ntimate
Pre-Show Preparation Activities
Intimate Apparel Resource Guide
Table of Contents
COMMON CORE & NJ CORE STANDARDS
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ABOUT LYNN NOTTAGE
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WEBSITE BASICS
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READING INTIMATE APPAREL
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READING COMPREHENSION
“Humans of New York”
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SCENE STUDY INTIMATE APPAREL
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CREATIVE WRITING PORTRAITURE ACTIVITY
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DRAMATIC STRUCTURE DISCUSSION
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IN CONTEXT RESEARCH ACTIVITY
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A THEATRE REVIEWER PREPARES
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APPENDIX
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Common Core Curriculum & NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards
WEBSITE BASICS Intimate Apparel
8.1 Educational Technology: All students will use digital tools to access, manage, evaluate, and synthesize
information in order to solve problems individually and collaborate to create and communicate knowledge.
• Strand C: Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to
communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute
to the learning of others.
• Strand E: Research and Information Fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use
information.
READING Intimate Apparel
NJSLSA.R2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key
supporting details and ideas.
NJSLSA.R10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently
with scaffolding as needed.
READING COMPREHENSION- ‘Humans Of New York’
NJLSA.R1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences and relevant connections from it: cite textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
NJSLSA.R3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
NJSLSA.R10.Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently with
scaffolding as needed.
RI.11-12.1. Accurately cite strong and thorough textual evidence, (e.g., via discussion, written response, etc.), to
support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferentially, including determining where the text leaves
matters uncertain.
SCENE STUDY Intimate Apparel
NCAAS. Performing Presenting. Producing Anchor #6. Convey meaning through the presentation of Artistic Work.
NCAAS. Responding Anchor Standard #7. Percieve and Analyze Artistic Work
NCAAS. Responding Anchor Standard #8. Interpret Intent and Meaning in Artistic Work.
NJSLSA.R3. Analyze how and why individuals, events and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
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Common Core Curriculum & NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards
CREATIVE WRITING PORTRAITURE ACTIVITY
NCAAS. Responding Anchor Standard #7 Percieve and Analyze Artistic Work
NCAAS. Responding Anchor Standard #8 Interpret Intent and Meaning in Artistic Work
NCAAS. Connecting Anchor Standard #10 Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
NJSLSA.W3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well
chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
NJSLSA.SS4. Consider multiple perspectives, value diversity, and promote cultural understanding.
NJSLSA.SS5. Appreciate the global dynamics between people, places, and resources.
DRAMATIC STRUCTURE DISCUSSION
NJSLSA.R2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key
supporting details and ideas.
NJSLSA.R10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently
IN CONTEXT RESEARCH ACTIVITY
NJSLSA.W7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects, utilizing an inquiry-based research
process, based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
NJSLSA.W8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy
of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
W.11-12.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information
clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
NJSLSA.SL4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
NJSLSA.SL5. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance
understanding of presentations.
A THEATER REVIEWER PREPARES
NCAAS. Responding Anchor Standard #7. Perceive and Analyze Artistic Work
NCAAS.Responding Anchor Standard #8. Interpret Intent and Meaning in Artistic Work
NJSLSA.R3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
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ABOUT: Lynn Nottage
Lynn Nottage is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and screenwriter. Her plays have been produced widely
throughout the United States and the world. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Lynn attended Brown University
and the Yale School of Drama, and is an associate professor in the Theatre department at Columbia School of the
Arts. Her 12 plays, 5 anthologies, and 2 essays are just a snapshot of her amazing career. She has recieved the
Award of Merit Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, for “an outstanding playwright for her body of
work”, the 2016 PEN/ Laura Pels award as Master American Dramatist, a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and most
recently her second Pulitzer for Drama. Her first for her play Ruined (2009) and her second for her play Sweat (2017).
Lynn is the first woman to ever recieve two Pulitzer Prizes in the drama cateogory.
WEBSITE BASICS
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Intimate Apparel Character Profiles
Intimate Apparel Synopsis
ARTICLE: Emily Mann on Intimate Apparel
VIDEO: Behind the Scenes with Director Jade King Carroll
PHOTOS: Production Images
ARTICLE: “Female Creative Team”
ARTICLE: “Humans Of New York”
ARTICLE: “Moving On-The Great Migration of the 20th
Century”
After engaging with the resource materials found online, ask students to journal about their reactions to the
material they encountered with the following prompt:
Did anything you read or see particularly pique your interest in the play? Explain your response.
