• The Play and Its Context
  • Emily Mann on Herringbone
  • Character Profiles
  • One of Those Years: 1929
  • Boom Then Bust: The Great Crash of ‘29
  • Vaudeville: Always Something for Everybody
  • A Cast of One: The History, Art and Nature of the One-Person Show
• About this Production
  • Who’s Who in the Production
  • Bios
  • Herringbone Interview with BD Wong and Roger Rees
  • Interview with Choreographer Darren Lee and Music Director Dan Lipton
  • Interview Herringbone Creators Tom Cone, Skip Kennon, and Ellen Fitzhugh
• Theater in the Classroom
  • Educators Introduction
  • Core Curriculum Standards
  • Pre-Show Discussion Questions and Activities
  • Post-Show Discussion Questions and Activities
• Additional Resources

Post-Show Questions for Discussion and Activities

Note to Educators: Use the following assignments, questions, and activities to have students evaluate their experience of the performance of Herringbone, as well as to encourage their own imaginative and artistic projects through further exploration of the play in production. Consider also that some of the pre-show activities might enhance your students’ experience following the performance.

1. Exploring the Textual and Subtextual Themes of Herringbone. When attempting to describe the play Herringbone to a person who has not yet seen it, one might say that it is, dramatically speaking, a dark musical comedy about an eight-year-old boy growing up during the Great Depression who is possessed by the spirit of a dead vaudeville performer and taken on the road by his parents to help the family.  Thematically speaking, one might explain that the play is about show business, familial bonds and dynamics, childhood, exploitation, greed, and revenge.  To its creative team of Director Roger Rees and BD Wong, Herringbone is “a play that is not at all what it seems.” For one, they note the presence of subtextual themes, such as “depression as metaphor,” “the construction of or search for identity,” and “the nature of performance itself” which they feel add greater complexity to the experience of the play.  Explore the textual and subtextual themes of Herringbone with your students with the following writing and discussion activities:
   
   
• Ask your students to journal a response to the following question:  Having experienced Herringbone in performance, how would you describe the story of the play to someone who has not yet seen it?  Have them share their descriptions.
  
  
• Next, ask your students to brainstorm a list of themes, ideas, or motifs they detected in Herringbone.  Ask students to identify moments from the play in which each theme was explored.  Ask students if they can personally identify or connect with any of play’s themes.  Have them explain their responses.
  
  
• Have your students read (aloud as a group or individually) Literary Manager Carrie Hughes’ interview with BD Wong and Roger Rees found in this audience guide.  Immediately following their reading, ask them to journal about anything that stood out to them in the interview as compelling, interesting, evocative, confusing, challenging, or meaningful.  Ask them to explain in detail their response.  Discuss your responses as a class.
  
  
• If these subtextual themes have not come up as a result of the previous activities or discussion, ask them to consider how depression as metaphor, the construction of or search for identity, or the drive to perform were made manifest in the performance of Herringbone they experienced.
  
  
2. Herringbone:  Discussing the Production and Its Various Elements.  Following their attendance at the performance of Herringbone, ask your students to reflect on the questions below.  You might choose to have them answer each individually, or you may divide students into groups for round-table discussions. Have them consider each question, record their answers, and then share their responses with the rest of the class.

   Questions to Ask Your Students About the Play in Production

   1. What was your overall reaction to Herringbone?  Did you find the production compelling?  Stimulating?  Intriguing?  Challenging?  Memorable?  Confusing?  Evocative?  Unique?  Delightful?  Meaningful?  Explain your reactions.
   2. Did experiencing the play heighten your awareness or understanding of the play’s themes (e.g., show business, familial bonds and dynamics, childhood, exploitation, and greed, and revenge, depression as metaphor, the construction of/search for identity, the drive to perform)? What themes were made even more apparent in performance? Explain your responses.
   3. Do you think that the pace and tempo of the production were effective and appropriate? Explain your opinion.
   4. Did you find the elements of music and dance to be integral to the production as a whole?  Explain your thoughts.

Questions to Ask Your Students About the Characters

1. Did you personally identify with George or any of the other characters in Herringbone?  Who?  Why?
2. What memorable qualities or character traits were revealed by the action and speech of the characters?  Explain your ideas.
3. Did young George undergo a transformation during the course of the play?  If so, how would you describe his transformation?  What caused this transformation?  Does the adult Herringbone undergo a transformation during the course of telling the story from his childhood?
4. In what ways did the characters reveal the themes of the play?  Explain your responses.

Questions to Ask Your Students About the Style and Design of the Production

1. Was there a moment in Herringbone that was so compelling or intriguing that it remains with you in your mind’s eye?  Can you write a vivid description of that moment?  As you write your description, pretend that you are writing about the moment for someone who was unable to experience the performance.
2. Did the style and design elements of the production enhance the performance?  Did anything specifically stand out to you?  Explain your reaction.
3. How did the production style and design reflect the themes of the play?
4. What mood or atmosphere did the lighting design establish or achieve?  Explain your experience.
5. Did the music, songs, and choreography serve to illuminate the characters, themes, and style of the play?  How?

3. A Wong-Man Show.  The role of Herringbone is a part which requires what theater professionals refer to as a “tour de force” performer, that is, an actor with great talent, skill, stamina, virtuosity, and psychological strength or confidence.  It is the performer’s ultimate challenge, and it is reasonable to say that not just any actor could take on such a role.  Certainly BD Wong is not just any ordinary actor.  Herringbone director Roger Rees has described him as a “quadruple threat”—not only a talented actor, singer, and dancer, but also, a “riveting human presence on stage.”  Ask your students to reflect upon BD Wong’s performance in Herringbone and the one-person show form and its challenges using the following questions:
   
   
   • What did you find compelling, exciting, surprising, confounding, or worth noting about BD Wong’s performance in Herringbone?
     
     
   • What one moment of Wong’s performance stands out foremost in your mind when you think of Herringbone?  Describe that moment in detail and explain why you think it remains foremost in your thoughts.
     
     
   • What were the pleasures of watching Wong embody the many characters in the play?
     
     
   • Was there anything that didn’t work for you in the performance of the piece?  Explain your response.
     
     
   • What in the nature of Herringbone (e.g., narrative, theme, characters) recommends it as or requires that it be a solo performance piece?  Explain your answer. 
     
     
   • What would be lost theatrically or thematically if Herringbone were expanded into a play for multiple characters, if anything?  Explain your respons

4. Blog All about it!:  Herringbone After the Show.  McCarter is very interested in carrying on the conversation about Herringbone with you and your students after you’ve left the theater.  Have them post a post-show comment on their experience of the play in performance on the McCarter Theatre Blog.  To access the blog go to http://www.mccarter.org/blog/index.php, select “Citizen Responses” under “Categories” on the left side of the web page, and then post your comment.  See you on the blog!

 

A McCarter Theatre production | Venue: Berlind Theatre | AUDIENCE GUIDE STAFF: Editor for Literary Content: Carrie Hughes | Editor for Education Content: Paula Alekson | Editorial Administrator: Francine Schiffman | Web Design: Dimple Parmar | Contributors: Paula Alekson, Carrie Hughes, Adam Immerwahr, Emily Mann, Patrick T. McKelvey, Christopher T. Parks