Download Here

88 downloads 221512 Views 5MB Size Report
This time it's the legendary One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Dale. Wasserman's award winning stage version of Ken Kesey's ground-breaking novel.
Education Pack

© FOURBLOKES Theatre Company 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Ting. Tingle, tingle, tremble toes, she's a good fisherman, catches hens, put'em inna pens wire blier, limber lock, three gees inna flock one flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo's nest... O--U--T--spells out... goose swoops down and plucks you out.

From a variant of the Mother Goose rhyme that was printed in 1814.

Chief Bromden

Fourblokes' actor: Phil Stanley 2 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Welcome to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Contents Page Introduction The Play - The playwright Dale Wasserman, - The characters - Preparing GCSE drama students for the play - A brief potted history of the play - Setting & summary of the play - A word about style - Play genre, significant quotes - Practical Drama - Differentiated extras/fillers/hw - Designing for the stage - Interview with Kirsty, costume designer - Costume Design gallery The Novel - The author Ken Kesey - Background - 1950s & The Cold War - Joseph McCarthy, Beatniks - LSD, Kesey & the novel - The nursery rhyme & title - Themes - Working with themes - Motifs, symbols & imagery - More questions, & 'work triggers' for English Disability & OFOTCN - Teaching & Learning activities - Why was I there? (Personal account) The Film - Lasting impact? - McMurphy's Cinematic Brothers in Rebellion - And finally... © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

4 5-6 7-10 11 12 13 14 15 16-22 23 24 25-26 27-28 29 30 31 32 33 34-35 36 37-40 41 42-43 44 45 46-47 48-50

3

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Introduction Welcome to our latest Education Pack, which has been designed once again to support your visit to see the new and compelling stage production from multi awardwinning FOURBLOKES THEATRE COMPANY. This time it's the legendary One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Dale Wasserman's award winning stage version of Ken Kesey's ground-breaking novel. The pack is flexible and both student and teacher friendly - with much that will engage both drama and english teachers & students, but also should interest citizenship, pshe and media studies practitioners. Responding to requests and suggestions from teachers who have already discovered the many ways our packs can save time and effort in developing appropriate teaching & learning resources, we've tried to build on the crisp, fresh, no-nonsense layout that seems popular, and we feel that this is possibly the best one yet. Please continue to give us your feedback, as we do appreciate it and it definitely shapes future FOURBLOKES projects. We are now in our sixth year and are the proud winners of 5 NODA Best Regional Play awards and 2 Derby Eagle awards, but it is our commitment to providing local school, college and university students & staff with best value, quality live theatre productions which still brings us greatest satisfaction. So thanks for your support, enjoy browsing through the pages of the pack, and relish the benefits of having been part of the FOURBLOKES experience!

Kind regards, The FOURBLOKES Team, September 2011

www.fourblokes.com

4 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The Play Dale Wasserman on the writing of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“In order to write this play I need to know much more about asylums, treatments, and the so‐called insane. My research covers six institutions, starting with a posh mental clinic in New York where I watch sixty electroshock treatments in one morning and encounter two other writers among the patients. Then down, down the scale to the abysmal cellar of Milledgeville, Georgia, a classic snake pit where the patients spend their days chained to radiators. Climactically, still unsatisfied that I know my subject well enough, I arrange with the head psychiatrist of an Eastern institution to have myself committed as a patient for a period of two weeks. (Of that, perhaps I'll write at another time.) I can only say that there's no urge to escape an asylum; to the contrary, it's comfortable, it is seductive to abandon volition and to live unstressed at no price other than merely obeying the rules.” from “Hatching The Cuckoo’s Nest" By Dale Wasserman.

