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Follow-on
On the display board, groups can put up a typed version of their ‘drama’
alongside the written version in Box 51.
Note
The activity moves from comprehension via discussion and reconstruction,
to expression, since students have to transfer their understanding of
narrative to the creation of a direct representation of it.
9.6 What are they saying?
Aim To develop a playscript from a fiction extract
Focus Vocabulary will depend on the texts chosen; spoken language derived
from written (direct from indirect or reported speech)
Level Intermediate–Advanced
Time At least one class hour
Preparation You need to find an extract from a novel or short story which has
potential for dialogue, and which can be broken up into a number of
fragments. Box 52 provides some examples.
Procedure
1 Divide the class into multiples of three (if you use stories with three
episodes). Explain that each group will have a part of the text, and that
they will have to rewrite their fragment as dialogue plus stage directions.
You may need to show how this is to be done:
Lakshmi accompanies him to the street. They stand by his car for a
moment.
Dick: It was lovely to meet you.
Lakshmi: It was for me too. When … (she hesitates)
Dick: Sorry?
Lakshmi: Oh, nothing.
Dick: Lakshmi, when can we meet again?
Lakshmi: Oh, Dick. I don’t know. It’s my father …
2 Give out a different extract to each group. Allow up to 30 minutes for
them to read and discuss it, and to write out their part of the playscript.
3 Each group performs its dialogue dramatisation for the rest of the class,
in order from a) to c). If more than one group has the same extract, all the
a) extracts perform together, then all the b) extracts, etc.
Drama Techniques
200
Box 52
Example 1
a) The police report said that he met her outside the station. They spoke for a few
minutes. Then they got into a taxi.
b) The taxi driver told us that the couple talked a lot, in whispers. She was
showing him a letter. They seemed very tense.
c) In the café, the man and woman got into an argument. She kept waving a letter
at him. He seemed very angry. Suddenly she got up, spilling her coffee over him,
and ran out of the café.
Example 2
a) The three men were sitting by a lake. They were fishing. They were boasting
about all the big fish they had caught in the past.
b) Suddenly, one man’s line goes tight. He is very excited, and pulls in – an old
boot. The others laugh. Then the second man pulls in – an old bicycle wheel. They
all laugh at him too. Then the third man pulls in – a dead dog! They decide not to
tell anyone at the pub about their catch of the day!
c) In the pub, the three men are boasting about the size of the fish they caught
today. (Of course, they threw these enormous fish back into the lake! ) No one
believes them.
Example 3
a) While Lakshmi busied herself preparing lunch, Nagarajan told Dick that she
was a widow. He had arranged her marriage to a boy from the same community,
a computer software specialist. They had married at the boy’s home town, near
Udipi, when she was twenty-two. By then she had completed her MA in English
literature. It was time for babies, grandchildren to warm old people’s hearts, and
to justify their years of work and struggle. But no children came. And, five years
later Girijan, her husband, had died in a motorcycle accident.
Working from/into texts
201
Box 52 continued
b) Nagarajan’s confused conversation was interrupted when Lakshmi brought
them lunch. It was simple vegetarian food – rice, dal and vegetable masala with
chappaties – but the aroma was delicious. Lakshmi, in traditional Indian style, did
not eat with them – she would eat later.
c) It was some time before Lakshmi returned to clear the dishes. She said nothing
and went about her work with her eyes lowered, not looking at Dick. As she was about
to leave the room, Dick asked her, ‘How is your father? What has happened to him?’
d) Dick left her father slumped in an old armchair in the corner of the darkening
room, still smoking. The sound of his coughing followed Dick out. Lakshmi
accompanied him to the street. His car was waiting. They stood for a moment
before he got in.
ALAN MALEY He Knows Too Much
© Cambridge University Press 2005
Follow on
1 In a later class, you might have groups performing the whole sequence as
a complete play. They could add a concluding scene.
2 The way that speech is rendered in writing is far more complex than most
of the simplified grammar books we use would have us think. If it is
appropriate, you could analyse the way speech is dealt with in these texts.
Note
The dialogue can sometimes be retrieved from the text. Sometimes, however,
dialogue can be added where it contributes to a better flow of the
conversation.
9.7 Stop press
Aim To develop dramatisation from short newspaper articles
Focus Vocabulary will depend on articles chosen; language of discussion and
evaluation; spoken dialogue
Level Intermediate and above
Time Two class hours
Preparation You need to find a short newspaper article about an incident involving
several people, which can form the basis of a dramatisation. Box 53
provides an example. Make three copies for each group of six.
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202
Procedure
First class hour
1 Explain to students that they will be developing a short play from an
incident described in a newspaper article. When they get the article, they
should answer the following questions for themselves, making notes as
they do so:
• Who are the people involved? Make a list.
• Where does this incident take place?
• When did it happen?
• What exactly happened (and how)? List the events in order of
occurrence.
• What were the consequences of this incident?
2 Give out copies of the article to each group of six (one copy between
two). Allow 15 minutes for the questions in step 1. Then conduct whole-
class feedback to make sure everyone has understood the article.
3 Groups work out a scenario based on the facts they have noted. They
should decide how many scenes they will have, who will be in each scene,
and what will be said and done. They should include scenes even if they
are not explicitly described in the article, e.g. the scene between father
and son when they first discover they are cut off by the tide; the scene
after they have been rescued, etc. Allow 20 minutes for this. Then
conduct class discussion comparing different groups’ ideas.
Second class hour
4 Groups prepare dialogue for each of their scenes. Each group then
performs its play for the whole class.
Note
This is quite a demanding activity and does need two lessons to complete if it
is to be done properly. The stages are important: first, clearly understanding
the incident in its full context; then, mapping out the scenes which will be
needed to enact it; finally, putting words in the mouths of the characters.
Working from/into texts
203
Box 53
LIFEBOAT CREW
RESCUES PAIR
FROM ICY RIVER
Father and son were ‘minutes from death’
Canterbury Christmas Special w/e 26 Dec, 2003
© Cambridge University Press 2005
Drama Techniques
204
Lifeboatmen faced a race against time
to rescue a father and son cut off by a
freak tide while out winter fowling.
Joe Cranston, of Homewood Road,
Sturry, was out with his 11-year-old
son Aaron on the remote Slayhills
Marsh on the River Medway, near
Upchurch on Sunday morning.
He sparked a major air sea rescue
operation by dialling 999 on his mobile
phone and contacting coastguards
who launched Sheerness Inshore
Lifeboat.
At the same time an RAF Sea King
helicopter was scrambled from RAF
Wattisham in Suffolk.
The lifeboatmen found Mr
Cranston up to his waist in cold water
with the young lad sitting on his
shoulders and their two dogs
swimming in the water.
The high wind combined with the
cold weather produced a sub-zero chill
factor, lifeboatmen said.
Robin Castle, Coxswain of
Sheerness Lifeboat said the high-speed
rescue craft reached the stranded pair
within half an hour of being called.
He said, ‘The man andhis son were
out wild fowling when they were
caught out by a higher-than-usual tide.
‘Mr Cranston was up to his waist in
water with the boy on his shoulders.
They were cold but none the worse
for their ordeal, and the inshore
lifeboat was able to pick them up and
deliver them to where their car was
parked.
‘Mr Cranston was able to ring Dover
Coastguard who relayed his call to the
operations centre at Clacton who
called us out.
‘The unusually high tide and the cold
wind meant they could have drowned
or been frozen if they had delayed
calling for even a few more minutes. It
was a life or death race, and because we
were quick off the mark, we won.’
Neither Mr Cranston or Aaron
needed medical attention but
coastguards said they had a lucky
escape.
By Ian Read