Post-show Activities
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Ask your students to take note of all the different characters they see; people, animals, mythical creations. The later activities will depend on students remembering which characters stood out for them.
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Does Zac fulfil their criteria of the ideal hero that they thought about before seeing the show?
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Zac the Hero raises many compelling themes that, even though delivered through the genre of children's theatre, are applicable to demographics of all ages. Writer/director Scott Alderdice notes, underpinning the play is a theme of boyhood and how this changes through growing up. There is a strong theme of learning throughout the play; learning to conquer one's own fear; learning to accept the self with all its pro's and con's; learning to dream and learning respect for others, despite difference or similarity. As Zac encounters many different characters through the play, he must learn acceptance and tolerance for their differences; a vital attribute for all emerging students in the multi-cultural world. Bullying is a foremost issue for Zac in the beginning of the play, therefore an important theme, as is developing honesty for one's self and others. Students should take note of how these themes are introduced and developed throughout the play.
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Students can also comment on whether the play conforms or challenges the previously discussed ‘Hero's Journey' formula in the story.
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Take note of some of the directing techniques used in the show; are these similar to any techniques studied in class?
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Students brainstorm as many themes as they can that they felt were present in Zac the Hero. They can then unpack these themes in a series of short dramatic activities like freeze frames (a ‘frozen' scene using several people in previously devised positions), improvised scenes and other short, simple games. For example, with the theme of bullying, a series of freeze frames showing a bullying situation in origination, complication, resolution.
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Joseph Campbell taught that the Hero's Journey is primarily a journey to the centre of yourself, an inner-journey to wholeness and understanding. Did Zac the Hero contain a similar destination? Students discuss this in relation to Zac and other hero stories they previously studied.
For further information visit:
http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~sparks/heroj.html
http://www.lyricalworks.com/herojourney/herojourney.htm