How to Teach a Play: Essential Exercises for Popular Plays ed. by Miriam M. Chirico and Kelly Younger (review)

Miriam M. Chirico and Kelly Younger have collected a broad variety of "cookbook"-style exercises built upon specific plays and written by better-and lesser-known contributors from a variety of disciplines. The entries are designed to awaken students' dramatic imaginations and to "capitalize on the power of performance without losing the prescience of text" (4) in the interest of "introduc[ing] a performative attribute that offers insight into the play's meaning" (11). Some entries do this better than others.

I have long taught plays in my literature courses (from the Greeks to the present day), as well as courses exclusively in drama, and have not thought of myself as one who "defaults to teaching the literary aspects of dramatic texts," per the editors' introduction (2). I always include exercises that try to bring the performative aspects of a play to life beyond watching a video (several of which are linked to and referenced in this book). I agree that plays are mutable by nature as well as visually and aurally dynamic in a way that no other literary genre can be, and that ignoring this complexity is a disservice to one's students. But no doubt some teachers are reluctant to stray from "dramatic texts" and, for them, this book could be quite useful. If adopted—or adapted—many of the activities in this book would make the classroom more engaging. As well as giving detailed "how to" descriptions (some of which require additional materials and some of which do not), the editors present pertinent rationales for each exercise, keyed to potential outcomes. The play selections are based on popular drama anthologies published by Wadsworth, Bedford, Norton, and Longman, as well as on Lee Jacobus's Stages of Drama, although the editors have tried to diversify the offerings as much as possible.

Among the eighty plays presented in chronological order, one finds a fair smattering of the Greeks, along with Plautus, and the standard Medieval entries: The Second Shepherd's Play and Everyman. These are augmented by an interesting entry on Atsumori, a Noh drama by Zeami Motokiyo. Shakespeare accounts for ten entries (including Measure for Measure and King Lear); but there are also a couple on Molière, as well as one on Calderón de la Barca's Life is Dream. Five entries cover the Restoration period through to Sheridan. Later entries treat familiar works by Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, and Shaw, in addition to sometimes less-well known plays by Pirandello, Treadwell, García Lorca, and others. Noteworthy in this general grouping is an interesting exercise on Georg Büchner's Woyzeck that asks students to experiment with the play's plot sequence.

Later entries range from Wilder to Vogel and Parks and will be familiar to many readers, as will the plays by Soyinka and Fugard. More surprising are entries on Wakako Yamauchi's And the Soul Shall Dance, Gao Xingjian's The Other Shore, Griselda Gambaro's Information for Foreigners, and Qui Nguyen's Vietgone. The volume brings us into the twenty-first century with entries on John Patrick Shandley, Sarah Ruhl, and Quiara Alegría Hudes.

Although intended as exercises for "all instructors—literature and theatre; college and high school; dramaturgs and directors" who include plays in their syllabi (1), the suggested activities do not collectively fit all shapes and sizes, but they certainly offer some interesting approaches for different class types. For the student body that I teach at a four-year college—including many first-generation students, often reading one play in an English class—some exercises demand too much in the way of acting acuity or improvisational skill, volunteerism, and prior knowledge of a play. Few of my students would be willing or able to improvise around a scene or work on a cue script, but they would enjoy the proffered opportunities to create modern equivalents...