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Two Plans, One Performance

Compare a science fair planning script with a live production, judging how staging and acting preserve or change its meaning.

Grade 8ELAInteractive · Printable

Aligned toRL.8.7

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 Common Core standard
Printable answer key
13 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 8
Subject: ELA
Question types: Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students judge how faithfully a live production represents a script's conflict and characterization.
Students evaluate acting and staging choices using evidence from a script and a production account.

How to use

Have students read both texts, marking preserved details and changes. Then have them evaluate the performance using evidence from both versions.

Curriculum

Common Core standard covered

RL.8.7

Judge how faithfully a film or live production follows the text or script, and evaluate the director's or actors' choices.

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Two Plans, One Performance

Compare an original script with a live production and evaluate the staging choices.

Read the script and production account

The production account describes an imagined live performance. Use only these two texts to judge the production.

Two Plans: Original Script

1[An empty classroom after school. JUN and MARIS, longtime friends, sit on opposite sides of a table. Each has a notebook. Between them are a science fair entry form and a capped marker. Neither notebook is hidden from the other.] JUN: I want people to stop at our table. A solar oven would give them something to watch. MARIS: If there is sun. JUN: We can test it before the fair.

2MARIS: I wrote down another idea: compare how different fabrics slow heat loss. Same containers, same starting temperature, different covers. JUN: It sounds like laundry. [Maris looks at him. Jun lowers his eyes.] JUN: Sorry. That was cheap. MARIS: You haven't looked at the plan yet. [She turns her notebook toward him but keeps her hand on its edge.]

3[Jun studies the page without touching it. Maris waits. The silence should last long enough for the audience to notice that neither friend is filling it.] JUN: You already made a chart. MARIS: A blank one. I haven't tested anything. JUN: I thought we were choosing together. MARIS: So did I. That's why I brought a plan instead of filling out the form.

4JUN: My sketch has two ovens. We could compare lining materials. MARIS: That's a test, then. [She moves her notebook aside to make room for his.] JUN: And your fabric test would work indoors. MARIS: You don't have to sound surprised. [They almost smile.] JUN: I'm not trying to be in charge. MARIS: Neither am I. [Both glance at the marker. Neither reaches for it.]

5MARIS: What do we need to find out before we decide? JUN: Whether the oven gets warm enough. MARIS: And whether our thermometers show small differences. [Jun uncaps the marker and draws a line down the back of the entry form. He writes “Questions” on one side and “Ways to check” on the other. He places the marker halfway between them.] JUN: One question each?

6[Maris writes beneath “Questions,” then passes the marker to Jun. He adds a second question. The project-title box on the front of the form remains empty.] MARIS: Tomorrow, we try both. JUN: Then we choose. [They gather the two notebooks together, leaving the form on the table. Lights fade before either notebook is placed on top of the other.]

Production Account: The Classroom Performance

1The live production uses the classroom setting and keeps the dialogue in the script's order, but it changes several pauses and actions. A wide table stands across the center of the stage. Jun and Maris begin at its opposite ends, farther apart than they would need to sit to read each other's notebooks. Both notebooks face their owners. The entry form and marker remain visible at center stage.

2Jun delivers “It sounds like laundry” toward the audience, with a broad smile. Several viewers laugh. Before Maris can look at him, he adds “Sorry. That was cheap” in the same lively voice. He does not lower his eyes. Maris holds her notebook against her chest during “You haven't looked at the plan yet.” Only after finishing the line does she set it down and turn it toward him.

3The production removes the long silence while Jun studies the page. Instead, Maris taps the notebook three times, and Jun immediately says, “You already made a chart.” His actor leans forward and narrows his eyes. Maris speaks “A blank one” sharply, then softens her voice for “I haven't tested anything.” During the exchange about choosing together, both actors remain seated at opposite ends of the table.

4When Maris says “That's a test, then,” she slides her notebook aside as directed. Jun moves his chair closer and opens his sketch beside her plan. The actors exchange a brief, uncertain smile at “You don't have to sound surprised.” They deliver the next two lines quietly. Both look toward the marker without touching it. For the first time, they sit close enough to read both notebooks comfortably.

5The director removes the spoken lines “What do we need to find out before we decide?” and “Whether the oven gets warm enough.” While the actors silently mouth a conversation, a projection displays a completed checklist: test oven warmth; test thermometer sensitivity. Maris then speaks her thermometer line. Jun draws the two columns on the form as directed. The projected checklist remains visible above him.

6In the final exchange, each actor writes one question on the form, and the project-title box stays empty. They speak “Tomorrow, we try both” and “Then we choose” without emphasis on either project. They gather the notebooks side by side. As the lights fade, the projection disappears, leaving only the unfinished entry form illuminated on the table. No music accompanies the scene.

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