We have been working for many weeks to prepare this resource guide for you and we hope that you find it useful when helping your students learn from our production of The Good Soul of Szechuan, either before or after seeing the show.
Three gods are on a journey to find out if there are any good people left on earth. Only Shen Te, a good-hearted prostitute, offers them shelter. With the money they give her she opens a tobacco shop. At once everyone needs her help. Her livelihood is in danger. Worse, she is falling in love with Sun, a pilot, who is robbing her blind. Her hard-hearted cousin Shui Ta arrives to protect her. Who is he and how can good people stay good in a world of poverty and cruelty? This new translation by David Harrower, based on the Santa Monica version of Brecht's famous parable, premiered at the Young Vic, London, in 2008.
The main concept behind this guide is to provide a series of pre- and post-show activities. We hope that you will review these activities and consider using the pre-show activities in your classroom before you attend the performance. It is not necessary to complete these activities in order to understand the work, but the more information the students have before they see the show, the richer their experience will be at the performance.
Each individual activity concludes with a series of reflective discussion questions which will help the students to process their experiences as well as allow them to demonstrate achievement towards the New York State Learning Standards for the Arts.
Thank you for coming to our production and we hope that you will consider coming again in the future.
Sincerely,
Program Administrator