Volume 8

Active Theatre History

By Rosalind M. Flynn

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA

Every student I have ever had in a Theatre Methods course believes that a high school theatre course must include Theatre History. The challenge for these future teachers always is—How do you make a Theatre History unit as active and engaging as your other units? This is not a new theatre teaching issue. In 1993, teacher and author Nancy Bishop faced the same situation. “The challenge facing you, the teacher,” she wrote in her “Teaching Theatre History” article, “is to get students interested and engaged in theatre history. High school students are not interested in listening to lectures or in memorizing timelines, dates, and facts. Most teenagers want to act and be active. That’s what sets drama classes apart from the rest of the academic day” (p. 3).

Stefani Ethridge Woodson, in her 2004 article “Creating an Educational Theatre Program for the Twenty-First Century,” echoes Bishop’s belief in active learning, calling for instruction and a “… program that treats young people as active agents rather than passive observers… [who are] capable of producing art by allowing them to practice the artistic identities of playwright, producer, performer, director, and designer” (p. 27). Seven years later, Shawnda Moss added her voice to those endorsing the value of the study of the past and its plays and practices. “There is much to be gained from exploring theatre history in your classroom, but only if it is done in a way that prompts students to consider the contexts that drive artistic expressions” (p. 11). “…[A]side from teaching the facts and terms of theatre history,” Moss continues, “teachers should also use higher order thinking in instruction, assignments, and assessments” (p. 12).

My graduate students would agree wholeheartedly with the theory promoted by these authors, but our discussions would always circle back to “How?” How can we design theatre history lessons that are “active, multi-dimensional, and rigorous” (Moss, p. 12)? Because the word “praxis” means the practical application of a theory—practice, as distinguished from theory—this journal seems like a good place to share one innovative way to make Theatre History a dynamic experience in which students are active creators. More than just a brief paragraph describing this assignment, what follows is a detailed description of an active learning project accompanied by resources to aid and accelerate implementation and assessment.

This assignment was one that I gave to my high school students regularly. Like many teachers who create successful learning experiences, I kept thinking, “I should write an article about this. I should share this idea with other teachers.” Then the years went by, leaving me with a collection of good scenes, good memories, and good intentions. I shared my plans and notes with my graduate students who helped me clarify the instructions and strengthen the rubric. All of that written material, however, does not spontaneously translate into a useful article. Finding myself with extra hours this past year, I finally focused on my goal of organizing my experiences into a coherent description of the project that I hope will be useful to other educators.

Active and Authentic

This assignment requires students to research and apply their findings in a project that meets particular criteria, but also requires imagination and ingenuity. It reflects the principles of authentic assessment—creating a product that is or is close to what professionals in the field create. “Authentic assessment is designed to promote the use of higher order cognitive skills related to using, modifying, or rebuilding knowledge into something new” (Villarroel et al, p. 848). In this case, students will work as playwrights commissioned to write a short original script.

THE ASSIGNMENT BASICS

All students receive the same scenario:

• Character 1 searches for a misplaced object.

• Character 2 arrives and helps Character 1 search.

• In their search, they discover a letter or document or item that somehow incriminates Character 3.

• Character 3 enters, discovers them examining the letter, document, or item, and confronts them.

The task is to work as playwrights, devise a scene that follows this scenario, and then write it so that it reflects the style of a particular Theatre History era or genre, for example—a Greek Tragedy or Restoration Comedy or American Musical Theatre.

Research Before Writing

Students will research their given period of Theatre History or genre to learn its characteristics. This research is easy to do via the Internet, beginning with a search for “Characteristics of ________________ Theatre.” “Crash Course Theatre,” the PBS series on YouTube, can also provide a sufficient number of facts to inform the main assignment goal of writing an original scene.

Students should also read examples of plays from their given era. Accessing copies of brief scenes from plays should provide enough information for the assignment. An astonishing number of plays and scenes are located easily via an Internet search. The character names should be creatively indicative of the given time period. (Some of my students’ examples: a Greek tragic character named Caltigone or a Restoration Comic characters named Sir Walter Widget and Lady Snobwell) The stage directions and dialogue should likewise take their inspiration from the language used in the scripts by the playwrights of the era. A Shakespearean scene will use “thee,” thou,” “thy,” and “thine.” A Chekhov scene will include detailed stage directions to set the scene, the time of day, the weather, and the characters’ clothing. A Greek tragedy will require a Chorus in addition to the three characters and an American musical will require, of course, at least one song to move the plot along.

