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

Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 1, Scene 2 (Shakespeare's comedy, script copied exactly with … marking each cut, and two invented productions): Scene note:
   [1] In this comedy a company of Athenian tradesmen with no stage experience are preparing a short tragedy about two lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe, for the Duke's wedding celebration, and Peter Quince, a carpenter, is distributing the parts.

   From the script:
   [2] QUINCE: Flute, you must take Thisbe on you. …
   [3] FLUTE: … Nay, faith, let not me play a woman. I have a beard coming.
   [4] QUINCE: That’s all one. You shall play it in a mask, and you may speak as small as you will.
   [5] BOTTOM: And I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe too. I’ll speak in a monstrous little voice; ‘Thisne, Thisne!’ …
   [6] QUINCE: No, no, you must play Pyramus; and, Flute, you Thisbe. …
   [7] BOTTOM: … Let me play the lion too. I will roar that I will do any man’s heart good to hear me. …
   [8] QUINCE: If you should do it too terribly, you would fright the Duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek; …
   [9] BOTTOM: … I will aggravate my voice so, that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you an ’twere any nightingale.

   Production A (invented):
   [10] The Riverside Players set the scene in a modern community workshop, where a tall, deep-voiced Flute rubs a stubbly chin while protesting, so the objection about the beard is comically true.
   [11] When Bottom requests the lion, this performer leaps onto a workbench and roars so tremendously that the others cover their ears, and only afterward drops into a tiny, cooing voice for the dove.

   Production B (invented):
   [12] The Lantern Yard Company performs on a bare wooden platform, and its Flute is a very young actor with a perfectly smooth face holding a paper mask, so the beard becomes a hopeful exaggeration rather than a fact.
   [13] Its Bottom never shouts, but offers the roar as a soft, satisfied hum, as though gentleness were the entire purpose of the performance.

   Word notes:
   [14] To take a part on you is to accept it, to speak small is to speak in a high, soft voice, and Bottom says aggravate, meaning intensify, when he means moderate, while an ’twere means as if it were.

2. 1.

   Luz sorts staging choices into the chart. Which production makes Flute's beard sound like a boast rather than a fact?

   • Production A, by casting a tall, deep-voiced Flute with a stubbly chin.
   • Production B, by having Flute throw away the mask and speak in a deep voice.
   • Production B, by casting a very young Flute with a perfectly smooth face.
   • Neither one, because Shakespeare's script already tells us the beard is just a boast.
3. 2.

   Tala checks a row of the chart. Bottom's roar as gentle as a dove: is it in the script, or added by a production?

   • It is in the script: in part 9 Bottom promises to roar as gently as any sucking dove.
   • It is added by Production A, which drops Bottom into a tiny, cooing voice for the dove.
   • It is added by Production B, which has Bottom leap onto a workbench and coo.
   • It is in the script, but Bottom means he will roar more fiercely, since aggravate means intensify.
4. 3.

   Jun fills the script column. What does Quince offer Flute in part 4?

   • A mask to hide the face, and leave to speak in a high, soft voice.
   • A smaller part, so that Flute may speak as few lines as possible.
   • A paper mask to hold up in front of a perfectly smooth face.
   • The chance to play Thisbe in a monstrous little voice, as Bottom suggests.
5. 4.

   Bo checks a row of the chart. Flute rubbing a stubbly chin: is that in the script, or added by a production?

   • In the script, since Flute's line about the beard tells the actor to rub his chin.
   • Added by Production B, which casts a young Flute who rubs a smooth face.
   • Added by Production A; the script gives only Flute's words about a beard coming.
   • In the script, which says the tradesmen have no stage experience and fidget.

6. Use this

   The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 2, Scene 3 (Shakespeare's comedy, script copied exactly with … marking each cut, and two invented productions): Scene note:
   [1] Lance, a comic servant, is about to depart by ship with his master, Proteus.
   [2] He enters alone with his dog, Crab, and describes for the audience the family farewell he has just left.

