Overview

Lesson Procedure

55-70 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Think of a story you read and then saw as a movie, a show or a school play. Name one thing the production kept exactly, one thing it cut or added, and one thing you would have done differently if you had been the director."

   Collect a few answers on the board in two columns, "Kept" and "Changed." Students will often complain that a movie "ruined" a book. Ask what exactly was changed, and whether the change hurt the story or simply made it different. RL.8.7 asks for both steps: first find how far a production follows the text, then judge whether its choices work. A change is not automatically a mistake, and following the text is not automatically a success.

2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes

   Terms to know:

   • Script: the written text of a play: the characters' words plus the stage directions, the author's notes (usually in italics) about the set, movement and how lines are said.
   • Production: one staging of a play on a stage, or one film of a story or play. The same script can have many productions.
   • Director: the person who decides how the whole production looks and sounds: the set, the lighting, what is cut or added, and how the actors move. Actor: a performer who decides, with the director, how a character speaks and moves.
   • Faithful: a choice that keeps the words, events and meaning of the text. Departure: a choice that moves away from the text. A production can depart in three ways: it can cut something, add something, or change something (a setting, an order, or the way the script says a line is spoken).
   • Interpretation: filling in what the script leaves open, such as how long a pause lasts or where an actor looks. It stays faithful as long as it does not contradict the text.
   • Extent: how far. RL.8.7 asks for the extent to which a production is faithful, so the answer is never just "faithful" or "not faithful" but "faithful in these ways, and it departs in these ways."
   • Evaluate: judge whether a choice works, with a reason: what does the choice do to the story's meaning, a character or the tone (the feeling of the scene, such as tense, sad or comic)?
   • Close-up: a film shot taken very near a face or an object, so it fills the screen. Voice-over: a voice heard on a film's soundtrack while the speaker is not seen speaking.

   Introduce the play. Lady Gregory (1852-1932) was an Irish playwright who helped found the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. The Rising of the Moon was first staged there in 1907, when Ireland was ruled by Britain. Its first stage direction reads: "Scene: Side of a quay in a seaport town. Some posts and chains. A large barrel. Enter three policemen. Moonlight." A Sergeant is guarding the quay (a stone landing place beside the water, pronounced "key") to catch a rebel who has escaped from prison. A ragged ballad-singer (a man who sells printed songs) talks his way into keeping watch with him. They sit back to back on the barrel, and the singer's songs about Granuaile (Grace O'Malley, an Irish sea captain of the 1500s, whose name in old songs stands for Ireland) remind the Sergeant that he sang the same rebel songs as a young man. When a whistle answers the singer's song from a boat below, the Sergeant realizes who the man is. The excerpt begins at that moment.

   Words to know: placard (a printed poster, here a wanted notice with a reward), a hundred pounds on my head (a reward of 100 British pounds for catching me), deceived (fooled), comrades (fellow workers, here the other policemen; the Man later uses "comrade" to mean friend), betray (hand over to an enemy), bogwood (old wood dug from a bog and burned as fuel), the small rise up and the big fall down (the poor and powerless take the place of the rich and powerful). Read the script aloud once, with three volunteers, before reading either set of production notes. Tell students that Productions A and B are imagined productions written for this lesson, so that every choice can be checked against the script.

   1Sergeant: You are the man I am looking for.

   2Man: (Takes off hat and wig. Sergeant seizes them.) I am. There's a hundred pounds on my head. There is a friend of mine below in a boat. He knows a safe place to bring me to.

   3Sergeant: (Looking still at hat and wig.) It's a pity! It's a pity. You deceived me. You deceived me well.

   [...]

   4(Voice of Policeman X outside:) Here, this is where we left him.

   5Sergeant: It's my comrades coming.

   6Man: You won't betray me ... the friend of Granuaile. (Slips behind barrel.)

   [...]

   7(Sergeant puts hat and wig behind his back.)

   8Policeman B: Did any one come this way?

   9Sergeant: (After a pause.) No one.

   10Policeman B: No one at all?

   11Sergeant: No one at all.

   [...]

