5 Creative Ways to Analyze Plays

Sensing that my college students were becoming weary of talking, talking, and talking about George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, I dedicated today's entire class session to "creative analysis." Instead of lecturing, I let students group themselves (and some chose to work independently). Then, they selected one of the following activities:

• Illustrate a comic book version of the play.
• Compose a "Rap Battle" between the main characters.
• Write and/or perform a "missing scene" from the play.
• Play the role of a lawyer and verbally debate over the morality of the antagonist.
• Create Myspace Profiles of each character from the play.

Do they sound like crazy ideas? They are. And we had a terrific time. Learn more about these 5 different ways to creatively analyze dramatic literature.