Introduction

This unit includes activities and possible assessment tasks linked to The Arts: Drama, Australian Curriculum 9.0 across Year 9 and 10. Teachers can choose to use individual activities to complement existing drama units or complete the entire unit of work with their students. In some cases, there is a purposeful link between before and after show activities so that concepts can be built upon.

The learning activities will encourage students to explore Hans and Gret as a performance text, with the possibility of generating whole class discussions and the sharing of different interpretations of the play and the characters, as well as provide opportunities for students to work independently and in small groups to respond to the work creatively.

Many of the activities require a decent translation and adaptation of the Grimm’s version of the story. The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm translated by Lore Segal and Randall Jarrell is recommended.

Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 10, students analyse how and why the elements of drama, performance skills and/or conventions are manipulated in drama they create, perform and/or experience. They evaluate how drama in a range of styles and/or from a range of contexts communicates ideas, perspectives and/or meaning. They evaluate how drama is used to celebrate and challenge perspectives of Australian identity.

Students work individually and/or collaboratively to shape and manipulate use of the elements of drama, conventions and/or dramatic structures to communicate ideas, perspectives and/or meaning. They use performance skills relevant to style and/or form to sustain belief, roles and characters in performances of improvised, devised and/or scripted drama for audiences.

Content Descriptions Addressed

Exploring and Responding

• Investigate use of elements of drama, performance skills and/or conventions to communicate and/or challenge ideas, perspectives and/or meaning in drama across cultures, times, places and/or other contexts (AC9ADR10E01)

Developing Skills and Practices

• Develop performance skills and/or techniques to manipulate elements of drama and/or use conventions to communicate the physical and psychological aspects of roles and characters consistent with intentions (AC9ADR10D01)

Creating and Making

• Improvise and devise drama, and interpret scripted drama, using elements of drama and conventions to shape and manipulate dramatic action and convey intended ideas, perspectives and/or meaning (AC9ADR10C01)

Task #1: Exploring & Responding

Hansel and Gretel Exploration

What you’ll need: Computers, butcher’s paper, markers. “Hansel and Gretel” by the brothers Grimm.

Activity: Read the Grimm’s version of the story, either as a class, in small groups or solo. Brainstorm any themes, motifs, conventions, symbols, archetypes.

In pairs, research how many other versions of the story can be found.  Consider stories from other times, places, cultures, modes. Use these findings to create a class list.

In small groups, choose one of the other versions and compare/contrast it to the Grimm’s version, using the original brainstorm as a guide. This can be done as a Venn Diagram, table or online organiser.

Lead a conversation about the similarities and differences between the stories. Consider the following –

• Were some stories more violent than others?
• Is there a ‘clean’ version (such as an early Disney style)?
• Is there a clear moral to the stories and does this change over time?
• How different are the endings?
• How does each story delve into the concept of family and the family home?
• How different are the characters? Do their motivations change?
• Do you think the intended audience has changed?
• What elements have remained, or appear in all/most of the stories?

This task can be extended into performance (See Task #3).

Content Description Link: AC9ADR10E01

• Literacy
• Intercultural understanding

Task #2: Developing Practices & Skills

Audience Bias 

What you’ll need: “Hansel and Gretel” by the brothers Grimm, computers.

Activity: Make sure students are familiar with the Grimm version of the story.

When we consume culture as audience, we do so with biases and ideas inherited from previous cultural experiences, family, beliefs, origins. The longevity and reach of fairy tales have shaped many of us to identify Witches, Step-Mothers and Wolves as baddies and Fathers, children and cute animals as being the innocents. Is there a way of fleshing these characters out so that they don’t simply sit on one side of the good vs bad continuum? Can we flip them completely so that we can surprise, amuse, inform an audience?

Arrange students into groups of 2 or 3 and assign each group a character from “Hansel and Gretel” – Hansel, Gretel, the Step-Mother, The Father, The Witch, the Duck. Students can brainstorm what they know about the character, as presented in the book. They are searching for facts.

Their task now is to flesh out the character. This is an imaginative task, essentially a re-write of the character. Is there a way of justifying what the Step-Mother did? What about the Witch? Is there a way of concluding that the Father is a baddie? What about the children? How can the duck end up as a malevolent force?

Using this new version of the character, students must come up with responses for the following questions – What does the character want? Why? How are they going to achieve that? What or who is standing in their way? This might be an opportunity to introduce some basic Stanislavski work (super objective, objective, intention, obstacle, method etc.)

Students can use improvisation to write an interview between a television host (eg. Dr Phil style) and the character, with detailed information and insight into this new version of the character, that challenges our preconceived ideas. This will be a re-telling of the story from the first-person perspective.

Once the interview is written, actors can spend some time developing their characters – considering their facial expressions, voice, physicality, gesture, costume.

Students can perform these live or create films of the interviews.

Content Description Link: AC9ADR10D01

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking

Task #3: Creating & Making

Subverted Fairy Tales

What you’ll need: “Hansel and Gretel” by the brothers Grimm.

Activity: This can be a stand-alone task or can be an extension of Task #1.

