All That Fall Teacher Guide
All That Fall Teacher Guide
All That Fall Teacher Guide
Table Of Contents
Dear Educator
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The Production
All That Fall is a radio play written by
Samuel Beckett which was first broadcast
in 1957. Throughout his lifetime, Beckett
insisted that the play never be performed
live, asserting that he specifically wrote it
for the radio. Pan Pan, by presenting the
play in its true forma radio recording in
which audience members sit in rocking
chairs and listenhas found a way to
share Becketts masterful radio play with
theater audiences without dishonoring
Becketts intentions for the piece.
A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR:
I began making theatre when I was five
years old in the back garden of the house,
where I grew up in Dublin. My first works
involved choreographing my sisters to
the relevant pop music of the time. Circa
1974. I suppose even then I wanted to
be a boy/man of my time. To be simply
Synopsis
The play begins with Maddy Rooney on
what seems to be a long and arduous
journey to the train station to meet her
blind husband Dan, whom she will walk
back home. As she travels along she
passes the time with a number of local
characters: Christy, a dung carrier; Mr.
Tyler, a retired broker who is riding by on
his bicycle and is almost hit by a passing
van; and Mr. Slocum, a clerk from the
racehorses who gives Maddy a ride to the
station. At the station Maddy converses
with more of the locals as she waits for
Dans train, which seems to be delayed.
Eventually the train arrives and Maddy
and Dan begin their labored trip home.
Dan refuses to tell Maddy why the train
was delayed, despite her nagging. Jerry,
a small boy who helped Dan off the train,
runs after the two to return something
Dan dropped. Jerry tells Dan and Maddy
that the train was delayed because a
young child fell out of the carriage and
onto the tracks.
The Setting
Gavin Quinn
The Cast
Andrew Bennett, Phelim Drew,
John Kavanagh, ine N Mhuir, Robbie
OConnor, Joey OSullivan, David Pearse,
Daniel Reardon, and Judith Roddy
The Characters
SAMUEL BECKETT
Samuel Barclay Beckett was born on
Good Friday, April 13th, 1906 in Foxrock,
Ireland, a well-to-do suburb of Dublin.
The younger of two sons, Beckett was
very close to his affectionate father, but
had a troubled relationship with his
overbearing mother. This conflicted
relationship would find its way into
Becketts writing later in life.
Growing up, Beckett was both a strong
student, known for his intellectual rigor,
and a gifted athlete, excelling at both
cricket and rugby. He received his B.A.
in Modern Literature (French and Italian)
from Dublins prestigious Trinity College.
It was here he became engrossed in the
great French authors of the time such as
Proust, Gide, Larbaud, and the playwright
Racine, as well as the Italian Renaissance
writer, Dante, and the great German philosophers. He spent his hours away from
school taking in theatrical performances
and his summers traveling to France,
Italy, and Germany where he could feed
his love for the fine arts.
In 1928, Beckett secured a short-term
teaching post in Paris at the cole Normale Suprieure, succeeding Irish poet
and academic Thomas MacGreevy, who
introduced him to the Irish writer James
Joyce and his friends. He worked alongside Joyce, assisting him, writing essays
about his work, and helping to translate
what would later become Finnegans
Wake into French. In addition, he became
preoccupied with the work of modernist
author Marcel Proust, whose existential
ideas would later come to play greatly
in his writing.
In 1930, Beckett returned to Dublin
for a full-time teaching job at Trinity
College where he found himself restless
and unhappy. He left the college, traveled
and tried to live in Germany, Paris and in
London, finally returning to Dublin lost
and distraught. A series of events, including his cousin and first love Peggy
Sinclairs death to tuberculosis, as well
as his fathers sudden death to a heart
attack, sent him back to London where
he spent two years under psychoanalytical care, recovering from a nervous
collapse.
