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| Rehearsal for Grade 2 play |
As part of the Rashi Theater Program students learn the skill of playwriting. This process starts in Grade 2 with their work, "Diary of a Rashi Second Grader." In this process the students learn about monologues and dialogues and how to write in the basic playwriting format. In Grade 2, the diary entries become their monologue. Monologues are a great way to talk about emotions and express what the "character" is thinking. They learn that dialogues are just a conversation. We work on this process together as a big group and we spend time talking about the possible topics for the dialogues and then brainstorm character options, setting options and list a few facts that can become the main part of a character's speech. Students learn that anything can speak in a play, yes even a rock or the Charles River. The best part is watching the "voice" of the character come alive as they practice saying the line and writing what they are trying to say. They go through an editing process as with any writing and they learn how to write basic stage directions.
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| Grade 3 Fables - "Lion and Mouse" |
In Grade 3 the students continue their playwriting and start to take a previously written short story such as a Fable or Folktale and learn to tell the story in a dialogue format. This shows them how to create a scene with a beginning, middle and end. They work in small groups and this process begins with a storyboard of pictures and words. This concept of "what happens next" helps the students keep the story intact. We use the concept of a narrator to help communicate the setting and some basic stage directions, but the main focus of the work is through the dialogue. The playwright's humor really starts to make an appearance in this process. The voices of the characters come alive and we have to remind the students that they are not writing the line for them to say themselves, but so that the character can tell the story. As with our dialogues and monologues they go through many edits of the scenes until the story is clear and the punctuation and grammar are correct!
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| Grade 4 Play |
By Grade 4 the students are taking on a bigger challenge. They start with a longer story, such as their curriculum in Jewish Studies studying "B'Resheit", and they write a full (short) play. There are multiple characters, multiple settings and a few themes running through show. Again the students work in small groups and this time they are writing without a narrator. They are having the characters tell the audience the changes in time and settings and develop much more detailed dialogues. It is amazing to watch their writing process start to mature and develop into great dialogue with strong word choices and phrases.
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| Parting of the Red Sea - Grade 5 Play |
In Grade 5 the students write and perform the "Passover Story". They use the Torah as their guide and they write the story from beginning to end. They create dialogue for secondary characters such as the Egyptians during the 10 plagues or mini monologues for some of the characters so the audience can begin to understand what some of the characters are feeling and thinking. They start to think more about stage effects and we start to see more details in the stage directions so that when they transition to actors they know what emotion to use when the character is speaking. The writing process goes fairly quickly as they now have been working on this playwriting skill for four years.
By the time students transition into Middle School they have a solid playwriting background. Each year a few middle School students elect to work on monologue writing and enter the writing contest that is offered by the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild (METG). From time to time, Middle School students even work on writing a play to be considered by the Middle School State Drama Festival Elective. You never know what our Rashi students will create for the future stage shows!
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| Maddy Solomon, First Place Winner of METG MS Monologue Writing Contest 2023 |
