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.

Objectives:
- to understand the historical and cultural influences on a play
- to understand how plays are made
- to understand the relation of script to performance
- to express ideas and emotions appropriate to particular characters

Resources: none

CELs:
COM, CCT

Components:
Cultural/Historical, Creative/Productive

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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.
• Students 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, students perform their monologues for a partner. The partner records the emotions he or she observes in Death during the scene. Following the scene, both partners discuss how successfully a variety of emotions were communicated. Then the students switch roles.

To generate a paper copy of the script, copy and paste the text into a word processing document. (45-55 min.)