Post-Show Activities POSTSHOW ACTIVITY #1: How does a playwright explore the effect of physical location on a character?


Playwright Athol Fugard has said, “If anybody were to cut me open, if you could do a sort of x-ray job on my psyche, you’d fi nd something that looks like the Karoo.” (The word “psyche” here refers both to his mind and to his emotional spirit.)


In Fugard’s play The Road to Mecca, the geography of South Africa, particularly the Karoo region, has a great impact on the psyches – the minds and emotions – of Miss Helen and Elsa Barlow. Activate:


Use a blank line drawing of a fi gure and colored pencils or markers to create an “x-ray of your psyche.” What geographic locations have infl uenced you? Focus on three parts of yourself: What geographic location infl uences your heart, head and feet?


Sketch or create word-collages in each area of the fi gure, connecting yourself to three important geographic locations in your life. Write: Reflect:


Write a short paragraph describing the impact of each geographic location on you, and how this place relates to your heart, head, and feet on which you’ve drawn.


Does one location stand out as the most important to you? Why? What customs or beliefs did you learn in each location? Have the customs or beliefs of one location in your life ever confl icted with what you learned in another location? How did you change as a result of experiencing different geographical locations?


POST-SHOW ACTIVITY #2: How does an artist express her or his vision in words?


In The Road to Mecca, Miss Helen—like the real Helen Martins, on whom the character is based—struggles to express her artistic vision to others in Nieu Bethesda. Helen Martins eventually found an artistic collaborator, a black man named Koos Malgas.


Imagine the fi rst meeting between Miss Helen and Koos Malgas. Koos has been at Miss Helen’s house doing some repair work. Miss Helen needs help creating her sculptures. She begins the conversation by describing one of her sculptures. Write:


Write at least four sentences for Miss Helen to speak to Koos, describing one sculpture in her yard. Be specifi c. Describe what this sculpture looks like. Why did you (Helen) want to create this sculpture? What do you like about it? Write one sentence asking Koos for help creating more artwork.


Activate: Work in pairs. Select one person to read Miss Helen’s monologue. The other person will improvise the character of Koos. After listening to Miss Helen’s description of her sculpture, ask Miss Helen one question about the sculpture she’s just described, something you were


curious about or didn’t understand from her description. Switch and repeat.


Reflect:


When you were listening to Miss Helen talk about her art, could you “see” what she was describing? What words did your partner use that helped you “see” the sculpture? If you were Koos, would you have helped Miss Helen create? Why or why not?


UPSTAGE THE ROAD TO MECCA 17


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20