Selected Works
Dramatic Works
Eleutheria (1940)
Waiting for Godot (1953)
Act Without Words I (1956)
Endgame (1957)
Krapps Last Tape (1958)
Happy Days (1961)
Play (1963)
Come and Go (1965)
Breath (1969)
Not I (1972)
That Time (1975)
Footfalls (1975)
A Piece of Monologue (1980)
Rockaby (1981)
Catastrophe (1982)
What Where (1983)
Radio
Embers (1957)
All That Fall (1957)
From an Abandoned Work (1957)
Television
Eh Joe (1965)
Quad I + II (1981)
Cinema
Film (1965)
Novels/Novellas/Stories
Dream of Fair to Middling Women (1932)
Murphy (1938)
Watt (1945)
Molloy (1951)
Malone Dies (1951)
The Unnamable (1953)
How It Is (1961)
More Pricks Than Kicks (1934)
Company (1980)
Worstward Ho (1983)
First Love (1945)
Stories and Texts for Nothing (1954)
Non-fiction
Proust (1931)
Poetry collections
Collected Poems in English (1961)
Collected Poems in English and French
(1977)
The History
Chances are it will be difficult for students
to imagine a world without Facebook,
Twitter, and YouTube, let alone without
television, but in the early 30s, the most
popular form of home entertainment was
a box with a dial and speakers that broadcasted music, news and programming
ranging from soap operas to superhero
adventures. That box was the radio and
prior to 1922, this new form of technology created by Italian inventor Guglielmo
Marconi was mainly used like a telegraph, serving as an effective tool in
WWI for international and at-sea communication.
That all changed when David Sarnoff,
a worker at the American Marconi Co.
(which would later become RCA) saw
how much potential the radio had, if only
it were wireless and more affordable. In
a 1916 memorandum he wrote: I have
in mind a plan of development which
would make a radio a household utility
in the same sense as the piano or phonograph. The idea is to bring music into
the home by wireless. And thats exactly
what he did.
The wireless Radiola console was introduced in 1922 and middle-class citizens
who were enjoying the financial boom of
the 20s scurried to buy one of these newfangled boxes. In a matter of three years,
sales of the Radiola rose from $11 million
to $60 million, and the radio became a
permanent fixture in the American home.
Early Radio Programming
Families would gather around the radio,
in much the same way families gather
around the television today to watch
a favorite show. The same genres of
programming that we encounter while
channel surfing with our remotes today
adventure, drama, comedy, and suspense
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY
Tuning In
Begin by reviewing and discussing the
Radio Drama Components on the following page with students. (Students also
have a copy in their student guide.)
Next, choose a radio play from the
30s, 40s, or 50s for students to listen to.
The web archive at (http://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio) contains numerous free
options including such classics as The
Adventures of Superman, The Hitchhiker,
Little Orphan Annie, Lassie, and War of
the Worlds.
Have students turn to the Listening
Activity Notes page of the student guide.
Play the program and have students
take notes according to the instructions
and prompts in the table as they listen.
After listening, have students share
their responses with the class.
Standards: CCR6-12 Speaking & Listening 1-4; Language 1-5; Blueprint: Making Connections
Active Listening
The beauty of radio theater is that it requires the listener to take part in bringing
a story to life. Much like reading a book,
the listener actively engages their imagination and paints images with their mind
as the drama unfolds. In this fast-paced,
wired world we live in, a world in which
we are all so used to engaging in multiple activities at once (texting, emailing,
tweeting, watching television, talking on
our phones, etc.), students might need
a little practice cultivating the stillness,
focus, and deep level of concentration
required when listening to a rich, layered
radio play such as All That Fall. Prepare
students by doing the activity on the rightbefore your visit.
The Music
The Announcer
The narrator of the show who re-caps the
previous show at the start of an episode,
who inserts descriptive narration, and sets
the scene so that we can visualize the
location or the events occurring, and who
closes the episode.
Example: When last we saw him, Superman was trapped in the warehouse, unable to save Lois Lane from the evil Boris
Beeker.
The Dialogue
The conversations between the characters
in the play. Often the actors will utilize
a wider range of vocal techniques and
dynamics (volume, pitch, tempo, emphasis, and emotion) than film or television
actors do and the dialogue will be more
descriptive.
Example: Look! That lamp is on fire!
The flames are getting closer! We
must run!
The Sponsor
The corporation who is paying for the programs air time on the radio in exchange
for advertising.
Example: Todays production of Little
Orphan Annie is sponsored by Ovaltine!
Dont forget to drink your Ovaltine
every day!
A Selection of Existential
Precepts
Our lives are determined by our individual choices as opposed to a predetermined fate.
The universe is random and meaningless, as opposed to ordered and rational.
We create meaning in our lives and
define ourselves through our values and
how we choose to act according to those
values.
Humans should make decisions and
act based on their own personal belief
systems rather than for rational reasons;
authenticity is emphasized versus acting
in accordance with social norms.
Because such an emphasis is placed
on our individual freedom and a responsibility for the path our lives take, this
leads us to feel a great deal of existential
angst, despair, dread, and anxiety.
An emphasis is placed on The
Absurd: the notion that there is no
meaning to be found in life beyond what
meaning we give it.
