Scenes from a Crowded Classroom: Teaching Theatrical Blocking in English Language Arts

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Language Arts Journal of Michigan
Volume 29
Issue 2 Location, Location, Location Article 9
4-2014
Scenes from a Crowded Classroom: Teaching
eatrical Blocking in English Language Arts
Leah Zuidema
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Recommended Citation
Zuidema, Leah (2014) "Scenes from a Crowded Classroom: Teaching >eatrical Blocking in English Language Arts," Language Arts
Journal of Michigan: Vol. 29: Iss. 2, Article 9.
Available at: h?ps://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.2013

48 LAJM, Spring 2014
Scenes from a Crowded Classroom: Teaching
Theatrical Blocking in English Language Arts
LEAH A. ZUIDEMA
PRACTICE
One of the greatest challenges
of teaching plays in English
language arts courses is the
fact that scripts are intended for the
stage, not the page. While the plots,
themes, and dialogue of the best scripts
are ripe for intensive literary study, care-
ful attention to dramatic elements—
including casting, costuming, lighting,
and blocking—can further enhance stu-
dents’ understanding and engagement.
But English language arts courses are
not theatre courses, and often, resources
for bringing plays to life through perfor-
mance are severely limited. It is the rare
English language arts class that has ac-
cess to a full stage, costumes, props, and
lights—let alone time for staging activi-
ties and an instructor with the training
and confidence to engage a room full of
non-actors in a theatrical performance.
Despite these challenges, it is es-
sential to help students gain a basic un-
derstanding of blocking (i.e., the posi-
tioning and movement of actors): what
it is, how it is guided by the script, and
how it can advance the plot and inten-
sify the experience of the play for the
audience. These lessons are especially
important in introductory courses, as it
is often the case that students will have
seen and read few plays, and some will
not have had any experiences as theatre
goers. Because of their lack of familiar-
ity with plays as a genre, these students
often overlook important textual cues
that could help them in visualizing the
action of the play. This is problematic,
as the cognitive work of visualization
is a stepping stone to comprehension:
practiced readers use visualization to
help them understand, make connec-
tions with, and interpret literary texts
(Wilhelm, 2008). Teaching about block-
ing is an effective way to help students
visualize the action of the play as they
read. Ultimately, visualization lessons
focused on blocking can help readers to
be more skilled in independently under-
standing, interpreting, and responding
to plays.
The short lesson series shared in
this article takes into account these
contextual considerations. Additionally,
teachers aligning curriculum with the
Common Core State Standards may be
interested to note that this lesson se-
quence can also help students to achieve
CCSS targets for reading literature in
grades 6-12, which call at each level for
students to “read and comprehend lit-
erature, including stories, dramas, and
poems…[in their appropriate grade lev-
el’s] text complexity band proficiently,
with scaffolding as needed at the high
end of the range” (2014). I have used
variations on this lesson sequence with
high school students in grades 9-12, and
more recently this sequence has played
an important role in my introductory lit-
erature course for college students. As
might be expected, these lessons have
taken place in somewhat crowded class-
rooms, typically with about 35 students
per section and little room to move
about. The lesson sequence continues
to evolve each year with small changes
and additions, often inspired by stu-
dents’ suggestions about “what else” we
should do in our study of blocking.
Setting the Stage: Curricular
Context
Most recently, I have taught these
lessons in conjunction with class study
of Shakespeare’s Othello, The Moor of
Venice (trans. 2009). However, I have
also used variations on the sequence
with more contemporary plays. These
lessons on blocking are not the sole fo-
cus of our study of any play; rather, they
are interspersed with the other activities
and discussions that also unfold our un-
derstanding of and response to the text.
The lessons work best when they focus
on scenes from the play in which atten-
tion to blocking helps to illuminate the
characters’ actions and motives.
