Teaching Theatre<\/em> by Bruce Miller titled “Turn Words into Drama”.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The focus in text analysis is knowing:<\/p>\n
The meaning of the words individually and together (including definitions, historical allusions, poetic language, imagery, etc.)<\/p>\n
The overall dramatic context for what is spoken<\/p>\n
The specific dramatic circumstances that result in the words<\/p>\n
The inflection and use of the words and punctuation<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In order to know these things without being overwhelmed, it is important to break down the analysis in smaller portions or steps:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Start with learning the chronology of the play \u2013 especially leading up to the scene or monologue of the performance piece.\u00a0 Focus on the learning about the DOING of the plot events through the dialogue; discover what the characters are saying in order to fulfill their needs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Examine language for repetition, opposites, lists, etc.\u00a0 These are clues on how to use the language to convey meaning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Next look up the meanings of unfamiliar words or phrases.\u00a0 Think of it as detective work where exciting discoveries can be made.\u00a0 Remind the students again that to make the scene or monologue come alive they must know exactly what the characters are saying and meaning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now analyze the text by using the punctuation and identifying the operative words \u2013 the words that carry the most meaning in a phrase, line, or sentence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Punctuation \u2013 consider them to be like traffic signals: period = stop = end of an idea; comma = yield = shift of an idea.\u00a0 Keep the energy constant from one traffic signal to the next.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Operative Words \u2013 use scansion (the analysis of lines to determine where the naturally-occurring accented syllables are) and use verbs and nouns to figure out the most important words.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Next divide the piece into idea beats or phrases.\u00a0 This step is important to separate thoughts and see the power of each phrase.\u00a0 It also allows actors to play one beat against another.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Playing the phrases allows thought to continue to the next line and identifies breathing spots.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After phrasing is complete actors can use the concept of transition to move from one beat to\u00a0another.\u00a0 A transition causes a change of tone, a shift in color, a different use of energy, or a new purpose in what the speaker is saying.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Give the students the remainder of the class period to analyze their performance pieces according to the steps taught them today.\u00a0 Float around the classroom helping the students with any questions or concerns they may have.\u00a0 Prompt them to use any resources that you have available to them for ease of looking up definitions, etc.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ASSIGN:<\/h4>\n
Bring a handful of index cards and a ring or something like that to put them together with.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ASSESSMENT:<\/h4>\n
Students can be assessed through their participation in the tweet text, note taking or text analysis work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their ability to analyze a script by breaking down their monologue\/scene into beats of action. MATERIALS NEEDED: Spark Notes Worksheet \u00a0\u00a0Spark Notes Worksheet.Lesson 4 Turn Words into Drama PowerPoint \u00a0Textual Analysis.Lesson 4 Shakespeare glossaries, dictionaries Go to the computer lab so that students can research their play using Spark …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4348,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4344\/revisions\/4348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}