Зарубежный театр
план-конспект урока по английскому языку (9 класс) на тему

Assignment 1

Read the following words and word combinations, using transcriptions.

Assignment 2

Learn the following words and word combinations.

To surround - окружать; обступать

Noted -  знаменитый, известный,  заметный, значительный

Incisive humor -  острый, резкий, колкий, язвительный юмор

Palatable - (благо)приятный, хороший, аппетитный, вкусный

Conventional -  обычный, обыкновенный, традиционный; общепринятый

Value - ценность, важность, полезность

 To quit a job - оставлять, покидать, уходить, уезжать

Solely - единственно, исключительно, только, в одиночестве; самостоятельно, единолично

To attempt - пытаться, стараться, стремиться, прилагать усилия, пробовать, делать попытку

Gruff -  грубый; неприветливый, сердитый

Refined lady - изысканная, изящная, утончённая, благородная леди

Be smitten - возгораться

Approximately - приблизительно, близко, около, почти, приближённо

Average -  нормальный, обыкновенный, обычный, средний

Range - ряд, серия, цепь (событий, явлений), направление, область, сфера

Assignment 3

Read the text, be ready to answer the questions.

English and American Theatre of the 20th century.

Twentieth-century theatre describes a period of great change within the theatrical culture of the 20th century. There was a widespread challenge to long established rules surrounding theatrical representation; resulting in the development of many new forms of theatre, including modernism, expressionism, political theatre and others forms of experimental theatre, as well as the continuing development of already established theatrical forms like naturalism and realism.

 In the 20th century Britain has remained one of the world’s greatest centers for drama. Britain’s many theatres attract crowds from all over the world. This is due to the high calibre of 20th-century British actors, including Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir Michael Redgrave, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Rex Harrison, Richard Burton, Glenda Jackson, Vanessa Redgrave, Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. The quality of the plays is another important factor. In the early 20th century noted playwrights included John Galsworthy and Noel Coward. Post-World War II Britain saw a renaissance of drama with the avant-garde works of Irish- born Samuel Beckett and the plays and screenplays of Harold Pinter.

George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) was a leading figure in the 20th century theatre.  His main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays, which contained incisive humor. He wrote many plays about political problems, and they sometimes made him enemies.

 Shaw’s first play, Widowers’ Houses, was produced privately in 1892 for the members of a progressive theatre club. More palatable, though still rich with challenges to conventional middle-class values, were his «Plays Pleasant” (1898) which included Arms and The Man, Candida, The Man of Destiny and You Never Can Tell. In 1897 Shaw attained his first commercial success with the American premiere of The Devil’s Disciple, which enabled him to quit his job as a drama critic and to make his living solely as a playwright.

George Bernard Shaw’s plays first attained popularity in London through a famous repertory experiment at the Royal Court Theatre from 1904 to 1907. Among his plays presented there were the premieres of John Bull’s Other Island (1904), Man and Superman (1905), Major Barbara (1905) and The Doctor’s Dilemma (1906), 

By the 1910s, Shaw was a well-established playwright. New works such as Fanny's First Play (1911) and Pygmalion (1912) had long runs in front of large London audiences. Several of his plays formed the basis of musicals after his death—most famously the musical My Fair Lady. George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion has become the playwright’s most famous comedy. It illustrates the comical clash between two different worlds. The pompous, upper-class Henry Higgins attempts to transform the gruff, Cockney Eliza Doolittle into a refined lady. As Eliza begins to change, Henry realizes that he has become rather attached to his “pet project.” Shaw insisted that Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle do not end up as a couple. However, most directors suggest that Pygmalion ends with the two mismatched individuals ultimately smitten with one another. My Fair Lady is a very successful musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion.

Shaw continued to write plays and essays until his death in 1950 at the age of 94.

 The Globe Theatre (Shakespeare's Globe nowadays) which is associated with William Shakespeare was reconstructed in the 20th century and opened in 1997 approximately 230 m from the site of the original theatre.

