Overview

Lesson Procedure

65-70 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice20 minutes
5. Closure5 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "In Act I of Macbeth, Macbeth asks his wife, 'If we should fail?' The Cambridge edition prints her two-word answer as 'We fail!' Say those two words three ways: as an exclamation, as a question and as a flat, quiet statement. What kind of woman does each reading suggest?"

   Have three volunteers say the line three ways and ask the class to describe the Lady Macbeth each one creates: scornful, doubtful, calmly ready for anything. Point out that editions punctuate those two words differently (the 1623 Folio prints a question mark), and that an actor must choose a reading whatever the page prints. Tell students that today they will study choices like this one, made by famous actors and by two imagined directors, and learn to judge them against the text.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Interpretation and its tools. The source text is the script. An interpretation is a version of it in performance, a recording or a production plan, and it always argues for a reading of the play. Its tools are:

   • Line readings: tone, pace and stress ("We fail!" or "We fail?").
   • Cuts: lines or scenes left out, which remove evidence.
   • Blocking and stage business: where actors move and what they do with objects.
   • Design: set, costume, light and sound.
   • Added moments: actions or images the script does not ask for.

   Evaluating an interpretation means asking three questions: What in the text supports it? What does it bring out that a reader might miss? What does it have to ignore, cut or contradict? Then give the context: Macbeth and his wife have murdered King Duncan, and Macbeth has since had his friend Banquo and the family of Macduff, the Thane of Fife, killed. Lady Macbeth has not appeared for several scenes. Read the sleepwalking scene aloud.

   1Doct. I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?

   2Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.

   3Doct. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching! In this slumbery agitation, besides her walking and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say?

   4Gent. That, sir, which I will not report after her.

   5Doct. You may to me, and 'tis most meet you should.

   6Gent. Neither to you nor any one, having no witness to confirm my speech.

   7Enter LADY MACBETH, with a taper.

   8Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise, and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.

   9Doct. How came she by that light?

   10Gent. Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; 'tis her command.

   11Doct. You see, her eyes are open.

   12Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut.

   13Doct. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands.

   14Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands: I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.

   15Lady M. Yet here's a spot.

   16Doct. Hark! she speaks: I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.

   17Lady M. Out, damned spot! out, I say! One: two: why, then 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?

   18Doct. Do you mark that?

   19Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now? What, will these hands ne'er be clean? No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with this starting.

   20Doct. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.

   21Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that: heaven knows what she has known.

   22Lady M. Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!

   23Doct. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.

   24Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body.

   25Doct. Well, well, well,--

   26Gent. Pray God it be, sir.

   27Doct. This disease is beyond my practice: yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds.

   28Lady M. Wash your hands; put on your nightgown; look not so pale: I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out on 's grave.

   29Doct. Even so?

   30Lady M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate: come, come, come, come, give me your hand: what's done cannot be undone: to bed, to bed, to bed. [Exit.

   • A cue in the text and a choice for the production

     The Doctor asks, "How came she by that light?" and the Gentlewoman answers, "she has light by her continually; 'tis her command" (paragraphs 9-10). What does the text fix, and what does it leave to the production?

     Result: The text fixes that she carries a taper and cannot bear the dark. It does not say whether she keeps it in her hand. An actor who sets it down can wash with both hands, so the guilt becomes the center of the scene; an actor who clings to it makes her fear of the dark the center. Diagram 2 traces both choices.

   • A reading of the character (the official example: live production)

     Hazlitt, describing the character before he turns to Siddons, calls Lady Macbeth "a great bad woman, whom we hate, but whom we fear more than we hate" (T2, paragraph 1). What reading of the role is this, and how would it shape a live production?

     Result: It reads her as grand and terrifying, a woman of "inexorable self-will." A production built on it would give her power and stillness rather than tenderness. Terry later called readings of this kind the "fiend" reading.

   • Evaluating a weak interpretation

     Imagine a production in which Lady Macbeth is awake and only pretending to sleepwalk, to trick the Doctor. Test it against the text.

