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From Page to Stage
Introductory Activity:
1) Ask your students if they know anything about Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet." (Student answers will vary.) Ask if any of them can quote some lines from the play. (Answers will vary; if your students are stuck, hit them with "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou ...") Ask your students when "Romeo and Juliet" was written. (Answers will vary, but guide your students to realize that Shakespeare wrote the play over 400 years ago.) Ask why they think a play written over 400 years ago is still popular and well known today. (Answers will vary, and may include that it contains timeless themes, memorable characters, beautiful poetry, etc. Your students may also point out that a lot of people have to read it in school.)
2) Ask your students to brainstorm a list of words, terms, names, and ideas associated with "Romeo and Juliet." (Student responses will vary.) Accept all responses, and write them on your chalkboard or whiteboard.
3) Congratulate your students on knowing so much about "Romeo and Juliet." If they have not already pointed it out in the brainstorming list, ask them if "Romeo and Juliet" -- the play written by Shakespeare -- has ever been adapted into other forms of art or performance. (Answers will vary. Guide your students to realize that "Romeo and Juliet" has been adapted into other art forms many, many, many times, including opera, ballet, and more than 40 movies.)
4) Explain to your students that in the mid-20th century, a team of theater professionals in New York City decided to adapt "Romeo and Juliet" into a musical. Ask if any of them know what that musical is. (If they know, that's fine, if not, press on!)
5) Insert BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL: Episode 5: Tradition into your VCR. Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them to identify what choreographer Jerome Robbins thought would make the "Romeo and Juliet" story come alive for him. START the video shortly after the beginning of the episode, where you will see a black-and-white photograph of Jerome Robbins standing with three male dancers in shorts, and you will hear the narrator saying, "In the 1950s, while the choreographer Jerome Robbins was making his mark on Broadway ..." PAUSE the video when you hear the narrator say, "Amidst the warring gangs of New York City," and you see black-and-white footage of one boy straddling another and hitting him. Check for student comprehension. What did Jerome Robbins think would make the "Romeo and Juliet" story come alive for him? (Answer: Setting the story in the present day. More specifically, the creators of "West Side Story" decided to set it amid the warring gangs of New York City.)
6) Explain to your students that "West Side Story" has not only become a legendary musical, it has also influenced popular culture. Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them to determine what director Julie Taymor sees "West Side Story" as a forerunner of. START the tape at the previous pause point, when you see color footage of the rumble scene from "West Side Story," and you hear Leonard Bernstein's score with no narration. PAUSE the tape when you see director Julie Taymor onscreen, and you hear her say, "as in the movie." Check for comprehension, and ask your students what Taymor sees "West Side Story" as a forerunner of. (Answer: All of MTV and music videos.)
7) Explain to your students that "West Side Story" was an important milestone in theater history, and led the way for many musicals that followed. Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them to determine why "West Side Story" was such an important milestone. START the tape at the previous pause point. You will see a black-and-white photograph of the "West Side Story" marquee, and you will hear the narrator say, "When 'West Side Story' opened in 1957 ..." STOP the tape when you see a black-and-white photograph of dancers leaping through the air and you hear the narrator say, "who insisted on performers who could dance, sing, and act." Check for comprehension, and ask your students why "West Side Story" was an important milestone in the history of musical theater. (Answer: Because it introduced serious, contemporary subject matter into musicals, including murder and rape; it established the primacy of the director/choreographer; and it ushered in the era of "triple threat" performers, who could sing, dance, and act.)
8) Ask your students if the footage they saw of "West Side Story" looked or sounded like a Shakespearean play written over 400 years ago. (Students should say no.) Ask them why not. (Student answers will vary, but should include that the creative team decided to update the story, give it a new setting, and change it from a play written in verse into a musical.) Ask them if they recognized any images in the footage and photographs of "West Side Story" that were similar to "Romeo and Juliet." (Answers will vary, but there are quite a few images in the video footage that echo the original play.)
9) Ask your students if they are aware of any other musicals that have been based on preexisting works of literature. (Answers will vary, but feel free to explain that there have been many, many, many such musicals.)
10) Divide the students into pairs. Tell them to imagine that you have just purchased the rights to a novel, play, or short story that you have recently read in class (or, alternately, a work with which your students are all familiar), and that you are interested in adapting this work of literature into a musical. How is a musical different from a play, short story, or novel? What technical concerns might you have? Will you have to shorten or alter the plot and characters, or can you make the musical match the preexisting literature immediately? Why? Ask your students to spend a few minutes brainstorming what kind of challenges you will face as you tackle this monumental task.
