Essential Question:
How did Augusto Pinochet come to power and stay in power?
How did Pinochet's regime impact Chileans and the country itself?
How did Augusto Pinochet come to power and stay in power?
How did Pinochet's regime impact Chileans and the country itself?
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Watch the video and record some notes. Minimally, you should be able to answer the following questions:
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Lesson: Chilean Protest Tapestries
Essential Question:
- How can art reveal truths about a civil society?
Arpillera: Tapestry
Arpillerista: Weavers of tapestry
Resources for Activity:
- Abridged timeline of Chile's recent history
- Chilean Protest Tapestries
- Stitching Truth: Case Studies and Primary Sources
- Note taking document per group
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Task: Your group will be responsible for telling the story of 2 or 3 arpilleras. The supporting documents and case studies provide information that will help you to interpret the arpilleras. Use your visual analysis skills to deconstruct the visuals in each tapestry. As you uncover the meaning of the tapestries, you will also answer questions about civil society raised by each of the tapestries. Record your responses on a group note taking document.
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Additional Resources
Amnesty International Case Study: Life under Pinochet: “They were taking turns to electrocute us one after the other”
The New York Times: Augusto Pinochet, Dictator Who Ruled by Terror in Chile, Dies at 91
Amnesty International Case Study: Life under Pinochet: “They were taking turns to electrocute us one after the other”
The New York Times: Augusto Pinochet, Dictator Who Ruled by Terror in Chile, Dies at 91
A fantastic essay on the play and the motif of 'Death and the Maiden' in art.
| on_dorfmans_death_and_the_maiden.pdf |
Read to learn more about the 1991 Commission: "Reviewed Work(s): Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation by National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation."
| review_of_the_truth_and_reconciliation_commission.pdf |
Act 1
Essential Question:
Overview: You are working on a new production of Death and the Maiden. Before making final decisions, the actors and director have come together to test out different ways of presenting the characters to the audience. In order to get the characterization and atmosphere right, it is important to discuss the motivations of each character and the effect you would like to have on the audience through sound, light, movement, and dialogue. Therefore, you have hired a conversation director to be involved to ask important questions while you play around with Act 1 Scene 1.
Task: As a group, prepare a dramatic interpretation of Act 1 Scene 1. You will need to go online to find sound clips, as well as find ways to integrate light into the scene to create a desired atmosphere or character effect. You may need to replay certain scenes many times in order to get it right, so do not feel that you need to read the scene all the way through at once. The goal of this activity is to gain a better understanding of the characters by considering what the audience sees.
Discussion Questions: You may wish to take notes as you discuss these elements.
- How does Dorfman introduce Paulina and Gerardo to the audience?
- In order to move forward, must we confront the past?
Overview: You are working on a new production of Death and the Maiden. Before making final decisions, the actors and director have come together to test out different ways of presenting the characters to the audience. In order to get the characterization and atmosphere right, it is important to discuss the motivations of each character and the effect you would like to have on the audience through sound, light, movement, and dialogue. Therefore, you have hired a conversation director to be involved to ask important questions while you play around with Act 1 Scene 1.
Task: As a group, prepare a dramatic interpretation of Act 1 Scene 1. You will need to go online to find sound clips, as well as find ways to integrate light into the scene to create a desired atmosphere or character effect. You may need to replay certain scenes many times in order to get it right, so do not feel that you need to read the scene all the way through at once. The goal of this activity is to gain a better understanding of the characters by considering what the audience sees.
- Paulina - actor
- Gerardo - actor
- Stage Director - Stop and start the action. Direct your actors and work with the actors to integrate sound and light into your scene
- Conversation Director - Be aware of the discussion questions. Stop the scene every now and again and facilitate a discussion with the group.
Discussion Questions: You may wish to take notes as you discuss these elements.
- What elements of Paulina’s character are revealed through the stage directions on page 3?
- How are the lights symbolic for both Paulina and Gerardo?
- How has Paulina's past pain impacted her present moment? Consider what we learn from the stage directions and the dialogue.
- Why does Gerardo speak with so many ellipsis (...) and dashes (-)?