In small groups or as a class discuss your responses. Possible follow up questions might include:
• What incident, idea, or issue in the play most engages or concerns you intellectually? Emotionally?
• Would you have liked to have lived at the turn of the 20th century? Why or why not?
• Intimate Apparel was written in honor of the lives of Lynn Nottage’s great grandparents Ethel and
George. Do you know the story of your great grandparents? If you were to tell the story of your great
grandparents, what narrative would you highlight?
• During Intimate Apparel we watch the character of Esther fall in love with George after only having met
him through letters. Do you believe letter writing still has power as a form of communication in the 21st
century? Why or why not?
• Lynn Nottage has said that she strives “to replace judgement with curiosity” when she’s writing a
play. How does Lynn’s artistic mantra resonate with you? How might the world be different it everyone
tried to live their lives by “replacing judgement with curiosity?”
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Reading Intimate Apparel
One of the most enriching ways to prepare for the production of McCarter’s Intimate Apparel ––if time permits–– is
by having your students read Lynn Nottage’s play. Reading the play in advance will give you and your students
the opportunity to experience the playwrights craft on the page and allows for both dramatrurgical and thematic /
contextual discussion before you come to the theatre. Check out Intimate Apparel at your local library or purchase it
from the Dramatists Play Service website HERE and on Amazon HERE.
Reading Comprehension:
“Humans of New York”
To further contextualize the story of Intimate Apparel have your students read the article “Humans of New York” by
Anna Morton, found in the APPENDIX. After reading it aloud as a class or independently, utilize the article as
practice for reading comprehension of informational texts via the core curriculum aligned READING QUESTIONS
found in the APPENDIX.
Scene Study Intimate Apparel
Getting a play up on its feet, embodying a character, and experimenting with his or her language and voice is an
excellent way for students to personally experience the playwright’s craft and explore the world and characters of
a play before attending the performance. Have your students study the excerpted dramatic moments from Intimate
Apparel suggested below.The play can be purchased from The Dramatists Play Service website HERE or from
Amazon HERE.
Suggested Scene Excerpts:
Scene 1- Start at Mrs. Dickson’s line, “Don’t be fresh, Lionel” End at Mrs. Dickson’s line, “I’ll do not such thing. You can bring it down yourself.”
Scene 4- Start at Esther’s line, “I been knocking for ages...” End at Mayme’s line “It sound to me like you a bit sweet on him.”
Scene 5- Start at Mrs. Dickson’s line,“I don’t trust him.” End at Mrs. Dickson’s line, “You’ll thank me.”
1. First, if you haven’t already, share the articles and interviews included on McCarter’s Intimate Apparel website
with your students including the CHARACTER PROFILES and SYNOPSIS. You might choose to read the
excerpted scenes together as a class first for comprehension and to get a sense of the characters. (Reading
in the round and alternating lines will give each student a chance to try out the speech and voices of different
characters). Some early 20th century phrases, or concepts may need to be defined or explained for students.
2. Next, break up your class into scene study groups. Groups should read their scene aloud together once before getting up to stage it (i.e. embodying characters and adding movement/gesture) to get a sense of the
characters and the scene overall.
*Note for young performers: Rather than assuming through performance an attitude about a
characters age, race, gender, class, dialect, etc., or “playing at” these aspects of the character’s
makeup, professional actors avoid caricature and stereotype by attempting to “find themselves” in the character. According to actor Meryl Streep,“Acting is not about being someone different. It’s finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there.” The result is a truthful, authentic portrayl.
3. Student-actors should prepare/rehearse their scene for a script-in-hand sharing for the class. Encourage
students to incorporate movement and gestures to their staging.
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Scene Study Intimate Apparel [Cont.]
4. Following scene performances, lead students in a discussion of their experience rehearsing and performing their dramatic moment from Intimate Apparel questions might include:
• What are the pleasures and challenges of performing a scene that takes place in the early 20th century?
