by Savannah Fillerup
Objective
● Students will use movement to create recognizable characters by watching, discussing, and creating characterization from a variety of movie/theatrical adaptations of Cinderella.
Standards
● Utah
○ Standard 7-8.T.R.3: Formulate a deeper understanding and appreciation
of a drama/ theatre work by considering its specific purpose or intended
audience.
○ Standard 7-8.T.P.4 - Communicate meaning using the body through space,
shape, energy, and gesture. ● National
- ○ TH:Re7.1.7.a. Compare recorded personal and peer reactions to artistic choices in a drama/ theatre work.
○ TH:Pr6.1.6.a. Adapt a drama/theatre work and present it informally for an audience.
Materials needed
- ● Slips of paper with different stereotypes/types of people (provided below)
- ● Slips of paper with tongue twisters (provided below)
- ● Cinderella story worksheet (provided below, page 1 and page 2)
● Computer and projector to watch Cinderella clips
Warm-up
● Board Question
○ What’s your favorite genre?
- ● Stretch and shakeout
- ● Review
○ What are each of the four elements of movement?
Hook
● Game: A bowl with slips of paper in them are in the front of the room. On the slips of paper are all different stock characters written in it. The student will use staging, physicality, energy, and gesture to charade the stereotype and get people to guess!
Instruction
● Lead a discussion. Remind them that we used stereotypes that are relatively harmless because they’re larger than life, but we need to be careful with stereotypes of different people/cultures because they can be harmful and untrue because they are so generalized. It should never be putting someone down.
- ○ Why did each character move differently?
- ○ How could you tell somebody was a character by the way they moved?
- ○ Why might this be helpful to think about in performances?
- ○ How did we see this when we did our Incredibles lesson the other day?
● Shift into the idea of how this applies to performances. For instance, some movies can have the same plot but are changed by different communities/cultures.
- ○ Ask if they have any examples.
○ Tell them we’ll be focusing on Cinderella today. Review with them the
story of Cinderella.
Practice
- ● Hand out the worksheet below or have them open it on their Chromebooks via Canvas. Explain that we will be watching clips/trailers for each movie which represents a different “genre” with different types of characters. They will be watching for how they move differently to communicate their character clearly so you can tell who’s who, even if the genre is wildly different.
- ● Split them into groups of four. Have them assign each group member one of the main characters (Cinderella, stepparent, stepsibling, prince, fairy godmother) that will be in charge of watching for that element in the clip.
● Watch a couple minutes of trailers of different Cinderella movies – have a couple different options, depending on how much time you have and how long the discussions in between take. Plan to spend 20-30 minutes on this section. Just make sure you show a variety from different communities/cultures/time periods.
- ○ Cinderella (2015)
- ○ A Cinderella Story
- ○ Rags
○ Cindy (1978)
■ 1:16:00-1:16:55
■ 1:17:40-1:19:00
- ○ Bad Cinderella
● After each clip, give them one minute to write down any extra notes, then two minutes to share with their groups what they noticed.
- ○ What was unique about this adaptation of Cinderella?
- ○ How did they use movement to express this uniqueness?
- ● At the end of all the clips, have a full-on discussion as a class.
○ What changed about the characters and their movement depending on the genre/vibe of the movie?
○ What stayed the same?
Assessment
● Split into groups. Have each group pick a paper from the hat and create a scene of their own adaptation of one of the below scenes of Cinderella based off of that “type of person” they pull out—as if their genre coincides with that person.
- ○ Cinderella meets her step-family for the first time.
- ○ Cinderella is made to do all the chores and made fun of by her step-family.
○ Cinderella tries to go to the ball with her step-family, but they ruin her
outfit and forbid her from going.
- ○ The Fairy Godmother transforms Cinderella and all her animal friends.
○ Cinderella meets Prince Charming at the ball while her step-family
watches.
- ○ Cinderella loses her slipper at the ball.
○ The Prince searches for Cinderella by having all the women in the town try
on the slipper.
○ The slipper fits Cinderella, not her stepsisters, and she lives happily ever
after.
● Keep an eye out for how different people in your life move. How does your mom move vs your dad? What does that communicate about them? How do you move? What does that communicate about you?