Pre-Show Discussion Questions and Activities

Note to Educators: Use the following assignments, questions, and activities to introduce your students to Argonautika and its origins, context, and themes, as well as to engage their imaginations and creativity before they see the production.

1. The Journey. At the heart of most great epics, from Homer’s Odyssey to Virgil’s Aeneid to Valmiki’s Ramayana, is the classic hero who must overcome great adversity to fulfill some great prophesy and/or defeat evil.  The stories typically involve grand adventures plagued with dangers (often supernatural) that test the hero’s courage and internal fortitude.   There is often some god or god-like intervention which supports and/or stands in the way of the hero.  The tale of Jason and his Argonauts incorporates each of these elements, as our hero and his companions strive to overcome seemingly impossible challenges in order to accomplish their quest.
   
   
   • Many writers of comic books, movies, novels, and television shows use classical material as a foundation for the mythology they create for their works of fiction. George Lucas, for instance, was extremely interested in Homeric archtypes when he created the “Star Wars Universe.” Ask your students if they can think of some modern epic tales that fit within the defined parameters above.  Are the supernatural forces religious, as in Argonautika?  Is the hero of the tale clearly defined as the protagonist?  What setting is used to contain the epic nature of the story? 
     
   • Ask your students if they have ever been on an “epic” quest for something.  Did their journey involve many different encounters with adversarial and benevolent forces? Did they feel as if there were any supernatural forces involved? Did they succeed in their ultimate goal?  Did they undergo a transformation as a result of their completion of the quest?   
     
   • Ask your students if they have a story about someone they know who faced great adversity against seemingly impossible odds.  What is their relationship to this person?  Was this person’s faith challenged when making the decisions necessary in order to achieve victory?  What allies or comfort did this person have to help bolster his or her confidence?
     
     
2. Something from Nothing. Mary Zimmerman is known for manifesting the worlds of her plays through the creative use of scenery, costumes and properties.  Two benches and a sheet of fabric become a boat. A flock of birds gliding across the sky is created by four actors in motion with their arms spread wide.  In an effort to enhance your students’ appreciation of the theatrical innovation as illustrated by the professional acting company in Argonautika, split your students up into groups of four or five and present them with the prompts below.  Each prompt should be preceded by the following preamble, “You have twenty seconds to create something from nothing.  Use your minds, use your bodies and voices to create…”
   
   
   • A Magical Spell
   • The Voice of a Goddess
   • A Snake
   • A Sea Voyage
   • Fire
   • A Storm
   • A Dragon
   • A Tidal Wave
   • Harpies
   • A Forest
   • Fear
     
     
3. Zimmerman on the Net. Mary Zimmerman is revered as one of the great innovators of the modern theater.  She won the Tony Award in 2002 for Best Director for her production of Metamorphoses on Broadway.  Her productions have been produced in major theaters across the United States.  Have your students, either individually or in small groups, go onto the internet and research reviews of past productions by Mary Zimmerman.  Have each student/group look for common themes or dramatic and directorial signatures or sensibilities as described by these professional theater-goers.  If they go to “Google,” they can type in the following search words to yield abundant results:
   
   
   • Zimmerman Metamorphoses review
   • Zimmerman Odyssey review
   • Zimmerman Secret in the Wings review
   • Zimmerman Arabian Nights review

   Note that some of the results which appear are for productions that have not been directed by Mary Zimmerman though they use the text she wrote.  This distinction should be considered when compiling an assessment of reviewers’ reactions to her work.  Have each group/student answer the following questions:

   • What words do the reviewers use to describe the lighting, scenery and costume design?
   • What are some of the common themes that pervade these reviews’ descriptions?
   • How are the acting performances described? 
   • Do these reviews make you want to see a production of the play they describe?  Why/Why not?
     
     
4. Design Team.  A scenic designer creates the environment where the action of the play takes place.  A costume designer selects the clothing the actors will wear.  The lighting designer helps define the mood and general atmosphere.  The director is responsible for unifying the visions of a production’s designers to create a cohesive picture.  There are often many meetings with the design team to discuss the concept for a play and how it should be realized on stage. Review with your students the story of Jason and the Argonauts, then split them up into teams and have them take on the roles of scenic, costume and lighting designers, as well as director.  Have the director come up with a concept for the play and discuss with the designers how they might design the production. Is there some visual idea or style that ties the whole production together? Is there a feeling or emotion that they would want to express through their design of this production? Have teams prepare a design presentation for their classmates with drawings, visual research and/or writing. Students should be prepared to field their classmates’ questions about their design choices.
   
   
5. A Theater Reviewer Prepares.  A theater critic or reviewer is essentially a “professional audience member,” whose job is to report the news, in detail, of a play’s production and performance through active and descriptive language for a target audience of readers (e.g., their peers, their community, or those interested in the Arts). To prepare your students to write an accurate, insightful and compelling theater review following their attendance at Mary Zimmerman’s Argonautika, prime them for the task by discussing the three basic elements of a theatrical review:  reportage, analysis and judgment.
   
   
   • Reportage is concerned with the basic information of the production, or the journalist’s “four w’s” (i.e., who, what, where, when), as well as the elements of production, which include the text, setting, costumes, lighting, sound, acting and directing (see Theater Reviewer’s Checklist).  When reporting upon these observable phenomena of production, the reviewer’s approach should be factual, descriptive and objective; any reference to quality or effectiveness should be reserved for the analysis section of the review.
   • With analysis the theater reviewer segues into the realm of the subjective and attempts to interpret the artistic choices made by the director and designers and the effectiveness of these choices; specific moments, ideas and images from the production are considered in the analysis.
   • Judgment involves the reviewer’s opinion as to whether the director’s and designers’ intentions were realized, and if their collaborative, artistic endeavor was ultimately a worthwhile one.  Theater reviewers always back up their opinions with reasons, evidence and details. 

Remind your students that the goal of a theater reviewer is “to see accurately, describe fully, think clearly, and then (and only then) to judge fairly the merits of the work” (Thaiss and Davis, Writing for the Theatre, 1999).  Proper analytical preparation before the show and active listening and viewing during will result in the effective writing and crafting of their reviews.