Reflect on how the creative team transformed characters, settings, themes and events for this production. Consider the use of symbols and metaphor. Make a huge mind map that covers as much detail as possible.

In small groups, students choose or are given a well know Fairy Tale (eg. “Snow White”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Cinderella”, “Jack and the Beanstalk”, “The Three Little Pigs”, “The Frog Prince”). Do not use “Hansel and Gretel”.

Research the origins of the story and collate a collection of the most interesting moments, focussing on content that does not appear in the more sanitised versions. Draw upon the previous knowledge built in Task #1, focussing on themes, motifs, conventions, symbols and archetypes.

Create a 2-minute performance of this version.

Now take your creation, which will probably by quite dark and brutal, and adapt it for a very young audience. In other words, clean it! Make it something that no parent will ever complain about!

Create a 2-minute performance of this version.

Now it gets even more interesting! Introduce the concept of subversion as “the act or an instance of subverting or overthrowing a legally constituted government, institution, etc” (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/) and rewrite this definition so that it becomes the next task eg. “the act of re-thinking the main elements of Fairy Tales as we know them, to make a comment on a current social, environmental or political issue”.

 Make a list of subverted Fairy Tales the students are already aware of (eg. Windmill’s Girl Asleep and Rella, films Tangled and the Shrek Franchise and so on) and discuss what was changed and why? Was it to make it more relevant to a modern audience? Was it to challenge stereotypes or to make a political point?

Groups now need to work out how to subvert their chosen Fairy Tale.  What will change? What will remain the same? How can you pursue a modern-day dilemma, using the elements of your Fairy Tale? Possible issues to pursue are – climate change or other environmental concerns, sex and gender discrimination, animal cruelty, racism, poverty vs wealth, political corruption and so on. Encourage students to choose a topic they are passionate about.

Content Description Links:  AC9ADR10C01

• Critical and creative thinking
• Personal and social capability

Task #4: Creating and Making

Who is your audience? Who are you making meaning for?

What you’ll need: Any tech or materials that are on hand, old or new. This might include dividers, blocks, paper, material, microphones, projectors, cameras, screen and so on.

Activity: In the show, the audience was manipulated into experiencing different perspectives of the story, using technology and stage-craft.

As a class, consider the following questions –

• Why did the artistic team decide to do this?
• Was it effective?
• How did they do it?
• How did you feel when you realised other people were experiencing something different to you? Or maybe you didn’t realise!
• Did you feel like you had missed out on something or were you satisfied with the experience you had?

Can you think of other shows or versions of storytelling where different audience/s experience different things based on who they are or the choices they make? Eg. video games, censored films, re-interpretations of children’s stories for adults or vice versa, choose-your-own-adventure, interactive film/tv/web experiences and so on.

In groups of 4-6, come up with a situation where it would be logical (not necessarily moral!) to present different information to different people as a type of manipulation. Possible topical ideas could include –

• A politician framing an idea to business leader’s vs the public
• A mining magnate presenting findings to government vs environmentalists
• A cheating spouse talking about their weekend to their partner vs their best friend
• A cool kid trying to impress someone vs being honest with a friend/sibling/parent

Using live action, film and sound recordings, different spaces, whatever tech is at hand (microphones, headphones, projectors, screens), dividers, sheets, paper and so on, come up with a way of presenting different versions of the ‘story’ to 2 different sections of audience.

Content Description Link: AC9ADR10C01

• Critical and creative thinking
• Personal and social capability

Introduction

This unit includes activities and possible assessment tasks linked to English, Australian Curriculum 9.0 across Year 9 and 10. Teachers can choose to use individual activities to complement existing English units or complete the entire unit of work with their students.

The learning activities will encourage students to explore Hans and Gret as a performance text, with the possibility of generating whole class discussions and the sharing of different interpretations of the play and the characters, as well as provide opportunities for students to work independently and in small groups to respond to the work through analysis, adaptation and creation.

Many of the activities require a decent translation and adaptation of the Grimm’s version of the story. The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm translated by Lore Segal and Randall Jarrell is recommended.

Achievement Standard

Year 9
By the end of Year 9, students interact with others, and listen to and create spoken and multimodal texts including literary texts. With a range of purposes and for audiences, they discuss and expand on ideas, shaping meaning and providing substantiation. They select and experiment with text structures to organise and develop ideas. They select and experiment with language features including literary devices, and experiment with multimodal features and features of voice.

They read, view and comprehend a range of texts created to inform, influence and/or engage audiences. They analyse representations of people, places, events and concepts, and how texts respond to contexts. They analyse the aesthetic qualities of texts. They analyse the effects of text structures, and language features including literary devices, intertextual references, and multimodal features.

They create written and multimodal texts, including literary texts, for a range of purposes and audiences, expressing and expanding ideas, shaping meaning and providing substantiation. They select and experiment with text structures to organise, develop and link ideas. They select and experiment with language features including literary devices, and experiment with multimodal features.

Year 10
By the end of Year 10, students interact with others, and listen to and create spoken and multimodal texts including literary texts. With a range of purposes and for audiences, they discuss ideas and responses to representations, making connections and providing substantiation. They select and experiment with text structures to organise and develop ideas. They select, vary and experiment with language features including rhetorical and literary devices, and experiment with multimodal features and features of voice.

