The Niceties Curriculum Guide

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Common Core Standards 3 Guidelines for Attending the Theatre 4 Artists 5 Themes 8 Mastery Assessment 11 For Further Exploration 13 Suggested Activities 16 Suggested Reading 17

Š Huntington Theatre Company Boston, MA 02115 August 2018 No portion of this curriculum guide may be reproduced without written permission from the Huntington Theatre Company’s Department of Education & Community Programs Inquiries should be directed to: Alexandra Smith | Interim Co-Director of Education asmith@huntingtontheatre.org This curriculum guide was prepared for the Huntington Theatre Company by: Lauren Brooks | Education Apprentice Marisa Jones | Education Associate Alexandra Smith | Interim Co-Director of Education

COMMON CORE STANDARDS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

STANDARDS: Student Matinee performances and pre-show workshops provide unique opportunities for experiential learning and support various combinations of the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts. They may also support standards in other subject areas such as Social Studies and History, depending on the individual play’s subject matter.

Activities are also included in this Curriculum Guide and in our pre-show workshops that support several of the Massachusetts state standards in Theatre. Other arts areas may also be addressed depending on the individual play’s subject matter.

Reading Literature: Key Ideas and Details 1

Reading Literature: Craft and Structure 5

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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.

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Grades 11-12: 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 9-10: 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.

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Grades 11-12: 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.

Reading Literature: Key Ideas and Details 2 •

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Grades 9-10: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

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.

Reading Literature: Craft and Structure 6 •

Grades 9-10: 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.

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Grades 11-12: 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).

Reading Literature: Key Ideas and Details 3

Reading Literature: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 7

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Grades 9-10: 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.

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Grades 11-12: 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 9-12: 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).

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MASSACHUSETTS STANDARDS IN THEATRE ACTING

TECHNICAL THEATRE

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1.7: Create and sustain a believable character throughout a scripted or improvised scene (By the end of Grade 8).

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1.12: Describe and analyze, in written and oral form, characters’ wants, needs, objectives, and personality characteristics (By the end of Grade 8).

4.6: Draw renderings, floor plans, and/or build models of sets for a dramatic work and explain choices in using visual elements (line, shape/form, texture, color, space) and visual principals (unity, variety, harmony, balance, rhythm) (By the end of Grade 8).

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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) (By the end of Grade 8).

4.13: Conduct research to inform the design of sets, costumes, sound, and lighting for a dramatic production (Grades 9-12).

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1.14: Create complex and believable characters through the integration of physical, vocal, and emotional choices (Grades 9-12).

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1.15: Demonstrate an understanding of a dramatic work by developing a character analysis (Grades 9-12).

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1.17: Demonstrate increased ability to work effectively alone and collaboratively with a partner or in an ensemble (Grades 9-12).

CONNECTIONS •

Strand 6: Purposes and Meanings in the Arts — Students will describe the purposes for which works of dance, music, theatre, visual arts, and architecture were and are created, and, when appropriate, interpret their meanings (Grades PreK-12).

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Strand 10: Interdisciplinary Connections — Students will apply their knowledge of the arts to the study of English language arts, foreign languages, health, history and social science, mathematics, and science and technology/engineering (Grades PreK-12).

READING AND WRITING SCRIPTS •

2.7: Read plays and stories from a variety of cultures and historical periods and identify the characters, setting, plot, theme, and conflict (By the end of Grade 8).

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2.8: Improvise characters, dialogue, and actions that focus on the development and resolution of dramatic conflicts (By the end of Grade 8).

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2.11: Read plays from a variety of genres and styles; compare and contrast the structure of plays to the structures of other forms of literature (Grades 9-12).

GUIDELINES FOR ATTENDING THE THEATRE Attending live theatre is a unique experience with many valuable educational and social benefits. To ensure that all audience members are able to enjoy the performance, please take a few minutes to discuss the following audience etiquette topics with your students before you come to the Huntington Theatre Company.

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How is attending the theatre similar to and different from going to the movies? What behaviors are and are not appropriate when seeing a play? Why?

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Remind students that because the performance is live, the audience’s behavior and reactions will affect the actors’ performances. No two audiences are exactly the same, and therefore no two performances are exactly the same—this is part of what makes theatre so special! Students’ behavior should reflect the level of performance they wish to see.

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Theatre should be an enjoyable experience for the audience. It is absolutely all right to applaud when appropriate and laugh at the funny moments. Talking and calling out during the performance, however, are not allowed. Why might this be?

Be sure to mention that not only would the people seated around them be able to hear their conversation, but the actors on stage could hear them, too. Theatres are constructed to carry sound efficiently!

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Any noise or light can be a distraction, so please remind students to make sure their cell phones are turned off (or better yet, left at home or at school!). Texting, photography, and video recording are prohibited.

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Food, gum, and drinks should not be brought into the theatre.

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Students should sit with their group as seated by the Front of House staff and should not leave their seats once the performance has begun.

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ARTISTS Was it difficult to transition from studying history and teaching to playwriting?

To me, theatre is a place to gather as a group of humans to watch stories that wrestle with the big questions: How does the world work?

Why do people behave the way they do? How do we be better? Those are also the central questions of history.

Obviously the details of the professional transition had many challenges.

In history you want to be right, and in drama there is no “right,” there’s only what you guess might be powerful or important. Making art is always subjective, and it’s a challenge for a factual thinker to go out on that limb. But I think overall it’s a very similar activity — a gathering of the polis to discuss how we ought to live together. The purpose is the same, even if the methodology is different.

Playwright Eleanor Burgess

PLAYWRIGHT ELEANOR BURGESS ON THE NICETIES: AN INTERVIEW WITH LAUREN BROOKS, EDUCATION APPRENTICE Eleanor Burgess grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. She studied history at Yale and recently received her MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU/Tisch. She is currently a 2050 Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, a part of The Civilians’ R&D Group, and a member of Page 73’s writers’ group. Burgess was previously a Huntington Playwriting Fellow, and a recipient of the Alliance/Kededad National Graduate Playwriting Award, an EST/Sloan commission, a Keen Teens Commission, and the Susan Glaspell Award for Women Playwrights. Her works have been produced at a variety of theatres including Merrimack Repertory Theatre, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and Portland Stage.

