SPECIAL FEATURE: SUMMER INTERNSHIP GUIDE

Play by Play: Now in Color!

We’re proud to announce the new FULL-COLOR Spring issue of Play by Play, giving you and your students the best of New York City theatre. It will soon be at your school. Please distribute it right away! This guide is designed to familiarize you with the upcoming issue of Play by Play, and to suggest ways it can be used in a variety of classroom settings and curricular contexts.

HOW TO INTRODUCE PLAY by PLAY

Using Play by Play as a classroom resource supports New York City and State learning standards in Drama and English Language Arts, as well as the New York City Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts.

IN THIS ISSUE YOU CAN:

• EXPLORE CAREERS AND LIFELONG LEARNING with the Internship Guide.
  Supplemental exercises are provided in this Teacher Guide. Spark students’ interest in careers in the theatre while helping them hone important job-searching skills!
• MAKE CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS with the list of current Broadway and Off Broadway shows, included in this Teacher Guide, which relate to subjects you may be studying.
• Other options featured in this guide:
• WORKSHEET: Reproduce and distribute the Play by Play A to Z worksheet on the back page of this guide along with the current issue of Play by Play.
• PUZZLE: Use the puzzle found in the issue, as a quick, fun and easy way to familiarize your students with the content of this issue.
• EXERCISE: Prompt an in-class writing exercise based on the new hit musical The Color Purple.

IN THIS ISSUE

REVIEWS:

Hairspray is the rocking hit musical that Play by Play reviewer Elina Kats calls “a breathtaking journey for the senses.” Based on the John Waters film of the same name, Hairspray follows the indomitable young Tracy Turnblad as she takes 1960’s Baltimore by storm.

The Color Purple is a new hit musical based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Says Play by Play reviewer Venita
Johnson: “What [The Color Purple] gives you is magic…it transcends time and hate.”

Indoor/Outdoor is a “fun-filled experience,” raves Play by Play reviewer Sean Collins. This new comedy examines our most delicate human relationships through the eyes of a cat!

Back of the Throat challenges the worth of civil liberties as the interrogation of an Arab-American writer becomes a chilling terrorist investigation. Play by Play reviewer Artur Jaglieski considers this play “a brilliant one!”

OTHER SHOWS HIGHLIGHTED IN THIS ISSUE:

Hedda Gabler features one of the most famous female roles in contemporary theatre. The latest production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music stars Cate Blanchett (Lord of the Rings) and Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith of The Matrix).

[title of show] is the musical tale of four real-life friends and their quest to write a musical for the prestigious New York Music Theatre Festival. Play by Play reviewer Barbara Fenig predicts it will be the “ideal musical.”

Bridge & Tunnel features writer/performer Sarah Jones in her one-woman show, a celebration of the diversity and cultural identity of post-9/11 New York City.
 

OTHER FEATURES :

Tribute to Wendy Wasserstein: Charles Z. Alvarez, an alumnus of TDF’s Open Doors mentorship program (which Ms. Wasserstein founded), provides a touching tribute, recalling his experience in the Open Doors program and the difference that Ms. Wasserstein’s mentorship made in his life.

Play by Play Internship Guide lists available internships for high school students at theatre companies and organizations throughout New York City!

NEW FEATURE!: Spotlight on a Neighborhood Theatre is now a regular feature in Play by Play. In this issue, read about Pregones Theatre in the Bronx.

Using the back page :

Reproduce the PDF worksheet on the back page of this guide, and hand out to students with Play by Play. Play by Play A to Z The worksheet provided on the back page of this guide is designed to help students navigate through the issue and discover the opportunities it contains. Reproduce the worksheet and assign it as homework, or put students into groups and encourage them to complete it together in class. Try setting a time limit, and see which group can find the most correct answers.

Answers: Amas Musical Theatre, Hunter Bell, Cate Blanchett, Drumstruck, Elisabeth Withers-Mendes, Barbara Fenig, Gramercy Arts Theatre, House Manager, Indoor/Outdoor, Joanna Greer, Khaled, LaChanze, Measure for Pleasure, Neil Simon Theatre, Origlio Public Relations, Pregones Theatre, Queens Theatre in the Park, Rent, Shannon Durig, Take Me Out, Urban Word, Victoria Pettibone, Wendy Wasserstein, Xerox Corporation, Yussef El Guindi, Altar Boyz

WRITING EXERCISE :

THE COLOR PURPLE , Broadway Theatre
Music and Story: Character Soundtrack

The music of The Color Purple (reviewed by Venita Johnson on page 2) borrows from many kinds of music—from Gospel and blues to Ragtime, jazz and swing—to evoke specific themes and personalities from Alice Walker’s novel depicting the African-American experience in turn-of- the-century America. The opening Gospel song introduces the religious culture of the rural South, as the main character Celie struggles to define her relationship with God. The free-spirited Shug Avery later brings down the house with her sultry “juke joint” swing and blues, while glorious traditional African drumming evokes the personal revelations of Celie’s long-lost sister, Nettie, a missionary in Africa.

EXERCISE:
Have students write or identify a “theme song” for a real or fictional African American individual, using specific types and styles of music to express character traits, mood and personality.

