House:Ed 2013 Miss Ophelia

2. Two cleaners in the theatre where Ophelia works talk about the strange shadows they have seen in the corridors.
3. Ophelia’s mother and father talking about going to the theatre to see Ophelia at work
4. Two shadows in Ophelia’s theatre make jokes about the actors.
When your students write their duologues, they are to practice using the conventions of script writing including
character names and stage or acting directions. When they have written their scenes, ask your students to work
with a partner. Each pair is to choose one of the duologues they have written to present to the class.
Explain to your students that they will write a short scene involving three or four characters. This will take maybe
three lessons to complete. The scene is to be about shadows. To stimulate imagination and ideas for scenes, you
might like to read with your students extracts from the following books:
Miss Ophelia’s Shadow Theatre by Michael Ende
Shadow by Suzy Lee
The Boy With Two Shadows by Margaret Mahy
The Sly Old Wardrobe by Ivan Southall
If there is time, ask your students to volunteer to read character parts from each other’s scenes so that all scenes are
read aloud to the class. The class might like to then choose the best scenes to rehearse and perform.
7
SHADOWS AND SILHOUETTES
In the performance of Miss Ophelia, the shadows she collects entertain audiences by re-telling the stories
Ophelia has told them in a shadow theatre. This activity will require the use of an overhead projector and a
length of white fabric or a white flat sheet that can be hung to create a screen for silhouettes and shadows. The
overhead projector will need to be placed behind the screen with enough distance between the screen and the
projector for your students to create shadows using their bodies.
13 Miss Ophelia Teachers Resource Notes