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LBS 405: Engineering & the Arts in the Elementary Classroom

THEATRE MODULE
Notetaking & Assignment Guide

Name: Janaye A. Davis

Class Section: LBS 405-02
Instructor Name: Kristal Cheek
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Scoring

____ Reviewed only for Elementary Subject Matter Waiver

____ Scored for points. Total Points ______ out of 30

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Section I: What is Theatre?

I. Quick Write. Before beginning this module, write your responses to the following questions in your
own words:
a. What is theatre? Theater is the expression of emotions portrayed through a drama
b. What types of experiences have you had with theatre? I was in theater when I was in 3rd, 4th,
and 5th grade. I love theater. I wanted to be an actress when I was younger.
c. How do you feel about theatre, either as a participant or as an audience member? I feel more
like a participant in theater, but I also enjoy being a member of an audience.

II. Origins of Theatre

a. In your own words, explain the origins of theatre. Address how theatre came about and the
characteristics of early theatrical performances. The earliest record of theater dates back to
Egypt, but the abundance of theatre origins begins in the Grecian era 13 BC. Theater came
about in Greece when the a person, Thespis, interacted with the chorus, making this the first
on-stage dialogue, making him the first actor. There was early Greek drama, formal greek
drama, Greek tragedy, and Greek comedy. The Roman theatre spaces took pieces of the
Grecian techniques, but they had their own set of characteristics apart from the Greeks. Formal
Greek drama emerged the terms orchestra, theatron, skene, and deus ex machina, which have
all taken on contemporary meanings over the centuries. In Aristotle’s Poetics, the philosopher
introduced the concepts of time, place, and action, as well as spectacle, plot, character,

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sound/music, theme/thought, language/diction. The Romans made the Grecian arch of theatre
go high into the air, also adding new vocabulary including actor, auditorium, histrionics.
III. Development of Theatre Over Time
a. Explain how theatre developed over time, from its origins to its modern characteristics. Select
three different time periods throughout history and explain how theatre differed during each
period.
i. Beginning with the Classical era, Greek theatre had three main genres: tragedy, comedy,
and Satyr plays. Comedy was considered inferior to tragedy because it lacked reality in
its performance. The Romans were influenced by the Greek’s Satyr plays and made new
forms of theatre including Mime, Farce, and Spectacles, but also developed their version
of tragedy.
ii. If you fast-forward to the Renaissance, theatre was revenge tragedy; the plots had
murder, death, revenge accompanied with gruesome actions, sword fight and pure
madness. Notable plays include “Hamlet,” “Titus,” and “The Duchess of Malfi.”
iii. The Romantic era called for melodrama. It was light-hearted with a means of escapism.
Characters were either good or bad, heroes or villains, no in between. However, it still
had plenty of action, and though plays were short, added cliff-hanger curtain scenes to
heighten the audience emotional response.
1. In the 20th century to the present, with a plethora of different styles of theatre, I
think they do still keep the characteristics of the Classic, Renaissance, Medieval
and Romantic eras.
2. Realism and Naturalism strived for depicting ordinary lives and settings and
wanted to offer the “illusion of reality.” They sought to make sets highly detailed
and realistic. Whereas, with surrealism, they morphed the idea of reality; and
with expressionism, they tried to destroy the artificial idea of reality.
3. This goes to show that the modern era does still keep the principle origin of
theatre of wanting it to be reality because Aristotle of the classic era thought
comedy was inferior.

IV. Personal Preference

a. If you could be alive during any time period and experience theatre, which time period would
you choose? Why would you select this time period? Explain the characteristics of theatre
during this time period and why you are attracted to it.
i. I would have loved to be alive during the Renaissance era. I love the plays Hamlet and
Tis Pity She’s a Whore, and I believe Othello belongs in this section as well. I love the
twists and turns and back-stabbing, jaw-dropping actions lead by jealous and envy. It is
complete madness and it truly shows through. Othello’s subplot is so complicated and
that is a characteristic of revenge tragedy along with unacceptable love and poisons.
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Section II: Analysis of Script & Performance

