Lesson Overview:

This lesson explores the implications of developing a musical from a literary text or an historical event, and includes suggestions for immersing students into the creative process of building a musical.

Length of Lesson:

Five 45-minute periods

Instructional Objectives:

Students will:

• gain insight into ways a musical can be unified into a cohesive production.
• recognize the potential of literary sources and/or historical events as inspiration for musicals.
• recognize aspects of the identification between themes and forms of musicals and the cultural climate of a time period.
• exercise collaborative problem-solving techniques.
• broaden research experience in diverse media.
• strengthen process skills of reading, writing, explicating.

Instructional Plan:

Distribute the Vocabulary Handout. Review with students what they have learned about the genre musical theatre, as well as the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein (See the related lesssons Show Business and Those Fundamental Things in this unit.)

Remind students that several of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s greatest Broadway hits were built from the framework of literary texts. Explain to students that their challenge in this assignment is to assess the possibilities for turning a designated text into a successful musical.

Select a play and/or novel, or a collection of short stories that have a homogenous thread, to use as a source for this assignment. In courses that incorporate the reading of several novels and/or plays, more than one source could be used to build a comparative study. If a literary selection is used in a history course to help illuminate some aspect of an event or time period, consider using the assignment to deepen students’ understanding of the emotional and psychological impact of historical events and the consequences that follow.

Any literary source or sources already integrated into the curriculum could be used in this "test case" probe. Sources that do not seem to hold any promise for transformation are just as valuable as those that do. An ideal format would be to incorporate a text or texts that hold promise and one or more that seem non-transferable. Following are a few suggested titles that could be considered. Some seem rich in possibilities; others do not and may seem impossible choices. Creative students, however, may find possibilities in all of them.

• Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• The Hairy Ape by Eugene O’Neill
• Henry IV, Part I by William Shakespeare
• The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

Divide the class into working pairs. Provide a list of texts that the students are studying in their literature or history classes, or alternatively, brainstorm a list of texts with the class. (These may or may not adhere to the suggestions above.) Ask each pair to assess the dramatic qualities of the assigned text or text from several perspectives and to negotiate specific responses to the questions in the accompanying Developing a Musical handout. Advise them to take written notes on their conclusions, to be used for later assignments.

Have students discuss their findings with the class, paying attention to specific opportunities and challenges that they identified in potential adaptations. Once you have had a general discussion, give each pair the assignment described in the accompanying Developing a Musical handout.

Have students share their creative efforts with their peers. Encourage students to offer positive comments and suggestions for additions or modifications. Select a vignette from one or a few of the creative designs to develop for class performance. Give particular attention in the sharing to the way the original text is used, and whether or not, and if so, how the components (setting, script, song, dance, etc.) of the design are integrated.

Assessment:

Evaluate students’ performance according to the following criteria:

• level of serious and cooperative participation in research and collaborative assignments
• level of discernment in contributions from research and to collaborative work
• substantive contributions to class discussion and special projects
• range and depth in analysis
• organization, meaningful substance, rhetorical skill, and poise in formal oral presentation
• alignment of written performance with writing process rubric
• willingness to volunteer for special activities
• general level of engagement in all activities and assignments

Extensions:

Note: This lesson is designed to be taught after the related lessons entitled Show Business and Those Fundamental Things .

Extension: Have students consider a major historical event as the central inspiration for a musical. Ask students to prepare a jot list of specific occurrences recorded in history that are related to the chosen event. Divide the class into pairs. Ask each pair to construct a structural design for a musical, utilizing the specifics on the jot list to create performance segments and to write a song lyric dedicated to some aspect of one of the occurrences.

Sources:

Print:

• Brinkley & Friedel, et.al. (ed.). A Survey of American History—Eighth Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1991.
• Green, Stanley. The World of Musical Comedy, Fourth Edition. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1980

Authors:

• Jayne Karsten, English, Grades 9-12
  The Key School
  Annapolis, MD US