They read, view and comprehend a range of texts created to inform, influence and engage audiences. They analyse and evaluate representations of people, places, events and concepts, and how interpretations of these may be influenced by readers and viewers. They analyse the effects of text structures, and language features including literary devices, intertextual connections, and multimodal features, and their contribution to the aesthetic qualities of texts.

They create written and multimodal texts, including literary texts, for a range of purposes and audiences, expressing ideas and representations, making connections and providing substantiation. They select and experiment with text structures to organise, develop and link ideas and representations. They select, vary and experiment with language features including literary devices, and experiment with multimodal features.

Content Descriptions Addressed

Year 9:
Literature
– Examining literature
Analyse the effect of text structures, language features and literary devices such as extended metaphor, metonymy, allegory, symbolism and intertextual references (AC9E9LE05)

– Creating Literature
Create and edit literary texts, that may be a hybrid, that experiment with text structures, language features and literary devices for purposes and audiences (AC9E9LE06)

Literacy
– Analysing, interpreting and evaluating
Use comprehension strategies such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring, questioning and inferring to compare and contrast ideas and opinions in and between texts(AC9E9LY05)

– Creating texts
Plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts, organising, expanding and developing ideas, and selecting text structures, language features, literary devices and multimodal features for purposes and audiences in ways that may be imaginative, reflective, informative, persuasive, analytical and/or critical (AC9E9LY06)

Year 10:
Literature
– Examining literature
Analyse how text structure, language features, literary devices and intertextual connections shape interpretations of texts (AC9E10LE05)

– Creating literature
Create and edit literary texts with a sustained “voice”, selecting and adapting text structures, literary devices, and language, auditory and visual features for purposes and audiences (AC9E10LE08)

Literacy
– Analysing, interpreting and evaluating
Integrate comprehension strategies such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring, questioning and inferring to analyse and interpret complex and abstract ideas(AC9E10LY05)

– Creating texts
Plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts, organising, expanding and developing ideas through experimenting with text structures, language features, literary devices and multimodal features for specific purposes and audiences in ways that may be imaginative, reflective, informative, persuasive, analytical and/or critical (AC9E10LY06).

Task #1: Literacy & Literature

Who, What, Why, When?

What you’ll need: “Hansel and Gretel” by the brothers Grimm.

Activity: Read the story to the class, as a class or individually.

Using research and guidance from teacher, answer the questions –

• What is the context of this story?
• When was it written?
• Where was it written?
• What was happening at the time?
• Who is it written for?

As a class, work through the basic structure of the story and mark out the episodes. Create a narrative arc on the board and mark out the main points (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution).

In pairs or small groups, make a list of characters and determine for each –

• Who are they (name, age, relationships to other characters, what do they know/want/think/feel?)
• What is happening? What is their perspective? What changes do they go through?
• Why are the events of the story happening? Making a list of questions to answer can help here – eg. Why does the step-mother want to get rid of the children? Why does the witch have a house made of lollies?
• When is it happening? (Year, season, time of day, during a significant event).

The groups now investigate the ‘copy’ and the photo from the Adelaide Festival Program. Hans and Gret is a modern re-telling of the story. What clues does the information in the program give you? On a planning document or butcher’s paper, groups can come up with what they imagine the changes might be. What is the new story?

Use the list of characters and elaborations, create a new list, based on the information students can glean from the program (eg. in the original story “Hansel and Gretel” are young children, but they are teenagers in the production). They will need to use their imaginations to fill in the gaps.

Write a summary of the new story, highlighting the important plot points. Mark this out on a narrative arc, using the original one to guide you. Use the evidence found in the program and create new, imagined information to complete the story!

This task could end here, or the new narrative could be co-written in pairs, groups or written individually.

Content Description Links:
Year 9: AC9E9LY05, AC9E9LE06
Year 10: AC9E10LY05, AC9E10LE08

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking
• Personal and social capability

Task #2: Literature

Symbolism in “Hansel and Gretel”

What you’ll need: Access to different versions of the story including the brothers Grimm version.

Activity: Lead a general discussion about the use of symbols in society and how they create, distil and augment meaning. List as many symbols as you can and include what they stand for. Consider symbols in literature, film, TV, games, music, person to person communication (verbal and non-verbal), religion, different cultures and so on.

Group the responses under the following and then try to add more to make the list as comprehensive as possible.

• Visual
• Written
• Music and Sound Effects
• Non-Verbal
• Verbal

Brainstorm symbols from one or more versions of “Hansel and Gretel” and discuss what they stand for in the story. Do any of the symbols have multiple meanings? Are they visual symbols? Verbal symbols? Use the internet to do further research on these symbols, especially in the context of fairy tales.

In groups of 3, choose 1 symbol and place it in the middle of a page. Invent 6 ideas for a short film (no dialogue) using this symbol as a starting point. It must retain its symbolic nature in your film. The film must also contain transformation or change. Flesh out the strongest idea and write a summary of the action. The film must be written with the knowledge that you only have 1-3 actors. The teacher can choose whether to guide the students to create a typical linear narrative or a montage style film.