Dale Wasserman

Playwright, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Wasserman served American theatre for over 50 years. In earlier days he roamed the US as a hobo, riding freight trains and largely avoiding any formal education. At nineteen, he gravitated into the theatre where he cut his teeth on every conceivable job - stage manager, lighting designer, director and producer among them. At age 33, he walked off the Broadway musical he was directing, abruptly deciding to become a writer. Since then, he produced a continuous body of work for the

theatre, film and television. Never writing with a direct eye on commercial reward, his instincts drew him to a vast range of subjects, with fate often lending a hand. Visiting Spain in the late

1950s, the press incorrectly reported that he was researching Don Quixote. Intrigued, he did just that. The result was I, Don Quixote, a TV drama starring Lee J. Cobb, Eli Wallach, and Colleen Dewhurst, which in turn became Man of La Mancha, multiple Tony-winner and among the longest-running Broadway musicals of all time.

!"##$%&"' #"()*

+,-$%./0('1 2' " #/"1$ (# #34#$%-($'/ /2 /0$ /$5/+ Do you agree with this?

© FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

5

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Dale Wasserman continued... Man of La Mancha became a multiple Tony-winner and among the longest-running Broadway musicals of all time. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, also a multiple Tonywinner, was initially a flop on Broadway but later played to packed houses for 4 years in New York and 5 years in San Francisco - leading, of course, to the famous film, released in 1976 and starring Jack Nicholson. Mr. Wasserman's many other credits include screenplays for The Vikings, Cleopatra, and A Walk with Love and Death. as well as countless TV dramas. His play about Haiti, An Enchanted Land, had its premiere in London. He also wrote three new musicals: Western Star, a look at the shady side of American "pioneers"; A Walk In the Sky, about the power of art to reach the primitive heart; and a revised version of Duke Ellington's masterpiece, Beggar's Holiday, and a comedy: Premiere! Wasserman considers Players In the Game to be his most incisive writing.

Mr. Wasserman was awarded Honorary Doctorates from several universities, and when asked, guessed that he had "maybe a couple dozen," but since he always avoided awards ceremonies, he was simply not sure. Reclusive by nature, he and his wife, Martha Nelly Garza, made their home in Arizona. Dale Wasserman passed away in 2008 at the age of 94!

Dale n o tion ebsite: a m m sw for n.co e in visit hi r a o m m r , For erman asse w e s l s a Wa w. d w w :// h ttp

6 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The Characters Chief Bromden St Chief Bromden is the son of a chief of the Columbia Indians and a white woman. He suffers from paranoia and hallucinations, has received multiple electroshock treatments, and has been in the hospital for ten years, longer than any other patient in the ward. Bromden sees modern society as a huge, oppressive 'machine' and the hospital as a place meant to fix people who do not conform. Bromden narrates the story of the mental ward while regaining a sense of himself as an individual. Phil

le an

y

J as o

Pa

Randle Patrick McMurphy n R. P. McMurphy is a big gambler, a con man, and a free spirit. He was sentenced to six months at a prison work farm, and when he was diagnosed as a psychopath — for “fighting and fucking too much” — he did not protest because he thought the hospital would be more comfortable than the work farm. McMurphy serves as an unlikely Christ figure in the play — the dominant force challenging the establishment, and the ultimate saviour of the victimized patients. rker

e an

Nurse Ratched The head of the hospital ward. Nurse Ratched, the play’s Sand y L antagonist, is a middle-aged former army nurse. She rules her ward with an iron hand and masks her humanity and femininity behind a stiff, patronizing facade. She selects her staff for their submissiveness, and she weakens her patients through a psychologically manipulative regime designed to destroy their self-esteem. Ratched’s emasculating, mechanical ways slowly drain all traces of humanity from her patients.

es

Dale Harding Ian J An acerbic, college-educated patient and president of the on Patients’ Council. Harding helps McMurphy understand the realities of the hospital. He has a difficult time dealing with the oppressive nature of society, so he hides in the hospital voluntarily. Harding’s development and the reemergence of his individual self signal the success of McMurphy’s battle against Ratched. 7 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Billy Bibbit A shy patient. Billy has a bad stutter and seems much younger than his thirty-one years. Billy Bibbit is dominated by his mother, one of Nurse Ratched’s close friends. Billy is voluntarily in the hospital, as he is afraid of the outside world.