Existentialism
Existentialism was a complex philosophical movement that came out of this
pervading sense of national despair. It
was associated with a number of postwar French thinkers. Key figures in the
movement held different positions within
the discipline, but a core belief was that
self-inquiry was the way to understand
human existence. This philosophical
movement found its way into the literature, art, and dramatic writing of the
Post-WWII period during which Beckett
created a number of his masterpieces.
Dung: Manure
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY
The Words
Before attending the performance, have
students stand in a circle and say the line
that follows together. After the students
are comfortable speaking the line and
can recite it from memory, go around
the circle, and one at a time have students recite the line experimenting with
each of the vocal tools below.
Do not imagine, because I am silent,
that I am not present, and alive, to all
that is going on.
VOLUME:
How loud or soft the actor speakssuch
as a whisper, a shout, casual tone, etc.
PITCH:
Where the actor places the sound in
their vocal mechanismhigh, low,
mid-range, etc.
TEMPO:
How quickly or slowly the actor speaks
and paces the words.
EMPHASIS:
Which words the actor chooses to put the
emphasis on and how that changes the
meaning or emotion behind the text.
INTENTION:
Who the actor is speaking to, how they
feel about them, what the circumstances
are, and why they are speaking at that
moment.
After students have had the chance to
experiment with the tools in the circle,
discuss how the actors who did the recording of All That Fall might have utilized
these tools in order to express the full
range of their characters emotions.
Standards: Blueprint: Theater Making
THEMATIC ELEMENTS
Samuel Beckett is the most written about
playwright other than Shakespeare. The
reason that Shakespeare and Becketts
works transcend time and resonate with
us today as strongly as they did when
they were originally performed is because
both had the ability to tap into universal
themes, longings, questions and experiences that are so rooted in our human
existence that they never grow old.
ENRICHMENT EXERCISE
In addition to using the questions provided below for a classroom discussion,
have students complete the Supporting
Evidence from the Plays Text column in
the table provided in their student guide.
Standards: CCR6-12 Reading 1-7; Writing 1; Listening
1-6; Language 1-6; Blueprint: Making Connections
THE THEME
FOR DISCUSSION
How does Beckett use the characters, events, and sound effects to create a heavy, foreboding mood throughout the play
that is palpable, despite the fact that we cant see anything?
How does this idea thematically tie into All That Fall?
Death
If you were to stage this play or film it, what visual imagery
would you use to convey this theme?
Sterility
If looked at metaphorically, sterility can refer to the lost opportunities or ruptured possibilities of the characters, a theme
Beckett often explored. In what ways is this true of the characters in All That Fall?
Examples: The hinny (a sterile cross-breed of a donkey and horse); Mr. Tyler discussing his daughters
hysterectomy; and the lack of affection between Dan
and Maddy when she meets him at the station.
Are there any moments in the play that use the opposite of
sterilitysexualityto poke fun at the characters and bring in
an element of humor and parody?
Symbols & Metaphors
How are some of the audio choices that Beckett makes (music
and sound effects) symbolic?
Why do you think Beckett chose to name the play All That Fall?
What is the significance of the following bible passage that
Dan quotes: The Lord upholdeth all that fall and raiseth up all
those that be bowed down.
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CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
This American Life
Direct students to the website for the
popular National Public Radio program
This American Life (www.this americanlife.org/) and for homework have them
choose one episode to listen to and write
a short report on the episode they chose.
The report should cover the following:
the episode title and date, why they
chose it, what the topic was, what they
learned from listening to the episode, and
an overall assessment or critique (what
they liked or disliked). Students should
be encouraged NOT to multi-task while
they are listening (no emailing, texting,
tweeting, etc.) and to listen to the one
hour program uninterrupted. The next
day, have students share their reports
with the class and discuss the following:
How would you rate your experience of
listening to a radio program for an hour?
What was challenging about it? What
was rewarding?
Were you able to just listen without
doing any other activities?
With visual media widely available, why
do you think people still tune into this
program on the radio?
Standards: CCR6-12 Writing 1-5; Speaking & Listening
1-3; Language 1-6; Blueprint: Making Connections
Re-Creating Radio
Have students work in small groups to
write and record radio dramas using all
of the components listed on the Radio
Drama Components table in this guide.
After writing scripts, have students
rehearse and perform them live, and
if possible, do audio recordings of the
performances that the students can listen
to after. (The voice memo application
Exploring Existentialism
Use the list of existential thinkers and
artists provided below and in the student
guide and have students choose one person to do further research on. Students
can present their findings in a traditional
research paper; an essay that links that
persons ideas to Becketts All That Fall,
an oral presentation or a compare/contrast essay.