Below is an interview with Eleanor Burgess on playwriting and on The Niceties: How did you become a playwright and how did you become involved with the Huntington?

I had a pretty long journey to playwriting. Growing up, I often thought of plays as things that already existed, things written by dead people like Shaw and Shakespeare. Then I moved to London after I graduated from college and the plays I saw there were about the things that were going on that minute in our world. It was suddenly easy to see it as a living art form. I started writing my first play while I was there, and I was hooked.

When I started writing plays, I automatically thought of the Huntington.

It’s the theatre that I went to as a kid, it was always the image in my head of what a theatre is. So once I was writing plays, I looked up, “Can I send a play to the Huntington?” I found out about the playwriting fellowship, and I applied and then a couple months later I got a phone call from [the Huntington literary staff] Lisa Timmel and Charles Haugland saying that I had the fellowship. That was such a pivotal moment for me — the Huntington played this key role in transforming me from an amateur who was like, “Oh! Maybe I’ll write a play!” to a person who now does this for a living.

The Niceties takes a rather jaded view on the American education system. Could you talk about your own educational experience and your hopes for the future of education in the US? That’s funny, I would not say that the play takes a jaded view. I never want to be jaded. Critical and questioning, maybe, but not jaded. I would say that there are a lot of opinions the characters express over the course of the play — that does not mean that the play itself takes that stance. The play just raises that question. It generally also raises the opposite possibility, and leaves it for the audience to navigate, contemplate, discuss, decide what’s really true. And whether opposite realities can both be true.

So, speaking of opposite realities being true — on the one hand, I am very much not jaded about education. I think this country has a major problem with being contemptuous of expertise, rigor, detail and nuance, on both the right and the left, and that’s very dangerous. We almost all need to be better educated than we are. On the other hand, I do get pretty cynical about whether all these experts who are so smart just sit in these buildings impressing each other and not wrestling with the very urgent major problems in our world. These people who are fighting over tenure and publications and not building nonprofits, building companies, running for senate, organizing communities, teaching high school students, or doing the work of actually being in the world and changing things. I do get very cynical about that. And I get very cynical about whether excellent research institutions are being mostly used to prepare a few lucky kids for jobs in finance and consulting. I think the mission of education should be to prepare people to go out into the world and change it for the better, and I don’t see anywhere near enough of that happening.

Is the power dynamic that exists in the American education system necessary to have these levels of expertise? Is there a danger to it?

This comes back to opposite realities being true at the same time.

In order to have undergraduate education, or education in general, be a useful experience, students have to believe that there are things that they don’t know and things that someone else can help them know more about. They have to be pushed to see that their initial attempts are usually inadequate. Yet at the same time, if you are in any way different — that could be along racial, ethnic, political lines, that could be that you’re a visionary, or that you come from a different class background, or that you just have new and interesting ideas — you’re going to get more push back and less encouragement. Particularly since leadership in higher education is drawn from such a narrow fragment of society.

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The central question is how do we hold onto the idea that we need to be pushed, we need to be taught, there’s things we don’t know, there are people who have deep levels of expertise and we need to learn from them, and also hold on to the fact that professors don’t know everything and are very capable of getting things wrong. That’s a really hard balance, but I think we need to struggle with that. I think universities have been a little complacent about that, but I worry that they will remake it in this weak way where it’s just about students expressing themselves. Self-expression is not enough. You do need to be pushed.

But how do you push people in a way that doesn’t hurt? And hurt the most vulnerable among us the most? I don’t have an answer to that, and that’s not really for me to answer. That’s something students and professors need to answer together.

In an interview with Sharon Anderson from Contemporary American Theatre Festival you mentioned that you believe academia needs to be aware of student sensitivities. Given the recent trend of trigger warnings and safe spaces across universities, how do we walk the line between awareness without crossing into coddling our students?

My take on this is informed by the fact that I was a history teacher: nothing in history is optional. The truth about the past may be painful, but you have to learn it anyway.

So, I’m rarely sympathetic to calls that we should stop teaching something — ban certain books, silence certain theories. But I am very sympathetic to the idea that we should examine how we’re teaching things, and the balance of what we’re teaching.

For just one example, there’s a world of difference between being taught Lolita at a school with a nearly all-male professorship and leadership, with a curriculum that consists almost entirely of male authors, by a teacher who’s clueless about the fact that that book humanizes its male character more than his female victim, and being taught Lolita at a school where half your teachers and half the administrators are women, where your curriculum includes many women writers, and where your professor, male or female, realizes that that book has a specific, limited, and potentially upsetting point of view.

The first experience would be frustrating and discouraging, the second intellectually stimulating.

The same goes for upsetting historical material, controversial sociological theories, loaded topics in science and economics and psychology. We should talk about everything. We should push each other, we should wrestle together with difficult and painful things. But in

order to do that in a fair, productive way, we have to make sure that the broader environment doesn’t privilege certain perspectives over others from the get-go.

How exactly did you come up with the idea for The Niceties?

There was an incident a couple years ago at my alma mater that opened up a lot of these conversations. I spent two months reading everything anyone anywhere on the internet was saying about it and everything my friends were saying about it. I got really obsessed with all the things that we weren’t hearing from each other. I was arguing with myself in my mind about all of this. What am I to make of America? What am I to make of education? What am I to make of my own past? I was literally writing arguments in a notebook and those things I was writing coalesced into these two voices which were a student and a professor.

So it was less an overnight “aha!” and more like I suddenly found I was already writing it and I just decided to keep going.

Can you talk a little bit about what it’s like to write characters who are unlike yourself or who have very different life experiences?

