The goal of this class was to learn and practice acting skills, script analysis, and performance styles through partner and small group scene work.

We began the course by reading a number of articles about representation, activism & theatre, and inclusion in acting. We then embarked upon our first play, Far Away by Caryl Churchill. Students tackled two-person scenes from Far Away, and after some script and character analysis, performed their scenes for each other. The next endeavor was a play called A Dinner Theatre by Idris Goodwin. Written for a cast of four, the class split into two casts and used their imaginations to craft characters based on the information provided in the script. Our final play, You on the Moors Now by Jaclyn Backhaus, places characters from classic novels in conversation with feminist ideals.

Please scroll through the page for a peek into our process. Keep scrolling to find videos of performances and some games!

Far Away

Summary by Mary Alice Burke, Anna Cisler, and Ezra Sugerman-Brozan

Far Away is a three-act play written by British playwright Caryl Churchill. The play takes place in a dystopia where everything has been weaponized. Animals, plants, even aspects of nature like water, weather, sound and light are allied with various nations who are all at war with one another. The main character is Joan, and the story follows her from her childhood until she is a young adult.

In act one, as a young girl, Joan has a conversation with her aunt, Harper, about her uncle, whom she saw doing undescribed but disturbing things in the shed behind Harper’s house. Harper tells Joan that her uncle was helping some people escape by bundling them into a truck, but then changes her story when Joan reveals she saw more than she had originally admitted. This scene shows the audience that there is more to the fictional world than meets the eye, although they don’t realize its true dystopian nature until much later.

The next act shows Joan as a graduated college student. The scene takes place at a hat factory, and we are also introduced to a new character named Todd, who is an experienced hatmaker. Joan and Todd are working on large, detailed hats for death row prisoners. The reason behind the hats being worn by death row prisoners is not entirely explained, though it could possibly be linked back to act one.

The third and final act provides a view of Joan’s married life with Todd, although she is away on a “mission” and doesn’t return to the scene until the very end of the play. Todd and Harper discuss the current political situation and Todd’s time in the army fighting against various nationalities, professions, and animals that are allied with one another. Both of them are worried about Joan, and when she finally returns, the scene is very tense as she describes the things she’s experienced. It’s on this intense note that the play ends, leaving the audience with many, many questions that can only be answered with a second or third viewing.

Reflections…

It is imperative for actors to be aware of the intellectual, theoretical, and practical conversations happening around their craft. This class not only took on character and play analysis, they also delved into thoughts and feelings around representation, diversification, and inclusion in the theatre. HowlRound Theatre Commons is “**a free and open platform for theatremakers worldwide that amplifies progressive, disruptive ideas about the art form and facilitates connection between diverse practitioners.”**

I think we need to get to the point where having a Black person playing a traditionally white character or a trans actor playing a cis character isn’t necessarily seen as a statement. It should be seen as normal. I do think that doing this can be a statement or commentary on race/gender but I don’t think it needs to be. We need to get to the point where a Black actor and play a white character and people won’t talk about what the meaning was behind that. —Zayna Hopkins

This reading [Gender is Performance] was about how in many plays and musicals, trans and nonbinary actors are excluded from being in the plays because of their gender and how the directors are transphobic or just don't get how to incorporate them. The simple answer was to just let them be an actor and to let them act, and you don't need to change the script or be commenting on the story. I think this is an important message because it could show cis directors that trans and nonbinary actors are just normal actors. —Phoebe Bradford

I generally agree with Steiger's points in this article [Whiteness, Patriarchy, and Resistance in Actor Training Texts], and it made me consider how some of the acting "mindset" that I had considered fairly normal was actually problematic, drawing on imagery which is often colonialist, racist and misogynistic. —Mary Alice Burke

“I believe this issue [associating certain characteristics with certain races] has actually been discussed and revised heavily in the Dungeons and Dragons context, specifically in the new sourcebook ‘Tasha's Cauldron of Everything’. In particular, most of the old "racial modifiers" are now decoupled from race and instead tied to background, unless it is literal physical aspect of their being (such as Tieflings, literal half-demons, having inherent fire resistance).” —Seth Haycock-Poller

Students read the following articles published by HowlRound Theatre Commons:

Gender is Performance: Why Trans* Actors Should Transcend the Character Breakdown by Will Wilhelm

Something for Everybody: Radical Inclusion in a Modern Adaptation by Ashley O’Mara