• What insights, if any, regarding the play or the characters did you get from staging the scene and playing
the characters?
• What about your character felt real and/or relatable to you in the acting of him or her? Were there other
characters you found relatable? Why or why not?
• Was there any moment that felt strange, awkward, or especially challenging about bringing your
character to life? Explain your experience.
• Was there a moment that felt espcially compelling, exciting, or fun to bring to life? Explain your reaction.
• Compare and contrast speaking versus hearing the text aloud rather than reading the text silently to
yourself. What, if anything, do you notice?
Creative Writing Activity: Preserving our Heritage
“If my family hadn’t preserved our stories, and history certainly had not, then who would?”
This quotation is the question that playwright Lynn Nottage asked herself when she discovered an old passport
photo of her great grandmother, a—barbadian seamstress—had no one in her family to seek information about
her heritage. Inspired by this photo, Lynn set out on her new artistic mission “to tell the stories of forgotten
people or ‘memoir-less’ people. Those whose lives did not make it into the records through which we, as
Americans, chronicle the history of our country.”
Through the activity outlined students will have the opportunity to either preserve their own stories and family
history or create a story for a “memoir-less” person.
Preserving Your Story
For students with easy access to old family photos we encourage them to look through old photo albums with
a parent or grandparent to learn the lives of people in their families generations before them. Once
students have found a photo they find engaging, make a photo copy of it for them to reference while they
answer the prompting questions on the next page.
Creating A New Story
For students who don’t have easy access to old family photo’s, encourage them to find a picture on Humans of
New York, a blog dedicated to providing “a worldwide audience with daily glimpses into the lives of strangers
on the streets of New York City,” Once students have found a photo they find engaging, make a photo copy of
for them to reference while answering the prompting questions on the next page.
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Creative Writing Activity: Preserving our Heritage [Cont.]
Prompting Questions
• What is this person’s name?
• What is this person’s age?
• What is this person’s environment? (Where do they live? What does it look like? Sound like? Smell like?
Who are their neighbors?)
• What is this person’s secret wish? (What do they want more than anything in the world?)
• What is this person’s biggest fear? (Of what are they most afraid?)
• What is this person struggling with? (What conflict are they trying to overcome?)
• What is this person’s job?
• Who is this person’s best friend?
• If this person’s best friend had to describe them in 3 adjectives, what adjectives would they say?
• If this person could change one thing about themselves, what would it be?
• What does this person love most about themselves?
After students reflect on the prompting questions, encourage them to generate a creative response using
whatever writing form they feel most adequately represents their voice and vision. Creative writing options for
students might use include: writing a poem, writing a song, drawing a cartoon/storyboard, making a video/film,
crafting a first person narrative from this person’s point of view, or sketching a scene between this person and
someone in the student’s family.
Finally, have students share their creative responses with members of their class. Each student show presenting
their image and explaining why they found their photo engaging and felt as if this person’s story deserved to be told.
Dramatic Structure Discussion
Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel is an excellent example of a play with solid traditional dramatic structure.
In discussing what makes Intimate Apparel such a strongly written and structured play, we encourage you to have
students reference the ‘Dramatic Terms and Concept Sheet’ in the APPENDIX before seeing the play in
performance, so they can listen and look out for these dramaturgical elements.
If you are able to work in a reading of Intimate Apparel before seeing the play in performance, we encourage
students to engage in small group discussion with these additional questions about dramatic structure.
• Who is the central character of the play and what would you say is that character’s overarching action
• What is the inciting action of the play?
• What would you say is the dramatic question of Intimate Apparel?
• Did you experience any shifts in perception in the course of Intimate Apparel? Explain your response.
• By what external conflicts is the central character in Intimate Apparel confronted? Does that character
experience any internal conflicts in the course of the play? Explain your response.
• What is George’s motivation in sending letters to Esther? What tactics does he use to achieve his
objective?
• Describe the stakes at play in Intimate Apparel. What did Esther have to lose/gain?
• What did you notice about the final image of Act 1 and what did that image say to you? What about the
final image of the play? What did that say to you and with what feeling or thought were you left at the end
of the play?
