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The Tempest: How does music affect a scene? DURATION: 45 mins OBJECTIVE: To understand how music affects a scene. KEY LEARNING POINTS: • The affect of music in theatre • The difference between diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. • Using sound to provoke a particular reaction with the audience.

YOU WILL NEED: • A large clear space. • A sound system to play music and access to the internet or a CD

collection. • The Tempest: The Wedding Masque (Act 4: Scene 1) clip. • Flipchart paper and pens.

IT’S NICE TO HAVE: • The Music in the Trilogy video. • A selection of musical instruments.

ACTIVITY: • Ask participants to list all the things that music adds to a scene in

theatre. • Ask participants if they know the difference between diegetic and

non-diegetic sounds. • Watch The Wedding Masque clip from the film. Ask participants to

focus on the effect of music in the scene. • Lead a group discussion reflecting on the music in the scene. Creates

atmosphere, helps to convey the emotion of the scene, focuses attention on the character and helps to tell the story. What music and sound are included in the scene? Were they diegetic or non-diegetic sounds?

• The Director chose to cut the text quite a lot in this scene. Ask the participants how the music helps to tell the story of the scene? The music is the journey of the scene – folky romantic wedding, upbeat dancing, otherworldly visions.

• Ask the participants what the choice of music tells us about the wedding, and Miranda and Ferdinand’s relationship?

• You could watch the Music in the Trilogy video here to explore how and why music was created for the Trilogy. In this video Shiloh Coke, the Musical Director of the Trilogy, explains how the inspiration for

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the music in The Tempest was folk and calypso music inspired by the island setting.

• The Tempest contains lots of songs that Shakespeare wrote and the Director worked with a composer and musician called Joan Armatrading who reimagined these songs to new music, and in turn created an album of her own versions of these songs.

• Split the participants into groups of six. In these groups stage your own wedding scene. You could choose to replicate the scene in the film or create your own movement for this – there should be at least two sections, the marriage ceremony and the party. Scenes should be no more than one minute long.

• Ask the participants to choose three separate pieces of music or sound for the scene (silence can be a sound). The pieces should provoke different reactions in the audience.

• Give participants time to practice their scenes to the music. • Share back the scene and repeat three times, using one piece of

music each time. Ask the audience to reflect on how the different music affected the scene. Did it change the mood, atmosphere, tension, focus, storytelling or our impression of the characters?

EXTENSION ACTIVITY: • You can extend this by giving participants instruments and have one

or two of the groups create their own music or sound for the scene. • They could create vocal soundscapes or use body percussion to

create the sound for the scene. • You could research Joan Armatrading and her music.

KEYWORDS: Diegetic - sound that the characters on stage can hear. Non-Diegetic - sound is any sound that a character cannot hear, but instead creates the mood or atmosphere for the performance. Atmosphere - the mood or tone of a scene that could create emotion within the audience.