Skip to main content

Drama

I'm teaching a drama class this quarter. Here is a list of a few of the hero-villain scenarios I will use this week. Some are silly, some are more realistic. Adapting a lesson I found on Matt Buchanan's childdrama.com, I plan to have students pair up and choose from a hero or villain index card pile (one chooses a hero, the other a villain). It could mean that Indiana Jones will face off against the shark from Jaws, or Optimus Prime will take on the Wicked Witch of the West. Whatever characters they choose, they must choose from the scenario pile, then plan and act it out. It should be good sport.

The villain has set a house on fire. In it is trapped a baby.
The villain puts poisoned cookies on a children’s plate. The mother is about to serve them.
The villain plans to drop millions of pieces of paper on a crowded city and give paper cuts to all who are in it.
The villain is incredibly intelligent and wants to beat the superhero in chess.
The villain plans to infect the water supply with a virus that will cause the population to become zombies.
The villain wants to destroy a large water tower, which will flood a nearby town.
The villain is planning to attack the president.
The villain is using music to hypnotize a group of people and lead them off of a cliff.
The villain has shut down all the power to the city, trapping people in elevators and subways.
The villain has placed bombs below strategic places in a city and plans to detonate it, sinking the city.
The villain is playing show tunes on a city-wide loud speaker, making the citizens go crazy.
The villain has put kittens in a plastic container and is planning to send them to Antarctica.
The villain has kidnapped the Queen of England and plans to drop her in the ocean.
The villain has hacked into the city’s prison security system and plans to let all the criminals free.
The villain has taken all the musical instruments, radios, and ipods away and plans to destroy music forever.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Savior

This wasteland cold and dark runs free Its fearful creatures speak to me One fateful day one nudged my hand To set my eyes upon a tree He knew I could not understand For I was in his native land His signs became our common speech To lead me through the deadly sand Now stuck I saw him me beseech He could not lift me out to reach The firm foundation of a cave Outside the boundaries of this beach Withal, the beast became more brave To risk his own my life to save To carry me, its life it gave To carry me, its life it gave. This poem was inspired by Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." That poem, like this one, has four four-line stanzas of eight syllables per stanza. Its rhyme scheme is AABA BBCB CCDC DDDD.
Post a Comment
Read more

Ghosts

Exercising at a gym seems to be pretty important in our culture, but it's kind of weird to see the social dynamics when you're there. Usually, if you're running an errand, you see others doing the same thing, going about their days and focusing on what's in front of them. The same thing happens at the gym, only everyone is relatively stationary. They don't really go anywhere, except from one machine or area to another. One might think this lends itself to lots of interaction between members, especially since they're all there for the same purpose, but it isn't true. Not only do people generally avoid talking to one another, but they also avoid even looking at one another. It is as though there is no one else there, even though there are dozens on any given day. Most people follow this unwritten rule, unless something in the environment-- say, two people wanting to use the same set of weights-- gives them common ground to interact, or unless they've alr...
2 comments
Read more

The Nice Guy Fallacy

I read part of a poem recently by one of my favorite poets. It reads: I envy not in any moods The captive void of noble rage The linnet born within the cage That never knew the summer woods. I envy not the beast that takes His license in the field of time Unfetter'd by the sense of crime To whom a conscience never wakes. Nor what may call itself as bles't The heart that never plighted troth But stagnates in the weeds of sloth Nor any want-begotten rest. I hold it true, whate'er befall I feel it, when I sorrow most 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. At base, Tennyson contrasted a life of risk, and consequent pain, with one of security. He sides conclusively with the life of risk, and says he fails to envy those who have faced no hardship. I agree with him; and, for good or ill, his words are just as relevant today as they were in the nineteenth century. Like then, there are those today who choose to live their lives with as little risk as...
2 comments
Read more