The following process can be followed –

• Think about locations in the school where certain moments can take place. Photos can be taken to help plan camera angles, shot types and so on.
• Consider how many actors you will have (consider that you only have 3 group members). If all 3 are in a scene together the camera will need to be stationary.
• Storyboard your idea, either using paper storyboards or a digital version. The photos you took can be used too. Include drawings/photos and brief descriptions of action, angles, shot types, camera movement.
• Prepare any props/costumes.
• Film your film!
• Edit the film using Adobe Premier Pro or other editing software, adding music and sound effects.

Content Description Links:
Year 9: AC9E9LE05, AC9E9LE06
Year 10: AC9E10LE05, AC9E10LE08

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking

Task #3: Literature & Literacy

Back to the Future

What you’ll need: “Hansel and Gretel” by the brothers Grimm.

Activity: Students choose a character from the production who also features in the original story. Compare these two versions of the character, using a Venn Diagram or some other form of graphic organiser.

Consider –

• Context
• Time
• Setting
• Theme
• Tone
• Character voice

Write a letter from the Hans and Gret version of the character to the one from the Grimm’s story, like the two characters exist in a parallel universe, or the letter is travelling through time somehow. Then you can also write the response.

The letters need to predominantly follow the rules of a narrative recount, expressing an experience of the world at that time and the incidents that occur during the story, using –

• first person perspective
• past tense
• recount structure – orientation, sequence of events, re-orientation
• time sequence words/phrases to indicate changes in time.

You will have to decide why the characters are writing. Is it a warning? Is it like meeting a long lost relative? Is there room for humour or horror or sass? Be imaginative!

Use your comparisons to help you to capture the voice and tone of the two different characters, by considering the differences in –

• word/phrase choice
• sentence structure
• punctuation
• mode (pencil on paper or digital or…?)
• register (formal old-fashioned language or modern style slang and abbreviations or…?)

Extension/modification: This could be performed or recorded as audio/video, with students acting the roles.

Content Description Links:
Year 9: AC9E9LE05, AC9E9LE06
Year 10: AC9E10LE05, AC9E10LE08

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking

Task #4: Literacy

Advertisement using the 5 senses.

What you’ll need: Computers, possibly video camera, projectors, sound recording equipment.

Activity: Hans and Gret is an extremely visceral experience with lots of references and action involving taste, sight, sound, smell and touch. Some of these are explicit (eg. cannibalism, ginger bread) and others are inferred (eg. the smell of the world outside the gates). As a class, use the 5 senses to categorise these explicit and inferred moments in the show where the senses were provoked, from the perspective of the audience and the characters.

Drawing upon this information, students create a series of advertisements (or just one) for the show, using the 5 senses to guide them. Consider how the concepts of taste, sight, sound, touch and smell can be used to draw an audience in.

The advertisement could take various forms, such as –

• Printed ads in a paper/magazine
• Ads intended for radio/podcasts (script & recording)
• Television commercials (script & recording)
• A series of web-based advertisements (social media)

Ensure the use of –

• Persuasive language
• Descriptive language
• Visual information – photos, drawings, graphics, film.

Content Description Links: 
Year 9: AC9E9LY06
Year 10: AC9E10LY06

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking

Introduction

This unit includes activities and assessment linked to the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) Stage 1 and 2 Drama across Years 11 and 12. Teachers can choose to use individual learning experiences to complement existing drama units or complete the entire unit of work with their students.

The learning activities will encourage students to explore Hans and Gret as a performance text, with the possibility of generating whole class discussions and the sharing of different interpretations of the play and the characters, as well as provide opportunities for students to work independently and in small groups to respond to the work, creatively.

Many of the activities require a decent translation and adaptation of the Grimm’s version of the story. The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm translated by Lore Segal and Randall Jarrell is recommended.

Learning Requirements

Stage 1
The learning requirements summarise the knowledge, skills, and understanding that students are expected to develop and demonstrate through their learning in Stage 1 Drama.

• In this subject, students are expected to:
  understand and explore dramatic roles, conventions, texts, styles, processes, and technologies
• apply dramatic ideas and processes collaboratively to realise outcomes
• apply dramatic skills to create and present drama outcomes
• explore and experiment with technologies to provide creative solutions
• analyse and evaluate dramatic ideas, products, and/or technologies
• demonstrate critical and creative thinking in the development of drama.

Stage 2
The learning requirements summarise the knowledge, skills, and understanding that students are expected to develop and demonstrate through their learning in Stage 2 Drama.
In this subject, students are expected to:

• explore and understand dramatic theories, texts, styles, conventions, roles, and processes
• experiment with dramatic theories, ideas, aesthetics, processes, and technologies
• apply dramatic ideas, theories, and practice to develop dramatic outcomes collaboratively and individually
• apply and integrate the skills of drama to create and present original and culturally meaningful dramatic products
• analyse and evaluate dramatic theories, practice, works, styles, events, and/or practitioners from a range of personal, local, global, contemporary, and/or historical contexts.

