The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald
An Educational Resource Prepared for Richmond Civic Theatre
By the Education and Outreach Committee
THE PLAY
CAST OF CHARACTERS
JAY GATSBY - a Romantic Idealist, with a disarming smile
DAISY BUCHANAN - Southern, with a voice that sounds like
money
NICK CARRAWAY - Midwestern, with a kind face and gentle
manner
MYRTLE WILSON - Tom's Girlfriend, New York, fleshy
and sensual
GEORGE WILSON - Myrtle's Husband, New York,
spiritless and anemic
MEYER WOLFSHIEM/MR.
TOM BUCHANAN - Daisy's Husband, with a powerful cruel body
MCKEE/COP/DANCER
JORDAN BAKER - Daisy's Friend, with an athletic almost
masculine body
MRS. MCKEE/MRS. MICHAELIS/DANCER
Time and Place: Summer, 1922, Long Island, New York
Setting: A landscape of sea and sky.
The action of the play is fluid. Set pieces and furniture, like the people, appear and disappear, impressionistic, like a
fairy tale.
The weathered, partially-destroyed billboard of the faceless Dr. T.J. Eckleburg and his gigantic eyes framed by a pair
of enormous spectacles passes judgment on the action of the play. Throughout, the eyes change color.
This is a Fable - of America, of the Jazz Age, of enchantment and illusions, of a world where love and dreams are
pursued and betrayed.
SEEING THE PLAY ON STAGE: THEATRICAL CONVENTIONS
The distinctive feature of drama, compared to other forms of literature, is that drama is written to be performed; a drama’s
audience witnesses the story rather than reading it. To create the drama, we follow certain “conventions,” the traditions or
rules that govern how a stage-play works:
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Actors pretend to be characters in the story.
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They perform words and actions that they have rehearsed for weeks, pretending all is happening for the first time.
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The audience members watch quietly as the play is performed, pretending that they are secretly witnessing the
lives of these characters.
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Scenery, costumes, theatrical lighting, and other effects are used to create the setting.
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1. As you watch RCT’s production of The Great Gatsby, identify characters whose behavior on stage seems very “real” to
you. (Maybe you almost forget you are watching an actor and believe this person’s words and actions are authentic.) After
you’ve seen the play…
A. Describe some moments in the play when the characters really seem to like and care about each other.
B.
Choose three characters from the play. Analyze what each person especially wants. (Sometimes in acting
classes, this wish is called the character’s “spine”; in English class we might call it the “motivation.”)
THE PLAYWRIGHT
Simon Levy is the Producing Director for the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles where he's been a
resident playwright, director, and producer since 1993. His stage adaptation of The Great
Gatsby, a Finalist for the PEN Literary Award in Drama, completes his Fitzgerald Trilogy, which
includes Tender is the Night (Winner of the PEN Literary Award in Drama) and The Last
Tycoon (winner of numerous awards and nominated for the prestigious Los Angeles Drama
Critics Circle Ted Schmitt Award for Original Play). He's currently writing a film, The Wedding
Dress, for Daniel Wilson Prods . , and creating the book for a new musical. His stage adaptation
of Eliot Weinberger’s celebrated article, What I Heard About Iraq, has been produced worldwide,
including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (where it won the Fringe First Award); the Adelaide
Fringe Festival (where it won the Fringe Award); was produced by BBC Radio; and received a
30-city UK tour culminating in London. He was recently honored with the Los Angeles Drama
Critics Circle Milton Katselas Lifetime Achievement Award in Directing. He is the author of other
plays, short stories and poems... and his directing and producing credits, along with his awards,
are numerous. For more information, please visit www.simonlevy.com.