   12Policeman B: Well, we'll leave you the lantern anyhow. (Hands it to him.)

   13Sergeant: I don't want it. Bring it with you.

   14Policeman B: You might want it. There are clouds coming up and you have the darkness of the night before you yet. I'll leave it over here on the barrel. (Goes to barrel.)

   15Sergeant: Bring it with you I tell you. No more talk.

   16Policeman B: Well, I thought it might be a comfort to you. I often think when I have it in my hand and can be flashing it about into every dark corner (doing so) that it's the same as being beside the fire at home, and the bits of bogwood blazing up now and again.

   17(Flashes it about, now on the barrel, now on Sergeant.)

   18Sergeant: (Furious.) Be off the two of you, yourselves and your lantern!

   19(They go out. Man comes from behind barrel. He and Sergeant stand looking at one another.)

   20Sergeant: What are you waiting for?

   21Man: For my hat, of course, and my wig. You wouldn't wish me to get my death of cold?

   22(Sergeant gives them.)

   23Man: (Going towards steps.) Well, good-night, comrade, and thank you. You did me a good turn to-night, and I'm obliged to you. Maybe I'll be able to do as much for you when the small rise up and the big fall down ... when we all change places at the Rising (waves his hand and disappears) of the Moon.

   24Sergeant: (Turning his back to audience and reading placard.) A hundred pounds reward! A hundred pounds! (Turns towards audience.) I wonder, now, am I as great a fool as I think I am?

   1Director's note. Our stage production follows Lady Gregory's script closely. The set is what her stage directions call for: the side of a quay with posts and chains, one large barrel, and a flight of steps down to the water. A pale blue light stands in for the moon.

   2The disguise. When the Man takes off his hat and wig, the actor does it slowly, so the audience sees for the first time that he is a young man with short dark hair. The Sergeant takes them from him and holds them at arm's length, as if they might burn his hands.

   3The pause. The script says only that the Sergeant answers "No one" after a pause. Our actor lets five slow seconds pass. He looks at the barrel, then at the two policemen, and only then answers. We want the audience to hold its breath, not knowing which way he will go.

   4The lantern. Policeman B flashes the lantern about just as the script says, now on the barrel, now on the Sergeant. We added one moment: the beam stops on the barrel for a full second, right where the Man is hiding, before it moves on. The Sergeant's furious shout comes straight after that beam.

   5The last line. As the script directs, the Sergeant turns toward the audience for his final question. Our actor does not play it for a laugh. He asks it slowly, as if he really does not know the answer, and the lights fade on him alone beside the placard.

   1Filmmaker's note. Our twelve-minute film was shot on a real stone harbor at night. A camera can get closer than any theater seat, so we used it to show what the characters hide from one another.

   2The disguise. The scene opens on a close-up of the hat and wig in the Sergeant's hands. When the two policemen walk up, the camera moves behind him, and viewers see the wig squeezed in his fist behind his back, where the other men cannot see it.

   3The answer. Our Sergeant answers "No one" at once, in a flat voice, without looking at the barrel. The actor felt that a man who has already made up his mind would not stop to think.

   4A cut. We cut Policeman B's speech about the lantern reminding him of the fire at home. One shot of the lantern beam sliding across the barrel does the same job in two seconds, and the scene moves faster.

   5An addition. The script simply has the Man wave his hand and disappear. We added a shot of a rowboat pulling away across the black water, with the Man looking back at the quay while someone in the boat whistles the tune of his song.

   6The ending. We cut the Sergeant's last line. Instead, he tears the placard off the barrel, crumples it and drops it into the harbor, and the film ends on the paper floating away in the dark. We wanted the ending to be clear: the Sergeant has chosen his side.

   • Faithful: a choice that follows the script

     The script gives one stage direction for the Sergeant's lie: "(After a pause.) No one" (paragraph 9). What does Production A do with it?

     Result: Production A keeps the words and the pause, and makes the pause longer: the actor "lets five slow seconds pass" and looks "at the barrel, then at the two policemen" before answering. This is faithful. The script asks for a pause, and the actor fills it with what the Sergeant is thinking about: the hidden man and his fellow police. Evaluation: a strong choice, because the pause is the moment the Sergeant decides, and the director says the goal is an audience "not knowing which way he will go."

