A play on the page, and two ways to stage it

Grade 11 Reading Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   As You Like It, Act 3, Scene 2 (Shakespeare's comedy, script copied exactly with … marking each cut, and two invented productions): Scene note:
   [1] Rosalind, a duke's daughter, has escaped to the Forest of Arden disguised as a young man, and Orlando, who loves her and has been decorating the trees with love poems, encounters this youth without recognizing Rosalind.
   [2] Her cousin Celia, who knows the secret, is standing beside her, and Rosalind speaks first to Celia and then calls out to Orlando.

   From the script:
   [3] ROSALIND: I will speak to him like a saucy lackey, and under that habit play the knave with him.
   [4] ROSALIND (to Orlando): Do you hear, forester? … I pray you, what is’t o’clock?
   [5] ORLANDO: You should ask me what time o’ day. There’s no clock in the forest.
   [6] ROSALIND: Then there is no true lover in the forest, else sighing every minute and groaning every hour would detect the lazy foot of time as well as a clock.
   [7] ORLANDO: And why not the swift foot of time? Had not that been as proper?
   [8] ROSALIND: By no means, sir. Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. …
   [9] ORLANDO: … Where dwell you, pretty youth?

   Production A (invented):
   [10] At the Birchwood Festival, Rosalind wears a cap that continually slips to reveal long hair, races through the conversation with obvious delight, and winks at the audience on the words true lover.
   [11] Orlando never notices the slipping cap, so the audience enjoys a joke that he cannot see.

   Production B (invented):
   [12] The Fenmore Studio gives Rosalind a short haircut, a lowered voice and a completely convincing disguise, and she speaks deliberately, pausing after no true lover in the forest as though measuring Orlando's reaction.
   [13] This Orlando bristles at the insult, steps closer, and then softens noticeably when he asks where the pretty youth lives.

   Word notes:
   [14] A lackey is a servant, a habit is a costume, to play the knave is to play tricks, divers means various, and a pace is a speed of walking.

2. 1.

   Luz fills the script column. How does Rosalind's aside to Celia in part 3 move the scene forward?

   • It shows Rosalind speaking quietly to Celia before calling out to Orlando.
   • It reveals that there is no clock in the forest, so the time must be guessed.
   • It sets up the teasing game in disguise that the rest of the scene plays out.
   • It tells the audience that Rosalind has fled to Arden dressed as a young man.
3. 2.

   Tala compares the productions. What does Production B's pause after no true lover in the forest do for the audience?

   • It hurries past the insult, so the audience hardly notices that it was said.
   • It makes the line feel like a real test, so the audience waits to see how Orlando answers.
   • It lets the audience share a wink with Rosalind behind Orlando's back.
   • It shows the audience that Rosalind no longer loves Orlando and means the insult.
4. 3.

   Pia fills the script column. How does Orlando's question in part 9 keep the plot going?

   • Orlando says there is no clock in the forest, which closes the talk about time.
   • Orlando asks where the youth lives, once their talk about time is over.
   • Orlando softens toward the youth, which begins a friendship between them.
   • Pretty youth shows the disguise is working, so the deception can go on.
5. 4.

   Bo compares the productions. What does Production A gain by letting Orlando miss the slipping cap?

   • The audience decides Orlando is foolish and stops believing in his love.
   • The audience knows more than Orlando does, which makes the disguise a comedy.
   • The audience watches the insult land and waits tensely for Orlando's reply.
   • The audience worries that Rosalind will be found out, which fills the scene with suspense.

6. Use this

   The Contrast, Act 3, Scene 1 (Royall Tyler's American comedy of 1787, script copied exactly with … marking each cut, and two invented productions): Scene note:
   [1] Jonathan, a plain-spoken young farmhand from Massachusetts, has come to New York as the servant of Colonel Manly, and Jenny, a maid in the house where they lodge, has heard where he went the night before.
   [2] In 1787 many Americans distrusted the theater, and several states had laws against stage plays, so Jonathan has been taught to avoid playhouses entirely.

