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PRE-SHOW PREPARATION,
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION,
AND ACTIVITIES
Created by the McCarter Theatre Education Department. 2012.
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Created by the McCarter Theatre Education Department. 2012.
Pre-Show Activities
TRAVESTIES: WEB SITE BASICS.
Share the various articles, interviews, and information found on McCarter’s Travesties web site with your students—preferably by reading the material aloud as a class or in small groups—to provide a creative context
and historical basis for Tom Stoppard’s comedic and award-winning modern masterpiece.
EXPLORING TRAVESTIES BEFORE THE PERFORMANCE.
Travesties is Tom Stoppard’s second play to win both the Tony and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award
for Best Play (1976) and is an intriguing and entertaining example of the playwright’s blazing wit, worldcultural literacy, mastery of both the intellectual and the absurd, and incomparable capacity to make his audience both think and laugh, all while challenging their conception of how a story can be told.
The activities and questions for discussion immediately below are designed for teachers able to incorporate
either the full or partial reading of Travesties into their pre-performance curriculum. If possible, have your
students read (preferably aloud as a class) the full text or the following “French scenes”/dramatic interactions (pagination is from the Faber and Faber 1975 edition):
#1 From Act One, beginning on page 26 with the stage direction, “(CARR is now a
young man in his drawing room in 1917…” and ending with Carr’s line “It remains
to be seen whether it will grow into an armed seizure of the means of production,
distribution and exchange or spend itself in liberal journalism,” on page 32. [The
scene includes the characters of Carr and Bennett.]
#2 From Act One, beginning on page 47, beginning with the stage direction,
“(GWENDOLEN and JOYCE appear as before…” and ending with the stage direction “(GWEN kisses him and runs into Henry’s room.)” on page 56. [The scene includes Gwendolyn, Joyce, Carr, and Tzara.]
#3 From Act Two, beginning on page 71 with the stage direction “(CECILY sees
CARR who hands her the visiting card he received from BENNETT…” and ending with
Cecily’s line “It is addressed to the British, French and German Socialists who
have deserted the correct path for economism, opportunism and social chauvinism,” on page 75. [The scene includes Cecily and Carr.]
After the readings, ask your students to comment on their experience of the excerpted play.
Questions for discussion follow on the next page.
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Created by the McCarter Theatre Education Department. 2012.
Pre-Show Activities
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What pleasures and challenges did you experience in your cold (i.e., unpracticed) reading of the script?
What did you find interesting, compelling, memorable, confusing, unique or meaningful about the play
excerpts?
Do you have any observations regarding the style of the play, its characters, its dramatic situations, plot
devices or themes?
Did any character stand out to you especially? What made him or her outstanding or of interest to you?
Director Sam Buntrock describes Travesties as a “Play of ideas smashed into a farce [which] are fighting for
the stage.” Did you experience this effect in the course of your reading? Can you identify specific places
where these fights between ideas and farce occurred? (Note: A farce is a play characterized by its raucous
humor and often complicated and improbable plot, which features physical humor, deception, and
manipulation—and, quite frequently, lots of opening and closing doors.)
Can you get a sense of what the play might sound and look like in performance from reading the play aloud
in class? What expectations do you have going into this theatrical experience?
Can you describe it or compare Travesties to another play or film or television show that you’ve read or
seen?
THE TRAVESTIES OF BEING EARNEST:
EXPLORING STOPPARD’S USE AND “TRAVESTY” OF A COMEDY CLASSIC.
Playwright Tom Stoppard, inspired by a fluke of history, borrowed elements of style and structure, two
character names, and bits of dialogue from Oscar Wilde’s dramatic farcical masterwork The Importance of
Being Earnest to create Travesties. Quite intentionally, Travesties is a “travesty,” that is, a parody, caricature,
lampoon or spoof.
To prepare you students to appreciate Stoppard’s genius as a master spoofer, introduce them to the
playwright’s dramatic source material and stylistic inspiration via scene reading/study and/or film viewing.