   • Departure: a cut

     Production B cuts Policeman B's speech about the lantern (paragraph 16). What is lost?

     Result: The speech shows that Policeman B is a kind man who thinks of the lantern as "a comfort," like "being beside the fire at home." With it, the Sergeant is lying to a friendly comrade, which makes his choice harder and the scene sadder. The film's reason is speed: "One shot of the lantern beam sliding across the barrel does the same job in two seconds." Evaluation: the beam keeps the danger, but it loses the friendship, so the cut departs from the script's meaning as well as its words.

   • Departure: an addition

     Production B adds a shot of "a rowboat pulling away across the black water." Does the addition fit the script?

     Result: The script never shows the boat, but it tells us about it: "There is a friend of mine below in a boat" (paragraph 2). A stage cannot show open water; a film can. Evaluation: this addition departs from what the script puts on stage but not from its story, because it shows an event the script already describes. It is a small departure that uses the strength of film.

   • Evaluating a large departure: the ending

     The script ends with the Sergeant asking the audience, "I wonder, now, am I as great a fool as I think I am?" (paragraph 24). Production B cuts the line and has him tear up the placard. Evaluate the choice.

     Result: The script ends on a question. The Sergeant has let the man go, yet he still reads "A hundred pounds reward!" and wonders whether he was a fool, so the play leaves him torn between the reward and his old loyalty. The film replaces the question with an answer: he "has chosen his side." Evaluation: the ending is clear and strong on screen, but it departs from the script's meaning, because Lady Gregory leaves the audience to decide. Production A keeps that doubt: its actor asks the line "as if he really does not know the answer."

   Quote it, match it, name it, judge it. Model four moves for every choice (Diagram 2): quote the script; match it to what the production does; name the choice as kept, cut, added or changed; and judge what it does to the meaning, a character or the tone. Give two sentence frames: "The script says ___ (paragraph __), and the production ___, so the choice is ___." and "This choice works / does not work because it ___ the ___ of the scene."

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs compare Productions A and B, choice by choice, and fill in Diagram 1 with the class. Ask each question before revealing the teacher note.

   1. The disguise. The script says "(Sergeant puts hat and wig behind his back.)" (paragraph 7). Is either production unfaithful here? Teacher note: both keep the action. Production A adds an actor's choice when the Sergeant first takes them: he "holds them at arm's length, as if they might burn his hands," which shows he does not want to be caught with them. Production B adds a camera choice, a shot of "the wig squeezed in his fist behind his back." Both additions support the script, because each shows the danger of the secret he is keeping.
   2. The answer. Production A's Sergeant waits five seconds before "No one"; Production B's answers "at once, in a flat voice." Which one departs from the script, and is the departure defensible? Teacher note: B departs, because the script calls for a pause. B's actor has a reason ("a man who has already made up his mind would not stop to think"), but the script's ending suggests the Sergeant has not fully made up his mind: he still wonders whether he is "as great a fool" as he thinks. Accept either judgment if the student uses the script as evidence.
   3. The extent. Count the departures in each production and judge how large each one is. Teacher note: A's only clear addition is small (the beam stops on the barrel), and it serves the script's suspense; its other choices, such as the five-second pause and the quiet last line, fill in what the script leaves open without contradicting it. B departs four times: the quick answer, the cut lantern speech, the added rowboat and the new ending. The rowboat is small; the new ending changes the play's meaning. So A is faithful with one small departure, and B is faithful to the events up to the escape but departs from the play's meaning at the end.

   Each pair then writes three sentences: one about a faithful choice, one about a departure, and one that evaluates a choice, each with a paragraph number from the script and a quotation from the production notes.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students now work on their own with a comic scene. Lord Dunsany (1878-1957) was an Irish writer of plays and fantasy stories. The Lost Silk Hat is a one-act comedy whose stage direction sets it on "A fashionable London street." A well-dressed man, the Caller, has left his silk hat (a tall, shiny hat that gentlemen wore) inside a house he cannot go back into, and he asks people passing by to fetch it for him. The first passer-by is a Laborer (a man who does physical work for a living). Read the script first, then the notes for an imagined film of it.