Identifying these scenes takes a
bit of imagination: I read the play in
advance with my students’ eyes, watch-
ing for the moments where the words
themselves are easy to understand, and
yet the conversation is tricky to follow
unless the reader visualizes how the ac-
tors are arranged on the stage and inter-
act physically with one another.

LAJM, Spring 2014 49
Leah A. Zuidema
These lessons emphasize how
blocking functions as a dramatic
convention—that is, how the actors’ po-
sitioning and movement across the stage
function as signifiers that the audience is
meant to read in “agreed upon” ways.
Since the idea of convention is founda-
tional, it is helpful if the lessons build
from prior discussions of the form and
function of other conventions in litera-
ture and drama.
During the class period before
students begin reading the play inde-
pendently, we explore several conven-
tions for writing and reading scripts. We
examine the list of dramatis personae to-
gether, and I ask questions that prompt
students to note characters’ roles, de-
termine their relationships, and make
predictions about possible conflicts that
could arise in the play. We look at the
system for numbering acts and scenes,
and I show students how to quote and
cite excerpts from the script in their
written commentaries. We note the play-
wright’s description of the setting and,
as appropriate, consult maps and time-
lines as we hypothesize about how the
setting might affect characters’ attitudes,
beliefs, and actions.
Students learn to identify stage
directions, and those class who have
worked from scripts before explain
terms like exeunt. We find examples of
stage directions in the script and think
aloud together about the degree to
which the playwright does or does not
provide direction for blocking and ac-
tion. (For more regarding conventions
in plays and how to read them, see Hay-
man, 1999.) Taken together, this discus-
sion about conventions in the script
helps to prepare the class for study of
blocking as dramatic convention.
Taking the Stage: The Lesson
Sequence
An outline of the blocking-focused
segments from each of our five acts of
study for Othello is offered here as an
illustration of how a lesson sequence
on blocking can work (perhaps with
other plays) in an English language arts
course. For this unit, class periods were
75 minutes long and, as noted previous-
ly, also included other discussions and
activities.
Prologue: Blocking as Interpreta-
tion for Directors and Readers
Following brief class discussion
of students’ prior knowledge of Shake-
speare and Othello, we delve into the
exploration of script conventions, as
described previously. Our first look at
conventions for blocking is a viewing
of a performance, and it works con-
currently with students’ first look at
the plot: in class, we watch the open-
ing of director Oliver Parker’s (1995)
film interpretation of Othello, starring
Laurence Fishburne, Kenneth Branagh,
and Irene Jacob. Our class viewing oc-
curs before we start reading, and it cor-
responds roughly to the first two scenes
from the play (though Parker also incor-
porates glimpses from later scenes in his
screening of 1.1-1.2).
Posing questions that guide the
class in understanding the plot, charac-
ters’ motivations, and conflicts, I also
offer observations and ask questions
that draw students’ attention to the di-
rector’s choices about blocking. For ex-
ample, near the beginning of the film,
Iago and Roderigo walk together until
they pause under Brabantio’s window—
where Iago (but not Roderigo) is ob-
scured from Brabantio’s view by a wide
pole and the cover of darkness. We ex-
amine the same passage in the text (1.1),
and I think aloud about how Parker as
a director has already made some in-
terpretive choices where other options
were possible. Although there is no
specific stage direction to indicate that
Iago and Roderigo are walking as they
speak the first 75 lines, Parker’s choice
to have them walk while talking seems
consistent with the note about the set-
ting (a street) and with the stage direc-
tion for the two to enter. Furthermore,
the dialogue also guides Parker’s choice:
Roderigo observes, “Here is her father’s
house; I’ll call aloud” (1.1.76). It seems
likely that his reason for saying aloud
that the house is “here” is because the
two characters have just come upon the
house—not because they have been
standing outside of it throughout and
Iago has failed to notice it. Drawing stu-
dents into the conversation, I help them
to notice that both the stage directions
and the dialogue guide the actors’ move-
ment and positioning.