1. Read the review of The Color Purple on page 2 of Play by Play.
2. Make a list of notable African-American individuals who intrigue you from literature, history or current events. Consider fictional characters from literature, such as Bigger Thomas from Richard A.
Wright’s Native Son. (For this exercise, try avoiding characters or actors from movies, or music and sports celebrities.)
3. Choose one character from the list, and write a monologue, or first-person speech, from this person or character’s point of view. This monologue should reveal an important secret about them: their biggest obstacle, for example, or their biggest wish or desire.
4. Read aloud your monologue to someone else in the class. Listen as they read theirs to you.
5. Choose a style of music that enhances the mood of your monologue, or that matches some of the traits of the person you’ve written about. (For example, you might choose a jazz composition for Langston Hughes or James McBride, author of The Color of Water; you might choose a song about dreams for Martin Luther King.)
6. Make a soundtrack that defines this person or character: make a list or burn a CD of recorded songs that embody, define and describe this character, and that reveal something unique about them.
7. Perform your monologue for the class on a later day, with the music you've chosen playing in the background. How does it affect the mood or feeling of your monologue?

Extra Credit: Write a song, with lyrics, for the character you've chosen. Take an existing song and write new lyrics for it, or try writing a song entirely from scratch.

Extra Credit: Create your own personal theme song; or make a soundtrack for yourself, compiling a list of songs that describe or define what is important or meaningful to you.

CIRCULAR CONNECTIONS :

Many Broadway and Off Broadway productions can support the curriculum you teach. The list below includes shows featured in Play by Play, as well as other productions that may or may not offer a specially priced student ticket.
LITERATURE:
• The Color Purple (in this issue on page 2)

• Hedda Gabler (in this issue on page 3)

• Bernarda Alba A musical version of Federico García Lorca’s classic play The House of Bernarda Alba. Through Apr. 9. Lincoln Center Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, 150 W. 65 St. (212) 239-6200, Groups (212) 889-4300. www.lct.org

• El Quixote Repertorio Español presents a carnivalesque adaptation of Cervante’s masterpiece. Select dates through May 12. Gramercy Arts Theatre, 138 E. 27 St. (212) 225-9940. www.repertorio.org

HISTORY/GOVERNMENT:
• Hairspray (in this issue on page 3)

• School of the Americas The final two days in the tumultuous life of famed revolutionary Che Guevara. Apr.-May. The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St. (212) 260-2400. www.publictheater.org

ETHNICITY/MULTICULTURAL:
• Awake and Sing! A starkly dramatic and vividly comic story of a lower-middle-class, three-generation Jewish family living in a Bronx apartment during the Depression. Mar. 23 - June 11. Belasco Theatre, 111 W. 44 St. (212) 239-6200, Groups (212) 889-4300. www.lct.org

• La Gringa María, a native New Yorker, travels to Puerto Rico for the first time in search of her roots. Select dates through June 9. Gramercy Arts Theatre, 138 E. 27 St. (212) 225-9940. www.repertorio.org

CURRENT EVENTS/ETHICS:
• Doubt The Tony Award-winning production of this Pulitzer Prize- winning play tells the story of accusations of abuse in a Bronx Catholic school. Walter Kerr Theatre, 219 W. 48 St. (212) 239-6200.
www.doubtonbroadway.com

• Stuff Happens A provocative and thoughtful play about how and why we went to war in Iraq. Performances begin Mar. 21. The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St. (212) 260-2400. www.publictheater.org

SHAKESPEARE AND THE CLASSICS:
• All’s Well That Ends Well Shakespeare pits a witty woman doctor against a haughty courtier in this darkly comic clash of wills. Through March 19. The Duke on 42 St., 229 W. 42 St. (212) 229-2819.
www.tfana.org

• The Importance of Being Earnest Lynn Redgrave stars in a revival of Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy of manners. Apr. 18 -May 14. Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn. (718) 636-4100.
www.bam.org

All the World’s a Stage!

This issue of Play by Play features a special Internship Guide, including a Glossary defining job positions and departments that work together “behind the scenes” to create a live performance event. Use the Guide to explore career options in the theatre industry and build important job search skills with your students.

Quick and easy ways to introduce the Internship Guide:
• Have students read through the Internship Guide, and write a letter of application for the internship they’re most interested in.
• Have students create a resume appropriate for a theatre internship that reflects their education and experience.
ALSO: Use an upcoming event in your school or classroom, such as a talent show or exhibition (even a PTA meeting!) to give your students practical understanding and first-hand experience in different production duties. Turn your event into a truly dramatic experience!
1. Read the Internship Guide and Glossary on pages 7 and 8 of Play by Play.
2. Explain to your class that they are going to work together as a “production company” to execute an upcoming school performance or event. Have students use the Glossary to identify the position that matches the duties they’d like to perform. Would they like to help advertise the event, for example, or are they more interested in working behind the scenes?
3. Have each student or group write a job description for their position. What do they need to accomplish in order for the event to be a success?
4. After the event, discuss which jobs students found easiest, most difficult, and/or most interesting.
5. Return to the Internship listings. What organizations offer internships in students’’ fields of interest? Have students identify one internship they’re interested in. Use the internet to research the organization and internship more thoroughly.

Using the Play by Play Puzzle

Pass out Play by Play to your class. Give students ten minutes to read through the issue, and fill in the word scramble on the bottom of page 6.

Answer Key: Africa; Yankee Stadium; The Flea; Hairspray; Sydney, Australia

Play by Play/TDF
1501 Broadway, 21st Fl.
New York, NY 10036
(212) 221-0885
www.tdf.org
www.playbyplayonline.org
Play by Play Teacher Guide
written by Krista Apple

A Theatre Development publication © 2006