Sren Kierkegaard
Friedrich Nietzsche
Martin Heidegger
Gabriel Marcel
Jean Paul-Sartre
Simone de Beauvoir
Franz Kafka (Metamorphosis)
Albert Camus (The Stranger)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (The Brothers
Karmazov, Notes from the Underground)
Jean Genet (The Balcony)
Eugene Ionesco (The Bald Soprano,
The Chairs)
Arthur Adamov (The Confession)
Standards: CCR6-12 Reading 1-9;
Writing 1-9; Speaking & Listening 1-6;
Language 1-6; Blueprint: Making Connections
Selected Bibliography
Banville, John. The Painful Comedy of
Samuel Beckett. November 14, 1996.
The New York Review of Books on the
web.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/
archives/2009/apr/30/the-making-ofsamuel-beckett/
Dickstein, Morris. An Outsider in His
Own Life. August 3, 1997. New York
Times on the web.
http://www.nytimes.
com/books/97/08/03/
reviews/970803.03dickstt.html
Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the
Absurd. Vintage. New York. 1961.
Kunkel, Benjamin. Sam I am: Becketts
private purgatories. August 7, 2006.
The New Yorker on the web.
http://www.newyorker.com/
archive/2006/08/07/060807crbo_
books
ONeill, Joseph, Ill Go On. April 2,
2009. New York Times on the web.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/
books/review/ONeill-t.html
Matlin, Leonard.The Great American
Broadcast: A Celebration of Radios
Golden Age. New York: Dutton, 1997.
McDonald, Ronan. The Cambridge
Introduction to Samuel Beckett. New
York: Cambridge UP, 2006.
Wartenberg, Thomas E. Existentialism:
A Beginners Guide. Oneworld. New
York. 2008.
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BAM Education is dedicated to bringing the most vibrant, exciting artists and
their creations to student audiences. The department presents performances
and screenings of theater, dance, music, opera, and film in a variety of programs. In addition to the work on stage, programs take place both in school
and at BAM that give context for the performances, and include workshops
with artists and BAM staff members, study guides, and classes in art forms
that young people may never have had access to before. These programs include Shakespeare Teaches, AfricanDanceBeat, AfricanMusicBeat, Dancing
into the Future, Young Critics, Young Film Critics, Brooklyn Reads, Arts &
Justice, and our Screening programs, as well as topically diverse professional
development workshops for teachers and administrators.
BAM Education also serves family audiences with BAMfamily concerts, the
BAMfamily Book Brunch, and the annual BAMkids Film Festival.
In addition, BAM Education collaborates with the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation to provide an arts and humanities curriculum to students who
perform on stage in BAMs DanceAfrica program.
BAM would like to thank the Brooklyn Delegations of the New York State
Assembly, Joseph R. Lentol, Delegation Leader; and New York Senate, Senator
Velmanette Montgomery, Delegation Leader.
The BAM facilities are owned by the City of New York and benefit from
public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural
Affairs with support from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; Cultural Affairs
Commissioner Kate D. Levin; the New York City Council including Council
Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Finance Committee Chair Domenic M. Recchia,
Jr., Cultural Affairs Committee Chair Jimmy Van Bramer, the Brooklyn
Delegation of the Council, and Councilwoman Letitia James; and Brooklyn
Borough President Marty Markowitz.
Spring Season. The Iconic Artist Talk series, launched as part of BAMs 150th
anniversary celebrations, features iconic artists and companies examining the
evolution of their work at BAM over the years through on-screen projections
of original footage and images from the BAM Hamm Archives. In September
2012, BAM launched On Truth (and Lies), a series hosted by philosopher
Simon Critchley that explores the ambiguity of reality with prominent artists
and thinkers, as a co-presentation with the Onassis Cultural Center NY.
Humanities at BAM also include year-round literary programs: Unbound,
a new fall series presented in partnership with Greenlight Bookstore that
celebrates contemporary books and authors from across the literary spectrum,
and the ongoing Eat, Drink & Be Literary series in partnership with the
National Book Awards, in the spring.
The department also hosts master classes, including the Backstage Seminar,
a series of workshops on the process of theater-making with BAMs production
staff and guest artists.
Humanities at BAM
BAM presents a variety of programs to promote creative thinking and ongoing
learning. The Artist Talk series, in conjunction with mainstage programming,
enriches audiences experience during the Next Wave Festival and the Winter/