Additionally, the director’s discre-
tion plays a role: although there is no
indication in the stage directions or
dialogue that Iago should be hidden be-
hind a pole, Parker’s choice works with
the dialogue and helps to draw atten-
tion to Iago’s control and manipulation
of Roderigo for his own purposes. Of
course, understanding Iago’s manipula-
tive control of Roderigo is easier to see
after one has already read or seen the
full play—and I note this to students as
well so that they understand that I no-
ticed this not because I am the teacher
or an expert reader, but because I am
“reading against memory” from a prior
viewing/reading of the play (Rabinow-
itz & Smith, 1998).
Near the end of this first lesson,
students are asked to reflect on our
reading for the day and to note what it
suggests about how they should read
independently. Through guided discus-
sion, they come to see that theirs is an

50 LAJM, Spring 2014
Scenes from a Crowded Classroom: Teaching Theatrical Blocking in English Language Arts
active role: as readers, they will need not
only to attend carefully to the dialogue,
but also to use their imagination to vi-
sualize the scenes. In essence, to bet-
ter understand the play and appreciate
how it works, they will need to read like
directors, using their skills in inference-
making, visualization, and interpretation
to bring the play to life in their minds’
eyes.
Acts I-III: Rules of Notice for
Directors, Actors, and Readers
Because so much of the first les-
son centers on blocking and occurs
before students
begin reading the
play indepen-
dently, the focus
changes following
students’ reading
of Acts I-III.
Much more time
during these les-
sons is devoted to
teaching students
to identify “rules
of notice”—the
clues that help us
in “determining
what constitutes
importance”
(Rabinowitz &
Smith, 1998, p.
55).
Students
build a list of rules of notice for identi-
fying lines that are particularly revelato-
ry in regards to characterization and to
development of conflicts and themes.
As we find examples of such passages
(e.g., plot pivot points, soliloquies, and
passages that repeat words and ideas), a
few volunteer actors read the lines and
move about the “stage”—the cleared
space at the front of our classroom.
The remaining students (“direc-
tors”) draw from their interpretations to
coach the actors about how to deliver
the lines, and we discuss how actors’
positioning and movement on the stage
can add emphasis to key ideas. In this
way, our discussion of blocking dove-
tails with our attention to the lines we
have identified through our work with
rules of notice.
Drawing out ideas from students
who are familiar with theatre, I lead
a brief discussion of conventions
for blocking and lighting that can be
used to draw extra attention to ac-
tors during their delivery of especially
significant lines. (Take for example
Wilder’s (1938) Our Town, where block-
ing and lighting can be used to draw
audience attention primarily to the nar-
rator, even when other characters are on
stage.) For reinforcement, students view
slides showing a photo of a proscenium
arch and a diagram of the stage; during
these lessons, students practice stage di-
rections and use phrases such as “Move
downstage right” as they guide the vol-
unteer actors.
Act IV: Blocking for Dramatic
Irony
By the time we study the fourth act
of Othello, the class has had several dif-
ferent kinds of discussions, including
conversations about Shakespeare’s use
of dramatic irony. At this point, stu-
dents are ready to consider how dramat-
ic irony and blocking may be connected.
This lesson focuses on another passage
that may be confusing to readers—un-
less they are able to visualize the block-
ing and the action.
In particular, the selected passage
is one where
readers need
to understand
that the play-
wright wants
the audience
to have a dif-
ferent under-
standing of
events from
what the char-
acters know.
For our study
of Othello, we
use 4.1.53-224.
The les-
son begins
with a short
inquiry session
prompting stu-
dents to reflect on
the affordances of dramatic irony: why
might a playwright want to create “a dis-
crepancy between a character’s percep-
tion and what the audience knows to be
true” (Murfin & Ray, 2003, “Dramatic
Irony”)?