It’s a very delicate balance. On the one hand, in order to write any character well, you have to really believe you know them and love them and understand them. You have to put a lot of yourself in them. These two women both have so much of how I look at the world in them — they each represent half my brain, half my worldview. They both think in a way that I think. On the other hand, when you are writing across different life experiences, you have to be ready to learn that your own first instincts — how you’d react to something, how you’d think about something, how you’d say something — may be wrong. You have to be willing to do a lot of research, to question yourself, to listen to your collaborators and your audience. To painstakingly avoid defensiveness, oversimplifications, and clichés. To be humble about all the things you don’t yet know, and committed to do the work until you do know.

That’s the job.

One last question: since you used to teach high school, what specifically do you hope that our young audiences get from The Niceties?

I hope that this is the start of a million conversations. I think every student will and should have a different response. For some students, hopefully this is a jumping off point to think about what they’ve been taught about this country, what they haven’t been taught, and what they want to learn more about. For some students, I hope they think about how we talk to each other, and ask themselves how we ought to

Playwright Eleanor Burgess (foreground) with actors Jordan Boatman (left) and Lisa Banes during rehearsal for The Niceties 6

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handle disagreements, whether in intimate conversations or in society as a whole. For some students, I hope they will think about how to make change – how do we even figure out which changes we want to make? How do we get other people on our side? How do we balance pragmatism and idealism? Is Janine right to support gradual change through compromise? Or is Zoe right to insist on rapid, radical changes?

I want students to want to know more. If you read one history textbook, you’re just not going to get it all. If you have one dogmatic understanding of what history is, and what education is, you’re not going to see the world. Question everything, but also learn everything.

Get in conversations. Stay in conversations. The real work begins once the curtain goes down, and the work is up to the audience. I hope that students feel inspired to learn more and engage more and to wade into some tough conversations with both confidence and empathy.

QUESTIONS: 1.

Compare and contrast the work of historians with the work of writing plays.

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According to Eleanor Burgess, when it comes to learning about potentially uncomfortable or emotionally significant topics, “nothing in history is optional.” Do you agree with that statement?

Why or why not?

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Does education lead to social change? How do you think Eleanor Burgess would respond to that question?

4. Reflect on your own educational experience so far. Do you feel that you have experts in your life who are supportive? Do they push you? Were you ever in a challenging relationship with a teacher?

What made it difficult? How did the relationship make you grow as an individual?

KIMBERLY SENIOR: CHICAGO AND BEYOND Kimberly Senior, director of the Huntington’s production of The Niceties, is a mother, dramaturg, freelance director, and educator. Her work spans two decades, including ventures into television and film, and has been recognized for multiple awards and honors. Senior was recently awarded the prestigious Alan Schneider Award at the 2016 Theatre Communications Group Conference (the award was established to support the development of career opportunities for freelance directors) in recognition of her significant contributions to Chicago’s thriving theatre community. She is also the recipient of the 2016 Special NonEquity Jeff Award “for her Chicago career achievements as a trail blazer, champion, and role model for emerging artists.”

Senior started her theatre career with an internship at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago at the age of 22. While her initial workplace responsibilities were unclear, Senior nevertheless managed to foster important relationships and lay roots in a place far from New Jersey, where she had recently graduated from college. Senior would continue to work for Steppenwolf in the Young Adults Program and would later start her own company, Collaboraction, which was founded in 1997. She has been an instructor at both DePaul University and the University of Chicago, and is the recipient of Columbia College’s 2010 Excellence in Teaching Award.

Senior is currently Resident Director at Writers Theatre where she met Ayad Akhtar, playwright of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning play Disgraced, which was produced by the Huntington during the 2015-2016 season (in a co-production with Long Wharf Theatre under the direction of Gordon Edelstein.) Senior describes her collaborative relationship with Akhtar as “unique” and “amazing,” as she was privileged to

Director Kimberly Senior

both help shepherd his play to completion and direct productions of Disgraced around the country. Disgraced, widely praised by critics, received passionate audience reaction. The play, set in a Manhattan apartment, follows the discussion of two couples at a small dinner party.

Throughout the course of the evening, the conversation veers into religion and politics, touching on themes of Islamophobia, persistent racial and ethnic prejudices, and the challenges facing Muslims in a post 9/11 world. For some, the play “stoked the fire” of current political tensions. During the opening of Disgraced at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, Senior sat outside and was attacked by a patron who left after a violent scene. He yelled, “You’re the director? You’re really irresponsible!” Senior did not argue but validated his response by saying he was entitled to those feelings. She sees her life’s work as pushing difficult conversations forward. Senior has remarked, “What’s the question we’re trying to solve out in the earth, and how can theatre be a vehicle in which we attempt to solve that? We live in a very fractured world, and I do think that theatre has a power to heal, because we sit in a room in the dark with strangers and encounter a story together.”

For more information about Kimberly Senior and list of credits please visit kimberlysenior.net

QUESTIONS: 1.

Kimberly Senior does not have formal training in a college or university program for theatre directing. She says that she learned by working in professional companies and surrounding herself by talented teachers and artists. Do you agree that work experience is an acceptable substitute for a more formal degree? Do you see your own education as strictly limited to your time spent in a classroom? How does Zoe, in the play The Niceties, feel about her education? Where does she believe her most important lessons are being learned?

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In what ways do you think Senior is uniquely prepared to direct The Niceties? What are the directing challenges presented in this play?

While Senior has spent much of her career in Chicago, she is willing to spend time away from her family to work on this production.

Why do you think The Niceties is a play important for Boston audiences to see?

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THEMES THE POWER OF HISTORICAL BIAS

QUESTIONS:

In The Niceties, history professor Janine asserts that “historians sift through evidence — documents, objects, recordings — to draw informed conclusions about the past.” Zoe, one of Janine’s students, responds that “if you say you need evidence... You’re excluding the people who couldn’t leave evidence behind. People who couldn’t write. Anyone without money, or an education. Anyone with no possessions for historians to dig up.” Zoe’s retort illuminates a major issue with written history: that it tells the stories of the dominant voices.

