School days, school days; dear old golden rule days! (Lesson for May 20)

Question of the Day:  So it sounds like we are going to be invited back to the classroom on June 1!  What do you think of that?  Will you be coming?  (It's optional.)  I was at school today and it was very quiet and lonesome so obviously I would like to see you back to normal and in class with me and your other teachers.  But I understand some of you might be concerned about the virus and how safe it is.  (I confess, I am slightly concerned because I read that the virus is harsher on people over sixty and I am over sixty!  But I feel quite good and I think my immune system is quite strong, so I think I will be fine.)  The provincial government has said it will only be part-time so for high school students it will amount to one day a week, so that isn't very much but we could finish off the school year optimistically, perhaps.  I am very interested in your thoughts, so if you want to answer the question, I'd love to read what you have to say.

Warm-up:  (Everyone)  I am reading this great project book called How to Be An Explorer of the World by Keri Smith.  She says "life is a scavenger hunt".  Here is one of the fun ideas she has for an activity.  Collect five or six random things that catch your eye.  Put them in front of you and look at them for one minute.  What kind of story could you tell based on the five things?  (I am going to do it and I will share my story at the Zoom for A Block this afternoon.  Be prepared to share your story at your zoom this week.  I will ask random people.)

Lesson:  Art 8:  Work on "Something Happened".
Drama 9/10:  Your third heritage story is due tomorrow.

Theatre Production 11:  Your prop is due!
THEATRE HISTORY PROJECT for Theatre Production 11 – Due on June 17.

 It is important for a theatre producer to be aware of theatrical styles from the past and from other cultures.  It provides the theatre artist a palette from which he or she can draw when creating the mis en scene for any production and helps communicate a variety of unspoken messages to one’s audience.

Here are a few types of theatre you might be interested in investigating: 

Greek theatre -  the origin of Western theatre

Kabuki theatre – classical Japanese dance-drama

Noh theatre – the oldest existing form of theatre – Japanese musical theatre

Shakespeare’s theatre – no explanation needed here!

Shadow puppetry – Pekingese or Cantonese or Wayang kulit (Indonesian)

Comedia del’Arte – Italian improvisational comedy of the Renaissance

Expressionism – a highly metaphorical form of theatre popular in the 1920’s (such playwrights as Eugene O’Neill and Elmer Rice)

First Nations theatre  - from “before contact” to the present day

Naturalism – the attempt to create “reality” on stage, most popular in the late 19^th and early 20^th century (playwrights like Ibsen, Checkov, George Bernard Shaw)

Poetic realism – popular in the 20^th century (and to this day), it is theatre that appears to be realistic, but that makes extensive use of poetic imagery (Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, Lilian Hellman)

If you are interested in another form of theatre, let me know.

What am I supposed to do?

 1.Choose a type of theatre that interests you.  Find out about it.  (Become an expert!)   Be ready to share at least ten “fun facts” about the form of theatre you chose.  (For example, that in Shakespeare’s theatre, no women were allowed to act, so all those great roles for women – like Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth, Titania, and Viola were played by teenage boys! . . . or in Greek theatre, all the actors wore masks which helped amplify their voices for the huge crowds that came out to watch.)

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2.  Create a model of the type of stage this theatre would use.  (A shoebox is a great start for something like this.)    The model should be a three dimensional picture of the type of stage on which performances would be presented. )

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3.  Create a representation of one actor dressed in a costume that would be used in your theatre style. (You can create a life-sized costume {which would be great!} or you can dress a cardboard or plastic doll.)

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For #2 and #3, you should be prepared to explain what your representations show us.  You will want to label your model clearly.

4.  Find a play/playwright that makes use of your type of theatre.  (If it’s Shakespearean, you already know lots of plays that fit this description and you know the author – that’s why Shakespeare is so phenomenal – his name identified a whole genre!)  If you choose a more traditional period, it might be harder to find an actual script or playwright, in which case, you can find out a plot or actor or even a modern play which exemplifies qualities of the theatrical style you choose, for example – Tomson Highway is a modern Canadian playwright who uses lots of First People’s imagery in his plays.  Find a passage from the play that tells us something about that style of theatre and explain why you chose it.  You can write this down, but be prepared to share it with the class.

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Zoom meetings this week:
A Block -- Wednesday @ 1:30
C Block - Thursday @ 12:30
B Block - Friday @ 12:30