Regardless of whether you choose to explore the play through reading or scene study, be sure to share with
your students the brief overview of Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest on the McCarter Travesties web
site to get a bit of a sense of the background of the play.
Scene Reading
The “French scenes”/dramatic interactions below can be read aloud with students cast as specific
characters or in the round with students alternating lines. (Some words or phrases may need to
be defined or clarified in the play’s context.)
#1 Act One. Opening of the play. Scene includes Algernon, Lane (his manservant),
and Jack (his friend).
#2 Act One. Slightly later in the act. Scene includes Jack, Gwendolyn, and Lady
Bracknell (her mother).
#3 Act Two. Opening of the act. Scene includes Miss Prism (a governess), Cecily,
Merriman (the butler), the Rev. Canon Chasuble, and Algernon.
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Created by the McCarter Theatre Education Department. 2012.
Pre-Show Activities
After the readings, ask your students to comment on their experience of reading the scene aloud.
Questions for discussion follow on the next page.
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What pleasures and challenges did you experience in your cold (i.e., unpracticed) reading of the script?
What did you find interesting, compelling, memorable, confusing, unique or meaningful about the play
excerpts?
Do you have any observations regarding the style of the play, its characters, its dramatic situations, plot
devices or themes?
Did any character stand out to you especially? What made him or her outstanding or of interest to you?
In this comedy of manners (i.e., a play which derives its comedy and wit from satirizing/ridiculing the social
habits, customs and mores of society, or a specific social class), what foibles/shortcomings and foolishness is
Oscar Wilde specifically targeting?
Can you get a sense of what the play might sound and look like in performance from reading the play aloud
in class? Can you describe it or compare it to another play or film or television show that you’ve experienced?
Scene Study
Break your class up into scene-study ensembles. Groups of three should work on scene #1
(Algernon, Lane, and Jack) or #2 (Jack, Gwendolyn, and Lady Bracknell) and groups of five on
scene #3 (Miss Prism, Cecily, Merriman, the Rev. Canon Chasuble, and Algernon). Then:
Scene-study ensembles should read their scene aloud once together before getting up to stage it, to
get a sense of the characters and the scene overall. Student-actors should prepare/rehearse their
scene for a script-in-hand performance for the class.
Following scene performances, lead students in a discussion of their experience rehearsing and
performing Questions might include:
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What are the pleasures and challenges of performing a scene from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being
Earnest?
Do you have any observations regarding the style of the play, its dramatic situations, plot devices or themes?
What observations can you make about the characters’ ways of speaking and behaving?
What insights, if any, regarding the play or the characters did you get from staging the play and embodying
the characters?
What moment from your scene did you most enjoy performing and why?
In this comedy of manners (i.e., a play which derives its comedy and wit from satirizing/ridiculing the social
habits, customs and mores of society, or a specific social class), what vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings is
Oscar Wilde specifically targeting? What vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings does your character exhibit?
The Importance of Being Earnest: On Film
Although cinematic representations of plays have a tendency to deviate from their theatrical
precursors in content and effect, there are two widely available film versions of the play which you
can opt to show your students in lieu of reading or scene study. Both are available on DVD.
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Created by the McCarter Theatre Education Department. 2012.
Pre-Show Activities
The Importance of Being Earnest with Rupert Everett and Colin Firth, directed by Oliver
Parker, Miramax, 2002. (Available by mail through Netflix.)
The Importance of Being Earnest with Michael Redgrave and Michael Denison, directed by
Anthony Asquith, Criterion Collection, 1952/2002. (Available as a “Watch Instantly”
selection on Netflix.)
Following the viewing of the film, lead students in a discussion of their experience of seeing the
film. Questions might include:
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What did you find interesting, compelling, memorable, unique or meaningful about the
film?