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In The Niceties, Janine says, “We speak about African American history in generalities. We say life tended to be like this, or roughly 60% of slaves experienced that, but the letters, the testimonies, so many are from white men — and the result is a colossal failure of empathy. All the science indicates that people empathize more with individuals than with groups.” Do you agree with Janine’s statement? How does empathy affect our understanding of history?

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In his article “The Problem with History Classes,” journalist Michael Conway says: “Lionization and demonization are best left to the heroes and villains of fairy tales. History is not indoctrination. It is a wrestling match.” In a brief paragraph, explain Conway’s quote using your own words.

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Examine your own history text books. Do you think they are biased? Why or why not? What do you think can be done to overcome bias in history?

In his article “The Problem with History Classes,” published in The Atlantic in March 2015, journalist Michael Conway asserts that history textbooks fail to present a historiographic approach:

A diplomatic historian approaches an event from the perspective of the most influential statesmen (who are most often white males), analyzing the context, motives, and consequences of their decisions. A cultural historian peels back the objects, sights, and sounds of a period to uncover humanity’s underlying emotions and anxieties. A Marxist historian adopts the lens of class conflict to explain the progression of events. There are intellectual historians, social historians, and gender historians, among many others.

Instead, textbooks and introductory history classes typically provide a mixed perspective that fails to acknowledge the constant conflict of historical discussions as well as minority narratives. Diplomatic history is often the predominant source material in historical survey courses since often people of status had more access to education as well as resources that would enable them to record their lives (letters, telegrams, journals, newspapers, etc.). As a result, Zoe’s point that “evidence” tends to be from a monocultural, Anglo-American viewpoint, is an accurate one.

But this issue has larger implications than simply making it difficult for students to write papers investigating the history of those who have historically lacked political and institutional power, such as people of color, women, and the poor. The result is that many students are only exposed to one historical point of view, whether from a textbook, a teacher, or some combination thereof. This narrative, focused on the words and actions of moneyed white men, is often presented as a universal truth when, as Zoe contends, the reality is that it presents only one biased and narrow viewpoint. Ray Raphael, author of Founding Myths: Stories that Hide Our Patriotic Past, also points out the power of storytelling and myth to obscure the historical record, using many of the United States’ most well known legends as examples. As he explains in an article for the History News Network, historical narratives such as the famous “Paul Revere’s Ride,” popularized in 1861 in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, manipulate the truth to create a more impressive and memorable story at the sacrifice of important details (such as the fact that Paul Revere was just one of an “intricate web of patriots who rode horses, rang bells, and shot guns to sound the warning”).

Thus, Zoe provides an important reminder of the need to constantly ask questions and seek out new viewpoints in order to achieve a more holistic understanding of history.

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STUDENT-TEACHER POWER DYNAMICS The National Center for Education Statistics reports that each year approximately 20 million students will attend a university in the United States, leaving behind the relative shelter and safety of their childhood lives in the pursuit of education. Many of those students will spend the next four years cultivating new relationships and new knowledge both through the new vulnerability of living as an “adult,” but also through the absorption of their professors’ expertise. But what power dynamics develop when professors are framed as academic “experts,” whose knowledge and approval are presented as necessities if students are to succeed? Does the mantle of the expert position professors as gateways to the future or barriers to growth?

According to Foucault’s “The Subject and Power,” in an educational institution, “the activity which ensures apprenticeship and the acquisition of aptitudes or types of behavior is developed there by means of a whole ensemble of regulated communications (lessons, questions and answers, orders, exhortations, coded signs of obedience, differentiation marks of the “value” of each person and of the levels of knowledge) and by the means of a whole series of power processes (enclosure, surveillance, reward and punishment, the pyramidal hierarchy).” In other words, the structure and pecking order of the student-teacher relationship is necessary for setting up a willingness to learn in the students and a willingness to teach in the teacher. As playwright Eleanor Burgess said herself, “Students have to believe that there are things that they don’t know and things that someone else can help them know more about.”

Yet conflict arises when the student has direct experiential knowledge that the professor lacks. In the case of The Niceties, Janine’s failure as a professor stems from her inability to recognize that she is not an expert on the Black American experience. Alternately, Zoe’s failure as a student manifests itself in her inability to recognize that Janine’s oversight does not entirely negate her value as an expert. The crumbling of their student-teacher relationship begins with a mutual lack of respect, but it quickly escalates when Zoe attempts to shift their power dynamic by recording Janine’s unsavory comments at the end of Act 1. By creating leverage over Janine, Zoe attempts to establish herself as the keeper of

NILE HAWVER

knowledge and information — information that will prove that Janine is in the wrong while also unilaterally questioning the merit of elitist academia.

QUESTIONS: 1.

Zoe resents the student-teacher power dynamic since she believes that her professor, Janine, is ignorant of minority perspectives and entrenched in institutional power structures that are inherently racist. What do you suggest that Zoe and Janine can do to cultivate a healthier student-teacher relationship?

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During the early stages of their conversation, Janine implies that if Zoe were to pursue a career in academia, she would be reliant on Janine’s recommendation. According to Zoe, that creates an unfair power dynamic where Zoe must comply to Janine’s whims in order to receive desirable grades or promotion. In your opinion, is Zoe overreacting? Why or why not?

3.

Can you think of any examples either from real life or pop culture where a teacher abused their power? How can we keep the studentteacher power dynamic from becoming harmful?

Jordan Boatman

NILE HAWVER

Lisa Banes

AGE AND AGENCY “Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.”

— George Orwell Janine and Zoe both identify with progressive politics and see themselves as activists who fight the status quo and seek equality and justice in a world dominated by straight white men; however, their causes and worldviews do not always align. Janine is in her 60s, wealthy, white, a lesbian, and a member of the academic elite. Zoe is a 20-year-old young Black woman and university student who is also actively working in social justice movements. Among their many differences, their ages create an undeniable intergenerational chasm.