Following this conversation about
purposes for dramatic irony, we discuss
Shakespeare’s methods for achieving
dramatic irony. After reviewing other
techniques we have discussed up to this
point in the play, we consider how the
Figure 1. Stage Diagram with Character Markers

LAJM, Spring 2014 51
Leah A. Zuidema
physicality of the stage may help to build
dramatic irony—and especially how
blocking may be used to expose actions
or dialogue to the audience while hiding
them from characters. The conversation
begins with a question for students to
consider: “During the performance of
a play, how is it that we in the audience
are able to know things that characters
don’t know?” We discuss playwrights’
techniques for building dramatic irony
in the broader sense, but eventually an-
other question narrows students’ focus,
shining a spotlight on the devices at the
center of today’s lesson: “What conven-
tions could directors use to help the
audience see and hear the ‘truth’ about
events on the stage—while also help-
ing them to understand that particular
characters cannot see or hear certain
things?”
Students list conventional ways in
which directors prompt audiences to
suspend their disbelief about actors’
inability to see or hear certain events
on stage (e.g., spotlighting some actors
while keeping others in the dark; keep-
ing some actors in motion while freez-
ing others in place, and using sets and
blocking to signify that a character’s vi-
sion or hearing is obscured.) This list-
ing exercise sets the stage for us to give
sustained attention to the links between
blocking and dramatic irony.
As students turn in their Othello
scripts to 4.1.53-224, they also check the
large screen at the front of the room,
which displays a PowerPoint slide fea-
turing a stage diagram. This is the same
diagram that was used in earlier lessons,
but this time, it also includes four text
boxes, each one in a contrasting color
and displaying the name of a character
who is onstage during this scene (Fig-
ure 1). We review the opening lines of
the passage and place the character text
boxes on the stage diagram in locations
that students believe are appropriate. At
this point in the play, Othello has fallen
into a trance; Iago is exulting in the suc-
cess of his schemes, and Cassio enters.
Watching the diagram on screen, the
class offers suggestions about where to
place Iago and Othello on the stage, and
I move their character markers accord-
ingly. Following students’ suggestions, I
also move Cassio’s marker so that he en-
ters, pauses to converse with Iago, and
then exits. As we negotiate the blocking
for these few lines, students are asked to
think aloud about the meaning of the
dialogue and how it connects with the
blocking. We try a few different ways of
blocking this passage so that we can dis-
cuss differences in what is conveyed by
the actors and understood by the audi-
ence.
After this short round of modeling
and mentoring, I turn the director role
over to students. However, instead of
relying on class discussion as we have
for the past two days, I change the rou-
tine so that all students can engage the
text deeply rather than relying on a few
vocal peers to do this work. Students
work through the remainder of the pas-
sage with a partner so that they voice
the inferences they make as they read
and explain how they are visualizing the
movement of characters through the
scene.
Each pair has a stage diagram and
markers that they select (e.g., loose
change, sticky notes) to represent
the four characters. As they proceed
through the passage, students discuss
the dialogue and the blocking in tan-
dem. Each time they determine that a
character needs to move, they move the
marker on the diagram and also pencil
a director’s note about blocking in the
margins of the script. For example, they
consider Iago’s instruction to Othello
to “Stand you awhile apart . . . Do but
encave yourself / And mark the fleers,
the gibes, and the botable scorns / That
dwell in every region of [Cassio’s] face”
(4.1.88, 95-97) as Cassio (purportedly)
recounts his trysts with Desdemona.
Their close reading of these lines helps
them to determine where to place
Othello on the stage immediately after
4.1.108—the point at which the stage
directions in the script indicate that
“Othello stands apart.”
For several students, this close
reading of the dialogue—along with
their manipulation of physical tokens
for the characters—brings about their
first realizations about the dramatic
irony of the scene. It is an “Ah ha!” mo-
ment. They come to understand that
the plot demands that Othello be hid-
den from Cassio’s view, and yet Othello
must also have a line of sight to Cassio.
They also realize that the staging must
occur in such a way that the audience
understand that Othello is hidden from
the other characters—and yet the audi-
ence must also clearly hear (and perhaps
see) Othello’s reaction to the unfolding
drama.