Ros s

we Lo

Doctor Spivey Nurse Ratched chose Doctor Spivey as the doctor for her ward because he is as easily cowed and dominated as the patients. With McMurphy’s arrival, he, like the other patients, begins to assert himself. He even supports McMurphy’s unusual plans for the ward, such as holding a carnival.

g

Cra i

Brid

g es

Charles Cheswick The first patient to support McMurphy’s rebellion against Nurse Ratched’s power. He alternates between an aggressive temper and childish giggles. His twitchy hands often suggest his mental fragility.

Ron

Fro

st

Martini Another childlike hospital patient. Martini lives in a world of delusional hallucinations, but McMurphy is sympathetic and includes Martini in their antics and card games, which is a significant boost for this volatile personality.

Step

he

n R e es

Terr

y

e p h e ns o n St

Scanlon The only Acute besides McMurphy who was involuntarily committed to the hospital. Scanlon has fantasies of blowing things up. Like most of the inmates he is totally unpredictable.

© FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

8

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Mik H o

ath rv

Mar ie on e St

Gary

Embittered and 'anti-everybody' - including Nurse Ratched. She nevertheless competes with Williams to get in Ratched's good books. She enjoys baiting Chief Bromden.

Aide Turkle The nighttime orderly for Nurse Ratched’s ward. He is a pot smoker, likes a drink and has an eye for the ladies. He helps the patients throw the after-hours party in the ward.

er ev L u cy

H

a

m

The most aggressive orderly in Nurse Ratched’s team. Sarcastic with the patients but none too bright, he is constantly wary of Ratched. He soon gets on McMurphy's case.

Aide Warren

L

Gem

Aide Williams

Bla

Nurse Flinn A strict Catholic nurse who works with Nurse Ratched. Nurse Flinn is afraid of the patients’ sexuality. She is efficient but naieve.

ke ea

2 th x

Sandra A 'good time girl' who knows McMurphy and is friends with Candy Starr. Not bright and recently separated from a very odd husband. Nurse Pilbow Another cold, 'no frills' member of Ratched's nursing team.

9 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Heat

h Pa

rkin

Ruckley A Chronic patient. Ruckley was once an Acute, but was transformed into a Chronic due to a botched lobotomy. Alternates between being a figure of fun and mockery though he is ultimately unnerving and a constant warning to McMurphy.

Laur

a

Fo

Candy Starr

gue va r

A good friend of McMurphy's - a beautiful and carefree 'tart with a heart'. Makes the hearts of all the male inmates beat significantly faster. Not bright but not a fool.

10 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Preparing GCSE Drama Students For The Play AQA GCSE DRAMA 3.1.3 Section C: Study of a live theatre production seen "Candidates are expected to have studied, as part of their course, a production of live professional or non-professional theatre. It is helpful for candidates to follow theatre visits with practical workshop study. In the Written Paper candidates will be given an opportunity to show their knowledge and understanding of how plays are constructed and realised. There will be opportunities for those with particular interests in performance, design or technical aspects of production to answer on those elements. Productions must be of scripted plays. Candidates must have studied the play from a practical point of view and should be able to show their knowledge and understanding of the way in which the text was realised in the production. Candidates are required to produce a personal response to various aspects of ‘live’ theatre productions seen during the course. Candidates must study the play before and after the theatre visit with practical workshops, whether their main interest is performance or design or technical skills. Candidates should be able to demonstrate their understanding of performance or design or technical skills as well as their knowledge and understanding of the chosen live production from a performance perspective (AO1), and they should be able to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of their ideas and skills and those of others (AO3). Candidates should be able to demonstrate: • a clear understanding of how plays are constructed and realised • informed knowledge and understanding of the acting performances and the skills involved • informed knowledge and understanding of the technical and design elements and the skills involved • informed knowledge and understanding of the social, historical and cultural context of the live theatre production • the ability to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of the skills presented" • the ability to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of the production as a whole.