Janine experienced several trials in her life, which she reflects upon as she is now past middle age. She shares the history of women like herself who “shattered the glass ceiling” of academic professions and fought their way to the legalization of her same-sex marriage. She has weathered the passage of time and cultural shifts, so her personal battles, while hard-fought, have largely been won. Janine secured a position of power and privilege for herself. As she naively looks forward, believing Hillary Clinton will become the first female president of the United States, she seems somewhat out of touch with the struggles of groups of people with whom she does not identify. Zoe knows, as a young Black woman, her own fight is at its beginning. From black men being shot in their own backyards, to mass incarceration, to the everyday infractions of racial microaggression experienced by students across her

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campus, she sees the world as largely unfair. Zoe knows that she has “one of the best lives in history ever,” and yet feels she is a “weakling” when it comes to her own advocacy work.

In her efforts to stay informed and keep current on all news, Zoe developed adept internet research skills and uses the technological tools available to her with ease. From Netflix to Google to various social media platforms, she is savvy about the use of multiple media and communication outlets. Zoe has also lived her young adult life conscious of her lack of privacy. She knows that Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat tell her story and she operates deliberately with that knowledge; she thinks carefully about what she believes and says, with the goal of presenting a carefully curated image. Janine’s life has not been dominated by social media or crafting her online presence. She lugs around heavy text books and is shocked by the comment threads and blogs following the story of her conflict with Zoe. Janine believes in the power of personal relationships and her own network of support and is unimpressed with Zoe’s internet-heavy concept of scholarship. While Janine slights young people as “technological savages,” she confesses that she struggles to follow the technological advancements which Zoe so easily navigates.

With more than 40 years between their current frames of reference, communication between Janine and Zoe breaks down. Janine contests that the speed to which language is changing leaves many, especially people of her generation, out of the conversation. Adding to the injury of these widening distances between the old and young, is the rage young people feel when their elders are ignorant, insensitive, or unknowingly inappropriate. Janine exhibits patience. She has watched the world

change slowly over time. Zoe is impatient. Zoe is young, energetic and not yet established. Zoe believes she has everything to gain and nothing yet to lose despite Janine’s insistence that some political maneuvering is important to long-term career success. Janine impresses upon Zoe the importance of accepting consequences and making connections with those in power. But this advice only enrages Zoe who does not want to bow to the oppressive institutional structures she believes need to be dismantled. Zoe is tired of waiting. Meanwhile, Janine, a person who likely has less literal time, patiently waits to watch movements transform and grow.

QUESTIONS: 1.

In the 40 years that separate Janine and Zoe, what are the most important social movements Janine has witnessed? How active a participant might she have been in those movements?

2.

Why is Janine uninterested in many of the issues about which Zoe is so passionate? Is it simply a matter of age or are there other factors at play?

3.

Do you think that when Zoe is 60 years old she will have any regrets? Is it fair that after a very long and successful career, Janine could be remembered for this incident almost exclusively?

4. Is it a form of stereotyping to categorize people according to their age or generation? Or is it helpful to understanding intergenerational dynamics to identity the common experiences, cultures, and point of views that shape each group?

NILE HAWVER

Lisa Banes as Janine and Jordan Boatman as Zoe inthe Huntington’s production of The Niceties

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MASTERY ASSESSMENT ACT I 1.

Why do you think the playwright titled this play The Niceties? What are “niceties?” Make a prediction as to what you think this play will be about.

2. Where are Janine and Zoe meeting? What are they working on?

3. According to Janine, what is a “parallelism?”

4. What is the relationship between Janine and Zoe? 5. What is Zoe’s college major? What year is she in school and why is Janine excited about this discovery?

6. Why is Zoe disturbed by Janine’s story about Charles James Napier?

7. How does Janine describe George Washington?

8. Explain Zoe’s thesis statement and explain why Janine rejects it, calling the idea “unsound.”

9. According to Zoe’s research, how was the US population different from France or China as they prepared for their own revolutionary wars?

10. Who is Carrie Matthews? Why is she unfamiliar to Janine?

11. Draw an inference about Janine’s political affiliation. Do you think Zoe shares similar political viewpoints with her professor?

12. What term does Janine use to describe “millennials?”

13. Why does Zoe believe the Revolutionary War strengthened racial barriers? How does Janine contest this idea?

14. What did Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia offer to white people who volunteered to fight in the Revolutionary War? What rights did blacks lose when the war ended?

15. According to Janine, what is the obvious reason for the success of the American Revolution?

16. Why was Janine worried about having a son?

17. Janine agrees that Zoe can move forward with her thesis as she has defended it. However, what does Janine ask that Zoe do?

18. Why is Zoe frustrated by the suggestion that she do additional research?

19. How does Janine define “history?”

20. What is the “unfortunate consequence of a sound methodology?”

21. Why doesn’t Janine have the power to let Zoe limit the edits and new research for her paper?

22. Why is Zoe protesting the campus visit of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court Justice?

23. What are the events making it difficult for Zoe to rewrite her paper?

24. What is Zoe’s dream job? Why is she concerned about her grade in Janine’s class?

25. On what grounds is Zoe frustrated with the current higher education system?

26. What is Zoe’s major criticism of Janine’s teaching style?

27. Why does Zoe take issue with Janine’s joke about “technological savages?”

28. Why does Zoe believe Janine cannot offer her equal treatment in the classroom?

29. What does Zoe reveal she is doing on her phone?

30. Why does Zoe find it offensive when Janine remarks that she “would give anything just to be in that room for a night?”

31. Why does Janine reject the idea of teaching about slavery in her class?

32. From Janine’s perspective, what is the most important thing in American history?

33. Why does Zoe keep a special notebook in class?

34. Which picture on Janine’s wall offends Zoe? Why? 35. What is Janine’s ethnic background? Why does she think it is important for Zoe to have this information?