Assessment Design Criteria

Understanding and Exploration

Stage 1
UEI – Understanding and exploration of dramatic roles, conventions, and processes.
UE2 – Understanding and exploration of dramatic ideas, texts, styles, and/or innovations.

Knowledge and Understanding

Stage 2
KU1 – Exploration and understanding of dramatic theories, texts, styles, conventions, roles, and processes
KU2 – Understanding and evaluation of the artistic and cultural value of local, global, contemporary, and/or historical drama.

 Critical and Creative Thinking

Stage 1 & 2
CCT1 – Creative thinking and experimentation in the development of dramatic ideas (Stage 1 & 2)
CCT2 – Analysis and evaluation of dramatic ideas, products, and technologies (Stage 1 only)

Year 12
CCT2 – Analysis and evaluation of the student’s own drama-making and others’ dramatic works, styles, and/or events (Stage 2 only)

Creative Application

Stage 1
CA1 – Application of dramatic skills.
CA2 – Collaborative application of dramatic ideas and processes to realise outcomes.

Stage 2
CA1 – Application of dramatic processes, individually and in collaboration with others.
CA2 – Application of dramatic skills.
CA3 – Integration of theory and practice to make meaningful dramatic outcomes.

Task #1 - Understanding and Exploration (St 1), Knowledge and Understanding (St 2)

The Perfect Family

What you’ll need: Computers, prior knowledge of the story.

Activity: We will ignore the ‘Happily Ever After’ trope for the time-being and admit that ultimately “Hansel and Gretel’ is about abandonment and violence. There is a dysfunctional family unit consisting of a mother (later changed to a step-mother by the Grimm brothers) who is willing to abandon her children, a father who weakly goes along with it, even though he disagrees, and two innocent children who are betrayed by both parents.

How does this apply to modern day families? Make a list of fictional or celebrity families who have a level of dysfunction. What makes them dysfunctional?

Now make a list of fictional or celebrity families who are ’perfect’. Instagram is a great source for research here. What makes them perfect? Is this level of perfection possible in reality? Why? Why not?

Think about the difference between the public ‘face’ of a family and the private one.

The production of Hans and Gret, deals very much with the pressure on the family to conform, to keep up appearances, to follow the rules. But as with most families – they must deal with differences in perception, perspective and personalities. They are also dealing with the teenagers ‘coming of age’ and the ‘coming of middle-age’ experience of the parents.

Group students into groups of 4-6 and ask them to search up images of ‘The Perfect Family’, considering the concept of the cheesy family portrait. How does this family want the rest of the world to see them?

Create a frozen family photo of the ‘perfect’ family. The family can include a grandparent/s or a pet. Think about the use of levels and shape to create a well-balanced tableau. Smile!

Once that ‘photo’ is created brainstorm who these characters are. What are their relationships to one another? What are the problems the family have that they don’t want the rest of the world to see?

Pretend that the photographer has accidently left their camera on and it is in time-lapse mode. The family do not know this! Create another 5 photos, showing what happens once the charade of capturing the ‘perfect’ shot is over. Each photo must flow to the next, with the group finding synchronised moments to move and freeze as they hit each tableau. Guide students to take their timing from those in front and to use peripheral vision. Make sure you end with a compelling image. Is one person left, crying? Is there knocked over furniture? Are we left with Grandma sitting romantically on Dad’s lap?!

Hans and Gret also includes contrasting elements to highlight darker moments. This can be applied here by choosing some light music or a recording of a happy family story to play while these movement sequences are performed.

Extension:

• Dialogue can be incorporated into the scene.
• 2 minutes before the first photo can be created.

Assessment Design Criteria Links: 
Stage 1: UEI, UE2
Stage 2: KU1

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking
• Personal and social capability
• Ethical understanding

Task #2: Creative Application

Archetypes in the horrifying world of fairy tales.

What you’ll need: Computers, butcher’s paper, tech – lights/sound equipment, costumes if possible.

 Activity: What is an Archetype? Create a class definition and consider archetypal characters, stories and events. What purpose does the inclusion of Archetypes in stories serve?

Research the 7 classic story archetypes and decide which one applies best to “Hansel and Gretel”.

Make a list of the common archetypal characters found in stories, particularly fairy tales. Decide which archetype fits with the characters in the story and co-create a graffiti wall for each (Hansel, Gretel, Step-mum, Dad, Witch). This could include defining features, images, definitions & examples from literature, film, TV & games.

Divide the class into groups and ask them to create 2 scenes, ensuring that each character (apart from the duck!) is featured. They must focus on the archetypal information from the graffiti wall and to exaggerate these details. Be a more monstrous monster, or a ridiculously innocent child!

Show each other the short scenes and discuss what was seen. How did the students use their bodies, voices and facial expressions to show this archetype? Ask students to respond by analysing what this style of characterisation did for them as audience members. Was the interpretation clear? Familiar? What did the students learn? Did the performance sit in the children’s theatre genre or the horror genre or somewhere in between? Remember that original fairy tales were often terrifying and not children’s stories!

