Students will demonstrate ability to research cultural and historical information and analyze context in a dramatic text by creating a dramaturgical casebook for a short one-act play.
Class Level:
Advanced for 90-minute class periods (intense work can be simplified or modified)
CONTENT STANDARD 5: Researching by evaluating and synthesizing cultural and historical information to support artistic choices.
Unit Description:
Students research a short one-act play and create a dramaturgical casebook for that play. They also prepare for and conduct a Mock Talk-Back that would follow the production.
Lesson 3: The Casebook and The World of the Play Students will identify “The World of the Play” by preparing a brief list of 15-20 items from their selected one-act plays as research possibilities for their casebooks.
Lesson 5: Body of the Casebook: A Work Session Students will build a dramaturgical casebook by collecting articles, book chapters, online information, past performances of the production, visual images, historical and other pertinent information about the world of the play.
Lesson 6: Body of the Casebook: A Work Session part 2 Students will continue to build a dramaturgical casebook by collecting articles, book chapters, online information, past performances of the production, visual images, historical and other pertinent information that will aid director/designers/actors in visualizing and creating the world of the play.
Lesson 7: Preparing to Present a Mock Talk-back and Body of the Casebook 1) Students will prepare questions to ask a dramaturg during a mock post-performance talk-back between an “audience” (classmates) and a dramaturg (themselves). 2) Students will continue to build a dramaturgical casebook by collecting articles, book chapters, online information, past performances of the production, visual images, historical and other pertinent information that will aid director/designers/actors in visualizing and creating the world of the play.
Lesson 8: Casebook and Mock Talk-back presentations Students will demonstrate ability to communicate the contextual ideas of their casebooks by hosting a mock post-performance talk-back between an “audience” (classmates) and a dramaturg (themselves.)
