had swelled to 380,000, outnumbering the native Mexicans, American Indians, and Pacific Islanders.
1860 April - Henry Wallace began the inaugural ride of the Pony Express. He carried a message of congratula-
tion from President Buchanan to the Governor of California; the words had been telegraphed that morning from Washington, D.C., to St. Joseph, MO. The packet reached Sacramento, capital of California, ten days later almost to the hour. It had been carried forward unceasingly. A rider would pick it from his predecessor and ride sixty miles at top speed. Each rider rode six different ponies in his six-hour stint. November - Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th President of the United States.
1861 February - The Confederate States of America rebel government was formed under President Jefferson Davis by seceding Southern states whose number soon reached eleven. March - President Lincoln was inaugurated. April - The American Civil War began. October - The transcontinental telegraph reached California.
1865 April - President Lincoln was assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth May - The American Civil War ended. – KG
BU Theatre by T. Charles Erickson
Audience Etiquette Because many students have not had the opportunity to view live theatre, we are including an audience etiquette section with each literary/curriculum guide. Teachers, please spend time on this subject since it will greatly enhance your students’ experience at the theatre. 1. How does one respond to a live performance of a play, as opposed to when seeing a film at a local cinema? What is the best way to approach viewing a live performance of a play? What things should you look and listen for? 2. What is the audience’s role during a live performance? How do you think audience behavior can affect an actor’s performance?
Crossing the Plains; photo: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
BACKGROUND
& Objectives Use the following synopsis and objectives to inform your teaching of How Shakespeare Won the West. curriculum.
T
empted by stories of fame and fortune, a troupe of New York City actors set out on a journey across the country during the California gold rush, expecting to find miners desperate for Shakespeare. Surviving on the frontier, however, proves even harder than making it in New York. Their crossing is filled with its own Shakespearean moments – tragedy, of course, but also interludes of comedy and romance. For those who reach California, the reality might not be everything they dreamed, but is none-the-less golden in its own way.
3. What do you know about the theatrical rehearsal process? Have you ever participated in one as an actor, singer, director, or technical person?
OBJECTIVES
4. How do costumes, set, lights, sound and props enhance a theatre production?
2. Relate themes and issues in the play to their own lives.
Students will: 1. Identify key issues in How Shakespeare Won the West including: • Harvesting Shakespeare • Civilizing the West • The California Gold Rush’s place in American history 3. Analyze the themes and issues within the historical and social context of the play. 4. Participate in hands-on activities that enhance understanding of the production. 5. Evaluate the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of How Shakespeare Won the West. Limelight Literary and Curriculum 2008-2009
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PREPARATION FOR
HOW SHAKESPEARE WON THE WEST Note to Teachers: Use the following ideas to engage your class in thinking about How Shakespeare Won the West and its major themes.
CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH Gold was discovered at John Sutter’s sawmill in California in January 1848. At first, Sutter tried to keep it a secret because he wanted his workers to finish an important project in which he was heavily invested. Within weeks, however, the secret was out. His workers quickly abandoned their posts, destroying goods and machinery and leaving Sutter’s property vulnerable to theft and vandalism. The resulting “gold rush” became a defining moment in American history, attracting waves of pioneers to settle what we now call the Golden State. Yet many of these pioneers lost as much wealth as they gained, especially as gold became increasingly difficult to find. What would you have done if you were one of Sutter’s employees? What if you were Sutter? When such an important resource is discovered, to whom should it belong?
NEW PLAYS IN THE AMERICAN THEATRE Playwright Richard Nelson, who wrote How Shakespeare Won the West, has managed to do what many modern playwrights cannot: make a living off of his award-winning plays. Nelson believes, however, that the profession of playwriting is under attack. Some theatres will not produce new plays unless they have gone through a series of workshops and staged readings, which effectively means that playwrights must yield power to non-playwrights. Nelson believes that the artist knows best about his or her own work. Do you agree? Should playwriting be a collaborative process? Should actors and directors have the right to change the text of a play before it is pro12
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duced? What is the proper relationship between playwrights and theatres? To find out more about new American play development, research the Huntington Theatre Company’s Playwriting Fellow’s Program at www.huntingtontheatre.org. Begun six years ago, the program supports local/Boston playwrights over a period of two years. There are 8 playwriting fellows currently working with the Huntington Theatre Company at this time. Their new works have graced Huntington stages, as well as theatres across the United States and abroad. Start your research to learn more about the process and challenges of creating new plays at the Huntington Theatre’s website. Share your research and opinions through classroom discussions.