Students now form a small company with a variety of roles such as actors, director, designers (lighting/costumes/set/sound & music) & stage manager. These roles can be doubled up.

Students must agree on which story archetype to follow and explore the characters even further. Can they apply more than one archetype to their character? Do the characters go through any changes? An example would be Hansel the hero who needs rescuing in the end, or Gretel the innocent who ends up murdering the witch. For the step-mother and Witch, the changes can be inferred or invented, as they are not as obvious.

Some elements of horror are implicit in the story but do need to be highlighted, such as character types, setting, themes. Students must also include these elements –

• A Jump scare, or threat of one!
• Suspenseful and frightening music and sound effects
• Atmospheric lighting
• A considered use of the space

Students perform for one another and provide verbal and/or written feedback regarding their use of the elements of horror, performance skills, characterisation using exaggerated archetypes, and the way these choices created meaning for the audience.

Assessment Design Criteria Links: 
Stage 1: CA1, CA2
Stage 2: CA1, CA2

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking
• Intercultural understanding

Task #3: Critical and Creative Thinking

Who are the modern-day Witches?

What you’ll need: Computers, butcher’s paper, possible access to production elements.

Activity: In Hans and Gret, there is a moment when Jennifer implies that she is the an ‘every-witch’, implying that she embodies every ‘witch’ that ever was. She also reminds us of the gendered and misogynistic history of witches, and how those tropes still exist today. The Witch is the supposed unnatural woman; and in fiction she is the monster who unleashes malevolence.

In the case of Hans and Gret, Jennifer IS a malevolent monster. She is not someone falsely accused. She is a manipulator and a murderer.

Are there modern-day malevolent monsters? People who manipulate, control and abuse? Perhaps the witch represents a collective of people or a corporation? (eg. Hitler, multi-nationals etc.)

Are there modern-day witches who are falsely accused, much like those in Medieval Europe, demonised by the society or the media? (eg. asylum seekers, step-parents etc.)

Create a list of perceived monsters VS real monsters.

Are there modern-day abandoned children? A group of people who are left to fend for themselves in difficult circumstances? Or who are ignored? Encourage the students not to be literal. (eg. Uyghur people, people in extreme poverty etc.)

Create a piece of political theatre focussing on a real event, loosely based on the episodic structure of “Hansel and Gretel”, where the ‘Witch’ is replaced by a modern-day monster and the children are replaced by the modern-day abandoned children/people. How does this play out? Do the ‘children’ overcome the ‘monster’ as they do in the story? Or is the ending unhappy?

Boal’s Forum Theatre would work well here, where the ‘most likely’ outcome is played out as the ending. The performance is played out once in entirety and then again. The second and subsequent times, the audience (‘spect-actors’) interrupt the action and change it by joining the scene, playing one of the roles. Please refer to Boal’s Games for Actors and Non-Actors or other more general drama books such as A Practical Approach to Drama Performance by Louis Tourelle and Marygai McNamara for more on Forum Theatre.

Assessment Design Criteria Links: 
Stage 1: CCT1, CCT2
Stage 2: CCT1, CCT2

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking
• Ethical understanding
• Intercultural understanding

Task #4: Understanding & Exploration

Staging the impossible.

What you’ll need: A variety of tech – lights, torches, big pieces of paper, cardboard boxes, material, string, mirrors, video camera, projector/s (even overhead or handheld) and so on.

 Activity: One of the exciting things about fictional writing is that anything is possible. Sometimes when film and theatre makers adapt an existing text, they must work out ways to stage fantastic action. The use of special effects in film makes this possible. But it is harder in theatre.

Lead a conversation and make notes on all of the ‘fantastical incidents’ that occurred in Hans and Gret and how the artistic team made these ‘impossible’ things happen? Consider the use of light, set design, costume. Consider examples of high tech and lo-fi theatre magic. Consider what this meant to the audience in terms of what it made them think, feel & know.

In small groups, choose an object and character from another fairy tale (The Giant and the beans, The woodcutter and the apple and so on) and use whatever lo-fi and high-fi tech is available and set the following challenges, focussing on these characters/objects  –

• Make an object disappear.
• Make a character disappear.
• Make an object morph from one thing to another.
• Make an actor morph from one character to another.
• Change from one setting to another in a magical way.
• Make something tiny grow large and reverse it.
• Create a double of something or someone.

In groups, students create a short narrative summary using the object, character and their three best magical moments. Students could write a design and/or director’s concept at this point. It could end here or become a ‘company and production task’ where this performance is fleshed out and staged.

Assessment Design Criteria Links: 
Stage 1: UE1, UE2
Stage 2: KU1

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking

Introduction

This unit includes activities and assessment linked to the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) Stage 1 and 2 Drama across Years 11 and 12. Teachers can choose to use individual learning experiences to complement existing drama units or complete the entire unit of work with their students.

The learning activities will encourage students to explore Hans and Gret as a performance text, with the possibility of generating whole class discussions and the sharing of different interpretations of the play and the characters, as well as provide opportunities for students to work independently and in small groups to respond to the work, creatively.