     Result: The text contradicts it twice: the Gentlewoman has seen her "in a most fast sleep" (paragraph 2) and swears "upon my life, fast asleep" (paragraph 8). The interpretation is new, but it can stand only by ignoring what the play states, so it fails the first test.

   • Recorded poetry (the standard's second example)

     Two readers record the last line of Tennyson's "Ulysses": "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." One gives the four verbs equal weight; the other speeds through the first three and slows sharply on "not to yield." How does each recording interpret the line?

     Result: The even reading makes the line a steady list of equal duties, a life of continuous effort. The second makes the refusal to give up the climax. Both keep every word, so the evaluation turns on the poem: an old man who admits he is "Made weak by time and fate" in the line before, which makes the stress on "not to yield" well supported.

   Siddons in the part. Read Hazlitt's two paragraphs. Hazlitt had seen Sarah Siddons (1755-1831), who first played Lady Macbeth in London in 1785, and his account is one of the best-known descriptions of her sleepwalking scene. Ask students to underline every detail of what Siddons did, as opposed to what Hazlitt felt.

   1[...] The magnitude of her resolution almost covers the magnitude of her guilt. She is a great bad woman, whom we hate, but whom we fear more than we hate. She does not excite our loathing and abhorrence like Regan and Goneril. She is only wicked to gain a great end; and is perhaps more distinguished by her commanding presence of mind and inexorable self-will, which do not suffer her to be diverted from a bad purpose, when once formed, by weak and womanly regrets, than by the hardness of her heart or want of natural affections.

   [...]

   2In speaking of the character of Lady Macbeth, we ought not to pass over Mrs. Siddons's manner of acting that part. We can conceive of nothing grander. It was something above nature. It seemed almost as if a being of a superior order had dropped from a higher sphere to awe the world with the majesty of her appearance. Power was seated on her brow, passion emanated from her breast as from a shrine; she was tragedy personified. In coming on in the sleeping-scene, her eyes were open, but their sense was shut. She was like a person bewildered and unconscious of what she did. Her lips moved involuntarily--all her gestures were involuntary and mechanical. She glided on and off the stage like an apparition. To have seen her in that character was an event in every one's life, not to be forgotten.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Read the passages from Ellen Terry's memoir together. Terry (1847-1928) played Lady Macbeth opposite Henry Irving in 1888, and John Singer Sargent painted her in the costume in a portrait finished in 1889; project a public-domain image of the portrait from Tate's website or another museum source. Work through the three steps with the class.

   1"The picture of me is nearly finished, and I think it magnificent. The green and blue of the dress is splendid, and the expression as Lady Macbeth holds the crown over her head is quite wonderful.

   [...]

   2Since then it has gone over nearly the whole of Europe, and now is resting for life at the Tate Gallery. Sargent suggested by this picture all that I should have liked to be able to convey in my acting as Lady Macbeth.

   [...]

   3"It ('Macbeth') is a most tremendous success, and the last three days' advance booking has been greater than ever was known, even at the Lyceum. Yes, it is a success, and I am a success, which amazes me, for never did I think I should be let down so easily. Some people hate me in it; some, Henry among them, think it my best part, and the critics differ, and discuss it hotly, which in itself is my best success of all! Those who don't like me in it are those who don't want, and don't like to read it fresh from Shakespeare, and who hold by the 'fiend' reading of the character.... One of the best things ever written on the subject, I think, is the essay of J. Comyns Carr. That is as hotly discussed as the new 'Lady Mac'--all the best people agreeing with it. Oh, dear! It is an exciting time!"

   4From a letter I wrote to my daughter, who was in Germany at the time:

   5"I wish you could see my dresses. They are superb, especially the first one: green beetles on it, and such a cloak! The photographs give no idea of it at all, for it is in color that it is so splendid. The dark red hair is fine. The whole thing is Rossetti--rich stained-glass effects, I play some of it well, but, of course, I don't do what I want to do yet. Meanwhile I shall not budge an inch in the reading of it, for that I know is right. Oh, it's fun, but it's precious hard work for I by no means make her a 'gentle, lovable woman' as some of 'em say. That's all pickles. She was nothing of the sort, although she was not a fiend, and did love her husband. I have to what is vulgarly called 'sweat at it,' each night."