The letter, document, or item could be a tablet, scroll, birth certificate, message in a bottle, or some type of treasure. My students have used photographs, paintings, diaries, and love letters. The choice is up to the student playwright(s) and should be driven by the time period of the piece.

Students will also use the information they find in their research to write an introduction to their scene. This introduction will provide a little background information, introduce their scene’s setting and characters, and be written in a style that would suit a narrator. Some of my students recognized that this aspect of the work mirrored what they would include in a paper, but the performative intention of this writing was much more motivating to them.

In Person or Online

This assignment works for in person or online instruction. In person, students can collaborate on the research and the script, rehearse, and then present it. Online, students can work alone or collaborate on the research and the script. Melissa Bean, one of my graduate students and a full-time high school theatre teacher, found this to be true:

Collaborative script writing ended up being a fantastic strategy to use in the remote classroom setting. Rather than simply lecture to students, I was able to use collaborative script writing in small groups to allow students to explore the content themselves and discern what should be included in a script presentation to the class. Engaging students is a challenge in remote learning and collaborative script writing enabled them to take a more active role in the content and promoted increased classroom engagement as they had the opportunity to work collaboratively with their peers. (personal communication with author, 2020)

Instead of presenting the script as a scene, students can record it as a radio play with three actors reading the roles or with one actor reading all three roles in different voices. Most cell phones have recording apps and the resulting files can be uploaded to Google Drive and accessed with ease. A script written by an individual could also be shared onscreen in an online session and read aloud with volunteers voicing the characters.

ASSIGNMENT MATERIALS

What follows are a set of documents to use or adapt for students. There is a Theatre History or Genre Research sheet to guide the collection of information, the Theatre History Scenario Assignment and instructions, an Assessment Checklist, and a Script Writing Format page containing instructions and examples.

Sample Scripts

Below are two portions of scripts that high school students in my advanced acting course wrote for this assignment. My students, like those of Jason Whitney (2006), enjoyed “…using the skills used by professional dramatists: developing fictional characters, setting the scene, generating dialogue, creating conflict, and developing a theme” (p. 55). Teachers may choose to share the script portions with students or simply examine them to strengthen the understanding of the potential of this assignment.

• Sample Scripts:

  • Restoration Comedy Scene Section

  • "Post War American" Theatre Scene Section

• National Core Theatre Standards Addressed in This Assignment

• Theatre History or Genre Research

• Theatre History Scene Assignment and Theatre History or Genre Scene Scoring Sheet

• Script Writing Format

CONCLUSION

The contents of this article are just one response to the question of how to make the study of Theatre History active, engaging, and authentic for young people. Let them be researchers for a reason. Let them be playwrights within parameters. Let them apply what they learn in a creative context, producing new work to share in ways that theatre artists have always shared—in scripts and on stage. And, of course, let them use the theatre history scripts produced to perform the original scenes and further expand active learning goals.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Flynn, R. M. (2021). Active theatre history. ArtsPraxis, 8 (1), 136-152.

REFERENCES

Bishop, N. (1993). Teaching theatre history. Teaching Theatre, 4 (4), 3-8.

Moss, S. & Moss, B. (2011). Exploring the past informs the present. Teaching Theatre, 22 (3), 10-15.

State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE). (2014). National Core Theatre Standards.

Villarroel, V., Bloxham, S., Bruna, D., Bruna, C., & Herrera-Seda, C. (2018). Authentic assessment: Creating a blueprint for course design. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43 (5), 840-854.

Whitney, J. (2006). Mom Dad Buddy and Sis stories: A drama and fiction writing workshop. The English Journal, 95 (6) 52-57.

Woodson, S.E. (2004). Creating an educational theatre program for the twenty-first century. Arts Education Policy Review, 105 (4), 25-30.

Rosalind M. Flynn, PhD, is the head of the Master of Arts in Theatre Education (MATE) degree program at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. She is also a Teaching Artist for The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts who conducts arts integration workshops nationwide and online. Her articles on educational drama have been published in Language Arts, Dramatics, Youth Theatre Journal, Teaching Theatre, English Journal, Teaching Artist Journal, Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, and The Reading Teacher. Dr. Flynn is also the author of three books on the educational uses of drama—A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension (co-author Lenore Blank Kelner), Dramatizing the Content with Curriculum-Based Readers Theatre, and Tableau Classroom Drama Activities.

Web Links:

ArtsEducationOnline.org

DramaticApproachesToTeaching.com

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