Metropolitan Opera Guild

PD November 8th, 2011 at PS 164B

Artists: Katya Stanislavskaya and Leah Miles

Lesson plan: First Draft (revised 11/4/11)

LEAH: Ice-breaker/Warm up (Exploring physicality/ intro to character)

Perhaps we could refer to the Soundscape exercise.

Example: You decided that the batter was the protagonist. How did you know just by looking? Where was he placed? How did he compare to others in terms of levels, posture, proximity, etc.?

KATYA: Exploring Source Material, “Casey at the Bat”

Discussion: What is the setting? Who are the characters (mentioned, implied?) Who is the protagonist?

Individually: Story mapping (verbs, time/events, emotional hotspots)

In groups: Finding the turning point

As a class: Finding a consensus for the turning point

LEAH: Skill building: Tableaux

*Possibly the existing (named in the poem) and invented characters will emerge from this exercise? Ideally, each group would end up with a character whose point of view they will work with for the rest of the workshop*

Throughout the day, we will work as a class and in groups.

As a class, we will work with the character of Casey.

As groups, we will work with other characters.

KATYA: Exemplar: Point of View

My idea is to use “Tonight”, end of Act I of West Side Story. This song happens right before the Rumble, which is the official “point of no return” in the show. In this song, various people (Maria and Tony, Anita, the Jets, and the Sharks) are all looking forward to the same night, all for different reasons: the gangs are looking forward to being kings of the turf, Tony and Maria can’ wait to see each other, and Anita fantasizes about a night of passion with Bernardo).

Here is the YouTube video link, it has subtitles:

Guided discussion:

  • What is the setting? (Where, when?)
  • Who is the protagonist? Is there more than one?
  • Who are the other characters, or groups of characters?
  • Why does each character/ each group look forward to tonight?
  • What is the conflict? Is there more than one?

What could be some contrasting Points of View during the turning point of Casey at the Bat?

LEAH: Lyric writing Foundations

Maybe a short workshop about coming up with a hook/main idea for a song?

The whole class writes a “hook” for Casey

Since we are talking about emotions in the Soundscape exercise, perhaps each group can focus on the main/prevalent emotion of each character or group of characters

GROUP WORK: Coming up with a hook, or main idea, for your character’s view point.

KATYA: Music Foundations

I. Preliminary exercise/warm up: Setting a word

  • TA models “I’m going home”, set in several contrasting ways
  • What tools did I use? (pitch, rhythm, repetition, dynamics, articulation)
  • How did my use of pitch, rhythm, repetition, dynamics, and articulation change the meaning of the phrase?
  • Meta-question: how do the musical tools inform a listener about emotions?

II. The class sets Casey’s line

III. GROUP WORK:

Each group sets their character’s line

CULMINATING EVENT/ SHARING