   1. An interpretation that divided its audience (paragraph 3). Teacher note: "Some people hate me in it; some, Henry among them, think it my best part, and the critics differ." Ask: why would a performance cause argument? Because it challenged what audiences expected of the role, and an interpretation that departs from tradition has to be judged on the text, not on habit.
   2. Design as interpretation (paragraph 5). Teacher note: the dress with "green beetles on it," the "dark red hair" and "rich stained-glass effects" belong to the look of Pre-Raphaelite painting, which Terry names through Rossetti. Ask what kind of woman such a costume suggests before she says a word: beautiful, rich, from legend, and not obviously a monster.
   3. Comparing two accounts. Teacher note: Hazlitt describes Siddons from the audience; Terry writes about herself. Ask pairs what each kind of source can and cannot tell us about a performance nobody alive has seen, then leave the question of which reading the text supports better for the quiz.
4. Independent Practice20 minutes

   Students turn to the American play. Give this summary of what comes before the passage: in 1895, Captain David Keeney's whaling ship has been locked in Arctic ice for nearly a year with only four hundred barrels of oil ("ile") in the hold. The crew's two-year contract is over and they have tried to mutiny; Keeney knocked their leader down and drove them back at gunpoint. His wife Annie, who chose to come on the voyage although he warned her against it, has been worn down by the cold, the silence and the brutality, and she calls the cabin "this prison cell of a room." Keeney says he cannot go home without a full ship. In the moments before the passage, she pleads with him to take her home before she goes mad.

   Students read the ending, then the director's notes for two imagined productions. On the chart handout they (1) list each staging's choices under line readings, cuts, blocking, design and added moments; (2) find the line or stage direction in O'Neill's text that each choice follows, changes or contradicts; (3) write two sentences evaluating each staging. Quiz questions 7-14 check this work.

   1KEENEY (dragging out the words with an effort). I'll do it, Annie--for your sake--if you say it's needful for ye.

   2MRS. KEENEY (with wild joy--kissing him). God bless you for that, David!

   [...]

   3MATE (excitedly). The ice is breakin' up to no'th'rd, sir. There's a clear passage through the floe, and clear water beyond, the lookout says.

   4(KEENEY straightens himself like a man coming out of a trance. MRS. KEENEY looks at the MATE with terrified eyes.)

   [...]

   5KEENEY (his voice suddenly grim with determination). Then get her ready and we'll drive her through.

   [...]

   6KEENEY (speaking aloud to himself--derisively). And I was a-goin' home like a yaller dog!

   7MRS. KEENEY (imploringly). David!

   8KEENEY (sternly). Woman, you ain't a-doin' right when you meddle in men's business and weaken 'em. You can't know my feelin's. I got to prove a man to be a good husband for ye to take pride in. I got to git the ile, I tell ye.

   [...]

   9(He goes out. She cries after him in anguish, "David!" A pause. She passes her hand across her eyes--then commences to laugh hysterically and goes to the organ. She sits down and starts to play wildly an old hymn. KEENEY reenters from the doorway to the deck and stands looking at her angrily. He comes over and grabs her roughly by the shoulder.)

   10KEENEY. Woman, what foolish mockin' is this? (She laughs wildly, and he starts back from her in alarm.) Annie! What is it? (She doesn't answer him. KEENEY'S voice trembles.) Don't you know me, Annie?

   11(He puts both hands on her shoulders and turns her around so that he can look into her eyes. She stares up at him with a stupid expression, a vague smile on her lips. He stumbles away from her, and she commences softly to play the organ again.)

   12KEENEY (swallowing hard--in a hoarse whisper, as if he had difficulty in speaking). You said--you was agoin' mad--God!

   [...]