11 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

A brief potted history of the play The rights to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey's 1962 novel about rebellion in a mental hospital, were acquired by Kirk Douglas soon after publication as a vehicle in which he planned to return to the Broadway stage. When Douglas discovered that Wasserman had also tried to buy the rights, he hired him to write the play, agreeing that Wasserman should retain all rights to his dramatisation while Douglas retained screen rights to the novel. After opening to positive reviews in Boston, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest went to Broadway, where it received reviews from New York's most influential critics that Douglas described as "murderous". Howard Taubman of the New York Times wrote of the play's "appalling taste", while Walter Kerr of the Herald Tribune declared that the "tastelessness of this character (R.P. McMurphy) should be talked about". The play struggled through a five-month run. "It was terrible," Wasserman later said. "Kirk was so frightened to return to the live stage he took refuge in being lovable every moment of the play. But his character was half Christ and half con-man and he was not meant to be lovable." Though One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest flopped first time on stage, an offBroadway revival starring William Devane in 1971 ran for over 2,000 performances and prompted the Oscar-winning film version in 1975 (which did not involve Wasserman). The play was subsequently revived on Broadway in 2001 starring Gary Sinise, who won a Tony for the best revival of a play, and in 2004 it was successfully staged in London, starring Christian Slater (below) and Frances Barber.

12 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Time

Setting of the play

The 1960s (In fact our director set the action in 1967 specifically)

Place “The day room in a ward of a State Mental Hospital somewhere in the PacificNorthwest. A spacious, clean-lined expanse, impersonal and rather sterile.”

Summary of the play The curtain rises on a large, sterile ward in a mental asylum which is kept under control by the icy rule of Nurse Ratched. The patients are kept in line through the use of tranquilizing drugs and the threat of electroconvulsive therapy and worse. When Randle P. McMurphy, an uncontrolled brash, self-confident, fighter, gambler, lover and self-confessed psychopath bursts into the ward, Nurse Ratched’s unchallenged rule is put into question. To avoid hard jail time at a prison farm, McMurphy has pretended to be crazy. Ironically, he soon finds that this mental asylum is far more harsh and oppressive than his previous prison ever was. At first, McMurphy’s attitude and defiance towards Ratched and her rules serve as a source of humour and sport. However the ward’s dynamics quickly change to a noholds-barred conflict between McMurphy’s irrepressible desire to express his free will and Nurse Ratched’s uncompromising commitment to maintain her control and authority. Prior to McMurphy’s arrival, the patients had given up and given in to Nurse Ratched’s authority. They tolerate her arbitrary rules and have abandoned any desire to exercise any form of independence. McMurphy decides that he will make men out of the complacent “boys.” Soon, much to the dismay of Nurse Ratched, the patients are resisting her authority and are verging on rebellion. McMurphy is threatened with electroconvulsive therapy if he does not conform to Ratched’s expectations. Predictably, McMurphy is unable to give in to the Big Nurse’s authority and the threat becomes a reality. Not content with merely inflicting humiliation and pain on McMurphy, Nurse Ratched manipulates events to show McMurphy who is in ultimate control and to ensure that all the patients learn a lesson about the consequences of defiant behaviour such as McMurphy’s. Much of the story is witnessed through the eyes of Chief Bromden and in the end, it is he who finds a way to free McMurphy (and himself) from Nurse Ratched.

© FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

13

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

A word about style It is curious how a novel as hallucinatory as "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" has been represented in theatre and film as a piece of social realism. As a hospital drama the piece tends towards melodrama and its characters are dangerously close to stereotypes. It is also rather bleak and susceptible to the criticism that this regime no longer exists. The play must go beyond either the realistic drama or the mere allegory. Kesey, for example, was writing about mental illness as a metaphor. The mentally ill are pulled into the present, their hallucinations link their conscious with their subconscious. The Nurse, for example, is not a representative of aggressive womanhood, but of repressed thinking. Each of the patients represents states of being, or awareness. And it is the Chief who is the key figure, because he is able to see the 'Big Picture' - but Society has decided that he is insane and he is unable to bear the burden of his understanding. McMurphy shows him that he can use his perception to act, to do. McMurphy gives him self respect, which of course allows him first to speak and then to escape. Unless a production gives value to the states of perception of the Chief then the production is untrue to the book - which is narrated by the Chief. The film, in comparison, has the Chief as a secondary character - the story is seen from the perspective of Jack Nicholson's McMurphy. The audience should be offered an insight into the experience of all the characters. It is particularly important to give weight to the patients’ world view. If they are simply "crazy" then the Nurse and society at large are right in wanting to 'cure' them by any means. McMurphy gives the inmates dignity, confidence and, in Billy's case, even sexuality, yet theirs is the true journey. His own journey ends in tragedy but he saves them, even though he dies in the process. There is of course a religious parallel here. And whether 'Cuckoo' is a mystical, political or hallucinatory story is beside the point - it is all of these things. It is surely not a realistic to treat the mentally ill.