THE AUTHOR
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American author of novels
and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is
widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member
of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and
Damned, Tender is the Night and his most famous, The Great Gatsby. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Love of the
Last Tycoon, was published posthumously. Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that treat themes of youth
and promise along with despair and age. - Wikipedia
Links of Interest
F. Scott Fitzgerald Society
http://www.fscottfitzgeraldsociety.org/
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum
http://www.fitzgeraldmuseum.net/
F. Scott Fitzgerald Quotes
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald
THE NOVEL
Reading Level 8.1
AR: 9.1
Lexile: 1070
The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is widely considered to be F. Scott Fitzergerald's greatest novel. It is also considered
a seminal work on the fallibility of the American dream. It focuses on a young man, Jay Gatsby, who, after falling in love with
a woman from the social elite, makes a lot of money in an effort to win her love. She marries a man from her own social
strata and he dies disillusioned with the concept of a self-made man. Fitzgerald seems to argue that the possibility of social
mobility in America is an illusion, and that the social hierarchies of the "New World" are just as rigid as those of Europe.
The novel is also famous as a description of the "Jazz Age," a phrase which Fitzgerald himself coined. After the shock of
moving from a policy of isolationism to involvement in World War I, America prospered in what are termed the "Roaring
Twenties." The Eighteenth Amendment to the American Constitution, passed in 1919, prohibited the sale and consumption
of alcohol in America. "Prohibition" made millionaires out of bootleggers like Gatsby and owners of underground salons,
called "speakeasies." Fitzgerald glamorizes the nouveau riche of this period to a certain extent in his Jazz Age novel. He
describes their beautiful clothing and lavish parties with great attention to detail and wonderful use of color. However, the
author was uncomfortable with the excesses of the period, and his novel sounds many warning notes against excessive
love of money and material success.
Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was not a great success during his lifetime, but became a smash hit after his death,
especially after World War II. It has since become a staple of the canon of American literature, and is taught at many high
schools and universities across the country and the world. Four films, an opera, and a play have been made from the text.
(http://www.gradesaver.com/the-great-gatsby/study-guide/about )
http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Travel-route.jpg
Novel Study Guides
http://www.gradesaver.com/the-great-gatsby (free samples are offered, complete guide is for sale)
http://www.huffenglish.com/gatsby/gatsbystudy.pdf (includes study questions for each chapter)
http://www.searchlit.org/novels/443.php#for_educators
https://www.teachervision.com/novels/resource/2925.html
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/the-great-gatsby.cfm
Indiana Academic Standards Related to the Study of The Great Gatsby
Name: ________________________________________________ Date: _______________
THE GREAT GATSBY TREASURE HUNT
(To be completed BEFORE reading the novel!)
Go to the following website - http://www.huffenglish.com/gatsby/gatsbyhunt.html , an online treasure hunt authored
by Valerie Arbizu. You will find questions and links relating to 12 different topics relevant to our study of The Great
Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
1.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. World War I
3. 19th Amendment
4. The Roaring Twenties
5. 18th Amendment
6. Prohibition
7. Organized Crime and Arnold Rothstein
8. Flappers
9. Automobiles
10. Music
11. 1920s Slang
12. Video (Great Gatsby movies)
Choose at least 4 of the topics (circle in the list above, please) and follow the directions in the treasure hunt for them.
Answer thoroughly in complete sentences on your own paper. Do not “cut and paste”. Avoid Plagiarism. Rephrase the
answers in your own words.
Then, complete the directions for # 13 – Drawing Conclusions on the lines below. Based on the information you have
collected from this website, what do you think the plot and setting of The Great Gatsby will include? What kinds of
characters do you expect to encounter in the novel?
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BOOK OR PLAY – WHICH IS THE GREATER GATSBY?
Name: __________________________________
Now that you’ve read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and seen the play adaptation by Simon Levy, let’s compare
the two. Fill in the following chart comparing and contrasting them.
(IAS RL.4.1)
Compare – How were they the same?
Contrast – How were they different?
Characters
Setting
Plot
Would you say that the play was faithful to the original text? Explain your answer, citing specific examples from the book
and play.
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Does each version have the same impact on the audience? Explain your answer.
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Now, review the book and play.
The Book
The Play
Which did you rate higher? Why?
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