Many of the activities require a decent translation and adaptation of the Grimm’s version of the story. The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm translated by Lore Segal and Randall Jarrell is recommended.

Learning Requirements

Stage 1
The learning requirements summarise the knowledge, skills, and understanding that students are expected to develop and demonstrate through their learning in Stage 1 English.

In this subject, students are expected to:

1. analyse relationships between purpose, audience, and context, and how these influence texts and their meaning
2. identify ways in which ideas and perspectives are represented in texts
3. analyse how language and stylistic features and conventions are used to convey ideas and perspectives in texts
4. create oral, written, and/or multimodal texts for particular purposes, audiences, and contexts
5. identify and analyse intertextual connections
6. apply knowledge and understanding of accurate spelling, punctuation, syntax, and conventions.

Stage 2
The learning requirements summarise the knowledge, skills, and understanding that students are expected to develop and demonstrate through their learning in Stage 2 English.

In this subject, students are expected to:

1. analyse the relationship between purpose, context, and audience in a range of texts
2. evaluate how language and stylistic features and conventions are used to represent ideas, perspectives, and aspects of culture in texts
3. analyse how perspectives in their own and others’ texts shape responses and interpretations
4. create and evaluate oral, written, and multimodal texts in a range of modes and styles
5. analyse the similarities and differences when comparing texts
6. apply clear and accurate communication skills.

Assessment Design Criteria

Knowledge and Understanding
Stage 1 & 2
KU1 – Knowledge and understanding of ideas and perspectives in texts.
KU2 – Knowledge and understanding of ways in which creators of texts use language features, stylistic features, and conventions to make meaning.
KU3 – Knowledge and understanding of ways in which texts are created for different purposes, audiences, and contexts.

Analysis
Stage 1
An1 – Analysis of the relationship between purpose, audience, and context, and how they shape meaning.
An2 – Analysis of how language features, stylistic features, and conventions are interpreted by readers.
An3 – Analysis of intertextual connections.

Stage 2
An1 – Analysis of ideas, perspectives, and/or aspects of culture represented in texts.
An2 – Analysis of language features, stylistic features, and conventions, and evaluation of how they influence audiences.
An3 – Analysis of similarities and differences when comparing texts.

Application
Stage 1
Ap1 – Precision, fluency, and coherence of writing and speaking.
Ap2 – Use of appropriate language features, stylistic features, and conventions for a range of audiences and purposes.
Ap3 – Use of evidence from texts to support conclusions, with textual references incorporated in responses.

 Stage 2
Ap1 – Use of language and stylistic features to create texts that address the purpose, audience, and context.
Ap2 – Use of evidence from texts to develop and support a response.
Ap3 – Use of clear, accurate, and fluent expression.

Task #1: Analysis (St 1)

Making meaning for who?

What you’ll need: A translation of the Grimm brother’s version of the story, paper/stationary & computers, access to media about the production.

Activity:
Reading the story
Read the story and have a discussion using the following key questions –

• Who is the story written for?
• What is its purpose?
• What did the story make you think, feel and know?
• How has the author communicated these ideas?
• What literary devices has the author used to communicate these ideas?
• Is the story still relevant today?

Annotating the story
Work through the story and annotate the following –

• Metaphor
• Simile
• Imagery
• Hyperbole

Annotate and elaborate on the following, using research.

• Symbolism
• Archetype
• Allegory

Answer the question –

Why are these devices always present in fairy tales and myths?

Rhetorical Triangle
Present students with a rhetorical triangle pro-forma with blank spaces to fill in or ask the students to draw one on big pieces of butcher’s paper, in pairs or small groups. The usual headings on a rhetorical triangle are –

• Intention/Purpose
• Subject/Topic
• Audience/Reader
• Speaker/Writer
• Context
• Tone
• Genre

Rhetorical Triangle part 2
Turn the attention of the students towards the production of Hans and Gret, written by Lally Katz, in collaboration with actors and designers, which they will soon see! How can this rhetorical triangle be applied to a live performance? Source information about the show – newspaper articles, Adelaide Festival program blurb and interviews with key creatives embedded into the Windmill Education Resources (See above). Students do the same rhetorical triangle task with what they can glean from the resources they have at hand.

After seeing the show, this can be revisited.

Assessment Design Criteria Links: 
Stage 1 & 2: KU2, KU3

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking

Task #2: Responding to Texts

The Grimm’s and Dortchen Wild

What you’ll need: My Fairy Tale Fascination – Kate Forsyth

Activity:
It is quite well known that the Grimm brothers did not invent “Hansel and Gretel”, or any other fairy tale. They adapted them, writing down tales that were carried through various cultures and countries aurally.

Read the article My Fairy Tale Fascination – Kate Forsyth

Introduce the concept of Feminist Theory with the students, exploring concepts such as –

• General feminism and equality
• Gender as a social construct
• Sex and gender representations in literature
• The undervaluing or underrepresentation of women storytellers (you can discuss the role Dortchen Wild played in the dissemination of Hansel and Gretel and other fairy tales, as discussed in the Kate Forsyth blog)

In pairs, apply these ideas to “Hansel and Gretel”.

