Objective
Students will demonstrate their understanding of the French Neoclassical guideline “decorum” by modifying their fairytale’s characters to ensure they is propriety in manner and conduct.
Materials Needed
· An variety of character hats (one per student)
· Chocolate candies
· Crackers
· Trays
· Optional: Dinner music
· Decorum worksheet 5.Decorum Handout
Lesson Directions
Anticipatory Set/Hook
Play a variation of Augusto Boal’s theatre game, The Embassy Ball (found in Games for Actors and Non-Actors by Augusto Boal, page 166)
How to play The Embassy Ball: Each person chooses an establishment character to play, a judge, a politician, a business person, etc. A ball is being held at the embassy, or the office, or wherever – any ritualized gathering – and all these characters attend, on their best behavior, dressed in their smartest clothes. They are announced at the door, they meet, they mingle.
Unbeknown to the guests, the waiter is a member of a revolutionary movement; he hands round drinks and slices of a cake which has been spiked with a hallucinogenic drug. A first serving of cake is distributed, loosening the inhibitions of the guests, who start to behave slightly oddly. A second serving of a cake contains more of the drug, and the guests reveal more of themselves, behaving as they would really like to: their desires come to the surface and override their mask of respectability. The third round of cake drives them to wild extremes of behavior. Finally they get a slice of cake, which contains an antidote which brings them down and returns them to their socially acceptable selves.
Variation of The Embassy Ball:
· Have students determine their character based on the hat they choose
· They must act in accordance to the social expectations of that character (i.e. decorum)
· Chocolate candies and crackers are probably easier to use. i.e. Hallucinogenic drug in chocolate candy; Antidote in cracker
· As they partake of the drugged appetizer, they slowly start to lose their sense of “decorum”
· As they partake of the antidote, they slowly reclaim “decorum”
Instruction
Step 1:
· Inform students that the fifth and final French Neoclassical guideline covered in this unit that is used by the French Academy is the principle of decorum.
· Explain that decorum is “a term which meant that all dramatic characters should behave in ways based on their age, profession, sex, rank, and the like. Each Character should follow this set behavior.” http://homepage.smc.edu/adair-lynch_terrin/TA%205/FrenchNeoClass.htm
· Ask students to connect their experience with the hook
o How did this activity explore decorum?
o When did you experience decorum?
o How did you know how to act?
Step 2:
· As a group, have students identify each character from their fairy tale and fill out the Decorum worksheet
Closure:
· Based on the information gathered on their Decorum worksheet, give students the remainder of the period to make final adjustments to their characters and their script overall
Assessment
Participation: 5pts
Decorum worksheet : 5 pt
Total possible points: 10 pts