KEY ISSUES Harvesting Shakespeare In a twist on American folklore, the play tells of a direct descendent of Shakespeare who traveled throughout the country planting Shakespeare’s plays in the same way that Johnny Appleseed planted apples. The plays, it is said, grew “freer than they’d ever growed before” and were “bending in the wind’s breezes.” Indeed, Shakespeare’s plays were often adapted and modernized by Western performers. These adaptations were called travesties. Travesties used the plot of a well-known play but created new lines or situations for the characters. In our play, How Shakespeare Won the West, part of George Edgar Rice’s travesty Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: An Old Play in New Garb is performed. Rice updates the play; instead of Hamlet holding a dagger for his famous “To be or not to be” speech, he holds a revolver. Instead of everyone dying, everyone reveals they were just pretending and then sings a song. Travesties were
Portrait of William Shakepeare
immensely popular in vaudeville houses in the 1900s, but today are known mostly by scholars who see them as a brilliant form of parody. But do you believe that the plays had the power that the folktale suggests? Did they “stop erosion” of American culture? Did they bring “warmth and comfort” to a struggling people? Did they bring “knowledge and learning” and promote that great American ideal, the “pursuit of happiness”?
Civilizing the West The pioneers faced many natural hardships as they crossed the country — illness, hunger, bitter winters, and wild animals. But some of their greatest hardships were caused by human beings. The play illustrates this point when the theatre troupe is kidnapped by Native Americans and then religious zealots. These two groups appear to be at war with each other, fighting to preserve and protect their respective cultures. The settlers regard the Native Americans as godless and uncivilized, whereas the Native Americans regard the settlers as sickly and violent. Which group, in your opinion, was more civilized? What could each group have learned from the other?
OPEN RESPONSE & WRITING
Assignments OPEN RESPONSE ASSESSMENT Instructions to the students: Please answer the following as thoroughly as possible in a wellplanned and carefully written paragraph. Remember to use topic sentences and examples from the text. 1. Why is the play entitled How Shakespeare Won the West? 2. Why were the gold miners so desperate for Shakespearean theatre? Can you think of any similarities between their lives and his plays? 3. During a performance of King Lear, the Native American chief is moved to tears and needs no English translation. Why do Shakespeare’s plays have such universal appeal — as the character Alice says, “across worlds, time, languages”? 4. The play is designed to be performed without any intermission. Why would the playwright design it that way? What challenges does it present for the actors? 5. How Shakespeare Won the West could be described as a play about plays. Why do playwrights and actors enjoy telling stories about their own profession?
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS 1. The play claims to be “based on real events.” Are there any scenes in the play that seem unrealistic to you? What makes them hard to believe? 2. How are Native Americans portrayed in the play? Do you think this depiction is fair and accurate? 3. How are Christians portrayed in the play? Do you think this depiction is fair and accurate? 4. Using research, compare the theatre industry in New York today to the
Homesteaders; photo: Courtesy of the New York Public Library
19th-century scene described at the beginning of the play. 5. Select one of the following quotes and discuss it in essay form. “People here don’t deserve those plays.” “That’s not for us to say.” “Her green eyes glowed, her cheeks ruddy; this was not illness, this was life.” (describing Kate’s pregnancy) “[A]ll that we’ve seen — what amazes me the most is the way that it all looks like a stage. One can imagine a scenic
painter on his ladder — .” (describing the American countryside) “God forbids ‘theatre,’ as both a waste of precious time — when one could be working — and as expression of the sin of vanity.” 6. Choose one of the main characters in How Shakespeare Won the West and write a journal entry from his or her perspective, expanding on what we already know. Place the character at a key moment in the play, a time critical to propelling the action of the play forward. Limelight Literary and Curriculum 2008-2009
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MASTERY
Assessment SCENE 1
SCENE 7
1. What major historical event is occurring in the West as the play begins?
15. Who is Kate Denim?
2. In which city does the play begin? What attracts actors to the city? 3. Why did Thomas give up acting? What became his new profession? 4. What forced Alice from the stage?
SCENE 2 5. What is surprising about Buck Buchanan’s description of theatre in the West? 6. In Buck’s story, which famous Shakespearean play is performed for the miners?
SCENE 3 7. What does Buck’s story inspire Thomas and Alice to do? 8. What will be their daughter Susan’s role in the theatre troupe? 9. Why is star actor Hank Daley free to join the troupe?
SCENE 4 10. Why does George Demerest dislike child actors?