To check students’ understand-
ing and help them notice and interpret
textual clues, I circulate the room and
talk with pairs as they work through the
directing exercise. A few of the pairs
are then asked to “walk through” their
explanations of their blocking choices
with the class, using the diagram on the
projected screen to show where and
when they moved their actors even as
they cite lines from the script to justify
their decisions. Seeing and hearing a few
different directing perspectives on the
scene allows students to better recog-
nize the significance of interpretation
for directing, while also helping them
to think more carefully about the action
on the stage and its role in building dra-
matic irony.

52 LAJM, Spring 2014
Scenes from a Crowded Classroom: Teaching Theatrical Blocking in English Language Arts
Act V: Acting Companies
The in-class activities for Act IV
prepare students for an important
homework assignment for their reading
of the play’s final act (Appendix A). To
layer more scaffolding into this prepara-
tory assignment, students might also be
directed to discuss or write about why
they believe their selected scene needs
special attention to blocking.
While previewing the homework
instructions, I note that during our next
class period, we’ll use some of the stu-
dents’ director’s notes to work through
scenes in small groups. Preparing for
this activity requires reserving additional
space—preferably a large room where
groups can spread out (the gym, cafete-
ria, music room, or auditorium). When
this doesn’t work, I reserve additional
rooms near to our classroom, all as close
as possible to our homeroom, and all
with moveable furniture and space for
one or two small “acting companies”
of 4-5 students each. Because students
are spread out, supervision becomes an
issue, but this can be addressed by ar-
ranging for volunteers (such as preser-
vice teachers from a college methods
course) to help supervise the different
groups during this lesson.
When we arrive at class, I explain
how the day’s small-group work will
proceed, talking through the instruc-
tions that I distribute on half sheets to
all students (Appendix A). I help stu-
dents to troubleshoot before they begin
their group work. “You’ll have only four
or five actors in your company. What
could you do if your passage has parts
for more characters? If there are key
props or set items that you don’t have
(such as swords, or Desdemona’s bed),
how might you improvise?” Then, I
split the students into groups based on
their comfort level with acting. Students
rate their comfort level on a scale of
1-5; then, students who give themselves
high scores number off, followed by
those in the mid-range and then those
who are least comfortable. In this way,
each acting company includes members
who feel fairly comfortable with acting
and only one or two hesitant actors.
This dynamic, along with the fact
that students are working in rehearsal
groups without a large audience of
peers, seems to encourage the vast ma-
jority of students to participate enthusi-
astically. Groups move to their assigned
“stage,” and I cue students to begin their
work, noting that I will rotate through
the groups periodically to observe and
answer questions.
My visits are brief, as I want to see
each group in action two to three times.
Typically, I find students mid-scene,
with at least a few members acting their
parts with more flare than I anticipated.
The acting companies check their move-
ments again the script, occasionally in-
terrupting the flow to suggest a change
to the blocking or line delivery—and
sometimes arguing about the director’s
interpretation of the text, what it means,
and why it matters. Some students hang
back, but although they are less than en-
thusiastic in their acting, they are seeing
and stepping through the blocking of
the scene—and therefore are meeting
the main goals of the lesson.
Most students are animated when
they return to the classroom, too: our
follow-up discussion about the final
scenes from the play elicits questions
and reactions characterized by a new
level of insight and intensity. Students
take a new level of ownership when
they know the play actively and from
the inside out rather than as passive ob-
servers.
Post Script
While ideally there would be time
and space for students to enact a much
greater portion of the play, we don’t
always have the ideal available to us. A
lesson sequence on blocking can teach
important literary conventions while
also improving students’ reading skills
and perhaps even their interest in the
theatre arts. Additional ideas for bring-
ing Shakespeare’s scripts from page to
stage can be found in the excellent se-
ries Shakespeare Set Free (O’Brien, 1995),
and more ideas for helping students
to visualize what they read are offered
in teaching resources such as Reading
IS Seeing (Wilhelm, 2004) and Enriching
Comprehension with Visualization Strategies
(Wilhelm, 2013).