   Words to know: faultlessly dressed (perfectly dressed), engrosses (fills his mind), to see to the drains (to check the pipes), drawing-room (a formal sitting room), sovereign (a British gold coin worth one pound), rise it (raise it), heir (the person who will inherit a house or money), defrauded (cheated out of what is rightly theirs), I got you there (I caught you out). The Laborer's dropped "h" ("'at" for "hat") shows how he speaks.

   1The Caller stands on a doorstep, "faultlessly dressed," but without a hat. At first he shows despair, then a new thought engrosses him.

   2Enter the Laborer.

   3THE CALLER: Excuse me a moment. Excuse me--but--I'd be greatly obliged to you if--if you could see your way--in fact, you can be of great service to me if--

   4THE LABORER: Glad to do what I can, sir.

   5CALLER: Well, all I really want you to do is just to ring that bell and go up and say--er--say that you've come to see to the drains, or anything like that, you know, and get hold of my hat for me.

   6LABORER: Get hold of your 'at!

   7CALLER: Yes. You see, I left my hat behind most unfortunately. It's in the drawing-room (points to window), that room there, half under the long sofa, the far end from the door. And if you could possibly go and get it, why I'd be (The Laborer's expression changes)--Why, what's the matter?

   8LABORER (firmly): I don't like this job.

   9CALLER: Don't like this job! But my dear fellow, don't be silly, what possible harm--?

   10LABORER: Ah-h. That's what I don't know.

   [...]

   11CALLER: I only want my hat--Here, I say, please don't go away--here's a sovereign, it will only take you a minute.

   12LABORER: What I want to know--

   13CALLER: Yes?

   14LABORER: --Is what's in that hat?

   15CALLER: What's in the hat?

   16LABORER: Yes; that's what I want to know.

   17CALLER: What's in the hat?

   18LABORER: Yes, you aren't going to give me a sovereign--?

   19CALLER: I'll give you two sovereigns.

   20LABORER: You aren't going to give me a sovereign, and rise it to two sovereigns, for an empty hat?

   21CALLER: But I must have my hat. I can't be seen in the streets like this. There's nothing in the hat. What do you think's in the hat?

   22LABORER: Ah, I'm not clever enough to say that, but it looks as if the papers was in that hat.

   23CALLER: The papers?

   24LABORER: Yes, papers proving, if you can get them, that you're the heir to that big house, and some poor innocent will be defrauded.

   25CALLER: Look here, the hat's absolutely empty. I must have my hat. If there's anything in it you shall have it yourself as well as the two pounds, only get me my hat.

   [...]

   26CALLER: Oh, for heaven's sake--

   27LABORER: Ah!

   28CALLER: What a hopeless fool you are.

   29LABORER: Ah!

   30CALLER: Look here.

   31LABORER: Ah, I got you there, mister.

   32CALLER: Look here, for goodness sake don't go.

   33LABORER: Ah! (Exit)

   1Director's note. Our short film keeps The Lost Silk Hat in the London of Dunsany's own time, just before 1914. We filmed on a street of tall white houses with black railings. The Caller wears a long black coat, gray gloves and a flower in his buttonhole: perfectly dressed, except for his bare head.

   2A new opening. The script begins with the Caller already standing on the doorstep. Our film begins one minute earlier, with no words. Through the drawing-room window, viewers watch the Caller and a young woman arguing. He rushes out and slams the front door, and the camera shows his hat left behind on the carpet.

   3The Laborer. The actor keeps every dropped "h" that the script spells out, as in "your 'at." He plays the Laborer as a man who is proud of being hard to fool, and he taps the side of his nose each time he says "Ah!"

   4The papers. We cut the Laborer's guess that the hat hides papers about the heir to the big house. We felt the scene was long enough without it.

