Lesson 4: Dramatizing Personal Stories

Critical Learning	Guiding Questions
In this lesson, students use character walks, shadowing, hot seating and role play based on the people and content of the interviews that were done for homework.	How do you create a character from "real life"? How do you make other people's words "your own"? How do you respectfully and ethically use other people's stories and words in your work as an artist? What is different about the workplace for women in the past? What is the same?
Curriculum Expectations	Learning Goals
A2.1 combine and arrange the elements of drama to create scenes that explore common workplace roles and situations A2.2 use a variety of drama conventions to interpret roles and issues in the workplace	Learning Goals At the end of this lesson, students will be able to: create a character that is based on real life interview other students in role
Instructional Components
Readiness Students must have conducted an interview for homework in order to do the work of this lesson. Students must be willing to take creative risks and present work in a solo setting. Terminology Shadowing Verbatim Theatre	Materials Interview notes Excerpts from The Farm Show (play) by Theatre Passe Muraille, The Clinton Special (film) by Michael Ondaatje, or Working (book) by Studs Terkel (optional)

Approximately 10 minutes Minds On	Pause and Ponder
In Pairs > Reflecting on the Assignment Invite students to work with a partner to share their thoughts and feelings about the interviews they conducted. Key Questions for Discussion: What was challenging about the assignment? What was interesting? What did you learn about the historical conditions that affected women in the workplace? What surprised you? Was it difficult to get people to open up? Invite the students to share some of their answers with the larger group.	Assessment for Learning (AfL) Refer to previous lessons to deepen authenticity of characterization Use the hot seat spot performances to assess how deeply students are engaged with their roles. Assessment as Learning (AaL) Create a checklist for the hot seating activity with students in advance. Use this to peer evaluate each student's ability to sustain a role. Differentiation (DI) Students can work in pairs instead of groups to conduct the hot seating activity. Quick Tip Tell students that they do not have to "stick to the script" when hot seating their peers. If they start to go off in an interesting direction, ask questions that will help them to pursue that direction. Link and Layer Consider discussing the genre of Verbatim Theatre which creates word for word theatre out of interviews. Also, consider reading excerpts of the The Farm Show, a famous collective creation theatre based based on working farmers in Clinton, Ontario, or the documentary The Clinton Special which followed the actors as they created the play. The book Working is also an interesting oral history created from interviews with working people. The play Towards Youth written by Andrew Kushnir is a verbatim theatre piece based on the work of Dr. Kathleen Gallagher (OISE/University of Toronto) in her research sites around the world. You may also wish to reference to CODE unit on Verbatim Theatre.
Approximately 60 minutes Action!
Whole Class > Creating a Character through Movement Ask students to walk around the room at a regular speed. Every ten or so seconds, ask them to change directions so as not to fall into any pattern of walking around the room. Ask them to speed up, slow down and walk backwards. Instruct students to observe one student in the room without letting them know they are being observed. Coach them to notice the speed at which they walk, the shape of their body when they walk, if they are holding any tension, etc. Ask students to notice another person without letting the first person out of their peripheral vision. Add a third and then a fourth. How much can you observe about other people at one time? Direct students to choose one person to shadow without being obvious about it. All of their movement should now be determined by the person they are shadowing - their rhythm, posture, foot placement, etc. Emphasize that they are not to mock or imitate each other but to capture the essence or 'truth' of how each person moves. Instruct students to follow that person for about thirty seconds. Where are their eyes looking-forward, down, to the side or up? Where is their chest and posture? Where are their arms? Pelvis? Knees? Toes? Consider tempo. Ask them to follow another student and then another, constantly switching people to follow as they move into their field of vision. Ask students to try borrowing movements from two people in the room. They might copy one person's tempo and the way another person moves their arms. Try that and then see if they can add more. Tell students to walk in neutral again (without shadowing anyone) but to think about the person they interviewed for homework. Ask them to make a decision about whether they want to create a character based on the person in the past or the person in the present. How do they walk?Where are their eyes? Is their posture straight or slouched? Do they walk on their toes, heels or whole foot? Where are their arms? Pelvis? Knees? Toes? Consider tempo. Start to notice other people in the room. How would this character look at someone else? Are they suspicious or friendly? Do they maintain eye contact or look away? Once you think students have connected to a physical version of the character, ask them to freeze where they are. Explain that you are going to ask them some questions and they are to answer in role. Sample questions include: What's you name? What year is it? Where do you live? Do you have a family? Do you or did you have a job? What did/do you do? Describe a typical day. Do you have any problems at work? Why is it important that you work? What does your family say about your work? Is there another job that you wish you could have? What's stopping you from trying to get this job? Small Groups > Hot Seating Ask students to form groups of 4 or 5. Tell one person from each group to get the list of questions created for the interviews in the previous lesson. Instruct one student to be hot seated by the rest of the group. Explain that the students will answer in role as their interviewee from the past or present. Freeze the character hot seating interviews every few minutes and ask an interview to continue from where they are with the whole class listening.
Approximately 30 minutes Consolidation
Individual > Writing in Role Instruct students to find a spot in the room where they can write. Give them the following prompts to complete while in role as their interviewee: I wish. . . I wonder. . . The hardest thing I ever did was. . . No one will ever know. . . The most important thing I ever did was. . . If I could do it over again, I would. . . Whole Group > Sharing Ask students to choose one line that best describes how this character feels. Dim the lights. Tell students to speak their line clearly one at a time in no particular order. They need to listen for a moment where their line should go and be chivalrous if someone else says their line at the same time. Debrief the activity with your students. Key Questions for Discussion: What mood did we create with our words? What sounded like it belonged and what sounded out of place? How did you know when to say your line? If your lines were the opening to a play, what would the play be called?