Education Publications

UPSTAGE: Guides for Playgoers

For select productions, Education@Roundabout creates an issue of Upstage, a guide designed to enhance the theatre going experience. Each Upstage features interviews with the actors, designers and directors from the production as well as contextual information about the play itself and activities for use by educators.

Current Season Upstage Study Guides

   • Everyday Rapture Study Guide (8.6MB PDF)
Interview with Sherie Rene Scott (362KB PDF)

Everyday Rapture Study guide courtesy of Second Stage Theatre.
Second Stage Theatre study guide materials edited by Christopher Burney and Ryan Fogarty; written and researched by Dean Amato, Jason Bogdan, Nicole Boyajian, Jessica Schechter, Marissa Schwartz, Liane Thomasetti, Pablo Varona Borges and Emily Weidenbaum; design and layout by Hector Coris. Everyday Rapture photos by Carol Rosegg


   • Sondheim On Sondheim (1.3MB PDF)
Sections:
Interviews:
Interview with the Director (145KB PDF)
Interview with Vanessa Williams (250KB PDF)
Interview with Music Director (283KB PDF)
Interview with the Projections Designer (227KB PDF)

The World of the Play - Stephen Sondheim (533KB PDF)
The World of the Play - Stephen Sondheim - Part 2 (331KB PDF)

Vocabulary (244KB PDF)

Activities (187KB PDF)
Activity: How can a person or character from popular culture
inspire the lyrics to a song? (109KB PDF)
Activity: How can a composer use the primary elements of music to create a mood? (86KB PDF)
For Teachers: How can a composer use the primary elements
of music to create a mood?? (94KB PDF)
Activity: How do the lyrics relate to the book of a musical? (116KB PDF)
Activity: How can your experience of Sondheim on Sondheim
influence the lyrics to a song? (128KB PDF)
Activity: How are the primary elements of music used in Sondheim on Sondheim
similar to current popular music? (129KB PDF)
Activity: How do the lyrics of a song inspire the book of a musical? (137KB PDF)


   • The Glass Menagerie (1.0MB PDF)
Sections:
Interviews:
Interview with the Director (253KB PDF)
Interview with Judith Ivey (310KB PDF)
Interview with Patch Darragh (297KB PDF)
Interview with the Set Designer (312KB PDF)

The World of the Play (378KB PDF)

Vocabulary (162KB PDF)

Activities (255KB PDF)
Activity: How does your environment influence who you are and what you become? (88KB PDF)
Activity: How can we use memory to create a piece of theatre? (107KB PDF)
Activity: How do real or perceived limitations affect your choices in life? (109KB PDF)
Activity: How does your environment affect your life choices? (125KB PDF)
Activity: How can we use memory to create a piece of theatre? (87KB PDF)
Activity: How are the characters in The Glass Menagerie affected by their limitations? (124KB PDF)

   • Present Laughter (0.6MB PDF)
   • Wishful Drinking (0.4MB PDF)
   • After Miss Julie (0.7MB PDF)
   • Ordinary Days (0.5MB PDF)
   • Bye Bye Birdie (1.3MB PDF)
Sections:
Interviews:
Interview with Nolan Gerard Funk (100KB PDF)
Interview with the Director (100KB PDF)
Interview with the Composer (100KB PDF)
Interview with the Lyricist (100KB PDF)
Interview with the Costume Designer (200KB PDF)

The World of the Play (0.5MB PDF)

Vocabulary (100KB PDF)

Activities (160KB PDF)
Activity: The Phone Call that Changed Your Life (50KB PDF)
Activity: Define Yourself through Music (50KB PDF)
Activity: Color and Pattern (250KB PDF)
Activity: Bye Bye Birdie Ten Years from Now (50KB PDF)

   • The Understudy (0.8MB PDF)
Sections:
Interviews:
Interview with the Director (800KB PDF)
Interview with Julie White (100KB PDF)
Interview the Playwright (250KB PDF)
Interview with the Set Designer (200KB PDF)

The World of the Play (250KB PDF)
Franz Kafka (150KB PDF)

Vocabulary (100KB PDF)

Activities (100KB PDF)
Activity: What makes something funny? (40KB PDF)
Activity: How can we learn about setting and character through text analysis? (40KB PDF)
Activity: Connections between Franz Kafka and Theresa Rebeck (40KB PDF)
Activity: Clues in the dialogue from the play (40KB PDF)
Activity: The power structure of your school (40KB PDF)
Activity: How we behave in different circumstances (40KB PDF)


Past Season Upstage Study Guides

   • The Tin Pan Alley Rag (0.4MB PDF)
   • Waiting For Godot (4.6MB PDF)
   • The Philanthropist (0.5MB PDF)
   • Distracted (0.5MB PDF)
   • Hedda Gabler (2.0MB PDF)
   • Pal Joey (3.2MB PDF)
   • A Man For All Seasons (2.4MB PDF)
   • Streamers (500KB PDF)
   • The Language of Trees (400KB PDF)

   • Sunday in the Park with George (5.2MB PDF)
   • Les Liaisons Dangereuses (3.2MB PDF)
   • The 39 Steps (250KB PDF)
   • Crimes of the Heart (250KB PDF)
   • Pygmalion (1.9MB PDF)
   • The Overwhelming (4.2MB PDF)
   • 110 in the Shade (2.1MB PDF)
   • Heartbreak House (2.7MB PDF)
   • Suddenly Last Summer (4.0MB PDF)

Adobe® Reader® is required to view Upstage, and can be downloaded for free by clicking here.

LECTURE SERIES:

The Lecture Series is a Theatre-Plus subscriber event hosted by Education Dramaturg, Ted Sod, exploring the themes of each production with a distinguished artist, scholar, historian, or critic after the curtain goes down. The transcript from each event is listed below. For more information about our Theatre-Plus programs, please click here.

Current Season Transcripts
   • Everyday Rapture (67KB PDF)
   • Sondheim On Sondheim (54KB PDF)
   • The Glass Menagerie (61KB PDF)
   • Present Laughter (50KB PDF)
   • Bye Bye Birdie (58KB PDF)
   • The Understudy (50KB PDF)
   • After Miss Julie (55KB PDF)

Past Season Transcripts
   • Waiting For Godot (73KB PDF)
   • The Philanthropist (49KB PDF)
   • Distracted (53KB PDF)
   • Hedda Gabler (49KB PDF)
   • Pal Joey (55KB PDF)
   • Streamers (60KB PDF)

“THE ART OF LEARNING” VIDEO

Click here to view "The Art of Learning", a video about Roundabout Theatre Company's
education programs.

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