   13KEENEY (turning to his wife). Annie! Did you hear him? I'll git the ile. (She doesn't answer or seem to know he is there. He gives a hard laugh, which is almost a groan.) I know you're foolin' me, Annie. You ain't out of your mind--(anxiously) be you? I'll git the ile now right enough--jest a little while longer, Annie--then we'll turn hom'ard. I can't turn back now, you see that, don't ye? I've got to git the ile. (In sudden terror) Answer me! You ain't mad, be you?

   14(She keeps on playing the organ, but makes no reply. The MATE'S face appears again through the skylight.)

   15MATE. All ready, sir.

   16(KEENEY turns his back on his wife and strides to the doorway, where he stands for a moment and looks back at her in anguish, fighting to control his feelings.)

   17MATE. Comin', sir?

   18KEENEY (his face suddenly grown hard with determination). Aye.

   19(He turns abruptly and goes out. MRS. KEENEY does not appear to notice his departure. Her whole attention seems centred in the organ. She sits with half-closed eyes, her body swaying a little from side to side to the rhythm of the hymn. Her fingers move faster and faster and she is playing wildly and discordantly as the Curtain falls.)

   1Our production treats Ile as Annie Keeney's tragedy. The captain is her jailer and the cabin is her cell. Every choice below is meant to make the audience feel the walls close in on her.

   2The set. The cabin walls lean slightly inward and are painted a dirty white. The skylight lets in only a thin strip of gray light, and the organ stands at the center of the stage, so that every scene has to be played around it.

   3Keeney. The actor plays him loud and hard from start to finish. When he says "I'll do it, Annie," he speaks through his teeth, as if he already regrets the promise, so the audience never quite believes him. His speech about proving himself a man is delivered with a sneer, as an excuse.

   4The exit. When the mate calls "Comin', sir?" Keeney strides straight out. We cut the moment in which he stops at the doorway to look back at his wife; in our production a jailer does not look back.

   5Annie. At the organ, the actor follows the playwright's direction exactly: she plays the hymn wildly and out of tune, faster and faster.

   6An added moment. After Keeney leaves, Annie stops playing for a few seconds, walks to the porthole and lifts the curtain toward the open water. Then she returns to the organ. The lights fade on her playing, and the hymn goes on in the dark after the curtain falls.

   1Our production treats Ile as the tragedy of two prisoners. Keeney is trapped by his pride as surely as Annie is trapped by the ice, and the audience should pity them both.

   2The set. We build the cabin as the playwright describes it at the start of the play: a small, square room with a stove, a hanging lamp and an organ that looks brand-new. Nothing is exaggerated.

   3Keeney. "I'll do it, Annie" is spoken quietly, and he means it. When the mate reports clear water to the north, the actor waits a long moment before "Then get her ready and we'll drive her through," so that the audience watches him choose.

   4A cut. We cut Keeney's whole speech that begins "Woman, you ain't a-doin' right when you meddle in men's business." It makes him sound like a bully, and we do not want the audience to stop caring about him.

   5The exit. At the doorway the actor holds his look back at Annie for a full ten seconds before the hard "Aye."

   6Annie. The final hymn is played slowly and softly, one quiet chord repeated, so that the last sound of the play is sad rather than frightening.

5. Closure5 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) Name one choice from Staging A or B and the line of O'Neill's text you would use to judge it. (2) In one sentence, explain why a Shakespeare production usually has more freedom in its stage business than a production of O'Neill.

   Teacher note on content and language: Macbeth deals with murder, and in the homework passage Lady Macbeth calls on evil spirits to change her body and mind. Ile includes violence against the crew and a woman's mental breakdown; the word "mad" and the phrase "a stupid expression" (meaning dazed) are the playwright's, and Keeney's line about "men's business" reflects his character's attitudes, which students may and should question. Treat Annie's breakdown with care, since some students may have personal experience of mental illness. O'Neill writes the whalers' speech in dialect ("ile," "yaller," "git"); the spellings are his. Hazlitt's and Terry's descriptions of women use the language of their time.

