Embedded Assessment: Performing a Scene from a Play

Name _________________________________

Theater Co.____________________

• Your group will perform and videotape an assigned scene(s) from Romeo and Juliet.
• Your group will work collaboratively.
• Your group will create in writing your own introduction to the scene(s) and perform it as a presentation to preface your videotaped scene.
• Your group will create and keep a dramaturge’s, director’s (props, costumes and setting), actor’s, cinematographer’s notebook ( Follow the criteria stated in Springboard on pages 319-325). Your record the group’s project in a “meeting log’ every time you meet and work on the project ( including as in-class work). Divide up the responsibilities of the project. 
• This project will earn you two summative grades (the fully realized scene recorded on    video and a written summary of your project). You will also get a third grade for your individual contribution to the project in addition to a grade that reflect the collaborative group work.
• Each person in your group will have a role on screen
• You will use sets, either ready-made or homemade, costumes, and props.
• You will videotape your group’s finalized performance of the scene.
• You will email the video presentation to the teacher the night before the due date: Thursday, June 6, 2013. We will watch your video presentation on June 6/7.

Steps in Order to Complete the Embedded Assessment

Step One: The week of May 13-17

1. Meet in your group. Re-read the scene(s) which you have been assigned to act out. Assign the speaking roles of characters to members in your group.
2. Decide on how you wish to present this particular scene(s). This will be your interpretation of Shakespeare’s play.

• Will you try to adhere to what is believed to be the original, that is, something akin to Zeffirelli’s portrayal of the play. That would mean that you would have to re-create a medieval setting and costumes.
• What changes are you going to make? Before you make any decisions about this make sure that the teacher is aware of the changes. 

1. Write a proposal of what you intend to do. Create a detailed storyboard with written captioning to both review the Act and to visualize how the scene might look in your interpretation of it. You will hand this in for approval.
2. Begin the collaborative group work by re-reading the Act you have been assigned.
3. If you are not going to use the original language of the play, you will need to create an original script that stays true to the events and situation.
4. As another written description, you will need to identify in the dramaturge’s, director’s, actor’s, and cinematographer’s notebook the costumes, props, and setting, and you will need a description of how you plan to create these. How would these things connect with the actor, director or dramaturge?
5. The script, its delivery, the props, setting, and costumes will all need to be in a polished state for a final videotaping. This is not to be a rushed piece of work but something that reflects what you have learned this year. What are cinematic techniques, story elements, and stylistic devices? How can storyboarding, group work, graphic organizers, visualizing, and scripting all come together to make a polished play production?

All the written plans described above, for this production, will need to be turned in by May 17, as time will be given in class for the collaborative process. 

Step 2: Rehearsals---The week of May 20-24

1. Start rehearsing your act together. Memorize the lines, as this will make your portrayal more convincing. You are responsible for only a scene or two rather than a whole act. You might want to break the performance up if its a long scene; this would be helpful when you are videotaping it. Do not make your recording choppy; it should be polished and seamless.
2. The dramaturge will need to research things like costumes, setting, and props. Where will your unique interpretation be set. Do research to include in your script as stage directions/setting. The dramaturge will record their findings in their notebook. The more detail the better the project over all. The detailed work will receive the highest marks.
3. Your director will need to start locating the props, costumes, and things for the setting. You need to divide these responsibilities among group members. the director will record in his notebook how these things were accomplished. You will need to have setting outside the English classroom. You might have settings off campus; that means you might meet with your group outside of school.
4. Practice the play as a group. Don’t think you will learn your lines and let others be responsible for getting their lines memorized. The lack of rehearsal will be made apparent in the videotape.

Step 3: Videotaping---The week of May 27-31

1. Getting this done ahead of schedule is not a bad thing.
2. Videotape. You may have to try this a few times before you achieve your best work.
3. This should be a polished production, and we will all know how much work was devoted to this final project when we view it on June 6/7.
4. Burn this on a CD for the teacher.

What is to be handed in:

1. Videotaped scene(s) on a CD
2. Director’s Notebook
3. Dramaturge’s Notebook
4. Actor’s Notebook
5. Cinematographer’s Notebook
6. Meeting Logs
7. Peer Assessment

Meeting Log

Answer the following questions ( these should be part of the dramaturge’s notebook):

Meeting Date:______________________

Meeting Place:______________________

a. Who was present?

b.  What was the goal of today’ meeting?

c. What was accomplished at today’s meeting?

d. What were some of the challenges that the group was met with?

e. What was the solution?

f. What do we plan to accomplish at our next meeting?

g. Where are we with this project?

Notes:

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

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You might reproduce this and make 3-holes in it to keep it in a 3-ring binder for safe keeping. Do this with all the notebook pages for your group.

Director’s Notebook ( You are to respond in writing to and take notes about the issues associated with costumes, setting, and props.

As we saw with Baz Luhrmann and Franco Zeffirelli, there are many decisions that you, as the director, will make ( of course, always in collaboration with all of your group members. 

Document how your group will interpret the scene(s) you have chosen, document the research you use to decide upon a time period and culture you present. You must do research, so you will need to create a bibliography of your sources. We have, this year, gone over how you might make a works cited entry for an internet information source. Use that. You can review the form online on the blog or google search the MLA documentation standards for this.

a. What is the time period and culture you will use to present your scene(s)?

b. What specifically will you use from the time period and culture that will make it obvious to your audience?

c. How do your choices in some way enhance the scene(s) from Romeo and Juliet?

d.What are your sources for the choices you made in your version of the scene(s)?

............................................................................................................................................ 

Actor’s Notebook. 

The content of this notebook will be reporting the process by which the group learns their lines and delivers them.

Because you choose costumes, props, and setting from a particular time period and culture, you will undoubtedly change the language of the play. The process of re-creating the script will be a subject to be recorded in the “Actor’s Notebook.” Also, record decisions about stage directions and other cues for the actors.  

  

a.In re-creating the language of the play, have you preserved the metaphors, inverted syntax, metaphors and poetic language that we have spent time discussing this term?

b.What are some of the specific changes that you have made that you are especially proud of as a group?

c. What are some of the phrases or wording that are indicative of the time period you chose?

d. What word choice is indicative of the setting? Are these Americans speaking or are they, more specifically, Mainers? or someone else? What makes this so?