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Step 1: Character Resources
©RSC
Step 1:
Character Resources
This website will give you an insight into the creative challenges
faced by Dennis Kelly as writer and Tim Minchin as composer and
lyricist when adapting Roald Dahl’s novel Matilda into a musical.
The RSC is setting students a similar task, by asking them to create
either a scene or song or a scene with a song in it for a new character
who is introduced to us on the first day of term at Crunchem Hall. The
scene should contain no more than four speaking characters.
We have created a web page for each of the steps that we feel
are essential in creating a good scene or song, they are:
• Create a believable Character
• Plan a strong Plot – including an Inspiration Gallery
• Develop Music and Lyrics
• Write the Dialogue
• Rewriting what has been written and then Rehearsing it
To make the most of this resource, we suggest that you work
through these pages in this order with your students.
This pack focuses on the development of character and has been designed
to work alongside the web-page and also to support and enrich students’
writing experience in school. Through a selection of practical games
and activities students will gradually build up their experience of writing
about character. The resources can also act as stand-alone activities that
can be adapted to other forms of writing in your school curriculum.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Introduction
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The pack is divided into two sections:
Part A:
Broadening Experience
& Capturing Ideas
1. Nice to Naughty Part One:
Starting with the idea of a pupil from Crunchem Hall, looking at
simple subtle variations of character on stage (Revolting Children).
Through drama, students will be able to physicalise how
characters change throughout the course of a scene or a play,
or how one character can be subtly different to another.
2. Nice to Naughty Part Two:
How characters react to other characters.
When another character is introduced to the ‘Nice to
Naughty’ game, students begin to consider how things
might change when one character reacts to another.
3. Nice to Naughty Part Three:
Capturing and recording ideas for facial expressions.
A quick-fire writing activity where students begin to notice how
facial features change as characters’ feelings change. In the style
of Dahl, students look closely at eyes and eyebrows, mouths and
noses. This leads into Performing A Facial Symphony.
4. Nice to Naughty Part Four:
Further exploring the reactions of more than one character on stage.
Students are given a number which depicts a certain level of
behaviour from ‘nice’ to ‘naughty’. They hunt around for other
people to form their ‘gang’ who are exactly the same number.
5. The Character Generator
Exploring a range of ideas for the creation of a new character.
Using the online tool alongside some further in-class guidance, students will
consider a range of possibilities for creating new characters for their scene.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Introduction
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Part B:
Planning & Developing The Character
6. Character Back-Stories:
Background details about individual characters.
Students will look at a selection of pictures of characters in a
school. They will create a background detail about each character
to help them to shape the person they are on stage.
7. The Exaggeration Game
Exaggeration versus reality; creating a character that
is big and memorable but not too over the top
Students look at all the examples of characters they have explored so far
and choose one they particularly like that they think will work well in the
play. As Dennis Kelly explains in the films, Dahl’s characters are exaggerated,
but we also have to believe that they are real. This allows students to play
with taking a character too far, then deciding how much to rein it back in.
8. Story Threes:
A simple first plan for the possible story of the character
This will provide the first opportunity for students to plan part
of their story. They look at the character they have chosen so far,
consider the details they have created about them, and create four
steps that begin to tell a story about that character in the scene.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Introduction
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Character
Creating a scene for Matilda The Musical offers young writers a wonderful
opportunity to make colourful characters come to life on the stage. But
sometimes it’s difficult for children to know where to start with their ideas.
Most children adore listening to or reading the exploits of characters such as
The BFG or The Twits, but some children might feel that this is far removed from
what they might write themselves. What Roald Dahl, Dennis Kelly and Tim
Minchin share as writers is an ability to create compelling characters who are
larger than life, but who still suspend our belief. This is a difficult craft, one that
will need to be nurtured and teased out with the young people in your class.
A useful thing to remember, and what Tim and Dennis particularly talk
about in the films, is that most writers create their characters from their
memories and from what they notice about real people around them.
A writer like Roald Dahl will begin with an idea that is rather ordinary
and exaggerate it little by little until they create something altogether
different. This section can be used to help students develop a character
and find the language to give their creation meaning and colour.
The activities outlined below can be used in isolation, or they can be used in steps
to build up ideas about the creation of a character for The Writing Challenge.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Introduction
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Nice to Naughty
Starting with the idea of a pupil from Crunchem Hall, looking
at simple subtle variations of character on stage.