- What does the audience observe about Paulina and Gerardo's marriage? How is Gerardo presented to the audience?
- What seems to be the unspoken tension between Paulina and Gerardo? Find evidence to support ideas here.
- What is the 'Commission' meant to accomplish? What is Paulina's reaction to this Commission?
- What are your thoughts on this type of Truth and Reconciliation Commission? Can it help to rebuild a fragile society?
Essential Question:
Task: Read Act 1 Scenes 2-4 as a class and discuss the questions below:
Act 1 Scene 2:
Act 1 Scene 3:
Act 1 Scene 4:
- How does Dorfman utilize dramatic techniques (setting, staging, sound, light, dialogue, stage directions, costuming) to indicate a change in these characters?
- Should we take justice into our own hands if given the opportunity?
Task: Read Act 1 Scenes 2-4 as a class and discuss the questions below:
Act 1 Scene 2:
- How is Roberto introduced to the audience? Why is this type of introduction important when considering later revelations in the play?
- What possibilities exist as to why Roberto came back to visit Gerardo in the middle of the night?
Act 1 Scene 3:
- Why is there no dialogue? What is the effect on the audience?
- What questions are raised from this scene?
- What is the symbolism of the following objects, and to what extent has the symbolism from Scene 1 to Scene 3? Paulina's panties; the car's headlights that "sweep" across the stage; the gun.
Act 1 Scene 4:
- What does the audience learn about Paulina's past in this scene?
- What aspects of dialogue indicate Paulina's shift in character?
- How has the dynamic between Gerardo and Paulina shifted in this scene?
- Do you agree with Gerardo when he says, "but let's say he was--even in that case, what right do you have to bind him like this...?" (25). If we are given the opportunity to take justice into our own hands, should we take it?
Homework: Click on this document and make a copy. Follow the instructions. Utilize the PPT below for guiding questions and sites for research. Please copy/paste your paragraph(s) to the blog when you are done.
Act 2
Essential Questions:
- How and why is Paulina reclaiming her voice in this act?
- What point is Dorfman making about victims, the past and moving towards the future?
Task: For Act 2, identify 10 significant quotations. In your notes, identify who spoke the words, what the words mean in the particular scene, and why you feel the words are significant. You might also want to make some connections to some of the thematic elements of this play such as: justice vs peace, the past vs the future, power, elements of tragedy and trauma, civil society and democracy.
Act 2 Scene 1
- Paulina's voice (or voicelessness) is an important element of this play. Paulina was once silenced but is now finding her voice. How and why does she use her voice, and what is this meant to represent within the wider context a country trying to rebuild? (p37)
- Justice and reconciliation: How do Paulina and Gerardo's ideas about justice and moving on differ? (p37-38)
- Consider Paulina's fantasy on page 40. What does her fantasy show us? How does Gerardo respond?
- What do we learn about Gerardo's involvement in the resistance against the former dictatorship? How might this explain some of the tension in their relationships?
- Representative characters: This play only contains three characters, and each of them are representative in the context of a country rebuilding towards democracy. What are each of the characters representative of? Find at least one quotation to support each idea.
Act 2 Scene 2
- How does Roberto try to appeal to and persuade Gerardo? (focus on pages 44-45)
- Sexism and gender roles (male/female positions in society) play a big part in Paulina's decisions to take justice into her own hands. Where do we see evidence of her position as a woman in society, and why might this propel her to create her own trial?
- Consider Gerardo's appeals to 'humor her' and 'placate her' (44), as well as his observation that, 'When crazy people have power, you've got to indulge them' (45). To what extent could this be a direct comment from Dorfman about dictatorships? In what way is this ironic coming from Gerardo? What could Dorfman's point be about society and human nature?
- How and why does Gerardo's characterization change towards the end of Act 2 (47-49)? Is he credible/genuine or being theatrical?
Features to notice: How are these features used and by whom? What do they reveal about justice, power, relationships, and the overall social commentary?
