Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of the play The Manaechmi and Roman comedy by creating a list of aspects of Roman society and beginning to create a public service announcement to the people of Rome about it.
Hook: Go over the stock characters again now that we know who they all are
Peniculus = parasite
Desiree = Meretrix
Old Man = Old Man J
Tricky Slave = Messenio
Activity 1: Finish The Manaechmi
After finishing: Remind me from your notes how the Romans acted?
Videos: Show examples of PSAs – The Selfie Stick PSA, the Girls are the World PSA
Final Assessment: Pick a scene from this and make it into a PSA about an issue found in this play
Make a list of aspects of Roman society we learned from reading the Manaechmi
PSA – find a scene from here that you think the community needs to know about: examples – Peniculus’ gluttony as a PSA about how America is becoming fat, the Old Man’s words as a PSA about how women can be strong and decision-makers and equal partners, the treatment of the maid, telling twins apart, etc.
Must use at least two pages of dialogue from the script, and be 3-5 minutes long.
You can perform it live, or film it
Everyone has to be a part of the PSA, but not everyone has to play a character in the section with the text from the Manaechmi – you can just play the announcer who comes on to say this is all wrong.
Can be just two pages of dialogue, then rewritten to be better, OR a lot of dialogue and then someone comes on to say that was all wrong, OR a little dialogue and then a lot of explanation of why it’s wrong, OR a little dialogue and then examples from other things
Should be 3-5 minutes long
Give them the rest of this class period and next to practice
Make sure to let them know they are performing two class periods from now