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In Context: Intimate Apparel
To prepare your students for Intimate Apparel and to deepen
their level of understanding and appreciation for the life, work,
and cultural influence of Lynn Nottage, have your students
research, either in groups or individually, the following topics:
Early 1900’s America
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The Guilded Age and Progressive Era
Economic/Political Status
Theodore Roosevelt
Race Relations in NYC (focus on Black and Jewish )
The Great Migration
• Causes
• Difference in Rural/ Urban America
• Effects
Demographic Changes
Discrimination and Working Conditions
Integration vs Segreagation
The Panama Canal
• U.S. and French Relations
• Time Span
• Laborers
Ragtime Music
• Musical Influences
• Syncopation of Rythm
• Ernest Hogan
• Maple Leaf Rag/The Entertainer
Take it a Step Further
Image Board for Intimate Apparel
Along with being a renowned director, Jade King Carroll is also a dramaturg. Dramaturgs provide literary, historical, cultural, and artistic insight to the work, and they often work alongside directors and playwrights to analyze the
text, and compile research for the creative team to reference. Jade’s dramaturgical process includes the creation
of what is referred to as an ‘image board’. These boards include photographs, statistics, facts, and explanations
of references in the play, quotes from the playwright and costume research. They are created to share with the
company of actors and the creative team during the rehearsal process to steep them in the world and ideas of the
play and its characters.
After students compile their rearsearch, encourage them to take it a step further and create image boards to
share with the class to present their findings.
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A Theatre Reviewer Prepares
A theater critic or reviewer is essentially a “professional audience member,” whose job is to report the news, in
detail, of a play’s production and performance through active and descriptive language for a target audience of
readers (e.g., their peers, their community, or those interested in the Arts). To prepare your students to write an
accurate, insightful and compelling theater review following their attendance at the performance of Lynn
Nottage’s Intimate Apparel ,prime them for the task by discussing in advance the three basic elements of a theatrical review: reportage, analysis, and judgment.
• REPORTAGE is concerned with the basic information of the production, or the journalist’s “four w’s”
(i.e., who, what, where, when), as well as the elements of production, which include the text, setting,
costumes, lighting, sound, acting and directing (see the Theater Reviewer’s Checklist). When
reporting upon these observable phenomena of production, the reviewer’s approach should be factual,
descriptive and objective; any reference to quality or effectiveness should be reserved for the analysis
section of the review.
• ANALYSIS is when the theater reviewer segues into the realm of the subjective and attempts to interpret
the artistic choices made by the director and designers and the effectiveness of these choices; specific
moments, ideas and images from the production are considered in the analysis.
• JUDGEMENT involves the reviewer’s opinion as to whether the director’s and designers’ intentions were
realized, and if their collaborative, artistic endeavor was ultimately a worthwhile one. Theater reviewers
always back up their opinions with reasons, evidence, and details. dfffffnngngngngngngngngngRemind your students that the goal of a theater reviewer is “to see accurately, describe fully, think clearly, and
then (and only then) to judge fairly the merits of the work” (Thaiss and Davis, Writing for the Theatre, 1999).
Proper analytical preparation before the show and active listening and viewing during will result in the effective
writing and crafting of their reviews.
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Appendix
Quincy Tyler Bernstine as Esther. Photograph by Matt Pilsner
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Humans of New York, C. 1905
[African American Woman
three-quarter length portrait,
standing, facing front, doing laundry
at wash tub, in Washington, D.C.
or New York]. Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Division
[LC-USZ62-118922].
Among the sky-scrapers of lower
Broadway, New York. C.H. Graves,
Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division
[LC-USZ62-16333].
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Playwright Lynn Nottage has spoken and written at length about her self-proclaimed artistic mission: to tell the
stories of forgotten people, those whose lives did not make it into the records through which we, as Americans,
chronicle the history of our country. Intimate Apparel reflects this mission and was inspired by a photograph of
Nottage’s great-grandmother, a Barbadian seamstress living in New York City in the early Twentieth Century. While
researching this play, Nottage spent time in the New York Public Library where she found thorough documentation
of prominent cultural and political African Americans of the day—but a dearth of information on regular people,
people like her great-grandmother. In “Lives Rescued from Silence,” a 2003 article Nottage wrote about Intimate
Apparel for the Los Angeles Times, she says of these individuals, “They were memoir-less people, known solely
as names on census forms and death certificates. Their complicated lives were excluded from most vital historic
records.”