drama about old-fashioned ways

14 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Play genre One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest contains aspects found in a number of different theatrical and literary genres. These genres include: Tragedy – serious works in which the protagonists suffer a tragic end, or loss as a result of a character defect or unwise decision. Morality Play – a form of entertainment which first became popular during the Middle Ages. Many modern plays are also considered morality plays if their plots involve straightforward characters and if their purpose is to teach lessons in morality. Comedy of Menace – Plays which fit this genre are humorous in places but the humour is mingled with plot elements that are unsettling and disturbing. Audiences at such plays often find it difficult to know how to respond in that the dramatized situations are funny and unsettling at the same time. Realism – realistic drama involving everyday people dealing with significant social and political issues of the day

Significant quotes from the play Chief Bromden: We got stone brains, cast-iron guts, and copper where they took away our nerves. We got cog-wheels in our bellies and a welded grin, and every time they throw a switch it turn us on or off. Nurse Ratched: Most of you are here because you could not adjust to the outside world. You broke the rules of society. McMurphy: What are you doin’ here – you outta be out in a convertible, bird dogging chicks an’ bangin’ beaver. (Billy looks at the floor.) All you guys, why the hell do you stay? You gripe, you bitch how you can't stand this place, can't stand the Big Nurse, and here all the time you ain't committed! What's the matter with you? Ain't you got any guts just to walk out? I mean, whattaya think you are – crazy or somethin’? Harding: We are the psychoceramics, the cracked pots of humanity. Cheswick: "Behave yourself, boys!" What choice we got? McMurphy: But I tried, Godammit, I tried. Chief Bromden: McMurphy. Make me big again.

© FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

15

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

PRACTICAL DRAMA 1. Improvisation work using Billy Bibbit as the trigger. Lesson One:

Ros

we as Billy

Lesson Two:

s Lo

Read scene as a whole group. Discuss situation and character of Billy. Select one still image from his story & bring it to life as a team improvisation. • Hot-seat Billy – for more background information. HW: Research care in US mental institutions in the 1950s/60s • • •

Recap/ debrief HW. • Define making space: ‘The Hospital’ – rehabilitation centre for psychiatric patients. • Decide: some patients, some workers & Billy. Impro ‘day to day routines’. • Select a still image – and thought track characters. • Billy receives a letter from his mother – create an artefact or use a live voice over.

Lesson Three: • • • •

Split into groups – discuss and devise what could have happened when he was: 13, 17, 21 and 26 years old. Using the information – create the image – thought track and move the most important moment. Back to The Hospital – Flashback, Billy’s life. So the rest of the patients become his life as worked out by the groups above. Put all this together from Billy receiving the letter – voice over right through to last flashback and then back to still image you started with.

Lesson Four: • • • •

Explore the day it was decided he'd go into the mental hospital: Tunnel of thoughts leading up to the front door. Flashback to the day he was put into a room on the ward. Define the space – we become the walls of the room – Billy inside the room – we are his thoughts in his head. HW: Write up this project in a written evaluation, comparing your work with that of the Fourblokes Theatre's 'take' on the characters - especially that of Billy Bibbit..

Key words that may well be part of your course's terminology are highlighted in bold. Please keep using and learning them. Your teacher will advise.

16 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

PRACTICAL DRAMA 2: Creating responses from a 1960s song lyric stimulus Aims: oTo stimulate thoughtful discussion and strong impro work from an unusual trigger. oTo explore relevant issues arising from the 1960s & devise a drama response.