36. How does Zoe trick Janine? What does Zoe plan to do next?

37. What does Janine promise to do if Zoe will erase the recording of their conversation?

38. Describe the altercation between Zoe and Janine at the end of the act. What has Zoe done?

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ACT II 1.

Which item has been removed from Janine’s office?

2. What is the purpose of Janine’s invitation to Zoe? 3. According to Zoe, what criticisms were made against her in the aftermath of the recording being released?

4. How did Janine’s son respond to the incident? For what does Zoe apologize?

5. How does Janine plan to expand her research?

6. What did Zoe assume about Janine that turned out to be untrue? Why is Zoe angry about this?

7. How has Janine’s career suffered because of the recording?

8. Why is Zoe taking the rest of the semester off?

9. How has the incident affected Zoe’s health?

10. What does Janine propose she and Zoe do together?

11. When Zoe considers her future, she sees three possible paths. What are they?

12. What changes would Zoe like to see on her campus?

13. In an attempt to quote the Declaration of Independence, Janine makes a mistake. What is it?

14. What suggestion of Janine’s does Zoe agree with?

15. Why does Janine ask for Zoe’s phone? Why is she fearful?

16. Why does Janine push back on the idea of a required freshman course?

17. Why does Janine think that the composition of the faculty and staff match the population of the US is difficult to manage?

18. How did Janine discover a term for her own sexuality?

19. Why does Zoe believe there’s no virtue in being patient during fights for equality?

20. Why does Zoe think Janine should lose her job?

21. What sensitive information has Janine uncovered about Zoe’s past? How does Janine try to use it against her?

22. What was the reason that Zoe turned on her phone to record their first conversation?

23. Why does Janine believe radical revolutions don’t work? Does Zoe agree?

24. Describe the play’s final moments.

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FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION

we shift our idea of what is canonical. So I was definitely referencing Oleanna, no question, but I think that it’s actually a

very different play . . . This is a battle of belief. It’s a play about

America. It’s a student and a professor, but it’s also Black

America and White America fighting over what we should

make of this country.

Aside from the obvious similarities, such as the student-professor relationship and the structural jump forward in time to show the aftermath of the two characters’ initial conversation, there are also similarities in several plot points. In both plays, each student documents her encounter with her professor: Carol records John’s remarks in writing whereas Zoe uses her phone to record audio. Both plays also contain references to organized groups the student in each play looks to for support. In Oleanna, Carol makes repeated mentions of “her group” whereas Zoe comments on her fellow activists. Additionally, both plays feature strong disagreement between the student and professor about what actually took place in their conversation and whether any assault actually took place.

QUESTIONS: 1.

Read David Mamet’s Oleanna, then compare and contrast the play with The Niceties in terms of themes, structure, characters, and plot.

Consider using a Venn diagram or mapping the plot points on a chart like the one below: D C A

David Mamet’s play Oleanna, which premiered in 1992, examines the relationship between Carol, a female undergraduate student and John, her older male professor. In the play, what begins as a seemingly straightforward conversation about Carol’s grade quickly escalates in intensity when John makes physical contact with his student. The script presents this interaction in a rather ambiguous way, leaving directors, actors, and audiences alike to struggle with whether John’s actions could be considered sexual harassment.

F

A. Set-up B. Inciting incident C. Building action D. Climax E. Falling action F. Resolution

Julia Stiles and Bill Pullman in David Mamet’s Oleanna

CHARTING STRUCTURE WITH DAVID MAMET’S OLEANNA

B

E

2.

Why would a playwright choose to reinvent or riff on elements from famous or popular works?

3.

Both Oleanna and The Niceties explore the power dynamic between a student and professor. Why were Mamet and Burgess drawn to exploring this dynamic in their plays?

4. Think of a time where you and a teacher disagreed. What was the subject of your disagreement? How did you address this issue with your teacher?

More than two decades later, playwright Eleanor Burgess borrowed some structural elements from Mamet’s play to craft a starkly different conversation in The Niceties. When asked about the parallels between Oleanna and The Niceties, Burgess reflected:

I reread Oleanna once at the beginning of the writing process, and I haven’t reread [it] since . . . I knew I wanted to borrow his structure — I like riffing on the canon and saying what if THE NICETIES CURRICULUM GUIDE

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University faculty member to send an email encouraging students to question whether it was appropriate for the institution to weigh in on what costumes they could or couldn’t wear. Many students felt her email was inappropriate and harmful to minority students and called for the faculty member’s removal from the university. In an open letter criticizing the professor, Yale students of color stated that “to be a student of color on Yale’s campus is to exist in a space that was not created for you.”

QUESTIONS: 1.

As a Yale alumna, playwright Eleanor Burgess carefully followed this incident and the ensuing debate, which became one of her initial sources of inspiration for The Niceties. Read “The New Intolerance of Student Activism at Yale” from The Atlantic (theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2015/11/the-new-intolerance-of-student-activismat-yale/414810/). Why does the debate over Halloween costumes matter? Why is it significant that this occurred at Yale?

2.

Read Buzzfeed’s article “21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear On A Daily Basis” (buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/racial-microagressions-youhear-on-a-daily-basis?utm_term=.xeNkkwjRk#.nyxYY423Y). How many of these examples have you heard? Think of two or more examples of microaggressions that were not listed.

3.

Jim Burklo, an Associate Dean at the University of Southern California, argues that microaggressions should be combated with “the cultivation of microaffection: priming ourselves for moments when, spontaneously, we go out of our way to make others feel like they are dignified, respectable, truly beloved members of society.”

What would be an example of a microaffection?