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New York City at the turn of the century was full of such “memoir-less people.” It was a veritable melting pot of
ethnicities and social backgrounds, as exemplified by the diversity of characters in Intimate Apparel. The years
between Reconstruction—1865 to 1877—and the Great Migration—underway by 1910—formed a period of relative
stability in race relations in Northern cities. During this time, black men and women—black women, in particular—
had success finding work in white homes as domestic laborers, and in entrepreneurial livelihoods serving white
clientele. They served as cooks, laundresses, tailors, and maids, and assumed other household roles. In these
positions, black women found themselves able to move through spaces and neighborhoods to which they
previously did not have access. Black men, in contrast, had a more difficult time finding steady labor because
their work was often seasonal; thus, prior to 1900, black men migrated to New York in slightly fewer numbers than
black women. As business relationships developed between black laborers and their white employers, interactions
between people of different classes, races, and backgrounds became a greater part of city life. Scholar Adrienne
Macki Braconi refers to the characters in Intimate Apparel as “border crossers” who illustrate this type of crosscultural interaction and spatial transgression.
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In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the African American population of New York City was concentrated in a
neighborhood known as the Tenderloin, which fell generally between 23rd and 42nd streets along Eighth and Ninth
Avenues. Additionally, the Tenderloin was considered to be New York City’s red light district, known for its brothels,
casinos, nightclubs, and rampant crime. The black population of New York City continued to move further uptown
as the years went by, making room for their influx of European immigrants to the city.
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With the opening of Ellis Island in 1892, scores of European immigrants settled in New York City and race
relations started to shift. Between 1900 and 1915, 15 million immigrants came to New York City from Germany,
Ireland, Italy, Greece, Poland, and Russia, among other places. The Lower East Side became home to a
community of Eastern European Jewish immigrants; they packed into tenement buildings and often lived and
worked out of cramped apartments. As Europeans began to populate the city, they became the preferred workers
in the domestic and entrepreneurial positions previously held by black Americans and black immigrants. Black
workers were pushed out of these occupations, and in turn European immigrants began to develop relationships
with white Americans that further removed men and women of color from future economic opportunities in this
country.
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The New York that Nottage shows in Intimate Apparel, the New York in which her characters live and move, is an
overlooked slice of the city’s history—but a recognizable predecessor of modern New York City all the same. In A
Critical Companion to Lynn Nottage, Scott C. Knowles writes that Nottage’s work “creates an artistic intervention
in the space between official narratives and her subjects’ own embodied experiences.” It is through this “artistic
intervention” that she attempts to fill in the missing records in our country’s story, and to combat the repercussions
of these absences which are still being felt today.
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Humans of New York, C. 1905
Reading Comprehension Questions
Lines 1-10
• What is playwright Lynn Nottage’s self proclaimed artistic mission?
• What artifact inspired Nottage to write Intimate Apparel?
• Where did Nottage go to collect research on prominent African Americans at the
turn of the century?
• What is the name of the article Nottage wrote for the Los Angeles Times?
Lines 11-23
• Define what Nottage means when she says “memoir-less” people.
• Define the term “melting pot.”
• Between what two era’s did the United States have a period of relatively stable race relations in
America?
• In what type of setting did black women have the most success finding work? What were the type
of jobs they tended to perform?
• Why did black men have a harder time finding steady work? How did this impact the demographic
of black men in NYC?
• Define the term “border-crosser”.
Lines 24-37
• What caused race relations to start shifting in 1892?
• What neighborhood became a haven for Eastern Europeans?
• What happened to black workers with the influx of Eastern Europeans?