   From the script:
   [3] JENNY: So, Mr. Jonathan, I hear you were at the play last night. … Well, and how did you find the place?
   [4] JONATHAN: As I was going about here and there, to and again, to find it, I saw a great crowd of folks going into a long entry that had lantherns over the door; …
   [5] JONATHAN: … And so I saw a bower of topping folks, all sitting round in little cabbins, “just like father’s corn-cribs”; and then there was such a squeaking with the fiddles, and such a tarnal blaze with the lights, my head was near turned. …
   [6] JONATHAN: … they lifted up a great green cloth and let us look right into the next neighbor’s house. …
   [7] JENNY: … Well, Mr. Jonathan, you were certainly at the play-house.
   [8] JONATHAN: I at the play-house!—Why didn’t I see the play then?
   [9] JENNY: Why, the people you saw were players.

   Production A (invented):
   [10] The Old Mill Stage lets Jonathan act out everything he describes, squinting at imaginary lights, sawing an imaginary fiddle and hauling an imaginary curtain, so that his account becomes an energetic little performance of its own.
   [11] On the final line, Jenny sweeps her arm toward the actual audience.

   Production B (invented):
   [12] The Commons Theater keeps Jonathan seated and completely earnest, puzzled rather than foolish, and he never once plays for laughs.
   [13] When he mentions the little cabbins, he glances up at the theater's own boxes, and the audience laughs because they are sitting in exactly the kind of building he cannot recognize.

   Word notes:
   [14] Lantherns are lanterns, topping folks are fashionable people, cabbins are the enclosed box seats of a theater, corn-cribs are farm bins for storing corn, and tarnal is a New England word meaning tremendous.

7. 5.

   Milo fills the production rows. What reading of Jonathan does Production B's seated, earnest Jonathan give?

   • A clever youth who knew from the start that he was watching a play.
   • A lively storyteller who turns a night out into a show of his own.
   • A youth who disliked the topping folks because they were rude to him.
   • An honest country youth who is truly puzzled, not a fool to be laughed at.
8. 6.

   Zee fills the script column. How do Jenny's questions in part 3 drive the scene?

   • Jenny says she heard about the play and asks Jonathan how he found the place.
   • Jenny reminds Jonathan that several states had laws against stage plays.
   • They draw out Jonathan's story, so the audience enjoys what he fails to see.
   • Jenny tells Jonathan that the people he saw were players, which clears up his confusion.
9. 7.

   Kira compares the productions. What effect does Production A's acting out of fiddles, lights and curtain have?

   • It makes the audience laugh at themselves, seated in the very boxes Jonathan describes.
   • It turns Jonathan's account into a little show, so the audience laughs at his energy.
   • It slows the story down, so the audience loses track of where Jonathan went.
   • It shows that Jonathan secretly loved the play and now wants to become an actor.
10. 8.

    Ren fills the production rows. What does Production A's Jenny suggest by sweeping her arm toward the audience?

    • That Jenny is scolding the audience for attending plays the law forbids.
    • That Jonathan should look up at the theater's boxes to see where he sat.
    • That Jenny is following Tyler's own direction in part 9 to point at the audience.
    • That the audience, too, are watching players, just as Jonathan unknowingly did.
11. 9.

    Esme fills the script column. How does Jonathan's question in part 8 bring the scene to its point?

    • Jonathan denies being at the playhouse and asks why he did not see the play.
    • His surprise at never seeing a play lets Jenny deliver the line that explains the joke.
    • Jonathan describes a green cloth that opened on the next neighbor's house.
    • Jonathan realizes he has broken the laws against plays that some states had passed.
12. 10.

    Noah compares the productions. What does Production B's glance at the theater's boxes do for the audience?

    • It makes them laugh at Jonathan for being too poor to buy a box seat.
    • It makes them laugh: they sit in just the kind of building he cannot recognize.
    • It makes them laugh at Jonathan's lively acting of the fiddles and the curtain.
    • It hushes them, since they feel sorry for a stranger lost in the city.