11) Give your students 10 minutes or so to brainstorm, then ask them to share their ideas. (Answers will vary. Guide the students to realize that the creators of musicals based on preexisting literature must accomplish a variety of tasks, including: streamlining the plot and characters into a manageable length for the stage; creating music and lyrics that match the tone and feel of the original work; addressing technical demands that may not be possible on stage, etc.)
12) Explain to your students that in this lesson, they will be comparing and contrasting literary works and the musicals they inspired, and examining how theater artists translated an author's vision into the musical theater form.
Learning Activity:
1) Divide your students into five groups. Assign one of the following works of literature to each of the groups: 1) THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN; 2) LES MISÉRABLES; 3) "Little Red Cap"; 4) "Romeo and Juliet"; and 5) THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Tell your students that each group (with the exception of the "Little Red Cap" group) will be reading an excerpt from a larger work of literature.
2) Distribute the "From Page to Stage" student handout to all the students. If you have opted to print out and copy the excerpts from the works of literature, distribute the appropriate excerpt to each group. If you will be asking the students to read the excerpts online, direct them to the following bookmarked sites:
Mark Twain: Selected Writings: THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN: "The Royal Nonesuch"
http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/
writings_royal.html
University of Virginia: Electronic Text Center: LES MISÉRABLES: Volume II, Cosette
http://wyllie.lib.virginia.edu:8086/perl/toccer-new?id=
Hug2Mis.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/
modeng/parsed&tag=ublic&part=28&division=div2
University of Pittsburgh: Grimm Brothers: Grimms Fairy Tales: "Little Red Cap"
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm026.html
Complete Works of William Shakespeare: "Romeo and Juliet"
http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/romeo_juliet/
romeo_juliet.2.2.html
University of Virginia: Electronic Text Center: THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE: Chapter 10
http://wyllie.lib.virginia.edu:8086/perl/toccer-new?id=
SteJekl.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/
modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=10&division=div1
3) Provide the students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them to read their group's assigned excerpt and complete the questions in Part 1 of the "From Page to Stage" handout. Give them 20 to 30 minutes to complete this task.
4) When the students have completed their reading and Part 1 of the handout, tell them that they will now be examining songs from Broadway musicals based on the excerpts of the literary works they have just read. Each group will listen to a brief sound clip from a song on a Web site. Direct each group to the bookmarked site that goes with their literary excerpt:
For THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN
Song: "The Royal Nonesuch," from "Big River," available online at: http://www.rnhtheatricals.com/show.php?show_id=60
For LES MISÉRABLES
Song: "Castle on a Cloud," from "Les Misérables," available online at: http://www.mtishows.com/show_songs.asp?ID=000134
For "Little Red Cap"
Song: "Hello, Little Girl," from "Into the Woods," available online at:
http://www.mtishows.com/show_songs.asp?ID=000106
For "Romeo and Juliet"
Song: "Tonight," from "West Side Story," available online at:
http://www.mtishows.com/show_songs.asp?ID=000077
For THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
Song: "Transformation," from "Jekyll & Hyde" available online at:
http://www.mtishows.com/show_songs.asp?ID=000181
5) Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them to listen to the assigned sound clip on the Web site and complete the questions in Part 2 of the "From Page to Stage" handout. If they would like to examine the complete lyrics of their assigned song, they may go to any search engine, such as Google (http://www.google.com), type in the song title in quotation marks, and put the word "lyrics" outside the quotation marks (i.e., "The Royal Nonesuch" lyrics).
6) Explain to your students that after they have finished Part 2 of the handout, they can move on as a group and answer the questions in Part 3. Explain that after they complete Part 3, each group will briefly describe the excerpt they read, the song they listened to, and the similarities and differences between the two to the rest of the class.
7) After your students have completed Part 3 of the handout, ask each group to present their findings. Collect the "From Page to Stage" handout from each student for assessment.
Culminating Activity/Assessment:
1) Explain to your students that they will now have an opportunity to adapt literature into a dramatic and/or musical performance.
2) Ask each of your five groups to select a novel or short story (for the sake of time and classroom appropriateness, you may want to limit their choices to literature you have read in class), and to develop a short (one- to three-minute) excerpt of a play or a musical based on the selected short story or novel (they should have the option to do either, based on available time, as well as their musical talents, abilities, and interests). Remind the students that they will be responsible for developing a script, cast list, rehearsal, and performance (it's up to you to determine whether or not they should memorize lines or perform a "staged reading" with scripts in hand). Students interested in developing musical scenes may want to utilize the melodies or song structure of preexisting songs. Ask the students to pay particular attention to the tone and characterizations in the literary work as they begin developing their performances.
