MIMI I know. I should tell you ROGER I should tell you
Task 7: Watch the film scenes for Today 4 U and I will cover you – Reprise (QR-Code)
189 3 Material 3: Collage with music: Drag Queen Angel – tasks
Task 1: With a partner, form a freeze frame depicting a drag queen and present it to class accompanied by the song Today 4 U (QR-Code). The class chooses the best 5-7 freeze frames, documents them to make them reproducible (by photographing, drawing or describing them) and decides on the order in which they will be used for the collage.
Task 2: In six groups, create and practise a pantomime showing the story from Angel's life. You will be given both a short summary of the story and some lines from the libretto / film script; however, your scenes should be presented without dialogue. (Only two groups have one or two spoken lines to be included in their scene.)
Task 3: With your material, practise an Angel-Collage: Between each pantomime scene, one of your
190 4 Material 4 For groups: Drag Queen Angel – story cards
1. Street musician angel notices an injured man in a street corner. Angel helps the man, and both tell each other that they suffer from AIDS. (You may show the latter by two short spoken sentences such as: Angel: “I'm going to an AIDS group now.“ Collins: “I have AIDS, too.“)
ANGEL: You okay honey?
COLLINS: I'm afraid so.
ANGEL: They get any money?
COLLINS: No, had none to get, but they purloined172 my coat Well you missed a sleeve! -- thanks.
ANGEL: Hell, it's Christmas Eve. I'm Angel.
COLLINS: Angel? Indeed. An angel of the first degree. Friends call me Collins -- Tom Collins. Nice tree ...
ANGEL: Let's get a band-aid173 for your knee. I'll change, there's a "Life Support" meeting at nine-thirty. Yes -- this body provides a comfortable home For the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome174.
COLLINS: As does mine.
2. Drummer Angel is hired by a woman to keep drumming until the neighbor's constantly barking lapdog dies and therefor stops barking. Angel succeeds. The dog jumps out of the window and dies.
Angel earns a lot of money.
ANGEL
It was my lucky day today on Avenue A When a lady in a limousine drove my way
She said, "Dahling -- be a dear -- haven't slept in a year
I need your help to make my neighbor's yappy175 dog disappear"
"This Akita-Evita just won't shut up I believe if you play non-stop that pup Will breathe its very last high-strung176 breath I'm certain that cur177 will bark itself to death" [...]
We agreed on a fee178 -- A thousand dollar guarantee Tax-free -- and a bonus if I trim her tree
Now who could foretell that it would go so well But sure as I am here that dog is now in doggy hell After an hour -- Evita -- in all her glory
172to purloin = to steal
173band-aid Pflaster
174 this body provides a comfortable home For the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome = I have AIDS
175yappy = ständig bellend
176high-strung = hier: aufgeregt
177cur = dog (derog.)
178fee = money paid for a service
191
On the window ledge179 of that 23rd story
Like Thelma & Louise did when they got the blues Swan dove180 into the courtyard of the Gracie Mews181 Today for you -- tomorrow for me
Today for you -- tomorrow for me
3. Angel generously gives his freshly earned money to his new friends because they are too broke to buy food or wood to heat their rooms.
COLLINS: Gentlemen, our benefactor on this Christmas Eve - Whose charity182 is only matched by talent, I believe
A new member of the Alphabet City avant-garde: Angel Dumott Schunard!
(ANGEL sashays183 in. He's gorgeously done up in Santa drag184, with a fan of twenty-dollar bills in each hand.) ANGEL: Today for you -- tomorrow for me.
4. A skinhead mocks and molests drag queen Angel. Angel says to him: “I am more of a man that you will ever be, and more of a woman than you will ever get.“ (This is one of three spoken sentences permitted in the whole collage.)
MIMI: That skinhead was bothering her, and she said she was more of a man than he'd ever be, and more of a woman than he'd ever get.
5. A group of tourists lost in New York City meets drag queen Angel. They are a little scared of him, but they need Angel's help. Angel kindly shows them the way and allows them to take a picture with him to remember him.
MARK: … and then there was that time that he walked up to this group of tourists and, they were petrified185, because, a) they were obviously lost, and b) they had probably never spoken to a drag queen before in their lives...and he...she just offered to escort them out of Alphabet City, and then she let them take a picture with her, and then she said she'd help 'em find the Circle Line186.
179window ledge = Fensterbank
180 to swan dive = einen Kopfsprung machen
181 courtyard of the Gracie Mews = Hof bei einem Hochhaus in Manhatten
182charity = Wohltätigkeit
183to sashay = tänzeln
184 gorgeously done up in Santa drag = wunderschön aufgemacht in einem Weihnachtsmann-artigen Frauenkleid
185petrified = vor Angst wie gelähmt
186Circle Line = New Yorker U-Bahnlinie
192 6. Angel dies of AIDS in Collin's arms.
COLLINS: I think they meant it when they said you can't buy love.
Now I know you can rent it.
A new lease187 you were, my love, on life.
All my life I've longed to discover something as true as this is.
187Lease = Pachtvertrag
193 5 Material 5: Love relationships in Rent – Scenic production
Available time: 35-40 minutes
The musical rent tells – among other things – the story of three couples, the development of which is shown in several songs. Your group task is to act out this development, using fragments from these songs and fitting your scenic production both to their music and lyrics.
Two of the three portrayed relationships are – in a way – love triangles, because in both, one partner's ex-boyfriend is mentioned. Therefore, all eight main roles of the musical Rent and the students play-ing these roles are part of one group. Whether or not you want to have this ex-partner appear in your scenic production or whether the students playing these roles will 'only' work as directors in your group is up to you.
Task 1: Read and listen to your material (songs, lyrics, background information). Take notes on the aspects of the relationship you see as most iportant, and how the relationship develops. Moreover, take notes on:
− ideas how to present these in short scenes,
− passages in the songs showing central aspects suitable for acting these out,
− who could play what and how best.
Task 2: Shorten your 2-4 songs to a medley which you will either play with one form of medium (e.g. online videos simultaneously open in several tabs, using the play- and pause- button to combine the passages) or which you will mix and cut into one track (as homework, using pc or mobile phone).
Task 3: Practise your scenic production presenting 'your' couple which shows the development of