Western Drama from Ancient Greece
to Shakespeare's England

Scenario

This year's local Shakespeare Festival will feature a performance of William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as an informational exhibit which audiences can visit prior to seeing the play. Festival planners would like this year's exhibit on the history of Western drama through Shakespeare's time to provide audience members with background information that will enhance their experience of Shakespeare's drama.

In the Western world, the theater originated in ancient Greece during the "golden age" or classical period. Elements of Greek theatre were then borrowed and adapted by the Romans. Although theatrical performances were suppressed by the church and others in power in Europe at various times, a variety of dramatic forms evolved during the medieval period known as the Middle Ages. Shakespeare's plays were written and originally performed during the Elizabethan era, when Queen Elizabeth 1 was on the English throne.

Some background knowledge of the dramatic tradition in which Shakespeare's work was rooted should help audiences to fully understand and appreciate the festival's performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Task and Product

As a member of the Shakespeare Festival Exhibit Team, your task will be to research one type of drama from the Western dramatic tradition through Shakespeare's time. Each member of your team should select one form of drama from the following list:

After researching your individual topics, members of your team will work together to combine your research findings and create one exhibit to be presented at the Shakespeare Festival. Your team's information should be presented in chronological order as a timeline with text and visuals, using one of the following formats:

• Poster timeline - Each team-member creates one poster on the drama form they researched; posters are placed in chronological order to form the team's timeline.
• Multimedia timeline (PowerPoint) - Each team-member creates several PowerPoint slides about the drama form they researched; all members' slides are sequenced in chronological order to form the team's timeline.
• Virtual timeline (Webpage) - Each team-member creates one Webpage about the drama form they researched; all members' Webpages are linked to a team Homepage, with a timeline serving as the table of contents.

Assessments

You will be graded on your daily work on the research process, your group work as a member of the Shakespeare Festival Exhibit Team, and your final product and presentation.

• Daily work on the research process (Formative)
• Research Process - Summative (Student/Self)
• Research Process - Summative (Teacher)
• Group Work - Performance Task Assessment
• Poster- Performance Task Assessment
• Multimedia Presentation - Performance Task Assessment
• Webpage - Performance Task Assessment

 Questions

Essential Question:

Subsidiary Questions:

• When and where were these forms of drama first written and performed?
• Who wrote these plays?
• What were performance venues (theaters, stages, etc.) like?
• Who were the actors in these performances?
• What were the defining characteristics of these plays? What were typical plots, settings, and characters?
• What kinds of costumes were worn?
• Who were the audiences for these plays? Why did they enjoy the plays?

 Gather and Sort

Gather information about your research topic from a variety of sources.

Record and sort your research findings using this note-taking organizer or note cards.

Be sure to avoid plagiarism and keep track of your resources for an MLA-style bibliography.

 Organize

Analyze your completed graphic organizer or sorted note cards to determine if you have gathered enough information about your topic:

• Do you have information pertaining to each of your subsidiary questions?
• Do you have additional information that would be of value to your audience?
• Is there any unrelated or unimportant information you should eliminate?

Meet with the other members of your Festival Exhibit Team to decide on the format for your group project and presentation. Then, click on your chosen presentation format for a Synthesizing and Evaluating Checklist.

• Poster Timeline
• Multimedia (PowerPoint) Timeline
• Virtual Timeline (Webpage)

 Conclusion

Presentations:

Present your Team's research project to the Shakespeare Festival audience (your class).
After giving your own presentation, self-assess your Team's work using the scoring tool for Group Work.

As you read, view, and listen to other Teams' presentations, use this chart to record notes about the various topics. These notes may be useful to you later during your reading of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Your teacher may have you use a scoring tool to peer-assess the presentations of committees other than your own:

• Poster - Performance Task Assessment
• Multimedia Presentation - Performance Task Assessment
• Webpage - Performance Task Assessment

Reflection:

During reading of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, look for elements from the earlier drama forms presented in the timeline projects. Use post-it notes in your play text or your sourcebook to note any elements you find in Shakespeare's play.

After reading Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, respond to the following question in a sourcebook entry or constructed response:

• What elements from earlier forms of Western Drama are evident in Shakepseare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream? Give specific examples from both the timeline projects and the play to support your answer.