Students at Yale University’s “March of Resilience,” sparked by several incidents of discrimination students of color experienced on campus in 2015

RACIAL MICROAGGRESSIONS In Act I of The Niceties, Zoe takes offense to a portrait in the office of her professor, Janine. “You have a picture of George Washington on your walls,” she explains. “You have a picture of a racist criminal on your walls, looming over me as I sit here, like this — like this constant reminder, that I do not need.” Zoe considers the portrait to be a microaggression.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary, which added the word to its lexicon in February 2017, defines a microaggression as “a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group.” The term, which is popularly attributed to African American psychiatrist and Harvard University professor Chester M. Pierce who first used the term in a collection of essays in 1970, has gained popularity in recent years as a way of challenging racial stereotypes and casual degradation.

Critics of the concept of microaggression have argued that individuals are becoming overly sensitive, causing a shift in cultural values that have been labeled “victimhood culture.” According to The Atlantic staff writer Conor Friedersdorf in “The Rise of Victimhood Culture,” people who operate in a victimhood mentality believe that microaggressions are “actually evidence of a larger, significant injustice to a whole class of people.” Those who take offense to what they deem microaggressions, he explains, are inaccurately assuming that their discomfort and distress are shared by an entire demographic population. Meanwhile, those who contend that there is a societal need to address microaggressions argue that microaggressions can actually inflict psychological harm. A study completed by Monica Williams, PhD and Jennifer Purdon for Psychology Today found that “Black students reported experiencing significantly more racial microaggressions than white students [and] also scored significantly higher than white students on trauma symptoms of discrimination and stress due to general ethnic discrimination.”

One example of the debate on microaggressions can be found in the ongoing conversations surrounding culturally appropriated Halloween costumes. One high-profile incident in the fall of 2015 was sparked when Yale University’s Intercultural Affairs Committee issued recommendations that students avoid costumes that appropriate or are otherwise insensitive to or disrespectful of minority cultures. This prompted a Yale 14

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Judge Learned Hand

EPIGRAPH: A CLUE TO THE PLAYWRIGHT’S INTENT Playwright Eleanor Burgess included the following epigraph at the beginning of The Niceties: “I should like to have that written over the portals of every

church, every school, every courthouse, and every legislative

body in the United States: ‘I beseech you, in the bowels of

Christ, believe that you may be mistaken.’”

— Learned Hand

Billings Learned Hand was a judge and philosopher who served on both the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and later the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit until shortly before his death in 1961. Hand was known throughout the legal community as a gifted writer and a leading proponent of judicial restraint. Hand took the last line of the above quotation from a letter that English statesman Oliver Cromwell wrote to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1650. Cromwell asked the Assembly to reconsider its allegiance to King Charles II. The Scots did not reconsider, citing their religious belief in the “Divine Right of Kings,” and Cromwell ordered his soldiers to attack.

QUESTIONS: 1.

Why do you think Burgess chose to quote Hand rather than Cromwell?

2.

We know Cromwell was looking for political gain when he wrote his letter to the General Assembly. What could Hand have been seeking when he borrowed the line?

3.

As you read The Niceties, identify moments where the quote seems particularly relevant or the meaning is exemplified.

4. Do you think institutions (churches, schools, courts) have a greater responsibility in action and decision-making than private citizens?

Why or why not?

EXPLAINING THE GAP: THIRD WAVE FEMINISM Feminism, the belief in the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes, has undergone constant evolution since the women’s rights movement brought national attention to the issue of women’s lack of voting rights in 1848. After more than 80 years of protest, the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution granted women the right to vote in 1920. This key victory gave women greater influence over national politics and enabled the feminist movement to set its sights on new goals, including making changes to the law and social policy that would promote equality for women in their educational opportunities, careers, and personal lives. While much has been achieved over the last century, the push for greater gender equality continues today.

Justice Clarence Thomas after accusations that he sexually harassed a woman he supervised at the Department of Education, attorney Anita Hill. Walker used the term Third Wave to describe the transition and divide between the feminists of her own generation and those who came before. Voting and property rights secured, and further opportunities in the workplace, along with the passing of Title IX (the law which states biological sex cannot be used to prohibit participation in activities, education programs, or receipt of benefits from institutions which are supported by federal funds) meant the women from the previous generation had won important victories that would open countless doors of opportunity for women in the future. But Walker and the women around her believed the work was not yet finished. The movement needed to expand outward. To dismantle society’s patriarchal structures, feminist would have to advance causes related not only to sexism but racism and classicism as well. In 2018, debate continues as to the role of feminism in helping the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and other marginalized groups in their fight for equality.

In The Niceties, Janine and Zoe both consider themselves feminists and politically progressive, but they each have different priorities within their shared principles and values due to differences in their age and race. While second wave feminist Janine admires the work of the first female Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor, without reservation because of her own personal experiences with discrimination in the workplace, Zoe believes Justice O’Connor failed in her role on the Court as she did not actively work to advance the causes of people of color from the bench. As a third wave feminist, Zoe demands intersectional change.

QUESTIONS: 1.

Are you a feminist? Why or why not?

2.

Does identifying with a particular race or gender automatically make you a representative of political and social movements connected with that identity? What does it mean to be an advocate?

3.

Continue your research of the evolution of the feminist movement.

What does Third Wave Feminism emphasize? Do the goals of the movement seem clear? How do Third Wave Feminists applaud and critique the work of the preceding waves?

Rebecca Walker (daughter of the famous novelist Alice Walker) coined the phrase “third wave feminist” in a 1992 article, “Becoming the Third Wave,” in which she responded to the confirmation of Supreme Court

Women’s Liberation March (1970) – Second Wave Feminism

Women’s March in Washington DC (2017) – Third Wave Feminism THE NICETIES CURRICULUM GUIDE

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SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE REVIEW Divide into groups of three or four and work as a team to complete the following activity. Imagine that members of your group form the tenure committee at Zoe’s university. You have recently received her complaint regarding Janine’s conduct. Zoe has submitted her notebooks, papers, and the voice recording for review, and demands that Janine resign.

1.

Describe your investigation strategy. Whose voices would need to be heard to fairly represent all sides and viewpoints in the discussion? Who would conduct interviews with the affected parties? Who would need to be present at those meetings?