The song, strangely, is called “Positively 4th Street”. (Any thoughts?) It was written in 1965 by Bob Dylan - regarded as the leading 'protest singer' of all time. 7. You see me on the street You always act surprised. You say, "How are you?" "Good luck" But you don't mean it.

1.

You got a lotta nerve To say you are my friend. When I was down You just stood there grinning.

2.

8. When you know as well as me You got a lotta nerve You'd rather see me paralysed. To say you got a helping hand to lend. Why don't you just come out once You just want to be on And scream it? The side that's winning. 9. No, I do not feel that good You say I let you down When I see the heartbreaks you You know it's not like that. embrace. If I was a master thief If you're so hurt Perhaps I'd rob them. Why then don't you show it?

3.

4.

You say you lost your faith But that's not where it's at You had no faith to lose And you know it.

10. And now I know you're dissatisfied With your position and your place. Don't you understand It's not my problem?

5.

I know the reason That you talk behind my back I used to be among the crowd You're in with.

11. I wish that for just one time You could stand inside my shoes, And just for that one moment I could be you.

6.

Do you take me for such a fool To think I'd make contact With the one who tries to hide What he don't know to begin with?

12. Yes, I wish that for just one time You could stand inside my shoes You'd know what a drag it is To see you…

In your team, listen to the track, then read & discuss the lyrics together, and decide the usual Ws of Drama – in this case: Who is saying all the ‘put down’ comments in the song lyric? Who do you think it’s all aimed at? An individual or society in general? What might have happened in the past to lead to this sort of bitter outburst? Why is it all being said now? Has something triggered it? Where could your drama be set? How exactly? What might/could happen next? There’s potential for many different ways of responding to this ‘edgy’ song lyric. Explore! Aim to produce your team’s most powerful drama yet!!

17 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

PRACTICAL DRAMA 3: Improvisation from character 'Cuckoo's Nest' is a gathering of many contrasting characters in a confined space. Consider... Contrasting Characters Working in a group of five or six, students should choose one of the following descriptions for their character. When they have sorted this out amongst themselves, provide a setting for the characters. (Listed below): Characters: • An irritable senior citizen • A wealthy snobbish person • A demanding child • A scientist • A teacher • A fashion model • A young mother • A very well behaved, polite child • A priest • An off duty police officer • • • • • • • • •

Settings: (multiple opportunities as long as there are clear, defined space parameters) An open-air market A cinema A library Part of an airport A demonstration A bank A sports event A railway station A travel agency

Following character types and settings, provide a brief, one-or-two-words description of the situation in which these characters are to interact in a dramatic situation. Allow sufficient time for students to prepare for presentation. Situations:

Sudden Emergency Obsession Annoying Child Be Calm

Accusation Suspicion Be Patient

Secret Pickpocket Who's First? Old Friends

Recognition A Queue Amongst Rivals

Objectives: • • •

adapting character to the setting (What would a scientist be doing at an airport? Why would a priest be in a cinema?). how to incorporate characters into the same scene or scenes. (How will they interact in such a way that they reveal information about their own, and each other's, personalities, pasts and motivations?) revealing this information to the audience, and playing a part in the story at the same time?