   5The hat question. The Caller says "What's in the hat?" twice in a row. The second time, the actor turns and looks straight into the camera, as if asking the viewers whether the Laborer has lost his mind.

   6The money. When the Caller offers a sovereign, we show a close-up of the gold coin in his glove, so that viewers who have never seen one know it is real money. When he offers two, the Laborer grins and holds out his hand.

   7The music. Quick, light piano music plays under the whole scene, like the music in an old silent comedy, and it stops dead each time the Laborer says "Ah!"

   On the handout, students fill in a three-column chart (What the script says, What the film does, Kept, cut, added or changed?) for every paragraph of the film notes. Then they write two sentences: one that judges the overall extent to which the film is faithful, and one that evaluates the choice they think matters most. The quiz uses this scene and these notes, so do not discuss answers until students have finished the chart.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) In one sentence, explain the difference between saying a production is faithful and saying it is good. (2) Pick one choice from Production A or B and write one sentence that evaluates it, with a paragraph number from the script.

   Teacher note on language and content: the texts are kept exactly as published, including older spellings such as "to-night," the Laborer's dropped "h" and British spellings in Saki's story. The Rising of the Moon is set during the long conflict over British rule in Ireland: the Sergeant is a policeman in the force that kept order for the British government, and the Man is a rebel against it. The play treats both men with sympathy, and it drew complaints from both sides. Lady Gregory's own note in this edition says some "extreme Nationalists" objected before it was staged that it showed the police "in too favourable a light," and a Unionist paper attacked it afterward because the policeman was shown "as a coward and a traitor." The lesson asks students to analyze the production choices, not to take a side in the politics. The cut part of the excerpt includes a hint that the rebel might use force; nothing violent happens on stage. Saki's narrator is openly unkind about the aunt and the children, which is part of the humor and a question in the homework.

   For homework: students read the opening of a short story and notes for an imagined film of it, printed below. Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916), who wrote as Saki, was a British writer of short, sharp comic stories. In "The Story-Teller," an aunt is traveling by train with three children, and a stranger shares their compartment (a small closed room in a railway carriage). Words to know: sultry (hot and damp), bachelor (an unmarried man), emphatically (very clearly), persistent (refusing to stop), reluctantly (unwillingly), diversion (something that turns attention away), resolute (determined), audible (loud enough to hear), wager (a bet), communication cord (a cord that passengers could pull to stop the train in an emergency), listlessly (without energy), estimation (opinion). "On the Road to Mandalay" is the refrain of "Mandalay," a poem by Rudyard Kipling that was well known in Britain at the time.

   1It was a hot afternoon, and the railway carriage was correspondingly sultry, and the next stop was at Templecombe, nearly an hour ahead. The occupants of the carriage were a small girl, and a smaller girl, and a small boy. An aunt belonging to the children occupied one corner seat, and the further corner seat on the opposite side was occupied by a bachelor who was a stranger to their party, but the small girls and the small boy emphatically occupied the compartment. Both the aunt and the children were conversational in a limited, persistent way, reminding one of the attentions of a housefly that refuses to be discouraged. Most of the aunt’s remarks seemed to begin with “Don’t,” and nearly all of the children’s remarks began with “Why?” The bachelor said nothing out loud. “Don’t, Cyril, don’t,” exclaimed the aunt, as the small boy began smacking the cushions of the seat, producing a cloud of dust at each blow.

   2“Come and look out of the window,” she added.

   3The child moved reluctantly to the window. “Why are those sheep being driven out of that field?” he asked.

   4“I expect they are being driven to another field where there is more grass,” said the aunt weakly.

   5“But there is lots of grass in that field,” protested the boy; “there’s nothing else but grass there. Aunt, there’s lots of grass in that field.”

   [...]

   6The frown on the bachelor’s face was deepening to a scowl. He was a hard, unsympathetic man, the aunt decided in her mind. She was utterly unable to come to any satisfactory decision about the grass in the other field.

