Greek-ish Drama

We've been studying ancient Greece, and the boys and I have been reading Greek drama (I just got the Oresteia in the Fagles translation, so that Travis and I could each have a copy during discussions, and it is Awesome! The Grene/Lattimore translation, which Tapestry recommended, didn't thrill me nearly so much.), so our "writing" assignment for the last four weeks has been for the kids, in their groups, to write a "Greek" drama. "Greek" in the sense that we have a Chorus (of one) that provides narrative and commentary, masks (to make it easy for one kid to play several parts), and minimal sets (very minimal). And they used stories from Greek mythology.

The younger group really enjoyed the project! They wrote their dialogue, figured out how they wanted to stage the thing, brought their (minimal) props, etc. The boys.... well, .... Travis enjoyed his part! The other two? Well, they definitely would rather be working on a play than on any of the other writing assignments I've made this year, but that's not saying much. I think I can honestly say they didn't hate the assignment, but they also didn't put much passion into it. Travis had a great time writing his rap, and I thought he did a nice job with his Bob Marley inspired mask.

Here are the videos I took. I wish Travis's lyrics were clearer, as some of them were pretty funny.



*The video quality is very poor unless you click on the settings "gear" and change it to something higher than 240. Or, Travis recommends watching on YouTube.