speaking shakespeare - arts in junior cycle · speaking shakespeare with andrea ainsworth and jct...
TRANSCRIPT
Oral Language Reading Writing
Learning Outcomes
Main Learning Outcomes:
Reading 6: Read their texts for understanding and appreciation of character, setting, story and action: to explore how and why
characters develop, and to recognise the importance of setting and plot structure.
Reading 8: Read their texts to understand and appreciate language enrichment by examining an author’s choice of words, the use
and effect of simple figurative language, vocabulary and language patterns, and images, as appropriate to the text
Supplementary Learning Outcomes:
Oral 5: Deliver a short oral text, alone and/or in collaboration with others, using appropriate language, style and visual content
for specific audiences and chosen purposes
Oral 08: Listen actively in order to interpret meaning, compare, evaluate effectiveness of, and respond to drama, poetry, media
broadcasts, digital media, noting key ideas, style, tone, content and overall impact in a systematic way
Oral 10: Collaborate with others in order to explore and discuss understandings of spoken texts by recording, analysing,
interpreting and comparing their opinions
Reading 1: Read texts with fluency, understanding and competence, decoding groups of words/phrases and not just single word
Writing 3: Write for a variety of purposes, for example to analyse, evaluate, imagine, explore, engage, amuse, narrate, inform,
explain, argue, persuade, criticise, comment on what they have heard, viewed and read
Key Skills: Main
Literacy
Workshop Outline
Communicating Staying Well
Working with Others Being Creative
Key Skills
Communicating: Listening and expressing myself Discussing Using language
Staying Well: Being confident Being social Being positive about learning
Working with Others: Developing good relationships Co-operating Respecting difference Learning with others
Being Creative: Imagining Exploring options and alternatives Learning creatively
Drama provides many benefits, among
them:
Development of imagination and aesthetic
awareness
Independent and critical thinking
Social growth and the ability to work with
others
Improved communication skills
Healthy release of emotion
Knowledge of self
Fun and recreation
An introduction to the theatre
1. Encourages the students to be
playful.
2. Demonstrates how the different
physical states affect how you feel
and speak.
3. Introduces students to the
extremes of emotion.
4. They are embodying the idea of
great love returned and unrequited.
We understand things better by
embodying them.
RATIONALE
She loves me, she loves me not…
Instructions:
1. Hold out your hand and imagine it is a five petaled flower.
2. Recite all together - "He loves me, he loves me not."
3. Add another petal - comment on tension.
4. Do again, do something really simple with a physicality. She loves me not hunched down, she loves me stand up.
5. Strike a physical posture for not being loved. Now exaggerate it. Repeat the words - "S/he loves me not."
6. Do the same thing for he loves me. Then go from the most open position to the most closed position.
7. Discuss the difference.
3. This helps set the pace and
encourages the notion that this is
NOT a performance. It’s about getting
the words out. There is no
expectation of perfection
4. Don’t expect many answers here
now. Remark on the ones that come
but then move on to the next group
5. Explain to the students that there
is no necessity to come up with new
ideas, if someone has already said
what they intended to say it is still
their idea.
6. We are detectives. We are looking
for clues in the language that will
give us an insight into who this
person is and what is going on.
RATIONALE AND TIPS
But, soft! What light…
1. Divide into three groups. Create an inner circle and an outer circle. There should
only be ten scripts.
2. Explain any of the language that you think the students will might not understand.
3. The inner circle reads the script with the teacher.
4. Hold the page to your chest to ensure there is no looking at the page. What words
struck you?
5. Invite the second group of students into the inner circle, the first group will take
their place in the outer circle. The students will be more attuned now. Go straight into
the activities. Slowly and carefully. Stop them if they are going too fast. Ask them the
same question. They should not be looking at the page. They will have remembered by
hearing and speaking it.
6. Repeat with the third group: What about repetition? Are there any words, phrases,
images that are repeated?
BUT, SOFT! WHAT LIGHT…
ROMEO
[JULIET appears above at a window.]
2 But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
3 It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
4 Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
5 Who is already sick and pale with grief,
6 That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
7 Be not her maid, since she is envious;
8 Her vestal livery is but sick and green
9 And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
10 It is my lady, O, it is my love!
11 O, that she knew she were!
12 She speaks yet she says nothing; what of that?
13 Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
14 I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks.
15 Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
16 Having some business, do entreat her eyes
17 To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
18 What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
19 The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
20 As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
21 Would through the airy region stream so bright
22 That birds would sing and think it were not night.
23 See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
24 O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
25 That I might touch that cheek!
The idea here is to encourage the
students to engage with the text as a
spoken text.