   7The smaller girl created a diversion by beginning to recite “On the Road to Mandalay.” She only knew the first line, but she put her limited knowledge to the fullest possible use. She repeated the line over and over again in a dreamy but resolute and very audible voice; it seemed to the bachelor as though some one had had a bet with her that she could not repeat the line aloud two thousand times without stopping. Whoever it was who had made the wager was likely to lose his bet.

   8“Come over here and listen to a story,” said the aunt, when the bachelor had looked twice at her and once at the communication cord.

   9The children moved listlessly towards the aunt’s end of the carriage. Evidently her reputation as a story-teller did not rank high in their estimation.

   1Director's note. Our short film moves Saki's story to a crowded commuter train today, on a hot afternoon when the air conditioning has broken down. The characters keep almost all of their words from the story. We added one detail to explain the setting: the aunt's phone has a dead battery, so she has nothing to keep the children busy.

   2No narrator. Saki's narrator tells readers that "The bachelor said nothing out loud," and that the aunt "decided in her mind" he was a hard man. Our film has no voice-over. Instead, the camera keeps returning to the bachelor's face, and the actor lets his frown grow a little deeper each time a child asks "Why?"

   3The housefly. The story compares the aunt and the children to a housefly "that refuses to be discouraged." A camera cannot film a comparison, so we filmed a real fly bumping against the train window, again and again, while the questions go on.

   4The dust. When Cyril smacks the seat cushions, each cloud of dust rises in slow motion through a beam of sunlight from the window.

   5The poem. We replaced "On the Road to Mandalay" with the first line of a nursery rhyme, because we thought few viewers today would know Kipling's poem. The smaller girl still repeats her one line over and over in the dreamy but loud voice the story describes.

   6A cut. We cut the moment when the bachelor looks at the communication cord. On a modern train the red emergency handle looks too serious, and we did not want viewers to think he might really stop the train.

   7The aunt. The actor plays the aunt as a tired, kind woman who is doing her best. When she answers Cyril's questions about the sheep, she speaks gently and patiently, and viewers feel sorry for her.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In RL.8.7, what does it mean to say that a production stays faithful to its script?

   AIt keeps the script's words, events and meaning, though it may decide details the script does not settle BIt uses the same actors, or actors who look like the ones who first played the parts CIt copies the costumes, set and lighting of the very first production exactly DIt makes the audience feel exactly what the director felt the first time he or she read the script

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which choice in the film of The Lost Silk Hat is most faithful to the script?

   AOpening the film with an argument between the Caller and a young woman, seen through the window BCutting the Laborer's guess about the papers hidden in the hat CPlaying quick, light piano music under the whole scene DA street of tall white houses, and a Caller perfectly dressed except for his bare head

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   How does the film's new opening depart from the script?

   AIt cuts the stage direction in which the Caller stands on the doorstep, faultlessly dressed but hatless BIt moves the whole scene from the London street to the inside of the drawing-room CIt adds an event the script never stages: the Caller arguing with a young woman inside DIt has the Laborer arrive before the Caller comes out of the house

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What does the new opening change for viewers of the film?

   AThey can no longer tell which house the Caller came out of, so the Laborer's task becomes confusing BThey already know why the Caller left, so they no longer wonder why he will not go back in CThey learn that the Laborer is right after all, and that the hat really does hide important papers DThey see the Laborer inside the house at the start, so his refusal to go in no longer makes sense

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The film's actor keeps the Laborer's dropped "h." Why is this choice faithful to the script?

   AThe script spells the word the way the Laborer says it: "Get hold of your 'at!" BA stage direction says that the Laborer comes from a village far outside London CThe Caller tells the Laborer to speak more clearly when he asks for help DThe film notes say that every character in the film drops the "h"

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The actor taps the side of his nose each time he says "Ah!", a gesture that means "I know what you are up to." The script does not ask for it. Which line from the script best supports this choice?

   A"Glad to do what I can, sir." B"I don't like this job." C"Ah, I got you there, mister." D"Yes; that's what I want to know."

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which words from the script are lost when the film cuts the Laborer's guess about the papers?