I. Summary of Theatre Elements

a. Write a one-paragraph summary (approximately 150 words) of the elements of a theatre
production. Explain how the elements work together to create a production.
i. The underlying meaning of a play is its theme. This is not explicitly stated in the script
and the audience can have different takeaways on the performance based on their own
understandings and interpretations of what occured; it is abstract.
ii. The plot, however, is the events that happen in the play. These are just the actions, not
what the actions mean. Now, within a plot comes conflict and with conflict one must
have characters.
iii. Characters come in variety. A play can have several characters including main
characters, the protagonist(s)v/antagonists(s), the secondary characters, and other
characters that do not help move along the plot.
iv. The language the characters speak is a huge deal because the diction in the script can
change the entire tone of the play. The dialogue may be written out and memorized
beforehand, but in the heat of the performance, the expression can come off
differently. Each character interacts with language in a different manner to establish
their persona.
v. Music goes along with the rhythm of the dialogue. In musical theatre, a character’s
melody can change the entire take of the musical composition because the melody
carries the rest of the work. Music also moves the play along because the music itself
can tell a segment of a story because the patterns and tempo paints illustrations for the
audience.
vi. The spectacle in theatre can involve all of the aspects of scenery, costumes, and special
effects in a production.

II. Mini-Analysis of a Script

a. Name of Script: The Death of the Hired Man, by Robert Frost

b. Identify the follow aspects of the chosen script. Copy and paste the information from the
script to the different areas to demonstrate your ability to identify these aspects.

Setting [Evening. A porch. MARY sits musing on the moon. When she
hears steps, she rises quickly. Enter WARREN, carrying
groceries.]
There are no character descriptions, but one can assume they
Character Descriptions are old enough to be man and wife based on dialogue.
Mary
Warren
[Exit WARREN. Silence. He returns too soon—sits next to MARY,
Stage Directions takes her hand and waits.]

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It’s just one dialogue happening between the two characters.

Dialogue They are going back and forth about what to do with the
passerby that they sometimes take in.

III. Mini-Analysis of a Performance

a. Name of Performance: The Importance of Being Earnest

b. Venue Viewed: Long Beach Playhouse

c. Analysis (approximately 3 paragraphs):

i. Overview of the Play: The play begins with casual conversation – between best friends
Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff – which turns into a somewhat heated argument
over Jack finally admitting his true identity to Algernon. He was no longer Jack in the
country and Ernest in town; he was Jack all the time, to Algernon at least. However, to
his crush, Gwendolen, he was Ernest. When she and her mother, Lady Bracknell, enter
her cousin Algernon’s flat, Jack proposes to Gwendolen. Lady Bracknell hears and
forbids the marriage because he does not have any parents.
ii. Since Jack was pretending to have a brother named Ernest in town, Algernon pretends
to be his brother Ernest so he can woo Jack’s ward, Cecily Cardew. Cecily loved Algernon
(Ernest) before she met him because of his reputation of being a troublemaker.
Gwendolen still loves Jack (Ernest), despite her mother’s wishes. So, when Cecily and
Gwendolen meet in the garden – at Jacks manor – they become confused and upset
because they believe they are engaged to the same man. After both men come clean
about not being Ernest, the women retire in the house.
iii. Luckily, the men apologize and the women are again engaged to their fiancés. Lady
Bracknell approves Algernon and Cecily’s marriage only because Jack told her about her
large inheritance. She then gives consent for Jack to marry Gwendolen when she
realizes she is the son of her late sister – making him her nephew like Algernon.
iv. Explanation & Analysis of Elements of Theatre: An underlying theme is lying to get
what one wants. The plot was simple because its characters were simple-minded as
well. They were not all witless, but their attitudes are basic.
v. Personal Response: I absolutely love this play. I read the play first, so when I went to
see it I understood all of the euphemisms and jokes and was so happy to see the big
reveal at the end. It’s a light-hearted comedy.

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Section III: Theatre in the Elementary Classroom

I. Quick Write. Based on what you know about theatre so far, how might you imagine incorporating
theatre and performance into the elementary classroom as a teacher?
a. I might incorporate theater and performance into my classroom by asking the students to
create a short script on the rock cycle.

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II. Mini-Activity Plan

Activity #1
Name of Activity Geology Rocks!
Learning Objective Students will be able to… categorize and identify the different types of rocks:
sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic.
Materials Needed Pencil
Notebook
Summary of How After a lesson on the Rock Cycle, the next day (today) students will create a
Activity Unfolds skit on the types of rocks interacting.
(Be specific!) They will get into groups of 3-5
Every person must participate in the skit someway

Activity #2
Name of Activity Pollination
Learning Objective Students will be able to… explain the steps of pollination
Materials Needed pencil
notebook
Summary of How After a lesson on Pollinators, the next day (today) students will create a skit on
Activity Unfolds explaining how pollination works.
(Be specific!) They will get into groups of 3-5
Every person must participate in the skit someway