Dear year 9 pupil,
This booklet includes all the activities which will help you to complete
your task on Shakespeare. Complete the tasks in order and finish by
completing the self-assessment section to help you to think about your
progress and attainment.
Your English teacher will be available during lunchtimes this week to
give you help if you need it.
Remember to plan your time wisely. This should be completed in 3
hours over the next two weeks.
Dear Parent/Guardian,
This Independent Study Assignment should take a maximum of 3
hours to complete; if your child takes much longer than this, please let us
know using the parental comment section at the end. Your comments help
us to plan our next assignment. Just like preparation for controlled
assessments in GCSE years, this work should not be left until the last
minute. Please help your child to plan their time and to use the study
timetable above.
Your child’s English teacher will be available during lunchtime of
this week to offer help and support if needed. The library is available for
during lunchtimes to support in terms of research and access to
computers.
The English Department
You have been asked to create a theatre programme for a new production
of The Tempest. The programmes will sell for £6.00 each, so they will
need to be of excellent quality, full of interesting, useful information and
pictures. You will need to complete several tasks to create the
programme.
You may need to do research in order to be able to complete the tasks.
Be careful that you do not simply copy and paste your findings. Your
research should inform your work, but the final product should be in your
own words.
Task One – Show your knowledge!
Provide some introductory information for a person seeing The Tempest
for the first time. This should include a list of the major characters with
a brief summary of who they are. The summary need only be two or three
sentences long. You should also write a synopsis of the play, explaining the
key events that occur in each of the five acts.
Task Two – Stagecraft
Stagecraft is anything to do with the performance of a play, so it might
include the setting, lighting, costumes, actions, or sound effects. The
features of stagecraft create an overall effect on the audience and may
be the difference between an exciting, captivating production and a
boring one. Choose one of the following tasks to demonstrate your
understanding of stagecraft.
1. Create a set design for the island. Include information about
lighting, props, backgrounds, and any special effects, such as a
rotating stage. Try and be as unusual and creative as possible.
Remember to include detailed labels to make it easy to understand.
You may present this any way you like.
2. Design costumes for three of the characters. Think carefully about
the time period in which you are setting your production. Is it set
in Shakespeare’s time? Are you doing a modern, updated version?
Are you intending to emphasise the fantastical nature of the play?
Use your costumes to present this information. Remember to
include detailed labels to explain how particular details of the
costumes express information about the characters, their
personality and their role in the play.
Task 3 – Analysis
Act 1, Scene 1 of The Tempest is full of drama and tension. However,
Shakespeare has not provided many stage directions, so you should show
your audience how you knew that this scene should be dramatic. Read the
first scene below. Highlight or underline any words which create a feeling
of drama or tension.
Act 1, Scene 1
On a ship at sea: a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.
Enter a Master and a Boatswain
MASTER
Boatswain!
BOATSWAIN
Here, master: what cheer?
MASTER
Good, speak to the mariners: fall to't, yarely,
or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.
Exit
Enter Mariners
BOATSWAIN
Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts!
yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to the
master's whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy wind,
if room enough!
Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and
others
ALONSO
Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master?
Play the men.
BOATSWAIN
I pray now, keep below.
ANTONIO
Where is the master, boatswain?
BOATSWAIN
Do you not hear him? You mar our labour: keep your
cabins: you do assist the storm.
GONZALO
Nay, good, be patient.
BOATSWAIN
When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers
for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble us not.
GONZALO
Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard.
BOATSWAIN
None that I more love than myself. You are a
counsellor; if you can command these elements to
silence, and work the peace of the present, we will
not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you
cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make
yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of
the hour, if it so hap. Cheerly, good hearts! Out
of our way, I say.
Exit
GONZALO
I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he
hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is
perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his
hanging: make the rope of his destiny our cable,
for our own doth little advantage. If he be not
born to be hanged, our case is miserable.
Exeunt
Re-enter Boatswain
BOATSWAIN
Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower! Bring
her to try with main-course.
A cry within
A plague upon this howling! they are louder than
the weather or our office.
Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO
Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give o'er
and drown? Have you a mind to sink?
SEBASTIAN
A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous,
incharitable dog!
BOATSWAIN
Work you then.
ANTONIO
Hang, cur! hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker!
We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.
GONZALO
I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were
no stronger than a nutshell and as leaky as an
unstanched wench.
BOATSWAIN
Lay her a-hold, a-hold! set her two courses off to
sea again; lay her off.
Enter Mariners wet
Mariners
All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!
BOATSWAIN
What, must our mouths be cold?
GONZALO
The king and prince at prayers! let's assist them,
For our case is as theirs.
SEBASTIAN
I'm out of patience.
ANTONIO
We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards:
This wide-chapp'd rascal--would thou mightst lie drowning
The washing of ten tides!
GONZALO
He'll be hang'd yet,
Though every drop of water swear against it
And gape at widest to glut him.
A confused noise within: 'Mercy on us!'-- 'We split, we split!'--'Farewell,
my wife and children!'-- 'Farewell, brother!'--'We split, we split, we
split!'
ANTONIO
Let's all sink with the king.
SEBASTIAN
Let's take leave of him.
Exeunt ANTONIO and SEBASTIAN
GONZALO
Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an
acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any
thing. The wills above be done! but I would fain
die a dry death.
Exeunt
Use the table below to show your understanding of how Shakespeare
creates drama and tension in Act 1, Scene 1. You might consider the use
of repeated phrases, insults, stage directions or pathetic fallacy. The
first point has been provided for you.
Point
Drama and tension is
created by the
strength of the storm.
Evidence
Explanation
Task 4 – Writing in Role
To entertain the audience during the interval, you have been asked to
include an imaginative, lively piece of writing as though you are one of the
main characters. Write a diary entry as Caliban, considering the following
points:

What are your feelings about Prospero and his control of the
island?

Do you have any regrets about your actions towards
Miranda?

What would you like to happen on the island?