For a while today I followed along with the text in our Norton Anthology. It was interesting to see the changes that had occurred from the original text to the screenplay. Some were subtle changes, such as a different form of a word or an additional phrase. Others were more noticed, as in chunks of dialogue in my written text that were omitted when the characters spoke.
What impressed me more, however, was the impact made by the intonations and expressions added by the actors and actresses. The power of the changes in volume of Sidney Poitier's voice. The 'look' in the eyes of Claudia McNeil as she turned on her son as he tried to defy her authority and the spacing of her words as she put him in his place as his father's son. The energy that Diana Sands added to each of Beneatha's conversations with her brother, with her sister-in-law and with the two men who were her suitors. The apologetic tone at times in the voice of Ruby Dee as she struggled with being pregnant with a second child that her husband didn't want. What a difference it was to hear the dialogue spoken, whispered, yelled rather than reading it quietly from the page of a textbook.
As the class time ended today, the movie didn't. I toyed with the idea of stopping the film and asking the students to finish reading the final four pages of the play themselves before they came to class on Tuesday. However, the scenes at the end of the play where Walter Lee tells Mr. Linder exactly what he can do with the check from the neighborhood association is too memorable to miss. The impact of his final words, the reactions of the rest of the family members, and the end of the story, as we see it on the stage, are too moving to miss.
I always told my high school students that plays were fun to read from the text and we could do so much with the words and the actions of the characters. A play is meant to be performed and the audience is meant to enjoy every word.
No comments:
Post a Comment