Students will demonstrate an understanding of dramaturgical study guides by creating and writing 3 study guide articles for their play.
Standards:
TH:Cr3.1.III.b. Synthesize ideas from research, script analysis, and context to create a performance that is believable, authentic, and relevant in a drama/theatre work.
TH:Cn11.2.III.b. Present and support an opinion about the social, cultural, and historical understandings of a drama/theatre work, based on critical research.
Individual Devices for students (Laptops, iPads, etc.)
Study Guide Database Link: https://tma.byu.edu/archives/2015-2019/
Paper
Pencils
Hook:
Print a copy of the American Revolution Worksheet for every student. Give them the beginning of class to complete it.
Write “Study Guides” on the board. Have students explain their understanding of the term.
Ask students, “How would a study guide, something used all the time in school, relate to theatre?” Give students time to answer.
“A study guide is a resource dramaturgs can use to help fill that gap of knowledge the audience needs to fully understand the play. It can be used as an extra source of information that audience members can look at and read through to get that extra background information. This information can be shared with the audience through articles or fun activity pages. These activity pages can look something like the worksheet we just completed, a fun activity that includes some good information. Depending on the theatre the study guide may be posted online or included with the program. Together let’s look at a few pages from the study guide for a show called Wendy & Peter Pan.” Pull up PowerPoint. “In pairs, discuss what things you observe in the study guide.”
Give students 8 minutes to talk about what they observe. Bring class back together. As a class share their thoughts and observations.
“The study guide includes some good writing about topics regarding the play and a fun activity that revolves around the theme of the play. The study guide is helpful in teaching information but it also helps in bringing the audience into the world of the play.”
“Let’s look at another study guide from a different play, La Llorona. Who is familiar with who La Llorona is?” If students are not familiar, fill them in on the story. “With your same partner, discuss: How does this study guide compare to the one we looked at previously? What things do you notice about this one?”
Give students 8 minutes to talk about what they observe. Bring class back together. As a class share their thoughts and observations.
“Look at the detail, the design matches the feel of the play. It is very different from the one we saw previously, but still achieves the same goals as the last one. Study guides can have similar structure but are specifically designed to match the feel of the show.”
“Now that you’ve seen two examples of study guides, I would like you all to look at some study guides on your own. On your chromebooks log into canvas, there you’ll find a link to a page that holds an archive of study guides. I want you to take some time to look through them. Notice what you like about them and what you think can look better. Afterwards we’ll have a discussion on what you’ve observed.”
Give students time to look at study guides and discuss as a class what they observed.
“You’ll see each study guide has its own feel. Matching it to the dramaturg and the show which then draws the audience into the storyline. Each page also has its own article of research teaching audiences more about the show. It takes a lot of work to put together a cohesive study guide that is both educational and intriguing.”
“As we are trying our hand at dramaturgical work. We are going to start working on creating a study guide for your play. You are going to create three different articles, 2 informational and 1 activity/fun/your choice page. This is when your glossary from last class is going to come in handy. You have already chosen topics that would be interesting to research, and now you can choose things from that list to research and create a study guide with.”
“Today we are going to start the rough draft process. Begin researching your topic so you can write an article on it for your study guide. Each article should be about 300 words long. Also start looking into what you want to put on your fun page. As you are writing notes or begin a rough draft you can keep all that work in your manilla folder, so you don’t lose it. Next class we will continue this and start working on creating and designing the study guide.”
Give students the rest of the class period to work on their study guides.