   For homework: students read the passage from Act I, scene 5 below, where Lady Macbeth reads her husband's letter about the witches' prophecy and then learns that King Duncan will stay the night. The homework uses it with Hazlitt's and Terry's accounts.

   1Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
   What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;
   It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
   To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
   5Art not without ambition, but without
   The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,
   That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
   And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst have, great Glamis,
   That which cries 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it;
   10And that which rather thou dost fear to do
   Than wishest should be undone.' Hie thee hither,
   That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,
   And chastise with the valour of my tongue
   All that impedes thee from the golden round,
   15Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
   To have thee crown'd withal.
   [...]
   The raven himself is hoarse
   That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
   Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
   20That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
   And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
   Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood,
   Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
   That no compunctious visitings of nature
   25Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
   The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
   And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
   Wherever in your sightless substances
   You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
   30And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
   That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
   Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
   To cry 'Hold, hold!'

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Hazlitt writes that in the sleeping-scene Siddons's "eyes were open, but their sense was shut" (T2, paragraph 2). Which part of the play's text does this acting choice follow?

   AThe Doctor's order to "set down what comes from her" BThe Gentlewoman's answer, "Ay, but their sense is shut" CLady Macbeth's cry, "Out, damned spot! out, I say!" DThe Gentlewoman's report that she writes and seals a paper

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Hazlitt says Siddons "glided on and off the stage like an apparition" and that "all her gestures were involuntary and mechanical" (T2, paragraph 2). Which line from the scene would a critic use to argue that this ghostlike reading leaves something out?

   A"Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually" B"I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth" C"You see, her eyes are open." D"What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged."

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which line from the sleepwalking scene gives more support to Terry's reading of Lady Macbeth ("not a fiend") than to Hazlitt's "great bad woman, whom we hate"?

   A"all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" B"What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?" C"Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard?" D"One: two: why, then 'tis time to do't."

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Terry writes, "I play some of it well, but, of course, I don't do what I want to do yet. Meanwhile I shall not budge an inch in the reading of it" (T3, paragraph 5). What distinction does she draw?

   ABetween the play as Shakespeare wrote it and the cuts that Irving made BBetween the reviews by critics and the opinions of her own friends CBetween her reading of the role and how well she performs it DBetween the first night of the run and the later performances

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Terry says that the people who dislike her performance "don't like to read it fresh from Shakespeare, and ... hold by the 'fiend' reading of the character" (T3, paragraph 3). What is she claiming about her interpretation?

   AThat it follows the usual tradition of how the role is played BThat it comes from the text itself, not from stage tradition CThat it improves Shakespeare by adding lines he left out DThat it is correct because the audiences booked so many seats

6. Question 6 of 20 · Short Answer

   Terry's diary describes Sargent's portrait, in which "Lady Macbeth holds the crown over her head" (T3, paragraph 1), and she writes that "Sargent suggested by this picture all that I should have liked to be able to convey in my acting" (paragraph 2). No scene in the play shows Lady Macbeth lifting a crown. Evaluate the portrait as an interpretation: what does it add, and is the addition supported by the play?

   Show model answer

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which stage direction in O'Neill's text does Staging A (T5) remove?

   AKeeney "looks back at her in anguish, fighting to control his feelings" BKeeney "gives a hard laugh, which is almost a groan" when his wife does not answer him CMrs. Keeney "commences to laugh hysterically and goes to the organ" after he goes out DKeeney "puts both hands on her shoulders and turns her around" to look into her eyes

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which choice in Staging B (T6) contradicts an explicit instruction in O'Neill's final stage direction?

   AHolding Keeney's look back at Annie for ten seconds BBuilding the cabin as the opening of the play describes CPausing before "Then get her ready and we'll drive her through" DPlaying the hymn slowly and softly, one quiet chord repeated

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Staging B cuts Keeney's speech beginning "Woman, you ain't a-doin' right when you meddle in men's business" (T4, paragraph 8). What evidence about Keeney does this cut remove?

