Winter 2005
|
Actor/playwright Shawn Belyea returned to Hamilton International Middle School in Winter 2005 to work with advanced drama students. Using a workshop format, students first worked on general acting skills. Stage combat was a particular favorite. Then they were introduced to the "griot" or storyteller in the context of the Sundiata story - an epic of old Mali.
 |
In their final performance, students first performed a series of original stories based on their own experiences. Taking turns as the griot, other students in the class acted out the story as it was being told. They they performed the story of Sundiata. Before he was born, there was a prophecy that two hunters would come to the king with a very ugly woman whom he must marry, because she would bear Mali's greatest king ever. Indeed, the story goes, the king did take a new wife and bear a child - but a child who could not walk are rarely spoke. The story tells how Sundiata was given the gift of griot, and eventually became the the Lion King of Mali.
|
| Teacher Resources (available in Adobe PDF format) |
|
| Drama and the "Griot" |
|
Return to International Arts Consortium homepage.