Students’ participation during the
blocking lessons, their written reflec-
tions and classroom discussions, their
work on other projects and writing con-
nected with the play, and their anony-
mous comments in responses submit-
ted at semester’s end indicate that this
lesson sequence (and especially the cul-
minating lesson) is a highlight for stu-
dents. They enjoy it—not only because
they are “playing,” but also because
they see blocking as a new and interest-
ing challenge that is a key to unlocking
the world and meaning of the play. It
seems that students’ active involvement
in decisions about blocking helps them
also to be active in their reading and
interpretation. It could be said that the
blocking lessons help students to move:
from simply trying to follow what is
happening to developing confidence in
their abilities to envision, interpret, and
respond to the play.

LAJM, Spring 2014 53
Leah A. Zuidema
References
Hayman, Ronald. (1999). How to read
a play (2nd ed.). New York, NY:
Grove Press.
Murn, Ross, & Ray, Supryia M. (2003).
Dramatic irony. The Bedford Glos-
sary of Critical and Literary Terms
(pp. 224). Boston: Bedford / St.
Martin’s.
National Governors Association Center
for Best Practices and Council of
Chief State School Ofcers.
(2014). English language arts
standards: Reading: literature
Retrieved from http://www.
corestandards.org/
O’Brien, Peggy. (1995). Shakespeare set
free. New York, NY: Washington
Square Press.
Parker, Oliver (Writer). (1995). Othello.
In Jonathan Olsburg (Producer).
United Kingdom: Sony Pictures
Releases.
Rabinowitz, Peter, & Smith, Michael.
(1998). Authorizing readers: Resis-
tance and respect in the teachng of
literature. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Wilder, Thornton. (1938). Our town
(2003 reprint ed.). New York, NY:
Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. (2004). Reading IS
seeing: Learning to visualize scenes, char-
acters, ideas, and text worlds to improve
comprehension and reective reading.
New York, NY: Scholastic.
Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. (2008). “You gotta
BE the book”: Teaching engaged and
reective reading with adolescents (2nd
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Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. (2013). Enriching
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Appendix A. Preparation and Instructions for Acting Companies
Leah Zuidema loves helping others to love reading and writing. She has enjoyed
doing this in a variety of roles—first as a high school English teacher, more recently
as an English teacher educator, and currently by serving as associate provost at
Dordt College.
Preparing for Acting Companies
Choose one short section of a scene from Othello (about 2 pages) that you would
like to study more closely through blocking and acting. Photocopy that section
and reread it carefully. On the photocopy, make director’s notes about blocking,
any stage directions you would add, advice you would give about how actors
should deliver their lines, and interpretation of the meaning of any complex
lines. On the back of your photocopy, write a short paragraph about why you
picked this scene.
Instructions for Acting Companies
Othello dramatization
1. All group members tell which passage they picked and why.
2. Come to agreement about which scene to enact together.
3. First, assign parts. Stay seated and read the passage aloud together. Use a
pencil to mark any lines you’d like help interpreting.
4. Discuss together the lines that group members wanted help interpreting.
5. Discuss: Which lines are especially important, and why?
6. Listen as your director shares notes about blocking, stage directions, line
delivery.
7. Together, do a dramatized reading (a performance) of the passage. Stand up,
move about your stage. Get in character and deliver your lines. Your goal as a
group is to bring this passage to life in order to better understand this portion
of the play.
8. If time allows, repeat the process with another scene. Return to our class-
room after 30 minutes.
Reflection
9. Independent work. On the back of your director’s notes, write your answer to
this question: What were the most important blocking choices that your group
made, and how did performing your group’s passage(s) influence your under-
standing of the play?
10. Hand in your director’s notes page when I call for it.