   From the script:
   [3] LANCE: Nay, ’twill be this hour ere I have done weeping; all the kind of the Lances have this very fault. …
   [4] I think Crab my dog be the sourest-natured dog that lives: my mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity, yet did not this cruel-hearted cur shed one tear. …
   [5] Nay, I’ll show you the manner of it. This shoe is my father. No, this left shoe is my father; no, no, this left shoe is my mother. …
   [6] Now the dog all this while sheds not a tear nor speaks a word; but see how I lay the dust with my tears.
   [7] PANTINO (entering): Lance, away, away! Aboard! Thy master is shipped, and thou art to post after with oars. … You’ll lose the tide if you tarry any longer.
   [8] LANCE: It is no matter if the tied were lost, for it is the unkindest tied that ever any man tied.

   Production A (invented):
   [9] The Harbor Street Theater uses a real dog, an elderly, contented hound that yawns throughout the speech, while Lance kneels between two worn boots and weeps openly to the audience.
   [10] The laughter comes from the contrast between a sobbing man and an indifferent animal.

   Production B (invented):
   [11] The Quarry Hill Company casts a second actor in a shaggy costume as Crab, who sniffles, dabs an eye with a paw and howls when Pantino arrives.
   [12] Its Lance remains dry-eyed and delivers the speech rapidly, like a comedian repeating a familiar routine, deliberately tangling the boots.

   Word notes:
   [13] Kind means family, a cur is an ordinary dog, and to post after with oars is to hurry to the ship by rowboat.
   [14] Lance hears tide, the movement of the sea that a departing ship requires, as tied, because Crab is tied to him.

7. 5.

   Milo fills the script column. According to part 4, why does Lance call Crab the sourest-natured dog that lives?

   • Crab is a cur, a bad-tempered dog that growled through the farewell.
   • Crab made Lance late, so the ship nearly sailed without them.
   • The whole household wept at the farewell, but Crab did not shed a single tear.
   • Crab is an old hound that yawned through the family farewell.
8. 6.

   Zee sorts staging choices into the chart. Which production's Lance plays the speech like a well-practiced joke?

   • Both of them, because the script directs Lance to deliver the speech as a comic routine.
   • Production B, whose Lance truly cannot tell the left boot from the right.
   • Production B, whose Lance stays dry-eyed and tangles the boots on purpose.
   • Production A, whose Lance kneels between two worn boots and weeps openly.
9. 7.

   Kira checks a row of the chart. Lance using a shoe to stand for his father: is that in the script, or added by a production?

   • Added by Production B, which has Lance kneel and weep between two boots.
   • Added by Production A, which has Lance kneel between two worn boots.
   • In the script: in part 5 Lance says that this shoe is his father.
   • In the script, because the scene note says Lance describes the farewell with props.
10. 8.

    Ren fills the script column. What does Pantino tell Lance in part 7?

    • The master is already aboard, so Lance must hurry out by rowboat or miss the tide.
    • The tide is the unkindest ever tied, because Crab is tied to Lance.
    • Lance must post a letter to the master before the ship sails without him.
    • Crab, the actor in the shaggy costume, must stop howling at once.
11. 9.

    Esme sorts staging choices into the chart. Which production gets its laughter from a sobbing man beside an indifferent animal?

    • Production B, with an actor as Crab who dabs an eye with a paw.
    • Production A, with a hound trained to turn its back whenever Lance speaks.
    • Both of them, since the script tells the actor to bring on a yawning dog.
    • Production A, with a real old hound that yawns while Lance weeps.
12. 10.

    Noah checks a row of the chart. Crab shedding no tear and speaking no word: is that in the script, or added by a production?

    • In the script, and so is the final howl Crab lets out when Pantino arrives.
    • Added by Production B, whose dry-eyed Crab does not react.
    • Added by Production A, whose old hound yawns through the whole speech.
    • In the script: part 6 says the dog sheds not a tear nor speaks a word.