by Jess Plewe
Objective: Students will actively apply script analysis by researching the social and cultural background of The Glass Menagerie.
Standard- TH:Cn11.2.I.b. Use basic theatre research methods to better understand the social and cultural background of a drama/theatre work.
Essential Questions
- How does analysis improve understanding?
- Why is background information important?
- Why is research important?
Enduring Understanding(s)
- Analysis deepens understanding
- People are influenced by their surroundings
Materials:
- The Student Spotlight Response Sheet
- Copies of Scene 4 pgs 26-27 for each student
Spotlight
- Pull up the Student Spotlight Responses Sheet and choose a student who has not been spotlighted yet.
- Without reading their name, go through all of their answers. After reading all their answers, have students guess which student is the spotlight for today.
- Once correctly guessed, allow the class to ask a few questions of the student spotlight to get to know them better.
Warm-Up/Hook - The Big Wind Blows
- Instruct all the students to stand against one of the two sides of the room. The caller (you) will call out phrases using the opener, “The Big Wind Blows if…” If the students agree with the statement following, they will cross the room to the opposite wall. The goal of this game is to establish similarities between students, as well as get fun conversations and debates happening.
Some examples of phrases to call:
- “The Big Wind Blows if you are a night owl.”
- “The Big Wind Blows if you like country music.”
- “The Big Wind Blows if you watched TV last night.”
- “The Big Wind Blows if you ate breakfast this morning.”
- “The Big Wind Blows if you like hotdogs better than hamburgers.”
- “The Big Wind Blows if you dislike pickles.”
For the last few calls, relate the statements to Script Analysis and The Glass Menagerie:
- “The Big Wind Blows if you enjoyed reading The Glass Menagerie”
- “The Big Wind Blows if Tom is your favorite character”
- “The Big Wind Blows if you like doing script analysis”
“The Big Wind Blows if you think script analysis will help you be a better performer!”
- This last one is a gimmie answer, as all the students should cross the room, and should be the final call of the warm-up.
Transition
Now that we have read all of The Glass Menagerie, we are going to begin some deeper analysis of the script as a whole, as well as an in-depth analysis of Scene Four.
- Instruct the students to grab a copy of Scene Four, as well as their chromebooks, a pencil, and something to write on.
Script Analysis- The Glass Menagerie
Instruction:
- Review the basic definition of Given Circumstances with the students. (Who, What, Where, When) Then explain that there are a lot more aspects of given circumstances that we consider when completing script analysis.
- “Knowing more about a play’s given circumstances can greatly expand your understanding as a performer, and because we will be performing monologues from The Glass Menagerie as the final for this unit, we want to establish a really strong understanding of it’s setting.”
Explain this, and then go over the below bullet points, writing the main line of each on the board, and reading the questions beneath each, explaining that these are the types of questions students should be wondering about for that topic.
Stated and Implied Circumstances (Sometimes the script will tell you right out the information, and sometimes you need to parse it out yourself)
- How does the text inform these?
How realistic and historically accurate? (Is it a memory play the Glass Menagerie? Is it a fantasy like A Midsummer Nights Dream?)
- Is it purposefully not accurate?
- Research (Also known as historiography! The study of when a play was WRITTEN as well as when it is set)
Backstory
- What can you imply about the characters in the text about their pasts?
- Why is that important?
Setting
- Is it said outright? Is it assumed?
Social Systems (those present in the play, AND those of the time in which it was written)
- Politics
- Religion
- Economic Status
- Attitudes towards Ethnicity
- Attitudes towards Marriage, Family, Gender
- Language use (dialects, phrases, grammar)
Different plays emphasizes different given circumstances (Some plays are character driven-Who, while some are plot driven-What)
- What plays/musicals do you know that are character driven? Plot-driven? Maybe even driven by the environment or political situation?
Transition:
- You are now going to do in-depth given circumstances research on the entirety of The Glass Menagerie and write your findings on the back of your copy of Scene Four.
Instruction
- Split the class in half, and give one half of the class their topics to complete research on: Stated and Implied Circumstances, how realistic and historically accurate it is, research into the time it was written and the time it is set, and the backstory of the characters.
- Give the other class the assignment to research the setting of the play IN DETAIL, and the social systems of the play AND of the time it was written, including politics, religion, economic status, attitudes towards ethnicity, attitudes towards marriage/family/gender, and language use (dialect, phrases, grammar).
- Each group will have 15 minutes to complete research on their assigned series of topics, and then they will have 5-10 minutes to teach the other half of the class about what they learned.
Research
- Give students 15 minutes to complete their research, adjusting the time frame as necessary.
Presentation
- Instruct the students to take notes on the back of their copy of Scene 4 as they are taught by the other group.
Give each group 5-10 minutes to present and teach the other group about what they researched, adding in additional comments or clarification as needed.
- Students may use the whiteboard while presenting or even use the projector, if desired.
Discussion
- How does knowing all this information improve our understanding of The Glass Menagerie?
- Are the Wingfields a typical family for their time period? Why or Why not?
- Why do we do script analysis?
Collect the student’s copies of Scene 4 (make sure they have their name written on them!) as we will continue to work on this scene for next class.