The Piano Lesson

NOTES on The Piano Lesson

As we read The Piano Lesson examine the text and try to answer the questions posed below (no need to write them, you will complete a character analysis due when we return from winter break--see below):

The Piano Lesson concerns the struggle of two siblings over a family heirloom: a piano carved with images of their African ancestors and crafted by their enslaved grandfather. The piano itself becomes a symbol. As you read, try to figure out what the piano means.

As writers, our settings often have significant meaning. They contribute to the theme of the play, as well as hold significance, complicate plot, develop character, and create conflict. In the Piano Lesson, the setting is the Great Depression.

This setting serves as the historical backdrop to the play as well as black migration during this period from south to north. Such migration increased steadily until stabilizing in the 1930s and creating new black communities that would be devastated by the economic ruin. Wilson was inspired by Romare Bearden's painting "the Piano Lesson," seeing in its scene of a teacher and student an allegory for how African Americans must learn to negotiate and learn about their history. 

Romare Bearden's "The Piano Lesson"

Critic Sandra Shannon stated that Wilson formulated two thematic questions to address in his work: "What do you do with your legacy, and how do you best put it to use?" (The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson, 146).

Analysis & Questions to Examine While Reading

Plays are about characters foremost. Without interesting or compelling characters, there can be no good drama. Drama is also about conflict. So it's best to consider how a character reacts or creates conflict in a play. As we read The Piano Lesson, consider how each character deals with conflict when it arises, and how they also create conflict for the other characters in the play. Use your handouts to create a character relationship web.

It is important to pay close attention to character motivation in a play. One of the tips for good playwriting is to give your characters interesting motivations.

But how do we do that?

Motivation in plays is developed by characterization: what a character does (actions), what a character says, and what other characters say about another character. A character's motivation is often closely tied to the major conflict and theme of a play. Actors read scripts carefully looking for motivation for their characters. It is an essential skill for an actor. A playwright needs to help these actors out by making sure that each character has a purpose and a reason to act and say what he/she does.

Select two characters from the cast list. As you read, identify the motivation of each of your chosen characters. Be aware of how motivation creates complications, conflict, and characterization. Select from:

• Doaker
• Boy Willie
• Berniece
• Lymon
• Maretha
• Avery
• Wining Boy
• Grace

Acts usually end at a high point (or crisis: a crucial or decisive turning point or situation in a plot).

• How does Wilson end his first act? 
• How does an essential question linger in the minds of the audience? i.e. what will bring the audience back from the intermission ready for more? 
• What questions have been left unanswered?

In a second act, characters are generally developed even more through characterization. Additionally, in contemporary plays there is usually a reversal of fortune (someone who is about to win his/her motive suddenly meets opposition that we might not have considered before…although clues to such an event can be found in the first act).

• Can you find examples of a reversal of fortune in the second act. What clues were we given in Act I that suggests that this reversal was coming?
• What is your chosen characters' dark moment? A dark moment for a character is their lowest end--when things look their worst for that character.
• What is the character's enlightenment? An enlightenment is the sudden understanding of how to get up from the character's dark moment. How does your character's enlightenment lead to the climax?
• And then, finally, do you consider the ending pleasing, satisfactory, acceptable? 
• How might you change the ending if you were writing the play?

HOMEWORK: Please complete your reading of The Piano Lesson. Complete the analysis of your two chosen characters and turn in your analysis homework when you return to next class next year. Homework is due Jan. 6.

You may watch the 1995 made for tv film: The Piano Lesson in its entirety.

Edward Albee's The Zoo Story

1. Research Edward Albee. Take brief notes about his career and style of writing in your journal.

2. Go the library and check out the play: The Zoo Story by Edward Albee.

3. Get together in reading groups of 2 or 3. These groups are only for a day, so please work with someone you know you can trust to focus on the assignment. If you are in a group of 4, I will split you into two groups of 2. I prefer no one work alone, as it is important for you to practice reading out loud.

4. Read The Zoo Story together in your groups today. Assign parts as follows:

a. 3 students: one play Jerry, one play Peter, one read the stage directions where appropriate (only the longer directions).
b. 2 students: one play Jerry, the other play Peter, read the stage directions silently.
c. If you have been stubborn and must work alone, you may either join a group of two, or read alone, but realize you are missing part of your practice and cheating yourself out of more effective performance skills.

5. AFTER READING THE PLAY: In your group answer the following questions – discuss first with your group, then individually write down to turn in at the end of today's class the answers to these questions:

Plays are based on conflict. Conflict can come in 4 “flavors” or types:

• i. Person vs. Person

• ii. Person vs. Self

• iii. Person vs. Nature

• iv. Person vs. Society or God

A. What kind of conflict does Albee use in this play? Why do you say this?
B. Are there other kinds of conflict that occur within the story? If so, where are they found?
6. What seems to be the significance of Jerry’s story of the dog? What do you personally learn about yourself and the human world from this metaphor?
7. What might be symbolic about the Zoo? What does the Zoo represent? Why do you think Albee called his play “The Zoo Story”? How does the title help create meaning?

HOMEWORK: None. 

Pet Peeve Speech: Rehearsal and Performance

Please take the first 5 minutes of class this morning to view these sample 'Pet Peeve' speeches:
1. Predictive Text
2. Cheap Business Practices

During period 3, please complete your pet peeve speech. Some of you have already done this. Excellent. Use your time to get into small groups 2-3 and REHEARSE your speeches. Practice. No, really. Practice.