   A"But I must have my hat. I can't be seen in the streets like this." B"half under the long sofa, the far end from the door. And if you could possibly go and get it" C"just to ring that bell and go up and say--er--say that you've come to see to the drains" D"papers proving, if you can get them, that you're the heir to that big house"

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which judgment of the cut papers guess is best supported by the script?

   AIt helps the scene, because the papers become important to the plot later on and the film saves that surprise BIt weakens the comedy, because the guess is the Laborer's wildest suspicion, the top of a running joke CIt makes no difference, because the Laborer never talks about what might be inside the hat anywhere in the scene DIt is faithful to the script, because Dunsany's stage directions tell directors they may shorten the scene

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The script prints "in" in italics in "What's in the hat?" What does this tell the actors?

   AStress the word "in," because the question is about the hat's contents BWhisper the line, so that the lady inside the house cannot hear it at all CCut the line whenever the scene is running too long for the audience DDo not speak the line, because italics mark a stage direction

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The second time the Caller says "What's in the hat?", the actor looks straight into the camera. Which statement best describes this choice?

    AIt cuts the second question so that the joke moves faster BIt changes the words of the question to suit a modern audience CIt follows a stage direction in the script telling the Caller to face the audience here DIt keeps the words but adds a way of saying them that the script does not ask for

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    When the Caller offers two sovereigns, the film's Laborer grins and holds out his hand. How does this acting choice compare with the script?

    AIt fits the script, where the Laborer says that he is "Glad to do what I can, sir" after the offer BIt fits the script, where the Laborer takes the two sovereigns and then goes into the house CIt works against the script, where the bigger offer makes him more suspicious: "for an empty hat?" DIt works against the script, where the Laborer turns and walks away before any money is offered

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which is the best evaluation of the close-up of the gold coin?

    AIt departs from the script and hurts the scene, because it cuts the word "sovereign" from the dialogue BIt departs from the script, but it helps viewers understand an old word without changing the story CIt is faithful to the script, because Dunsany's stage directions call for a close-up of the coin DIt departs from the script and changes the plot, because the Caller now actually pays the Laborer

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The piano music "stops dead each time the Laborer says 'Ah!'" What does this choice do?

    AIt makes each "Ah!" land like a punch line, pointing to a repetition the script already builds BIt covers up the Laborer's words, so that viewers cannot hear his answers to the Caller CIt warns viewers that the Laborer is about to change his mind and go into the house for the hat DIt replaces the Laborer's lines with music, so that the joke is told without words

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A director moves a play to the present day but keeps every line of the script. Which statement about the production is most accurate?

    AIt is completely faithful to the play, because every single word of the script is spoken exactly as written BIt is completely unfaithful to the play, because any change of setting throws away what the playwright intended CIt keeps the words but departs in setting; how far depends on whether the setting changes what the lines mean DIt cannot be judged at all until the audience has seen it and voted on whether they enjoyed it

15. Question 15 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A stage production of a ghost story turns off every light during the ghost's first appearance. Which sentence is the strongest evaluation of this choice?

    A"I liked the blackout, because the ghost scene was a lot more exciting than the rest of the play." B"The production turns off all of the lights in the theater during the ghost's first appearance." C"The production is different from the story in many ways, and the blackout is just one of them." D"The blackout works: the story says the room 'went black,' and the dark scares the audience too."

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    In 3-4 sentences, judge the extent to which the film of The Lost Silk Hat stays faithful to the script. Weigh at least one small departure against one large one, with a paragraph number from the script for each.

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17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Choose one acting choice in the film (the nose tap, the look into the camera, or the grin at two sovereigns). In 2-3 sentences, evaluate it with a quotation from the script.

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18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write 2-3 sentences of director's notes for a stage production of paragraphs 26-33 of The Lost Silk Hat that stays faithful to the script but adds one piece of stage business (an action the script does not ask for). Then explain in one sentence why your addition fits the script.

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19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Explain in 2-3 sentences how a production can keep every word of a script and still depart from it. Give an example that is not already described in the film notes.

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20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    In 2-3 sentences, explain why RL.8.7 asks students to evaluate a production's choices instead of only listing how it differs from the script.

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These standards connect to RL.8.7: 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.