SCENE 5
16. How does Kate’s arrival change Susan’s role in the theatre troupe?
SCENE 8 17. Besides acting, what other skills do the actors possess? 18. What sort of person is Kate? How is she regarded by the rest of the troupe?
30. Who is Bill? What does he ask the troupe to do?
SCENE 9
SCENE 15
19. Who does the troupe encounter in West Virginia? Which famous Shakespearean play is she performing?
31. What is the chief’s reaction to King Lear?
SCENE 10
SCENE 16
20. Why has a tent city sprung up in Missouri?
33. Who kidnaps Buck? What is their plan for him?
21. Besides actors, who else is traveling West to entertain the miners?
34. How does Buck reunite with John and Edward?
SCENES 11
SCENES 17
22. What does George keep hearing that no one else hears?
35. Which troupe member dies around the campfire?
23. Where does Thomas go without Alice, and who joins him? 24. What story does Abe tell about Arthur Shakespeare? To whom does he compare Arthur?
11. What are “utility players”? Identified as utility players, Edward and Ruth Oldfield, claim to be from which country? Where are they really from?
SCENES 12 25. What tragedy befalls Kate?
12. How do Edward and Ruth describe their relationship? What is their real relationship?
SCENES 13 26. Now that Kate is gone, who becomes the focus of Hank’s attention?
SCENE 6
27. Why is Alice confused by Ruth and Edward’s relationship?
13. Before being asked to join the theatre troupe, how was John Gough making a living?
SCENE 14 28. Who captures the troupe?
14. What strange thing did John do to help P.T. Barnum’s show?
29. Why are the captors afraid of their captives?
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Sitting Bull
32. What happens to the chief at the end of the King Lear performance?
SCENES 18 36. Briefly describe the troupe’s journey over the mountains. 37. How is the troupe greeted upon arriving in California? 38. What is disappointing about the troupe’s first performance of Richard III? 39. Why does Hank leave the troupe, and where is he going? 40. Who is George Edgar Rice? What does he propose to the troupe?
SCENES 19 41. After being left by her husband, with whom does Alice find romance? 42. What famous tune is used for the troupe’s adapted performance of Hamlet at the end of the play?
Arts Assessment
Related Works and Resources
The following exercises are interactive, hands-on challenges in Drama, Music, Design, and Visual Arts. They aim to give students a better understanding of the many tasks that contribute to a theatrical production.
c. Are there any contradictions inherent in my character?
You might explore the following texts as supplements to this guide:
ACTING
MUSIC
Ask students to form pairs in order to act out a short scene of their choosing from How Shakespeare Won the West. They should use props and elements of costumes, if possible. Have them consider their placement on the stage, blocking (who moves where and when), gestures, vocal tone, music, and the intended emotional impact of the scene.
CHARACTERIZATION Have each student choose a character from How Shakespeare Won the West to portray. As if preparing for the role in rehearsal, ask students to answer the following questions about their characters: a. What is my objective in the play, and which obstacles stand in my way? b. How, if at all, does my character transform during the course of the play?
d. What do other characters think of my character, and what does my character think of them?
One of the rumors circulating about California miners was that “the songs they sang … were from the plays of Shakespeare.” Do you know any Shakespearean songs? How would the miners have known them? Find an example to share with your class, either by playing an audio version or by singing it yourself.
THE DESIGN PROCESS Imagine that you have been asked to create the costume design for the play How Shakespeare Won the West. Do you think this theatre troupe would have authentic Shakespearean dress? How would their travels affect what they wear daily and what they wear while performing? Your costume choices should reflect what we know about the specific circumstances in which these characters are living.
How Shakespeare Won the West: Players and Performances in America’s Gold Rush, 1849-1865 by Helene Wickham Koon (1989) Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom (1999) “Exterminate Them”: Written Accounts of the Murder, Rape and Slavery of Native Americans During the California Gold Rush, 1848-1868 by Clifford E. Trafzer and Joel R. Hyer (1999) Two Shakespearean Actors by Richard Nelson (1999) Daughter of Fortune: A Novel by Isabel Allende (2001) Shakespeare and the American Nation by Kim C. Sturgess (2004) Gold Rush Saints: California Mormons and the Great Rush for Riches by Kenneth N. Owens (2005) Films with related themes include: American Experience – The Gold Rush, directed by Randall MacLowry (2006) Shakespeare in Love, directed by John Madden (1999) Romeo + Juliet , directed by Baz Luhrmann (1996)
Sutter’s Fort, California, 1849
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Lesson Plans Teachers’ note: Choose activities that are appropriate for your classroom period. All assignments are suggestions. Only a teacher knows his or her class well enough to determine the level and depth to which any piece of literature may be examined. ONE-DAY LESSON PLAN introduces students to the context and major themes of the production. DAY ONE - Introducing the Play 1. Distribute Mastery Assessment (P. 14) for How Shakespeare Won the West for students to read before the performance and to review again after attending it. Optional: Distribute Handout 1: Vocabulary and ask students to complete. A vocabulary test could be administered after viewing the play. 2. Read the Synopsis (P. 3) of the play. Discuss other works students have studied with similar themes and issues. 3. If time allows, discuss further pages from the literary guide, narrating highlights for students. FOUR-DAY LESSON PLAN introduces students to the production and then, after viewing the performance, asks them to think more critically about what they have seen. Includes time for class discussion and individual assessment. DAY ONE - Introducing the Play Same as Day One above; completed before seeing the production.