   AEvidence that Keeney plans to take the ship home once the whales are caught BEvidence that Keeney no longer loves his wife after their long quarrel CEvidence that Keeney ties his drive to proving himself a man and husband DEvidence that the crew has decided to mutiny against Keeney a second time

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Staging A adds a moment in which Annie stops playing, "walks to the porthole and lifts the curtain toward the open water" (T5, paragraph 6). How does this addition fit O'Neill's final stage direction?

    AIt follows the direction exactly, since O'Neill has her look out of the porthole. BIt strains the direction that her whole attention seems centred in the organ. CIt has no bearing on the direction, which only describes the lighting of the stage. DIt repeats an action that Keeney performs just before he leaves the cabin.

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Staging B plays Keeney's "I'll do it, Annie" as sincere. Which detail in O'Neill's text best supports that reading?

    AKeeney says "You said--you was agoin' mad--God!" in a hoarse whisper BKeeney says "And I was a-goin' home like a yaller dog!" once the mate has gone CKeeney tells the mate, "Then get her ready and we'll drive her through" DKeeney tells his wife, "Woman, you ain't a-doin' right when you meddle"

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The text ends Keeney's part with a look back "in anguish" and then "his face suddenly grown hard with determination," "Aye" (T4, paragraphs 16-18). Which staging follows this sequence more closely?

    AStaging A, because it plays Keeney loud and hard from start to finish BStaging A, because it has the hymn continue after the curtain falls CStaging B, because it cuts his speech about men's business DStaging B, because it holds the look before the hard "Aye"

13. Question 13 of 20 · Short Answer

    O'Neill's final stage direction says Mrs. Keeney "does not appear to notice his departure" and that "Her whole attention seems centred in the organ" (T4, paragraph 19). Earlier Keeney says, "I know you're foolin' me, Annie" (paragraph 13). Explain how the words "appear" and "seems" open the ending to more than one interpretation, and describe two ways a production could play her.

    Show model answer

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which statement best evaluates Staging A as a whole?

    AIt keeps every line and direction, so it is the more faithful of the two stagings. BIt fails because it adds a moment, and a production should never add to a script. CIt sharpens Annie's tragedy, but it cuts Keeney's anguish, which the text insists on. DIt succeeds because the audience will dislike Keeney, and the play wants that.

15. Question 15 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which sentence evaluates an interpretation, rather than only describing it?

    A"Staging B builds the cabin as the opening stage direction describes it." B"Terry's costume makes her beautiful, which fits her reading but hides Act I's cruelty." C"Staging A places the organ at the center of the stage, where every scene passes it." D"Siddons played the sleeping-scene with her eyes open and her gestures mechanical."

16. Question 16 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Terry's memoir quotes her own 1888 diary and letters (T3). What should a student keep in mind when using it as evidence of her performance?

    AIt records her aims and her view of the reception, not how the performance looked to an audience. BIt is a neutral review written by a critic who watched the play from the stalls on the first night. CIt shows that the critics and the public all agreed that her reading of the role was the right one. DIt was written by Henry Irving, who directed the production and played Macbeth opposite her.

17. Question 17 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In a recorded audiobook of a novel, the narrator reads a sarcastic character's lines in a warm, sincere voice. How should a listener evaluate this choice?

    AAs no interpretation at all, because an audiobook narrator only reads the printed words aloud BAs correct in every case, because the publisher chose and paid the narrator CAs important only if the narrator also changes some of the printed words DAgainst the novel: if its words mark the lines as sarcastic, the reading changes the character

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Compare Hazlitt's account of Siddons (T2) with Terry's account of her own Lady Macbeth (T3). State the reading of the character each expresses, and evaluate which reading the sleepwalking scene (T1) supports better, citing two lines from the scene.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write a director's note (3-4 sentences) for a third staging of the Ile ending that keeps every line and every stage direction. Name one choice the text still leaves open, and explain what your choice says about Keeney or Annie.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    In one paragraph, compare the set designs of Staging A (T5, paragraph 2) and Staging B (T6, paragraph 2). Explain the interpretation each design expresses before any actor speaks, and evaluate how well each is supported by the text of Ile.

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These standards connect to RL.11-12.7: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.