American theatre, which was heavily influenced by Europe, especially English theater at first is associated with Broadway.  

Broadway theatre is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. Broadway theatre refers to a performance  staged in one of the thirty-nine larger professional theatres located in the in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City.

By 1900 Broadway was the centerpiece of American musical theater.

 One of the greatest American playwrights of the twentieth century was Arthur Miller. His best-known plays include "All My Sons", "A View from the Bridge" and "After the Fall”. Miller was able to dramatize the emotional pain that average people suffer in their daily lives.

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill is also an outstanding American playwrights, restless and bold experimenter, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism. O'Neill wrote a well-known comedy “Ah, Wilderness! “His 45 plays range in style from satire to tragedy. They often depict people who have no hope of controlling their destinies.

Broadway theatre is widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.

Answer the following questions to the text.

What was peculiar about the theatrical culture of the 20th century?

Why is the theatre of the 20th century called experimental?

What country is considered to be the one world’s greatest centers for drama and why?

Who was a leading figure of the English theatre of the 20th century?

Due to which play did Bernard Shaw manage to quit his job as a drama critic and to make his living solely as a playwright?

What is his greatest work “Pygmalion” about?

What successful musical was based upon it?

What happened to a world-known theatre “The Globe” in the end of the 20th century?

What district is called Broadway and why is it so popular?

What outstanding American playwrights of the 20th century do you know?

Assignment 4

Find a synonym to the following words from the new vocabulary.

Ordinary

celebrated; famous

to try

rough, rude

 pleasant, delicious

to depart from, to leave

only, completely, entirely

biting, sarcastic

genteel, elegant, polite

 close to,  around

 to encircle, to enclose

Assignment 5

Watch the video about the history of Russian cinema and answer the following questions.

Did the man in the street believe that Higgins would be able to turn Eliza Doolittle into a refined lady?

How long did she have to live in his house and learn?

What living conditions did he promise to her?

Where would they go at the end of the experiment?

What would happen at the Buckingham palace?

How did Ms Doolittle behave in the bathroom?

What did Henry Higgins teach her?

Was she a good student?

How did she look and behave at the Buckingham palace?

Whom did people think she was?

Assignment 6

Find out whether you have the same point of view with a partner on the following points, concerning the extracts of the film “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw you have watched.

Eliza’s traits of character

Henry Higgins’ traits of character

Henry Higgins’ attitude to Eliza at the beginning of the experiment

Typical traits of a real lady

Assignment 7

Pop-quiz questions

Twentieth-century theatre describes a period of  *.

a - great change within the theatrical culture; b – decreasing of  theatrical culture; c – enormous developing of theatrical culture

In the 20th century * was one of the world’s greatest centers for drama.

a – Russia; b – the USA; c – Britain

John Galsworthy was a *.

a – a poet; b – a stage director; c – a playwright

George Bernard Shaw wrote many plays about *.

a – a war; b – political problems; c – children

My Fair Lady is a very successful musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's  *.

a - Fanny's First Play ; b - You Never Can Tell; c – Pygmalion

At first American theatre was heavily influenced by *

 a - English theater; b – Russian theatre; c – German theatre

By 1900 Broadway was the centerpiece of American*

a – comedy theatre; B – drama theatre ; C -  musical theater

One of the greatest American playwrights of the twentieth century Arthur Miller  dramatized * in his plays.

a – daily life of upper-class people ; B -  the emotional pain of average people; c – historical events

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was the first person to introduce into American techniques of

a -  realism ; b - modernism; c -  expressionism

Broadway theatre is widely considered to represent the highest level of  * theatre in the English-speaking world.

a – experimental;  b – innovative; c - commercial

Home assignment

Make up 10 questions with the words from new vocabulary to discuss in class.

Write a short plot of one of the greatest plays “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw's based on the video you watched in class.