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Dramatic Terms and Concepts
Given Circumstances
The facts of the world of the play, including the specific conditions of place and time, details on all that has happened before the action of the play begins, as well as information on the characters’ lives in the past and their relationship(s) to one another
Character Voice
How the character speaks in terms of vocal traits, ticks, patterns, vocabulary, and accents (which say much about who a character is); an amalgamation of a character’s historical self, idiosyncratic quirks, and emotional state that is expressed verbally; playwrights work to present a distinct and consistent voice for each character
Action
“What a character wants”; the first essential principle of playwriting; sometimes referred to as objective by actors
Motivation
Why the character wants what s/he wants; Every character action/want has a motivation
Subtext
The “real reason” why the character wants what s/he wants; also refers to the meaning underneath what the characters say or do; not every character action/want has a subtext
Tactics
An acting term that refers to the individual ploys or things that a character does or says to achieve his or her action/want
Conflict
“That which stands in the way of what a character wants”; the heart and soul of drama; also referred to as obstacle
External Conflict
An obstacle presented by something outside of the character, typically another character or an inanimate object
Internal Conflict
This is the case when two wants occur within the same character and create ambivalence, confusion, or conflicted feelings
Stakes
What the character has to gain or lose; note that there is no right or wrong when it comes to stakes, but it is more about good choices or better ones (or worse ones)
High Stakes
Much to lose or gain; in this sort of situation, a character thinks, “If I don’t get what I want — if I don’t overcome this obstacle I’ll die or lose everything I’ve ever had or wanted” or “If I do overcome it, I’ll live, I’ll get the person I love, and I’ll be rich!”
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Dramatic Terms and Concepts
Low Stakes
Not so much to lose; a character with low stakes thinks, “If I don’t overcome this obstacle then my life goes on…and I’m only out fifty cents,” or “If I do overcome it then I might get a peck on the cheek from someone I don’t really like anyways”
Dramatic Question
A question that the play raises in the minds of the audience and begs to be answered, such as “What will happen?” “Who will win?” “Will Romeo and Juliet get together?” “Will Hamlet avenge his father’s death?”; when the major dramatic question is answered the play is typically over
Inciting Action
The incident which introduces the conflict of the play; it sets the plot in motion and elicits the central or major “dramatic question”
Shift in perception or perception shift
A moment in which the audience’s belief or understanding of something in the play changes due to a twist in plot or an unexpected revelation
Climax
The highest point of crisis or tension in the action or plot of scene or play; the play’s turning point
Resolution
The point in the play, following the climax, in which the major conflict is resolved and the dramatic question is
answered; in some plays the resolution ties up all loose ends of the story
Journey of the play
Every play (regardless of length) takes its central character (and the audience) on a journey; at the start of the play the character is, thinks, believes, or behaves one way and through the course of the play (and its action, conflict, climax, and resolution) s/he goes through a transformation or change and exists, thinks, believes, or behaves in a new or different way
Final Image
This is the last visual image that the audience is left with as the lights face (or the curtain comes down) on the play; the final image is often a metaphorical or symbolic commentary upon what has come before it
Fourth Wall
A theatrical convention based upon the idea that characters on stage are separated from the audience by an invisible “forth wall,” which fosters the illusion that what is happening on stage is real, although separate from the audience’s immediate reality; “breaking the fourth wall” occurs when the presence of the audience is acknowledged in some way the characters on stage
Direct Address
This occurs when an actor/character addresses the audience directly from within the context of the play
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Theater Reviewer’s Checklist
Adapted from Christopher Thaiss’ and Rick Davis’ Writing for
the Theatre (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999), p. 45.
Use this form as an aid to prompt your memory and heighten your awareness before the play and after it when you sit down to write.
Production:
Date of Production:
Playwright:
Venue:
McCarter Theatre
Key √
Element
TEXT
Notes
Plot
Major characters
Main ideas/themes
Effectiveness of language
Other textual elements
Key √
Element
SETTING
Notes
Physical appearance
Materials
Style
Color
Relationship to theater’s architecture
Relationship to world of the play
Other scenic elements
Key √
Element
COSTUMES
Choice of period
Color
Materials
Style
Relationship to characters of the play
Other costume elements
Notes
Key √
Element
LIGHTING
Notes
Atmosphere created
Color choices
Style
Enhancement of/detraction from mood
Other lighting elements
Key √
Element
SOUND
Notes
Function of effects or musical score
Specific effects that support or compete with
action of play
Other sonic elements
Key √
Element
ACTING
Notes
Clarity of characterization
Vocal and physical work
Notable moments in performance
Sense of ensemble playing/acting
Other acting elements
Key √
Element
DIRECTING
Clarity of storytelling
Casting choices
Tempo and rhythm of performance
Composition of stage images
Other directorial elements
Notes