Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Prospero and Ariel: An Active Approach to Discovering Relationship
1. Warm-up: Rain Storm
Explain to the students that The Tempest begins with a storm. It is a storm created by a magician named Prospero. He was once the great Duke of Milan, but his brother, Antonio, along with the King of Naples, plotted to kill Prospero and steal his dukedom. Prospero escaped on a tiny boat, only to wash ashore on a nearly deserted island. Now, twelve years later, Prospero sees the King’s ship, on which his brother also rides, and knows this is his opportunity to seek revenge. He uses magic to orchestrate the storm and force Antonio and his cohorts to come to shore, where Prospero can make them pay for all that he has suffered.
Tell the students that they are going to work together to create their own soundscape of a rainstorm. Explain that they will focus their eyes on the floor in the center of the circle. Then the teacher will begin an action with his/her hands and when the student to the right knows what that action is, he/she will begin it as well. The action will pass around the circle like a wave. Once the action moves all the way around the circle, the teacher will transform the action into a new one. The students will continue to do the first action until the person to their left starts a new one.
Initiate the following actions in this order: rubbing hands together; snapping fingers; slapping knees; hitting the floor; slapping knees; snapping fingers; rubbing hands together.
2. Servant/Master Babble
Tell the students that they are going to explore the relationship between two characters in The Tempest: the magician, Prospero and his servant, Ariel, a spirit.
Ask the students to spread themselves around the room so they are filling the room and everyone is evenly spaced. Tell them that in a moment they will all walk around the room, and they must maintain this equal distance from each other. As they walk, a topic will be called out and they must speak continuously about that topic until they are told to stop. They are not speaking to anyone else or focusing on anyone but themselves. Everyone will be speaking at once and they must speak the entire time. As they speak they should try to cover every facet of the topic, all of its positives and all of its negatives. When they think they have exhausted the topic urge them to dig deeper. If they can’t think of anything to say, they can just repeat the topic over and over until something new comes to mind. Ask them to begin walking. Their topic is commanding or mastering others; being a master; having others in your service.
Side coaching may include: Think about the positive and negative aspects of this subject: a cruel master, a kind and generous master, mastering an art, commanding others to a victory, etc.
After one minute ask the students to freeze and lie down on the floor and look up at the ceiling. Explain that they will be given another topic and their task is to talk about this subject until told to stop. This time the subject is servitude: to be a servant or to serve others or to serve an idea.
Side coaching may include: Think of the positive and negatives aspects of this subject. For example: a waitress, a mother with her young child, a president, serving one’s country, etc.
After one minute ask the students to stop and sit up.
Discuss: What did you discover through this exercise? Let’s start with commanding and mastering. What are the positive and negative aspects of being a master? (Take answers.) How about the positive and negative aspects of servitude? (Take answers.)
3. Prospero and Ariel
Pair the students and assign one to read Ariel and the other to read Prospero. Ask them to read the scene out loud.
After they have read ask students what they noticed about the language in this exchange? Ask what words or phrases stood out to them after reading it once? Clarify difficult words.
Tell the students that they will read the scene again, but this time when they read a line, they are going to gently jab or pat their partner on a word of their choice. Tell them to go on impulse and see what happens. As they read they may jab or pat as many times as they want in their line or lines. Demonstrate.
After they are done, discuss: Did they jab more or pat more? Which words worked better with jabs? Which words worked better with pats? Did anyone ever jab and then wish they had patted their partner or vice versa? What discoveries did you make about Ariel or Prospero? What did you discover about their relationship?
Tell the students that they will read the scene again but as they do so, every time that Ariel talks, Prospero will walk and Ariel will follow Prospero. However, when Prospero talks, Prospero will stop and face Ariel.
Discuss: What did you notice this time through the scene? What does moving on Ariel’s lines suggest about Prospero? How does Prospero’s movement affect Ariel? How about when Prospero spoke? What does facing Ariel on his lines suggest about what Prospero wants in the scene?
Tell the students that they will read the scene one final time. However this time through they are going to reverse the action. Every time that Prospero speaks, Ariel will walk and Prospero will follow Ariel. When Ariel talks, Ariel will stop and face Prospero.
Discuss: How was the scene was different this time? What does moving on Prospero’s lines suggest about Ariel? How does Ariel’s movement affect Prospero? How about when Ariel spoke? What does facing Prospero on Ariel’s lines suggest about what Ariel wants in the scene? What are you learning about their relationship as a servant and master? Based on these two different ways of moving through the scene, what are you learning about these two characters and what they want from each other?
Members of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Education department created the “Prospero and Ariel: An Active Approach to Discovering Relationship” workshop.
Ó Oregon Shakespeare Festival. No part of the “Prospero and Ariel: An Active Approach to Discovering Relationship” workshop may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, for professional or commercial purposes without permission in writing from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Education Department.
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