Lesson Overview:

How does a playwright shape a story? This lesson explores the techniques that Tennessee Williams uses to engage the audience in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with particular attention to structure and characterization.

Length of Lesson:

Three to four 45-minute periods

Notes:

This lesson is particularly suitable for students in grades 11 and 12.

Instructional Objectives:

Students will:

• exercise oral play-reading skills.
• add range to their understanding of ways dramatic force is achieved through structural patterns, diction, tone quality, rhythms of syntax, and pace of dialogue.
• further explore playwrights’ craftsmanship in structuring a play.
• experience growth in the writing process, skills of research, collaboration, oral presentation, contextual and comparative analysis.
• experience and appreciate the work of two of America’s most valued playwrights.

Instructional Plan:

Note: Given the sensitive nature of the content, language, and situations in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, you may wish to review the play and evaluate its appropriateness for your teaching environment.

Raising the Curtain

Before beginning the reading of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, ask students to reflect upon and discuss the general practice of playwriting. Ask them to think about the basic elements a playwright must consider in building the opening of a play.

Responses might include:

• establishing and/or piquing interest in the “status quo” ( the way things are with a situation or place and/or one or more of the major characters) at the time the narrative of the play is launched
• establishing a tone quality that has significance to the development of the first scene or act
• beginning to characterize, either through direct statement or nuance
• introducing special effects (music, lighting, visual displays, background comings and goings, etc.) that could add energy, mystery, insight into physical setting, support of narrative, or thematic implication to the opening

Have them read and discuss the Biographical Information of Tennessee Williams handout, highlighting influences and highlights in his life.

Analyzing Williams' Cat

The energy of the opening scene of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof should come through effectively when read by selected strong oral readers in a large group format. The delivery of Tennessee Williams’ “Person-to-Person” introduction and the handling of the opening italics are, of course, also important factors in launching the play.

You may choose to cover the rest of the play in one of the following ways:

• small play reading groups, with an occasional interruption for ascertaining that students are understanding the movement of the play. This approach could be followed by reading aloud a few selected scenes in the large group (parts of the father – son scene, for instance; one or two of the encounters that involve Margaret and Mae and/or Margaret, Mae, and Big Mamma.)
• watching a film version, stopping along the way to answer questions needed to clarify the movement of the play. To ensure that students are exposed to Williams’ long character explanations, you may wish to examine those explanations after the viewing and prompt students to use them to critique each actor’s fulfillment of his or her role in the film version.

Give the students the Suggested Study Topics handout and assign them to answer at least one of the topics. You may wish to give them the option of presenting their work in the form of a formal essay, individual oral presentation and/or group presentations.

Ask students to recall the opening of the first scene of a play or plays they have seen, read, or acted in. Have them describe any details they remember of the playwright’s approach in launching the play.

If time allows, examine the celebrated openings of the first scene of one (or more) of the following Shakespeare scripts, and have students explain their perception of the dramatic qualities that emerge in the opening lines:

Hamlet: What tone is set by the opening statement, “Who’s there?”, and the tense exchange that follows between the guards? What other purposes are served by the opening?

Richard, the Third: How does the opening speech contribute to characterization?

Henry, the Fourth, Part One: What do you learn about the status quo? How does the opening speech contribute to characterization and the narrative of the play?

Distribute the Creative Writing Assignment handout to students. If time allows, have students share and critique their efforts in small or large group format.

Altered Endings

When Elia Kazan, a celebrated Broadway director, read the first draft of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, he urged Tennessee Williams to rewrite parts of the third act. In a long note of explanation (included in the edition cited in this lesson), Williams shares his reaction to the request and invites the reader to read both versions and judge which of the two Act Three scripts he/she finds the more successful.

Ask students to read both endings and develop a written statement of their assessment of the two versions. They should compare and analyze the strengths and/or weaknesses of the two Act Three versions, address the way each resolution addresses the conflicts set up in the beginning of the play, and discuss the way each version impacts the overall structure of the work.

Assessment:

Assess students based upon the following criteria:

• level of discernment in contributions from research and to collaborative work
• substantive contributions to class discussion and special projects
• range and depth in analysis
• evidence of creative thinking
• thoughtful response in pre-writing, pre-discussion “brainstorming” activities
• seriousness of purpose in following through on writing assignments
• solid preparation for performance activities
• alignment of written performance with good practices of the writing process
• general level of engagement in all activities and assignments

Extensions:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof can be a very valuable vehicle for: (a) further study of the “psyche” of the American antebellum South as creative inspiration, (b) a comparison of Williams’ development of Southern females and males in some of his other plays, and (c) a case study of the way acclaimed literary and Broadway critics can sharply differ in their perceptions of the achievements and failures of a celebrated play. The play would particularly lend itself for study in a playwriting or acting class, where the aesthetic fiber of the script could be closely examined.

Sources:

Print:

• Williams, Tennessee. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Signet, 1989.

Media:

• Brooks, Richard (dir). Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Warner Studios, 1958.

Authors:

• Jayne Karsten, English, Grades 9-12
  The Key School
  Annapolis, MD US