Whiteness, Patriarchy, and Resistance in Actor Training Texts: Reframing Acting Students as Embodied Critical Thinkers by Amy Steiger

Representation Matters: The Monologue Project by Gab Cody

(Re)Acting to Text: Acting and Activism in Introduction to Acting by Rivka Rocchio

A Dinner Theatre

Summary by Seth Haycock-Poller, Zayna Hopkins, and Phoebe Bradford

The second major play that we looked at was a one-act comedic play called A Dinner Theatre by Idris Goodwin. A Dinner Theatre features only four characters, none of whom are named with anything but numbers. A Dinner Theatre also provides no background information or setting to go off of. This forced us to create more imaginative character profiles as we had to come up with nearly all of the characterization by ourselves. The play takes place at a dinner table where the four main characters are discussing various absurd things that happened to them recently, including an encounter with a kangaroo from a shipping container, an idea for an app that cures boredom, and a naval battle in a bathtub. One of the characters starts off not believing the absurd stories that are being presented, gradually getting more annoyed with the others until they are asked to share anything interesting that happened to them, at which point, they showcase their hidden talent: freestyling. Because there were only four characters, we were split up into groups of four, and each group filled in dramatically different background information and settings. One group set their play in a senior assisted living home, playing the four participants of the dinner as senior citizens, while the other group set theirs in rural Australia, complete with attempted Australian accents.

One of our most exciting and enlightening discussions was about the play The Interrobangers by M. Sloth Levine. The casting breakdown included more People of Color than we had in the make up of our class. We explored the questions of who is “allowed” to play who, in what context, and what the consequences are. In the end, we did not use The Interrobangers in class, but the results of our investigation into issues around representation, appropriation, appreciation, and performance were extremely valuable. Below are some quotes from students responding to the play, articles about these very questions, and our class discussions.

“After reading Interrobangers, I don’t entirely feel like it’s the most feasible to do in class as-is, for a couple main reasons. However, I also feel like a lot of these reasons could possibly be flipped into reasons to do this in class. —Seth Haycock-Poller

“I think we could probably work on this play as a class. We wouldn’t be taking away the roles from underrepresented people so that’s not an issue. It’s more about gender but like Toni Morrison said, stories about white people are still stories about race. But I do think it wouldn’t be that problematic to do this play".” —Zayna Hopkins

“I think it’s important that if playwrights specify certain things about their characters, they stand strong about their decisions.” —Ezra Sugarman-Brozan

“Reasons to not do the play and my responses: “It feels uncomfortable”

I would like you to explore why this makes you uncomfortable…
Is it because you are afraid of being offensive? Totally valid! And thanks for looking out but generally speaking reading lines as a POC character isn’t inherently offensive, as long as you follow some basic ground rules (don’t say slurs, don’t do accents, etc) and I think we can take this one case to case for how the play is written but generally it’s okay
You feel that there is no way to replicate the experiences and feelings of someone who has experienced racism that you will never experience. Though it’s true that you will never be able to fully understand what it’s like, I still think it’s important to put yourself in other people’s shoes. We also don’t have to do plays that center around racism.
You aren’t sure but you just generally feel uncomfy. Doing things that are anti-racist aren’t really supposed to feel comfortable or easy.” —Saoirse Beare

You on the Moors Now

Summary by Saoirse Beare and Hallie Gauch

You on the Moors Now combines four pieces of classic literature including Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights. It takes these 4 stories, and the characters in each, and modernizes the classic stories. It takes the one thing all the leading ladies have in common which is being proposed. The play puts a spin on how they respond and their feelings about it. The play includes love, anger, grief, and bloodshed all in a comedic way allowing the four women to go deeper into their stories.

Script Analysis & Character Profiles

Students were tasked with categorizing and analyzing the play You on the Moors Now, as well as filling out a detailed character profile for a character of their choosing.

As a theatre teacher, I have many skills. Building websites is not one of them. Below you will find tiny little blocks with Google documents from each student. Just hover over the little block and scroll down—you will get to see what the students thought of the play and character of You on the Moors Now.

Division 3: Scene Study

The goal of this class was to learn and practice acting skills, script analysis, and performance styles through partner and small group scene work.

Please scroll through the page for a peek into our process. Keep scrolling to find videos of performances and some games!

Script Analysis & Character Profiles

Students were tasked with categorizing and analyzing the play You on the Moors Now, as well as filling out a detailed character profile for a character of their choosing.