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Do you have any observations regarding the style of the film/story, its characters, its dramatic
situations, plot devices or themes?
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Did any character stand out to you especially? What made him or her outstanding or of
interest to you?
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In this comedy of manners (i.e., a play which derives its comedy and wit from satirizing/
ridiculing the social habits, customs and mores of society, or a specific social class), what
foibles/shortcomings and foolishness is Oscar Wilde specifically targeting? Can you share a
moment from the script that particularly stood out to you?
IN CONTEXT: TRAVESTIES.
To prepare your students for Travesties and to deepen their level of understanding of the play’s
distinctive world and its characters, have them research, either in groups or individually, the
following topics:
Tom Stoppard, playwright
Biography
Selected works (stage and screen)
The Real Inspector Hound
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
The Real Thing
Arcadia
Shakespeare in Love
The Coast of Utopia
Travesties production history
Sam Buntrock, director
Vladimir Lenin
Bolsheviks/Bolshevism
Marxism
Tristan Tzara
Dada/Dadaism
Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich)
James Joyce
Ulysses
Modernism/modernist movement
“Art for Art’s Sake” (slogan)
The Importance of Being Ernest
Have students teach one another about their individual or group topics via oral and illustrated (i.e.,
posters or PowerPoint) reports. Following the presentations ask your students to reflect upon their
research process and discoveries.
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Created by the McCarter Theatre Education Department. 2012.
Pre-Show Activities
EXPLORING DADA: READ, VIEW, DIY, AND DEBRIEF.
Dada was an international artistic movement born largely out of the horrors of World War I and its
resulting disillusionment and malaise. This revolution of “anti-art” originated in Zurich in the late 1910’s—
the setting for Henry Carr’s remembrances in Travesties—and featured as one of its cofounders the poet,
essayist and performance artist, Tristan Tzara—who frequently invades and punctuates Carr’s stroll down
memory lane.
Utilizing the resources below, introduce your students to the Dada movement, its proponents and precepts:
Read
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Jay Jaski’s essay, “Tristan Tzara and the Rise of Dada” on McCarter’s Travesties web site.
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Dada Manifestos
“Dada Manifesto” by Hugo Ball (1916)
“Dada Manifesto” by Tristan Tzara (1918)
View
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Documentary: ABC’s of Dada (original title, Deutschland DADA; directed by Helmut
Herbst,1968/69)
Note that this documentary employs a somewhat abstract Dadaist style to tell and show a brief
history of the Dadaist movement. It is segmented into 3 parts.
DIY
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Follow Tzara’s instructions below to make your own Dadaist poem.
“Take a newspaper.
Take some scissors.
Choose from this paper an article the length you want to make your poem.
Cut out the article.
Next carefully cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them all in a bag.
Shake gently.
Next take out each cutting one after the other.
Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag.
The poem will resemble you.
And there you are--an infinitely original author of charming sensibility, even though
unappreciated by the vulgar herd.”
- From “To Make A Dadaist Poem” by Tristan Tzara, 1920
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Have students share their poems with one another.
Created by the McCarter Theatre Education Department. 2012.
Pre-Show Activities
Debrief
Ask students to share their intellectual and emotional responses to Dada both as an historical artistic
revolution and philosophy and as a way to think about and make art. Questions for discussion may
include:
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What interests or appeals to you about Dadaism?
Is there anything that you find particularly disagreeable or challenging about Dadaist expression?
Is there a Dadaist practitioner or promoter presented in Herbst’s documentary whose literary, visual, or musical/aural creations attracted or interested you? What is it about the “anti-art” that
drew your attention?
Is there such a thing as anti-art? How would you define anti-art? Are some Dadaist expressions
seemingly more “artistic” than others? Which most resemble what you would consider “Art?”
Ask students to work as a group to make up a definition of “Art.”
What is the role of Art in Society? What do you think should be the goal or purpose of the Artist?
Created by the McCarter Theatre Education Department. 2012.