Unit Four - Script Analysis
Module 2: Text
Lesson 2 - "Everyman" and finding emotions

Introduction:

The purpose of the lesson to help actors to read a text and correctly identify the emotions or objectives behind the lines.

Everyman tells the story of a man who is informed by Death that he is about to die. Everyman is deserted by his friends, his family and his money. He falls back on his Good Deeds, his Strength, his Beauty, his Intelligence, and his Knowledge. At the end, everything is gone except his Good Deeds. The theme is that we only what we have given to others when we die, not the things we have.

Everyman was written near the end of the fifteenth century. Like all morality plays, the central character makes moral errors that many people make (hence the name Everyman). The text is quite simple to follow, and the characters state what they mean very exactly.

Activities:
• Read the text of the play Everyman. In this section of the play, God sends Death to find Everyman and teach him a lesson.
• Using Death's large speech, search for the emotion that Death shows as a class.
• You should practice the speech where Death that shows his contempt for Everyman. No more than two lines may have the same exact emotion underlying them.
• After 15-30 minutes of practice, you perform your monologues for a partner. Your partner records the emotions he or she observes in Death during the scene. Following the scene, both of you discuss how successfully a variety of emotions were communicated. Then you switch jobs.

To generate a paper copy of the script, copy and paste the text into a word processing document.

Text selection from Everyman Death: Almighty God, I am here at your will, Your commandment to fulfill. God: Go thou to Everyman, And show him in my name A pilgrimage he must on him take, Which he in no wise may escape; And that he bring with him a sure reckoning Without delay or any tarrying. Death: Lord, I will in the world go run over all, And cruelly outsearch both great and small; Every man will I beset that liveth beastly Out of God's laws, and dreadeth not folly; He that loveth riches I will strike with my dart, His sight to blind, and from heaven to depart, Except that alms be his good friend, In hell for to dwell, world without end. Lo, yonder I see Everyman walking; Full little he thinketh on my coming; His mind is on fleshly lust and his treasure, And great pain it shall cause him to endure Before the Lord Heaven King. Everyman, stand still; whither art thou going Thus gaily? Hast thou thy Maker forget?

Evaluation: The monologue is evaluated by peer observation and discussion between the partners.

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