Speaking and Listening

Charting the play

Activity

Having read the play through it is useful to re-tell the story in a simpler format. This will help you remember who the play is about and what happens.

• You will need to divide the play up into sections. For example:
  Scenes 1-3 (pages 45-55)
  Scenes 4-7 (pages 55-69)
  Scenes 8-11 (pages 69-79)
  Scenes 12-17 (pages 80-90)
  
  
• Your teacher will give your group a section of the play to work on. Sit in a circle and read the section of the play together by taking a line each. Do not read a character's part each.
  
• Write down in bullet point form the main events that happen in your play. This will help you to deliver the main important events in your section.
  
• One member of your group should sit in a chair. Their job will be to narrate the scene, that is, simply recount the events in order.
  
• The rest of the group should position themselves around the chair. You should always be in contact with the chair, or someone who is connected to the chair, and you are connected to them. Their role will be to either speak in the voices of the different characters or comment on the events being recounted. For example:

Narrator:	Ger caught Pats robbing from the kitchen.
Ger:	Oy! What yer doing?
Comment:	Ger wasn't happy about this.

• The people around the chair can also be non-human items, for example doors, trees, goal posts. As long as it helps the audience, include it.
  
• Practise re-telling the whole of your section in this way. The group should never leave the chair - the focus is on using different ways of communicating the story by use of voice alone.
• Run the whole sequence of scenes in order so that you all get to hear the story of the play.