For Further Exploration Note to Teachers: The following ideas and questions can be used to further explore the text. They can be used as prompts for class discussion or additional writing assignments. 1. In the book How Shakespeare Won the West, Helene Wickham Koon explains that actors looking to profit from the gold rush significantly altered Shakespeare’s plays in order to please their audience. Tragedies were often given happy endings, or even transformed into burlesque comedies. Give it a try yourself! Select a classic scene from one of Shakespeare’s plays and adapt it to modern language and circumstances. For those interested in more background on the play, Koon’s book is an excellent resource. 2. Bill, who has been living with Native Americans, claims that they have wonderful food, stories, and music, but “[t]hey don’t have theatre!” Investigate this claim. Did the Native Americans have theatre, and if so what was it like?
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3. Buck says that he’s heard stories about actors in California using the stump of a tree as their whole stage. What kind of tree would have that large of a stump? What is the tallest tree living in California today, and how tall is it? 4. John describes an odd job that he did for P.T. Barnum, a famous 19th-century showman. Research Barnum’s life and learn what became of the circus he founded. 5. During the journey, the theatre troupe comes across slaves escaping from the South and heading North. Evaluate the role that slaves played in the California gold rush and also how the gold rush impacted the Civil War that happened only a decade later.
DAY TWO - The Production Attend the performance at the Huntington Theatre Company. Homework: Students should answer the Mastery Assessment (P. 14) questions. DAY THREE - Follow-up Discussion Discuss Mastery Assessment answers in class. DAY FOUR - Test Individual Assessment: Choose either several questions from the Open Response (P. 13) or one question from Writing Assignments (P. 13) for students to answer in one class period. Optional: Students may choose one of the For Further Exploration (P. 16) or Arts Assesment (P. 15) tasks to complete for extra credit. SEVEN-DAY LESSON PLAN completely integrates How Shakespeare Won the West into your schedule. Within seven school days, you can introduce the play, assign reading and vocabulary, and assess your students on both a group and individual level. Students will ideally view the play after completing Mastery Assessment questions. DAY ONE - Introducing the play Same as Day One above. Optional: Distribute Handout 1: Vocabulary due on Day Three. Homework: Read the first nine scenes and answer corresponding Mastery Assessment (P. 14) questions. DAY TWO - Part One Discuss Scenes one through nine and answers to Mastery Assessment questions. Homework: Read Part Two, Scenes ten through nineteen, and answer corresponding Mastery Assessment questions. DAY THREE - Part Two Discuss the end of the play and answers to Mastery Assessment questions. Optional: Review Handout 1: Vocabulary. DAY FOUR - Attend Performance Homework: Ask students to look over Handout 2: Troupe Movements. Optional: Students may choose to complete one of the For Further Exploration (P. 16) tasks for extra credit. DAY FIVE - Group work Complete Handout 2: Troupe Movements. Take time for class performances.. DAY SIX - Review/Preparation Students should answer the Open Response (P. 13) questions as preparation for their test the following day. DAY SEVEN - Test Individual Assessment: Choose two questions from the Writing Assignments (P. 13) for students to answer in one class period.
