• The Play and Its Context

  • Plot Summary
  • Character Profiles

• Theater in the Classroom

  • CORE CURRICULUM STANDARDS
  • Experiential Theater: A Tutorial for Teachers
  • Post-Show Discussion Questions and Activities

• About This Production

  • Who’s Who in the Production

• Additional Resources

Post-Show Discussion Ideas and Activities

Note to Educators: Use the following questions for discussion and activities to have students reflect upon their experience of The Odyssey Experience, as well as to encourage their own imaginative and artistic projects through further exploration of the play, its characters and themes.

1. Journeys and Homecomings.
   At the heart of The Odyssey Experience is the story of a person on a journey just trying to get home.  Have your students consider the two major themes of journey and homecoming in both the story of Odysseus and in the story of their own lives.

JOURNEYS
Every journey has a beginning, a middle, and an end.  The beginning of every journey is prompted by a “call to adventure” or a reason for going, and a departure.  The middle of a journey is made up of different roads, places on the way, people who either help or hinder the voyager, and sometimes other trials and/or obstacles that slow down or stop the journeyer’s progress.  The end of the journey is just that: the place of arrival, the goal or endpoint.  Some journeys have two legs:  the journey to a place and then the journey back home.

• Have your students discuss the beginning, middle and end of Odysseus’ journey home as enacted in The Odyssey Experience.  
  • Ask your students what events mark the beginning of his journey home—his reason for going and point of departure. 
  • Next, have them chart out (preferably on the classroom chalk or white board) the middle of his journey, including the places he stops on the way, the people he meets (who either help or hinder him), and any other or trial or obstacle he experiences. 
  • Then ask your students to describe the end of Odysseus’s journey.
    
    
• Ask your students to consider a journey that they, or someone they know family member or friend) have taken.
  • Have them outline the details of the journey’s beginning, middle and end (as indicated above) on a sheet of paper.
  • Then give your students an opportunity to free write about this journey for ten minutes.  If appropriate, students may volunteer their compositions to be read aloud to the class and discussed.

HOMECOMINGS
Odysseus has been absent from Ithaca for twenty years. Ask your students to put themselves into the shoes of Odysseus, as well as those of Telemachus and Penelope, to consider what this situation must be like for this specific family. 

• Ask your students the following questions:
  • What thoughts and feelings must be going through each character’s mind and body? 
  • What must Odysseus do, now that he is home, to reclaim his standing as king, husband, and father (beyond killing the suitors)?
  • How will the lives of Telemachus and Penelope change now that Odysseus has returned?
    
    
• Ask your students if they have ever experienced an important homecoming in the life or history of their own family.  Ask them to describe the event to their classmates, considering:
  • What was the setting of the homecoming? 
  • What was the scenario/situation?
  • Who were the “characters” involved?
  • What happened?

2. A Classroom Pantheon of Epic Hero(in)es.
   The hero in an epic poem or story is known as an “epic hero.”  An epic hero, male or female, is a person who is able to overcome most problems that s/he encounters without any supernatural powers.  The epic hero is faithful to family, country, and the gods.  In addition, the epic hero is brave.  Although the epic hero often feels fear, s/he overcomes the fear, knowing that s/he has important responsibilities, which include defeating evil and allowing good to triumph.  The epic hero is also intelligent; without supernatural powers, the epic hero must rely on smarts to get out of tough situations.  Sometimes, however, a higher force or being serves as the epic hero’s guide.  This greater force does not do things for the hero, but rather helps the hero do things for her/himself.
   
   
   • Utilizing the criteria of the epic hero above, ask your students to provide evidence from The Odyssey Experience to support the nomination of Odysseus into the “Pantheon of Epic Heroes.”
   • Then ask your students to name additional literary or fictional heroes (from books, plays or films they have read or seen) for nomination to the classroom’s “Pantheon of Epic Heroes.”
     
   • Generate a list of fictional heroes on the board. 
   • Ask each student to pick one hero to research.
   • For homework, each student should write up a report supporting their nominee.  Students should utilize the epic hero criteria and provide evidence or an explanation from their book, play or film for each criterion.
   • The next time class meets, students should present their reports.
   • A hero’s admission into the Pantheon should be based upon a vote of hands following each nomination report.
     
     
3. My Odyssey Experience:  “Today We Ran Into a Smelly Cyclops...”
   Have your students relive The Odyssey Experience by asking them to assume the personae of one of the members of Odysseus’s crew and to create a journal of the journey from Troy back to Ithaca. This will be a record of their “personal” fictional Odyssey.
   
   
   • First, students should choose or create/imagine a name for their persona and a personal biography or back-story for her or him; which could include:

     Gender Age Appearance Occupation/job (on board ship) Home life (family, quality of existence) Upbringing

     I.Q./Intelligence Ambitions Abilities Disappointments/regrets Peculiarities Most prized possession Deepest secret

   • Next, students should choose three different adventures/events from Odysseus’ and his crew’s journey to reflect upon and journal about.  Each journal entry should include:
     • The imagined date of the entry/event
     • Interesting facts about the island or place where the event occurred
     • A brief recounting of the adventure that happened at that location (be creative)
     • A reflection upon the importance or significance of that event in the overall journey
     • Finally, students should create a cover for their journal and a few illustrations to accompany their entries.  Completed journals can be displayed in the classroom so that students can appreciate the imaginations and work of their fellow students.
   • Finally, students should create a cover for their journal and a few illustrations to accompany their entries.  Completed journals can be displayed in the classroom so that students can appreciate the imaginations and work of their fellow students.

A McCarter Theatre Education Department production | 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, Elizabeth Edwards, Carrie Hughes, Christopher T. Parks