Getting Ready (20 minutes)

The following information will help you focus and organize your professional development session.

Learning Objectives

• Investigate Parade and Quidam through individual and group research in order to understand the social and historical settings in which these works were conceptualized and produced.
• Recognize melodic themes and nonmusical sounds in Parade and Quidam and discuss their significance within the dramatic context of each piece.
• Perform a piece of music using body percussion and percussion instruments.
• Explore the theatrical traditions of vaudeville and create a performance piece in the style of vaudeville.
• Understand the purpose of criticism and a process for performance criticism.
• Analyze written criticism to identify the purpose and the author’s process. Respond to Quidam in-role as a critic.

Guiding Questions
These are questions for your group to consider as you work through the session:

• What does “multi-arts” mean?
• What is criticism?

Materials and Resources

• Videotape or broadcast of Program 2 — Responding to the Arts
• Handout: Criticism: Purposes and Process (PDF)
• Handout: Jean Cocteau's Scenario for Parade (PDF)
• Reading: Cirque du Soleil (PDF)
• Reading: Criticism (PDF)
• Reading: Parade (PDF)
• Reading: Quidam (PDF)
• Reading: Vaudeville (PDF)
• Reading: Listening Map for Quidam (PDF)
• Reading: Listening Map for Parade (PDF)
• Reading: Setting Up Your Discovery Stations (PDF)

Opening Steps
Recall the sequence from Quidam you viewed at the end of Program 1 (or the entire performance, if you were able to view it later).

Discuss these questions:

• In what time and place does the action appear to occur?
• How do these cultural clues affect your experience of the performance?

Facilitator: Distribute the handout, Jean Cocteau's Scenario for Parade (PDF).

To download PDF files, you will need a free copy of Acrobat Reader.