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Name:_______________________________________________________
Handout 1
VOCABULARY bard
rogue
clientele
ruddy
deluge
saloon
diorama
salve
discontent
sans
exodus
scour
incensed
serenade
infernal
solicitous
ingĂŠnue
surfeit
mewling
trek
omen
valiant
pretence
vanity
primeval
versatile
prospector
virtue
quarantine
Date:________________________
Name:_______________________________________________________
Date:________________________
Handout 2
TROUPE MOVEMENTS
At the beginning of the play, Thomas and Alice decide to put together a theatre troupe composed of various different types of actors. In the blanks below, explain what qualities each type of actor is supposed to have:
The Star: Leading Lady/Man: Character Actor: Ingénue: Comic: Utility Players: Divide into groups of six students. This will be your troupe for today’s performance! Each troupe should briefly discuss the different types of actors and decide which students will play which roles. (Every student should have one of the six roles listed above. Add extra comics and utility players if necessary.) Once everyone has been given a role, select a basic setting for your troupe’s performance. For example, you could choose a family reunion, a party, or a trial. The only requirement is that it needs to be a group setting, so that everyone in the troupe can participate. Each troupe should perform a short, improvised scene for the class. No matter where the improvisation leads, each troupe member should stay true to his or her assigned role. (If you are the comic, stick to comedy!) When the scene is done, the class should try to guess which role each student played. The troupe with the most roles that are guessed correctly is the winner!
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CURRICULUM FRAMEWORKS TIES
T
he Huntington Theatre Company’s Student Matinee Series provides an invaluable opportunity for teachers, students, and families looking to increase young people’s understanding of and interest in dramatic literature and the performing arts. This section contains a list of the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for Theatre and English Language Arts that are addressed fully, in part, or are supplemented by attending the Huntington’s production of How Shakespeare Won the West and utilizing this study guide as a pre- and post-show resource.
THEATRE Acting • 1.7 Create and sustain a believable character throughout a scripted or improvised scene
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Grades 5-8 • 8.19 Identify and analyze sensory details and figurative language • 8.20 Identify and analyze the author’s use of dialogue and description • 8.23 Use knowledge of genre characteristics to analyze a text • 8.24 Interpret mood and tone, and give supporting evidence in a text • 8.25 Interpret a character’s traits, emotions, or motivation and give supporting evidence from a text • 9.5 Relate a literary work to artifacts, artistic creations, or historical sites of the period of its setting
• 1.10 Use vocal acting skills such as breath control, diction, projection, inflection, rhythm, and pace to develop characterizations that suggest artistic choices
• 10.3 Identify and analyze the characteristics of various genres (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, short story, dramatic literature) as forms with distinct characteristics and purposes
• 1.11 Motivate character behavior by using recall of emotional experience as well as observation of the external world
• 17.3 Identify and analyze structural elements particular to dramatic literature (scenes, acts, cast of characters, stage directions) in the plays they read, view, write, and perform
• 1.12 Describe and analyze, in written and oral form, characters’ wants, needs, objectives, and personality characteristics • 1.13 In rehearsal and performance situations, perform as a productive and responsible member of an acting ensemble (i.e., demonstrate personal responsibility and commitment to a collaborative process) • 1.15 Demonstrate an understanding of a dramatic work by creating a character analysis • 1.17 Demonstrate an increased ability to work effectively alone and collaboratively with a partner or ensemble Technical Theatre • 4.12 Conduct research to inform the design of sets, costumes, sound, and lighting for a dramatic production. For example, students select a play from a particular historical period, genre, or style and conduct research using reference materials such as books, periodicals, museum collections, and the Internet to find appropriate examples of hairstyles, furnishings, decorative accessories, and clothing. Critical Response • 5.5 Continue to develop and refine audience behavior skills when attending informal and formal live performances • 5.12 Attend live performances of extended length and complexity, demonstrating an understanding of the protocols of audience behavior appropriate to the style of the performance
• 17.5 Identify and analyze elements of setting, plot, and characterization in the plays that are read, viewed, written, and/or performed: setting (place, historical period, time of day); plot (exposition, conflict, rising action, falling action); and characterization (character motivations, actions, thoughts, development) Grades 9-10 • 9.6 Relate a literary work to primary source documents of its literary period or historical setting • 11.5 Apply knowledge of the concept that the theme or meaning of a selection represents a view or comment on life, and provide support from the text for the identified themes • 17.7 Identify and analyze how dramatic conventions support, interpret, and enhance dramatic text Grades 11-12 • 9.7 Relate a literary work to the seminal events of its time • 11.6 Apply knowledge of the concept that a text can contain more than one theme • 11.7 Analyze and compare texts that express a universal theme, and locate support in the text for the identified theme • 17.9 Identify and analyze dramatic conventions (monologue, soliloquy, chorus, aside, dramatic irony)
Š Huntington Theatre Company Boston, MA 02115 September 2008 No portion of this Teacher Curriculum Guide may be reproduced without written permission from the Huntington Theatre Company’s Department of Education. Inquiries should be directed to: Donna Glick, Director of Education Huntington Theatre Company 264 Huntington Avenue Boston, MA 02115