2.

Define racial insensitivity. What are you looking for and what evidence is necessary for Janine to be found at fault for harming Zoe?

3.

What are the consequences for both the student and her professor? What if Zoe is found to have made false claims as reported by other students? Outline each outcome depending on various conclusions your committee could make.

4. How would you communicate your decision to the student, faculty, and school communities? Will any aspects of the process remain confidential, and if so, why?

DRAMATURGY COLLAGE Dramaturgs provide context and information for members of the creative team that helps to illuminate the world of the play and/or the playwright’s intentions. Imagine you are dramaturg working on The Niceties, helping the actors playing Janine and Zoe to prepare for their roles. Provide them each with a two-dimensional picture/word collage that you believe represents the ideas, events, and people who are most important to them.

1.

2.

Imagine that both the characters Janine and Zoe were given these collages before their first meeting together. Do you think that information would have helped them sort out their differences?

What type of exploration do you think is necessary for actors and directors before opening night? Why is it important to deeply understand who a character is if you have accepted the role and must bring it to life?

WRONG AND RIGHT, NOT WRONG OR RIGHT In her interview with Education Apprentice Lauren Brooks (see “Eleanor Burgess on The Niceties,” page 5), playwright Eleanor Burgess states that “what’s important to know about me is that so much of what Zoe says I believe and agree with and so much of what Janine says I believe and agree with. I’m interested in the fact that they can both be right. I think this country has a major problem with being extremely contemptuous of expertise and the idea that any people know better.”

Do you agree with Burgess that individuals today do not trust the testimony of experts? Is this statement true for Janine? For Zoe? Do you rely on experts for your information or do you form your own opinions based on personal experience?

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Create a table which outlines Janine and Zoe’s differing or aligning opinions. Where do they agree and disagree? Create an extra row to show where you fall in the debate. With which character do you agree/ identify with more often?

Topic/Issue

Janine

Zoe

Justice O’Connor’s career on the Supreme Court was a success.

Yes

No

University endowments should be ethically invested.

Yes

Yes

You

Continue the table to allow for as many topics as possible.

EXTRA! EXTRA! Imagine you are a reporter for the university newspaper and have been assigned the task of covering Zoe’s release of her recording of her conversation with Janine. In one to two paragraphs, provide information about the how and why of their meeting, the fallout from the event, and decide the outcome to this story. Did Janine keep her job? Did Zoe take a semester off? Remember this is not an editorial — as the reporter you are simply stating the events as they happened. Next reflect on the following: •

Do you find it difficult to keep your opinion out of the article?

•

Why is it important to have reporting that refrains from editorializing or politicizing events as they happen?

•

Don’t forget to send the Huntington a copy! education@huntingtontheatre.org

QUOTABLE MOMENTS Choose one of the following quotes from The Niceties. Write an essay analyzing the quote’s meaning. Consider the following: 1.

Who said the line?

2. Does the character mean it literally or is there unspoken subtext?

3. What does this statement reveal about the character’s view of the world?

4. How do the character’s actions support or contradict the quote?

5. How does the quote contribute to the forward progression of the scene and of the plot as a whole?

•

“People tend to be less focused on their actual quality of life, and more focused on how their quality of life compares to the people around them.”

•

“Ordinary people guess. They tell themselves stories that seem to make sense and then because they seem to make sense they believe them.”

•

“It will always be harder to write a really excellent paper about black history than about white history.”

•

“A very dark spot — does not negate everything she accomplished.”

•

“Kindness, there is a role for kindness, there is a role for patience, for tolerance. For disagreement.”

•

“But because our society buys into bullshit credentialism and signs of elitism more than actual skill, I need a high GPA to get started on my life’s work.”

•

“I think you only care to the exact amount you have to care to tell yourself that you’re an okay person. And to get other people to think so too.”

•

“I am not torturing anyone, I am not a war zone. Your whole generation, you have this cult of fragility, with your — your trigger warnings and your sage spaces.”

•

•

“You made a joke. People don’t teach through mockery.”

“You are describing a world where I am not right for a job because of my age and my skin color that’s not funny that’s — that’s awful.

That’s not justice. You are not describing justice, you are describing revenge.”

•

“There is one appropriate way of responding to a woman of color who says, I have an idea to assert, and that is to shut up and listen.

Because she has experience you cannot possibly know, and insight you can learn from.”

•

“You have to give up some of your power. Because you have too much. You have more than your fair share.”

•

“If you make it too difficult to be a good person, you all of a sudden make people strangely comfortable with being a bad person.”

•

“For millions of Americans, slavery is the most important thing about American history.”

•

“America is an engine of racial oppression.”

•

“I’m so tired of remembering for both of us. This should be a pain that we share. I have been carrying all of this around on my own.”

•

“You’re more afraid of looking like a racist than you are of being a racist.”

•

“People three blocks away shouldn’t be getting arrested for stuff kids are doing with impunity inside these walls.”

•

“You’re moving forward alone, and your leaving everyone else behind. And then hating them for being behind. And instead of progress, the result is a yawning gap . . . a gap that may prove unbridgeable.”

•

“Some people are trying to win over people who don’t like their skin. Some people don’t get to stay in a closet and come out when it looks safe.”

SUGGESTED READING •

Is College Worth It? Bennett, William J., Thomas Nelson, 2013.

•

The Majesty of the Law. O’Connor, Sandra Day. Random House, 2004.

•

Not My Mother’s Sister: Generational Conflict and Third-Wave Feminism. Henry, Astrid. Indiana University Press, 2004.

•

Oleanna: A Play. Mamet, David. Vintage, 1993.

•

A People’s History of the United States. Zinn, Howard. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, Reissue 2015.

•

Political Correctness. Hughes, Geoffrey. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

•

1776. McCullough, David. Simon & Schuster, 2005.

•

So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. Ronson, Jon. Riverhead Books, 2016

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