Art Form: Theatre

Supplies Needed

-A Chair for My Mother book
-Scissors
-Paper and pencil
-A prop to use as a microphone

Vocabulary

Improvisation - A moment in a play that is not
rehearsed or “scripted” , or acting without a script. For example: if an actor forgets a line, he/ she may improvise the line in the scene.

Detail - an individual feature, fact, or item; a small part of a larger whole

Inference - an educated guess based on given information

Flashback - a scene in a story set in an earlier time than the main part of the story

Character - a person in a story or play, or an animal or object that has human qualities

Instructions

1. Read the story. The most dramatic part of A Chair For My Mother is the fire, which is related in a flashback. Reread the pages that comprise the flashback from “My mother and I were coming home . . . “ to “We went to stay with my mother’s sister Aunt Ida and Uncle Sandy”.

2. Look for the details that are stated in the text (for example, “everything was turned to charcoal and ashes”) and think about details that are not stated in the text but that you have to guess or infer (for example, where Grandma was when the fire started and how she made it out on her own or was rescued).

3. With a family member or friend, improvise a news report. One person is the reporter and the other is a character from the story. The reporter should interview the character to hear about what happened. The interviewer should be very interested and ask specific questions. The replies should be spoken through the emotion of the character and should include details.

4. Because you are improvising, you can add details that are not stated or shown in the book, but that you guess or infer.

Extensions

Draw a picture to go with your interview that shows an aspect of the story not shown in the book.

Conduct a follow-up interview where the reporter comes back months later to interview the same character and hear how things have changed or developed since the fire.