3) As an alternate activity, ask each student to create lyrics for one song based on a character and situation in the novel or short story (again, for the sake of time and classroom appropriateness, you may want to limit their choices to literature you have read in class). To make the process easier, students may want to utilize the song structure and rhyme scheme of a preexisting song. Again, ask them to pay particular attention to the tone and characterizations in the literary work.
4) As a culmination of the lesson, ask each group to perform a brief excerpt from their play or musical, or ask each student to share the lyrics for the song they have developed (braver students may even want to sing!).
5) As a final assessment of the lesson, ask the students to write a journal entry describing their experiences adapting the literary work for performance. How is their final product similar to, or different from, the original work?
Cross-Curricular Extensions:
Library/Research Skills
Ask your students to research the critical reception of their assigned musical. Was the show a hit or a flop? Were critics unanimous in their opinions? How can they go about tracking down the reviews of the original Broadway productions?
English/Language Arts
Ask the students to complete an investigation of the full work of literature upon which their assigned musical is based, and to track down the complete soundtrack of the musical. Have them assess the similarities and differences between the entire work of literature and the entire musical.
Social Studies
Ask the students to investigate the year of their assigned musical's original Broadway production. What was happening in the world when the show first came to Broadway? How does the show reflect this time period?
Community Connections:
- Attend a professional or amateur musical theater production based on a work of literature. Read the work of literature prior to attending the performance, and note differences and similarities between the two.
- Interview friends and family members about their experiences attending or performing musical theater. Create a class oral history project based on these interviews.
- Invite an attorney to your classroom to discuss the laws and legal procedures involved in adapting a work of literature for the stage or screen, producing a musical in your school, and/or copyright restrictions on musical works and song lyrics.
Online Resources:
The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization: Theatre Library
http://www.rnhtheatricals.com/
"Founded by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II half a century ago, The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization administers and promotes entertainment copyrights through stage productions, orchestral and vocal performances, and music publishing." On this site, students working with THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN assignment can listen to "The Royal Nonesuch" song clip from "Big River" by going to the "Shows A-L" link, selecting "Big River" from the pull-down menu, and then clicking on the "Musical Numbers" link.
Mark Twain: Selected Writings: THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN: "The Royal Nonesuch"
http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/
writings_royal.html
This PBS companion site for the Ken Burns film MARK TWAIN contains the full text of the chapter "The Royal Nonesuch" from THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN.
Music Theatre International
http://www.MTIshows.com/
Music Theatre International is a leader in the theatrical licensing industry, specializing in Broadway, Off-Broadway, and West End musicals. Since its founding in 1952, MTI has been responsible for supplying scripts and musical materials to theaters worldwide and for protecting the rights and legacy of the authors it represents. Students can listen to audio clips of songs from these musicals at this site:
"Into the Woods": Song List & Clips
http://www.mtishows.com/show_songs.asp?ID=000106
On this page, students can listen to a clip of the song "Hello, Little Girl."
"Les Misérables": Song List & Clips
http://www.mtishows.com/show_songs.asp?ID=000134
On this page, students can listen to a clip of the song "Castle on a Cloud."
"West Side Story": Song List & Clips
http://www.mtishows.com/show_songs.asp?ID=000077
On this page, students can listen to a clip of the song "Tonight" by clicking on the link labeled "Balcony Scene."
"Jekyll & Hyde": Song List & Clips
http://www.mtishows.com/show_songs.asp?ID=000181
On this page, students can listen to a clip of the song "Transformation."
University of Pittsburgh: Grimm Brothers: Grimms Fairy Tales: "Little Red Cap"
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm026.html
This site contains the full text of the Grimm Brothers fairy tale "Little Red Cap."
University of Virginia: Electronic Text Center: LES MISÉRABLES: Volume II, Cosette
http://wyllie.lib.virginia.edu:8086/perl/toccer-new?id=
Hug2Mis.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/
modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=28&division=div2
This site contains the full text of the chapter "Cosette Side by Side with the Stranger in the Dark" from Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables."
Complete Works of William Shakespeare: "Romeo and Juliet"
http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/romeo_juliet/
romeo_juliet.2.2.html
This site contains the full text of Act 2, Scene 2 from "Romeo and Juliet."
University of Virginia: Electronic Text Center: THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE: Chapter 10
http://wyllie.lib.virginia.edu:8086/perl/toccer-new?id=
Hug2Mis.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/
modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=28&division=div2
This site contains the full text of Chapter 10 of Robert Louis Stevenson's THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE.
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photo credits: Martha Swope
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