Use of imperatives; repetition (of words and specific phrases/sentences); pronouns; simple sentences vs run-on sentences (how does the sentence structure contribute to the natural way people speak?), rhetorical and probing questions, dialogue connected to memories, profanity/expletives, ambiguity (a phrase that may contain multiple meanings); allusion (note that this play is meant to be universal, so the Rettig Commission is never actually identified), irony
Use of imperatives; repetition (of words and specific phrases/sentences); pronouns; simple sentences vs run-on sentences (how does the sentence structure contribute to the natural way people speak?), rhetorical and probing questions, dialogue connected to memories, profanity/expletives, ambiguity (a phrase that may contain multiple meanings); allusion (note that this play is meant to be universal, so the Rettig Commission is never actually identified), irony
ACT 3
Essential Question:
- How does Dorfman use the characters and the staging to communicate a message/critique of humanity, the truth, and justice?
Paulina: "To think that I would spend hours here like this, at dawn, trying to make out the things left behind by the tide during the night, staring at those shapes, wondering what they were, if they would be dragged out to sea again" (62).
- During this scene, consider the symbolism of the moon in connection with the sea and the tides. What do you know about how the moon controls the tides? Why is Paulina always staring out to sea, and why is the moon continuously referenced? Consider Paulina's metaphor in the quotation above as you consider: What does the moon and the sea symbolize?
Task: After reading Act 3 Scene 1, divide into three groups. Each group is responsible for annotating a specific section of Act 3 Scene 1 and reporting back to the group. Please use this document to record your discussion.
Infidelity - pages 53-top of 58
- Gerardo says, "We'll die from so much past, so much pain and resentment" (54). / "People can die from an excessive dose of the truth" (55). What is meant by these lines?
- Who controls the conversation? How do you know? Annotate the literary features you notice in this section, such as sentence types, repetition etc.
- There are many repeated lines in this play, one of which is, "Beyond repair...irreparable" (55). What is the effect of the repetition of this line? As an extension: What other lines can you find that have been repeated, and what is the effect?
- Why does Gerardo urge Paulina to tell her story? What does the audience think of Gerardo at this point? Has he evolved as a character?
The Confession - pages 58-62
- Identify all of the lighting changes in the scene. What do they suggest? What does the moon symbolize? Consider Paulina's discussion of the tides at the top of this section as you discuss the moon symbolism.
- Ambiguity as a literary technique is used often in this play. Here: Why does Roberto's voice overlap with Paulina's voice? Is he repeating Paulina's recording or is he recounting his personal experiences? Why is this left ambiguous for the audience? What is Dorfman's wider purpose here - what are we meant to reflect on?
- As an extension, identify other moments of ambiguity in the play. What is left ambiguous, and why is it done? Be specific. - What does Roberto's confession reveal about humanity and the capacity for evil? Find examples to support your ideas.
- Any thoughts on what the jack could represent? ("Oh--and don't forget to give his jack back" 62.)
Paulina and Roberto alone - pages 63-66
- What is it that Paulina needs? How does the language emphasize her point? "To kill you. So I can listen to my Schubert without thinking that you'll also be listening to it, soiling my day and my Schubert and my country and my husband. That's what I need..." (65).
- What do the holes in Roberto's story reveal? Has Paulina got the right guy? If he is, why does he (and in a larger way, the old regime) not confess and repent even if death is staring him in the face?
- Do a close reading of Roberto's final speech (bottom of 65) and Paulina's final speech (top of 66). What is Dorfman's larger message here? How could these moments link to larger topics and themes within the play?
Essential Question:
- How does Dorfman use conventions of postmodern theatre as "tools for authentic introspection, questioning, and representation of human experience"?
Link to Google Slide
Theater Conventions Handout for Review
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Mozart's Dissonant Quartet |
Dissonance (noun) - a lack of harmony among musical notes -A tension or clash resulting from the combination of two disharmonious or unsuitable elements.
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Task: Using the A3 printouts, annotate the final scene using the guiding questions. Identify the following literary techniques as you consider the essential question for today.
Access guiding questions for the final scene here.
Postmodern conventions
- Breaking the fourth wall
- Blending reality of real world with the reality of the theatrical world
- Undermining the realism of characters
- Symbolism
- Motif
- Ambiguity
- Irony
- High modality words (degree of certainty in speech. High modality=always, certainly, never)