• How are females represented in the story?
• How are males represented in the story?
• Are there any gender stereotypes or do some of the characters go against stereotype?
• Who has the power in the story? What type of power is it?
• Does the power dynamic change? How?
• The Step-Mother in the story was originally Hansel and Gretel’s biological mother. Why would the Brothers Grimm have changed this? What does it say about their view on the ‘natural’ or ‘unnatural’ behaviours of women?
• The Step-Mother and the Witch die at about the same time in the story. Some literary theorists suggest there is a symbolic link between them. Do you think this is true? Why or why not?
• What other ways did the Grimm brothers influence the telling of this story? Research can be done here.

Students share their findings with another group or with the whole class. Listen for any debatable points. Use this analysis and research to create a few topics for debate, such as –

• The behaviour of the father was justified
• The Grimm brothers were right to change the character of the mother into a step-mother
• The home in “Hansel and Gretel” is a symbol of a patriarchal system

Students form teams and a debating tournament can be staged.

Assessment Design Criteria Links: 
Stage 1: An1, An2
Stage 2: An1, An2

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking
• Ethical understanding
• Intercultural understanding

Task #3: Responding to & Creating Texts

Freaky Friday.

What you’ll need: Computers, freaky Friday clips, perhaps the book Freaky Friday.

Activity: After seeing the play, consider the characters of Mum and Gret. Briefly discuss the evolution of these characters from the Grimm version. What changes have been made? Make a class list. Discuss WHY the creative team and Lally Katz made these changes. You can also reference different mother/daughter relationships in stories such as Snow White and Cinderella. Do these stories raise similar issues?

Mum and Gret are both experiencing a type of ‘coming of age’ but manage these changes in completely different ways.

Use the following words and apply them to Mum and Gret using a Venn Diagram or some other kind of information organiser –

• Freedom
• Power
• Order
• Potential
• Control
• Responsibility
• Fun
• Youth
• Appreciation
• Vitality
• Future
• Autonomy
• Hope

Ask students if they know of the book or film Freaky Friday. Discuss this concept and allow them to read the synopsis of the book (Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers) or watch a trailer of the film (1976, 1995 and 2003 versions). This is an extreme, comedic take on adults and children coveting the life of the other.

Students consider the tense moments between Mum and Gret in the show (prom dress, hair-cuts, drugs, surveillance, freedom of movement) and come up with their own scenario where tension may arise between a parental figure and a child. The class can brainstorm a list here.

Students now write their own episodic narrative using the following conventions –

• ‘Coming of Age’ in adults and children
• “Freaky Friday” style body swap
• Choose your own adventure structure, following the adult and child’s perspective

Consider the following techniques –

• Character voice
• Third- and first-person narrative
• Descriptive and Figurative language
• Story arc – exposition, inciting incident, rising action/conflict, climax, denoument, resolution.

The typical ‘choose your own adventure’ structure is complex and time consuming. Instead, students can begin a story in third person and at a certain point, pursue the perspective of the child in first person. Once the story has come to its conclusion, students can come up with a way to take the reader back to the point where it changed from third person to first person, but this time, the story can be told from the perspective of the adult. It will probably end differently.

Assessment Design Criteria Links: 
Stage 1: An3, Ap2
Stage 2: An3, Ap1

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking
• Intercultural understanding

Task #4: Creating Texts

Greatest Fear Newspaper article

What you’ll need: A range of feature articles – online or hardcopy, computers, brainstorming gear (paper, whiteboard or digital templates)

Activity: Brainstorm the themes, tropes, archetypes and structures that are found in the original story of “Hansel and Gretel” (eg. children facing adversity, the wicked step-mother, a witch, wolves, the house). Now do the same with the production of Hans and Gret. Are there any cross-overs?

Consider the question – What ‘greatest fears’ are represented in both versions? Eg. Abandonment, starvation, loss of civil liberties etc. Some of these might be contextual (historical or geographical) to the time the story was written or adapted, and some may be timeless or belong to the present. Make a list.

Choose one of the ‘greatest fears’ from Hans and Gret (which (may also be present in the original story) and write a feature article about it, as though it is real life. Set the article in the world of the play, using the characters and some key moments.

Give students a range of feature articles to analyse, perhaps annotating them to comprehend the necessary features and the intention of the author. These articles will be non-fiction, while theirs will be fiction, but the same rules apply.

Consider –

• Feature article layout – headline, stand out/write off, by-line, images, column format, break out box, colour, font sizes.
• Structure – Lead, body, conclusion, transitions.
• Content – background information, who/what/when/where/how, quotes (eyewitness, sources, experts), technical terms, explanations, graphics and statistics (possibly in a break out box)
• Language features – contextual language, syntax (a variety to maintain interest!), short paragraphs, objective information through an emotive lens, informal tone.

Remember to write in a persuasive tone, to encourage readers to continue reading and appeal to their emotions.

Assessment Design Criteria Links: 
Stage 1: KU3, An1, An3, Ap2
Stage 2: KU3, An1, An3, Ap1

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking
• Ethical understanding
• Intercultural understanding