Playwright Discovery Award Teacher's Guide - The John F. Kennedy ...

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the innocent victim with a disability. These representations reinforce the beliefs that people with disabilities cannot direct their own lives and that they exist solely to bring out the goodness and charity of people without disabilities. In real life, pity for people with disabilities is a major barrier to being considered competent managers of their own lives. Examples of Innocent Victims include: • Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol • Lenny in Of Mice and Men • John Merrick in The Elephant Man • Laura in The Glass Menagerie • Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby Fantasy Creatures represent the storyteller’s natural human curiosity about bodily difference to set these characters apart from humanity. The differences these characters present cast them as alien, fantastical, or freakish. These representations suggest that people with disabilities are so different that they constitute a different species. In real life, people with disabilities are often segregated from mainstream society because they are not considered fully human with the same needs, desires, and feelings that people without disabilities have. Examples of Fantasy Creatures include: • The Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory • The Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz • The Seven Dwarves in Snow White • Yoda in Star Wars Heroic Inspirations are often superheroes who develop mystical powers to compensate for their disabilities. These characters’ primary concern in life is to overcome their disabilities to do amazing things. Often, the characters overcome their disabilities by developing a good attitude (or superpowers). In real life, people with disabilities consider their disabilities an aspect of who they are and do not spend every hour of every day trying to overcome their medical diagnosis. In real life, people with disabilities face discrimination, exclusion, and lack of access and accommodation from others, not self-generated negative attitudes toward their disabilities. Examples of Heroic Inspirations include: • Forrest Gump in Forrest Gump • Jake Sully in Avatar • Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker • Nemo in Finding Nemo • Matt Murdock in Daredevil • The Mutants in X-Men, especially Prof. Xavier Characters who complicate or defy stereotypes examples include: • Percy Jackson in The Lightning Thief • Dr. Albert Robbins in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation • Josephine “Joey” Lucas in The West Wing 12 ACT I: PREPARATION
Discussion Questions 1. What characters with disabilities have you seen in movies, television, and plays? Can you think of examples of the following characters with disabilities? a. Villainous Monsters b. Innocent Victims c. Freakish Fantasy Creatures d. Heroic Inspirations e. Characters that complicate or defy stereotypes 2. Can you think of characters from movies, television, and plays that do not fall into any of these categories? Or characters that only partially fit these categories? Or characters that have elements from more than one category? Explain your choices. 3. What attitudes about disability have you encountered in your life? How have these attitudes made you or others feel? 4. Think of alternate ways of expressing the same meanings in these phrases without using disability metaphors. a. His explanation of the crime was just a lame excuse for greediness. b. He was blind to the possibilities of earning a college degree. c. The ruler turned a deaf ear to the plight of the peasants. d. Our nation is crippled by economic recession. e. That homework assignment was retarded. f. You are such a spaz! Considering Non-Apparent Disabilities Such as Autism Non-apparent disabilities pose a playwriting challenge. How do you convey how a person thinks if speech and movement are difficult? Nonapparent disabilities may interest some playwrights but be difficult to realize for the stage. A way to create a character or situation may be to consider how strategies for success might influence dramatic choices. Autism has been stereotyped in many forms of entertainment. When most think of autism, thoughts of Raymond Babbitt from Rain Man come to mind. Many people see this character and believe that all people with autism must be like Rain Man—extremely intellectual, able to count items at lightning speed, and have extreme and erratic behavior. The 2010 HBO television movie Temple Grandin is based on the early life of the world-famous animal scientist. Dr. Temple Grandin is a high-functioning woman with autism. Through some intriguing film techniques, the movie helps viewers understand how Dr. Grandin processes information differently from other people. However, it does not depict her as behaving in extreme or erratic ways like Rain Man, because not everyone with autism behaves similarly. These characters represent two types of autism. There are many different levels of autism with incredibly different symptoms. In fact, autism is a highly complex disorder. Many individuals today with autism can succeed at school and in the workplace. People with autism are still just that—people—and like every person on the planet they each have their own personalities, likes, and dislikes. View them for who they are and not who you expect them to be. ACT I: PREPARATION 13
Page 1 and 2: vsa Playwright Discovery Resource G
Page 3 and 4: vsa Playwright Discovery Resource G
Page 5 and 6: PROLOGUE The Changeling by Paul Bau
Page 7 and 8: A goal of this guide and project is
Page 9 and 10: 3/4 of a Mass for St. Vivian by Pho
Page 11 and 12: ACT I PREPARATION: Exploring Disabi
Page 13: heats up quickly. Isn’t it much m
Page 17 and 18: presented for entertainment. Instea
Page 19 and 20: ACT II PLAYWRITING: Igniting the Im
Page 21 and 22: FOR THE ARTIST’S NOTEBOOK: The Bu
Page 23 and 24: PLAYWRITING EXERCISE 1 continued PA
Page 25 and 26: PLAYWRITING EXERCISE 2 continued Wh
Page 27 and 28: Creating Narrative and Dramatic Act
Page 29 and 30: PLAYWRITING EXERCISE 3 continued Po
Page 33 and 34: PLAYWRITING EXERCISE 4 : Changing t
Page 37 and 38: PLAYWRITING EXERCISE 5 : Putting Wo
Page 39 and 40: PLAYWRITING EXERCISE 5 continued DI
Page 41 and 42: ACT III DRAMATURGY: Shaping What Yo
Page 43 and 44: FOR THE ARTIST’S NOTEBOOK: The El
Page 45 and 46: DRAMATURGY EXERCISE 1 continued PAR
Page 47 and 48: FOR THE ARTIST’S NOTEBOOK: The Dr
Page 49 and 50: DRAMATURGY EXERCISE 2 continued PAR
Page 51 and 52: DRAMATURGY EXERCISE 3 : The March o
Page 53 and 54: DRAMATURGY EXERCISE 4 : What Are th
Page 55 and 56: DRAMATURGY EXERCISE 4 continued In
Page 57 and 58: ACT IV PRESENTATION: Sharing Your W
Page 59 and 60: ACT I Scene 1 1 A Classroom. Upstag
Page 61 and 62: ACT V ASSESSMENT: Discover Your New
Page 63 and 64: Discovery Assessment NAME (optional
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9. Define what it means for a scene
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19. Name at least three writers or
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EPILOGUE Plays submitted to the VSA
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VSA Rating System continued 4. CRIT
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Contributors Lenora Inez Brown | Pr
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VSA, the international organization
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