BY
Catherine Trieschmann
DIRECTED BY
Shelley Butler
NOVEMBER 16 – DECEMBER 11, 2022 | QUADRACCI POWERHOUSE This Teacher Guide is designed to be used in the classroom along with Milwaukee Rep’s PlayGuide for The Nativity Variations. This PlayGuide is available online at: www.MilwaukeeRep.com/Nativity The Nativity Variations Teacher Guide written by Lindsey Hoel-Neds
Topics for
Teaching & Learning: Adapting Existing Stories In The Nativity Variations, the Prairie Players adapt a familiar story with their own unique flair. Have students take a familiar story such as a fairy tale, folk tale, legend, or myth to adapt. Once they have selected their story, they should outline the major story elements in the original tale. After they have done that, they can start to think about how they can upend or change the narrative, while still keeping the original story at the center. Students can adapt their story in several different ways: as a prose narrative, a play script, a poem, or other written version. After students have created their adaptation, they can create a video or in-person performance of their adaptation.
Adaptation Avant-garde Theater Defining Theater and Art
Discussion Questions 1. What is something in your life you feel passionately about? How does it enrich your life? 2. What is theater? What is art? 3. Should certain classic stories always be told in the same way? Why or why not? 4. How does/can theater use different types of art (visual, music, dance, movement, etc.) to tell stories? 5. In what ways in your life do you connect with others? How do those connections make you feel?
The Adoration of the Magi by Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia. Photo credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art.