• Your pet peeve speech should be written; get on with it. Share with your classmates an experience or situation that bothers you. It need not be anything earth-shattering. You might sound off about your Friday night curfew or chores and obligations at home. Explore your feelings about the issue.
• Complete: the purpose and expectations of this assignment in the handout
• Complete: Preparing.
• Complete: Read the two sample speeches on pages 84-87.

During period 4, let's go next door and begin delivering our speeches. I'll take volunteers first, then, if there are no volunteers, I'll randomly select students that aren't working or show no interest.

I am grading you on your performance. 

• Is your idea creative and relevant to a teenage or human audience?
• Is your presentation fluid and rehearsed?
• Do you make eye contact?
• Do you make a point or have a message, illustrated by clever writing and examples?

HOMEWORK: None. If you didn't deliver your speech today, please rehearse and prepare to go 3rd period Friday.

The Pet Peeve Speech

This morning, please complete the following writing projects:

1. Your second draft of your character story (this is past due!)
2. Your monologue poem (the poem using your dead character's voice: just like Spoon River poems)
3. Your confessional poem draft (see previous post for details and models--did you watch/view the sample models?)
4. Brainstorm and write a pet peeve speech.

• Read the handout and samples of the pet peeve speech today in class
• Change the "specs" to: time limit: 5 minutes or less
• Your pet peeve speech should be written. Share with your classmates an experience or situation that bothers you. It need not be anything earth-shattering. You might sound off about your Friday night curfew or chores and obligations at home. Explore your feelings about the issue.
• Complete: the purpose and expectations of this assignment
• Complete: Choosing a topic
• Complete: Preparing.
• Complete: Reading of the two sample speeches on pages 84-87.

HOMEWORK: None.

Spoon River, Day 2; Monologue Poem Draft Due!, Confessional Poetry

During period 3, please gather in the groups you were in last class and continue reading the poems in the Spoon River anthology. Continue reading until you hear the first bell, then finish up and complete the rest of this book on your own as homework.

What you've been reading are a traditional style of poetry where a single character "speaks" as in a monologue. In fact, the type of poem that has a single speaker telling "us, the reader" something about his/her life is called a monologue poem.

Often this monologue is a confession or disclosing a secret. When this occurs we call this a CONFESSIONAL poem. Here are a few samples of contemporary confessional poems:

During 4th period, please complete your character death poem. The poem and its rules can be found below. If you finish early, please write a second "confessional" poem modeled on the samples here.

Confessional Poetry

Confessional poetry: reveals a personal secret or feeling. This is the only type of poem you can consider the author to be the speaker. Confessional poetry is the poetry of the personal or "I." This style of writing emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s and is associated with poets such as Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and W.D. Snodgrass.

• Confessional poetry is often controversial or even unsettling to read.

• The confessional poetry of the mid-twentieth century dealt with subject matter that previously had not been openly discussed in American poetry. Private experiences with and feelings about death, trauma, depression and relationships were addressed in this type of poetry, often in an autobiographical manner. Sexton in particular was interested in the psychological aspect of poetry, having started writing at the suggestion of her therapist.

• The confessional poets were not merely recording their emotions on paper; craft and construction were extremely important to their work. While their treatment of the poetic self may have been groundbreaking and shocking to some readers, these poets maintained a high level of craftsmanship through their careful attention to and use of prosody.

• The confessional poets of the 1950s and 1960s pioneered a type of writing that forever changed the landscape of American poetry. The tradition of confessional poetry has been a major influence on generations of writers.

Here are a few examples of either political or confessional poetry:

Homage to My Hips by Lucille Clifton
Daddy by Sylvia Plath
My First Memory by Nikki Giovanni
Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich

Now it's your turn. Write a confessional poem. When you complete your poem draft, please proofread it, and turn it in for credit.

HOMEWORK: Please complete The Spoon River Anthology.

Journals Due! Character Death Poem!

Your journals and second drafts of your short story are due today. While you complete the class work, I will be moving around to collect your journals. Please make sure your name is on them.

WRITING ASSIGNMENT IN CLASS (3rd period): 

You've created a character. You wrote a first draft (and should have written a second draft) for this person. You have spent time with this character. You have "seen through this character's eyes" and gotten to know this character. Now it's time for you to kill this character. Yep. Your character has died (some of you may have already done this in your stories).

Now don't get upset. Your characters may have lived many, many years after you told the story about them. They may have had children and grandchildren, and maybe even become successful entrepreneurs. Anyway, they are dead.
--HOW they died is up to you.
--WHEN they died is up to you.
--HOW THEY FEEL about being dead, is still up to you. Maybe they are happy to pass on, maybe they are angry or sad or want to tell their wife or husband or parents something important.

Now you get to give them the chance to do just that.

TASK: You are to write a poem in which you speak from your character's POV, using his/her own unique voice and tone to say something that needs to be said.

• Your poem should have a title: your title should be your character's name.
• Your poem should be written as a poem with appropriate line breaks, etc.
• Your poem should be written in 1st person POV (using the pronouns: I, me, we, etc.)
• Your poem should have a distinct and specific TONE. For tone samples look here.
• Your poem should be at least 10 lines, but the length of the lines is up to you. 

During period 3, write your poem draft.

During period 4, please go to the library and check out The Spoon River Anthology. When you return, get into groups of 2-4 and read the poems OUT LOUD. You will not finish today, but you will see some excellent models of 1st person POV "monologue" poems.

Before the end of class today, please research some information on: Edgar Lee Masters. Find at least 3 things you didn't know about this author and be prepared to list these details as your TICKET OUT THE DOOR today.

Your poem draft and any late work (including late journals) is due by the end of next class.

HOMEWORK: Read 10 more poems from where you left off in Spoon River. Bring your books back with you next class.