Generally, when we read in pairs we
focus less on what the other person
has said and more on what we are
about to say.
This method encourages active
listening and engagement with what
the other person has said. It adds
meaning to the words that we are
about to utter and slows the whole
process down.
The swapping over allows each
students to experience saying each
line.
RATIONALE AND TIPS
“Each line in Shakespeare is an atom. The energy that can be released is infinite
- if we can split it open.” Peter Brook – Evoking Shakespeare
1. In pairs, use all pieces of punctuation to turn this speech into a conversation
changing reader at each punctuation mark.
2. Like any good debate or conversation people respond to what they have heard.
We are going to do the same thing again but this time we are acknowledging
what you have heard by adding in a ‘yes, and’.
3. Do not rush this, take your time. There is a tendency to exclude the' yes, and'
but discourage this.
4. Do again starting this time with the opposite person.
Atmosphere and Setting
Adding in imaginative stimuli
What are they doing?
What time is it?
Who are they?
How are they feeling?
What is there heartbeat like? Show on your chest how the heart is beating? Now say the first line
or two of the speech. See the effect of this on the reading of the script.
Followed by questioning- is it different when you add those changes?
In what way? Again the focus on listening (how important the listening is in the performance)
Let’s give praise
Pairs of A and B: One person offers something and the other person tops the praise.
Move in to He/She statements for this.
Participants chose their favourites and shares them with the rest of the group.
This exercise energises the voice and
helps the students to develop an
understanding that there is a build
in expression. It also lifts students
out of reading mode
We are 'physicalizing' the new ideas,
grabbing them, and building on
them. The clearer you are with this
physically the greater the benefits.
The teacher must model this
commitment. Pull people away from
auto pilot mode.
RATIONALE AND TIPS
The Ladder
...her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
Instructions 1. Draw students’ attention to ‘Her eyes in heaven… line’ - people notice that this
sentence is longer, why, what does it say about how this character feels?
2. Take the arch of thought and divide it into three sections.
3. Grab and hold the words as you say them, have them in your hand and then move
on. The more you commit to this the greater the impact.
3. Take the gesture away but maintain the life in the words.
Give the sections of Friar L’s speech
Divide the class into groups of three ,
give each group a different section of
the speech to focus on. It is Act Four
Scene 1 Friar L. Group 1 needs to
figure out the instructions: What you
need to do?
Group 2 will figure out the symptoms,
(more challenging and will need
scaffolding)
What will happen to you?
Group three figure out the rescue
plan:
What we will do?
When they are finished read out their
lists.
INSTRUCTIONS AND TIPS
Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent
To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow:
To-morrow night look that thou lie alone;
Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:
Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
And this distilled liquor drink thou off;
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:
No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall,
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
Each part, deprived of supple government,
Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death:
And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
Then, as the manner of our country is,
In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
And hither shall he come: and he and I
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this shall free thee from this present shame;
If no inconstant toy, nor womanish fear,
Abate thy valour in the acting it
Friar Laurence’s
Speech
Professional actors would section
this speech up in order to be able to
process and understand it. Explain
the difficult words before the choral
reading.
The reading at the end of these
exercises should illustrate a deeper
understanding for the meaning and a
greater appreciation of the language.
RATIONALE AND TIPS
What if…
Choral reading of the speech two or three times. Explain any archaic words.
Where in the text do you see what if or how if? Draw a line each time to get to what if or how if or if?
Divide the class into small groups of five. Assign each group a section to paraphrase. Leave off the first and
last section of the speech. Teacher will circulate and ensure that everyone is on track. Each group will read
their paraphrased section chorally.
Each group will then read the original section of text in sequence.
Pair work
Set up a pair work, A and B, they are best friends. What do you think about your friend’s plan– A is Juliet
that is just about to do this and B is trying to talk her out of it.
B – now wants to do it but is too scared and A – tries to convince her to go through with it.
Remember they are all working from a place of love.
What kinds of things came up?
End with back and forth, changing at the punctuation marks.
JULIET ACT 4 SCENE 3
Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.
I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins
That almost freezes up the heat of life.
I'll call them back again to comfort me.
Nurse! What should she do here?
My dismal scene I needs must act alone.
Come, vial.
What if this mixture do not work at all?
Shall I be married then to-morrow morning?
No! No! This shall forbid it. Lie thou there.
Laying down her dagger
What if it be a poison which the friar
Subtly hath minister'd to have me dead,
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour'd,
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear it is. And yet, methinks, it should not,
For he hath still been tried a holy man.
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? There's a fearful point!
Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault,
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
Or, if I live, is it not very like,
The horrible conceit of death and night
Together with the terror of the place,
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle
Where for these many hundred years the bones
Of all my buried ancestors are packed,
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say,
At some hours in the night spirits resort -
Alack, alack! Is it not like that I
So early waking, what with loathsome smells,
And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad -
O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
Environed with all these hideous fears,
And madly play with my forefather's joints,
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud,
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone
As with a club, dash out my desperate brains?
O look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost
Seeking out Romeo that did spit his body
Upon a rapier's point! Stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, here’s drink! I drink to thee!
Theatre Resources in Ireland
Local arts venues http://www.artscouncil.ie/en/areas-of-work/feed/venue_links.aspx
Map of local arts venues https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zQUW3LjEXqho.kaCEY3d7yD8I
Local arts offices http://www.artscouncil.ie/en/areas-of-work/feed/local_arts_links.aspx
Current arts events listings www.culturefox.ie
Theatre reviews and criticism www.irishtheatremagazine.ie
National theatre resource or development organisations
National Association for Youth Drama www.nayd.ie Theatre for Young Audiences Ireland www.tya-ireland.org
Irish Theatre Institute www.irishtheatreinstitute.com
Theatre Forum www.theatreforum.ie
The organisations listed below have received direct support from the Arts Council in 2013-2014 in the area of Young, People, Children and Education (YPCE). Please see the theatre resource organisations above, as well as local arts offices and venues, for a more comprehensive view.
YPCE - Arts organisations supporting young people's engagement with theatre (age 12-18)
National Association for Youth Drama www.nayd.ie Dublin City Council National Youth Council of Ireland http://www.youtharts.ie/ Dublin City Council
Barnstorm Theatre Company Ltd http://barnstorm.ie/ Kilkenny County Council
Graffiti Theatre Company Ltd www.graffiti.ie Cork City Council
Waterford Youth Arts http://www.waterfordyoutharts.com/ Waterford City Council
Theatre Lovett www.theatrelovett.com* Dublin City Council Fibin Teo. http://fibin.com/* Galway County Council
Dublin Youth Theatre http://www.dublinyouththeatre.com/* Dublin City Council
Red Kettle Theatre Co. http://www.redkettletheatre.com/* Waterford City Council
TENDERFOOT at the Civic Theatre http://www.civictheatre.ie/index.php/civic_arts/civic_young_arts** South Dublin County Council
Crooked House Theatre Co. http://www.kildareyouththeatre.com/** Kildare County Council
Droichead Youth Theatre http://www.droicheadartscentre.com/youththeatre/** Louth County Council Barecheek Theatre Co. https://www.wexford.ie/wex/Departments/Arts/ArtsandOu
rYoungPeople/YouthTheatre/**
Wexford County Council
* Programme Activity 2013 ** Young Ensembles 2013
YPCE - Arts organisations supporting children's engagement with theatre (12 and under) The Ark www.ark.ie
Dublin City Council
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
www.baboro.ie Galway City Council
Barnstorm Theatre Company Ltd www.barnstorm.ie
Kilkenny County Council
Graffiti Theatre Company Ltd www.graffiti.ie Cork City Council
Branar Dramaiochta www.branar.ie Galway City Council
Theatre organisations receiving regular or annual support from the Arts Council (2014)
The following organisations develop, create, and/or present theatre for general audiences. Please check with each organisation about the age appropriateness of specific plays or programmes.
Blue Raincoat Theatre Company http://www.blueraincoat.com/ Sligo County Council
Druid Theatre Company http://www.druid.ie/ Galway City Council
Dublin Theatre Festival https://www.dublintheatrefestival.com Dublin City Council
Fishamble Theatre Company http://fishamble.com/ Dublin City Council
Irish Theatre Institute http://www.irishtheatreinstitute.com/ Dublin City Council
Pan Pan Theatre Company http://panpantheatre.com/ Dublin City Council
Rough Magic Theatre Company http://www.roughmagic.ie/ Dublin City Council
The Abbey Theatre http://www.abbeytheatre.ie/ Dublin City Council
The Gate Theatre http://www.gatetheatre.ie/ Dublin City Council
Bewley's Cafe Theatre http://www.bewleyscafetheatre.com/ Dublin City Council
Corcadorca Theatre Company Ltd http://www.corcadorca.com/ Cork City Council
The New Theatre http://www.thenewtheatre.com Dublin City Council
Corn Exchange http://www.cornexchange.ie/ Dublin City Council
Please note, a further wide range of theatre is supported by the Arts Council through festivals and projects awards, and through schemes or initiatives led by organisations in receipt of regular funding. For further information, please visit: www.artscouncil.ie