18 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

PRACTICAL DRAMA 4: Improvisation from character - student guidance Look at each element of character separately: Personality = The way your particular character behaves that makes him or her unique. Is she optimistic or gloomy? Does he have a tendency to exaggerate? Is she polite, weak-willed, dominant, gullible, trustworthy, forgetful or easily upset? Past = What has happened to your character in the recent and distant past? How do these past experiences effect her attitude towards other people, places and objects? Have these experiences effected her personality in any way? Is she snobbish because she was brought up that way or has she just been influenced by people she has met or seen in later life? Motivation = Why does your character do what she does in the scene? Why does she say what she says? Motivations are just the reasons for saying or doing things. These elements of character can be revealed to the audience in three main ways: a) What she says to others and the way in which she says it. b) What others say about her. c) What she does (including her use of gestures and movements). Remember that your character will not simply spring into life the moment that she says her first words. Part of your job, as an actor, is to suggest a past existence for her. You don't have to invent every detail about her life since birth but there should be some awareness of past deeds, influences and upbringing. The following situations will allow you to reveal important information about your character. You will be working in smaller groups this time, three or four only. Your teacher will ask your group to choose one of the descriptions from the list that follows and you will be expected to invent a character of your own: Revealing Character • You are a group of teachers in the staff room of a school. It is the first day of the new term and you are discussing your summer break. • You are a team of student doctors accompanying a senior surgeon on his/her rounds of the hospital. • You are group of students on a field trip with your teacher. You are being taken around a large museum. • You are new recruits in the army. You have just arrived on the parade ground and are meeting your Drill Sergeant for the first time. • You are a family having a picnic in the countryside. Someone forgot to pack the drinks. • You are a group of advertising executives at a meeting. You are discussing your new soft drink promotion campaign. • You are a group of hikers who are lost in a foreign country, miles from civilisation. One of you has a compass, one of you is feeling unwell and one of you is cold. Activities like this demand that your characters interact in a way that will create a dramatic scene. Try to avoid using any narration - reveal character through dialogue and action. If you are have sufficient time for preparation, you might wish to make a brief plan for your presentation.

19 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

PRACTICAL DRAMA

5: Theme-Based Improvised Drama Information for students: You will find that the less information and stimuli you are given, the more thinking and planning you have to do for your drama. Sometimes you will be given just a simple one-word theme like 'trust' or 'obsession'. The way in which you approach such a theme is largely up to you. It is helpful also to draw on your own experiences. Remembering a point in your own life when you have experienced obsession, loyalty, suspicion or whatever the given theme is, can form a starting point for your presentation. Other people can also provide a rich source of ideas. Don't hesitate to ask parents, teachers or friends about their experiences. If you are working in a pair or group, it is useful to use Brainstorming as an approach. You have probably used this technique in other subjects but here's a quick reminder of what it entails: Taking it in turns, each person in your group says a word or phrase that they would associate with your given theme. Someone should have a pen and paper ready to jot down some of these ideas. Each person should take a number of turns. The words or phrases may be associated with locations, characters, moods or dialogue. Here's an example of the hastily scribbled results of just such an exercise:

Honesty - truth, money, lies, stealing, parent, family, marriage,

Husband, wife, cheating, love, "I trusted you", "I'm guilty", forever, courage, "Own up", "I'll give you one last chance", betrayal, "I saw you do it", "Which do you prefer?", "Trust me", "Liar, liar, pants on fire", doctor, priest, politician. Following an exercise like this, it is possible to pick out the words or phrases you think will work best in your drama. This sort of activity is an ideal starting point for the planning process. When you have selected one of the following themes, you should attempt to follow the steps of the planning process of creating an improvisation: * Brainstorm the word or phrase * Discuss - choose particular ideas you like from the list * Gather research materials * Decide on story, setting and characters * Make basic plan of scene by scene * Rehearse it.

Themes: (There are many themes in 'Cuckoo' - see the novel section or use these below as promising alternatives for dramatic approaches.) Obsession - Obsessions can be harmful, sometimes resulting in tragic consequences. Romeo and Juliet's obsession for each other, regardless of family pressure, leads to four untimely deaths. Loyalty - Loyalty can take many forms, from a servant's loyalty to master/mistress or a supporter's loyalty to his or her bottom of the league sports team. Ambition - If someone has an objective, goal or plan that drives them on, they can be said to have an ambition. Lady Macbeth's strongest ambition is to see her husband as King.

20 © FOURBLOKES THEATRE CO. 2011

FOURBLOKES Theatre Company's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

PRACTICAL DRAMA 6: Improvisation work using Chief Bromden as the trigger. !"#$% &'()*$+, !"# $%&'((')*+ ,$-$+ *)# ./"0 1)..$ 2'3 /'& #'./ 4)*.5)6(7 8/"0 1).

#'5"( 59**'*: .) "$4/ &$* $*% 9*'.( -6$*."% '* )95 /"$%(7 8/"5":( &$1*".( '* ./" 26))5 () #" 4$*:. #$6; *) #$0 #/""6( '* )95