Purpose of the activity:
Based on ‘Revolting Children’, a song from the musical, this activity
explores the idea of how characters change throughout the course of
the play. Students will physicalise these gradual changes and start to
understand the subtleties of that change. Using these activities alongside
the others in this section will help students create a rounded character.
What you will need:
• A reasonably large space in which students can stand and move
• Something that can represent a school bell which
can be sounded at appropriate moments
• 6–7 sets of cards numbered 1 to 5 (depending on class size)
Useful tip before starting:
To get the best out of this activity, it’s a good idea to model some changes
(good and bad) for the students. As with literacy or numeracy, students
always feel more confident in an activity like this if they have been offered a
range of possibilities to get them started. One thing students will find difficult
in this game is to make the transition gradual. As a teacher, if you’re not
confident physically modelling the changes yourself, choose someone in your
class who is confident with drama to show the class some ways forward.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part A: Broadening Experience & Capturing Ideas
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Nice to Naughty
Part One: Becoming
Revolting in Five Steps
How it works:
Organise students into pairs. Explain that they are going to learn how to
become ‘Revolting Children’ just like in the song from Matilda The Musical.
They are going to move from ‘nice’ to ‘naughty’ on a scale from 1 to 5.
Explain that firstly they will practise changing something each time to add an
extra ingredient of disgustingness. Explain that the change must be gradual.
In their pairs, ask students to number themselves 1 or 2.
2 will be the model; 1 will be the director sculptor.
Explain that you will ring Miss Trunchbull’s school bell five times and each
time they hear it, they must add an extra revolting quality. Remind them that
to start with – when the first bell is rung – the students must be completely
perfect and nice, and then 1s must get their partner to change one thing before
the next bell rings so they move from ‘nice’ to ‘naughty’ in five gradual steps.
If your students are confident with drama and their partner,
allow 1s to physically move their partners face, head or arms.
Alternatively, they can just direct or model what they would
like their partner to change, so their partner reflects it.
As an example, the stages might look like this:
1. Stands with a straight back, perfectly prim
2. Chews gum
3. Chews gum then burps
4. Chews gum, burps and wipes nose on sleeve
5. Chews gum, burps, wipes nose on sleeve, picks nose and flicks it.
After this, encourage students to swap so that 2s
sculpt or direct and 1s are the models.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part A: Broadening Experience & Capturing Ideas
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Part Two / Extention Activity
Exploring how characters might react to other characters
Purpose of the activity:
This allows students to consider how a character can become more
rounded through the ways in which other characters react to them.
How it works:
When students have created their five steps from ‘nice’ to ‘naughty’,
and the 1s are modelling these, 2s can choose to be another character
(such as a snooty teacher). At each transition, 2s freeze a reaction.
As an example, the stages might look like this:
6. Child stands with a straight back, perfectly prim
Teacher smiles proudly
7. Child chews gum
Teacher puts hand over their mouth in disgust
8. Chews gum then burps
Teacher puts hand over mouth and points at child with other hand
… and so on.
This activity can prompt some interesting discussion points.
Reflection
How did ‘character 1’ feel as ‘character 2’ reacted?
Did this make your actions more or less obvious?
What does this tell us about the character we are going to create for stage?
What sorts of characters might work well together on stage?
Was there a point where it got too ‘silly’?
Can you think of an example of characters from either Matilda
The Musical or the novel that are particularly interesting
to see together because of the way they react?
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part A: Broadening Experience & Capturing Ideas
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Nice to Naughty Part Three:
Get Writing
Capturing and recording ideas for facial expressions
Purpose of the activity:
Good writers make interesting observations, and they have an
innate awareness of detail. When Roald Dahl describes characters
he often concentrates on the face, looking closely at eyes, noses and
mouths. This next step of the activity will train students to become
better at noticing such details – an important quality in writing.
In the first activity above, as students move from ‘nice’ to ‘naughty’,
their facial expressions will change significantly with each step.
How it works:
This time, split the class in half. One half will be reporters who quickly
jot down details they see; the other half will be Revolting Children.
Explain to students that when the bell rings, the Revolting Children
are going to have 40 seconds to make a still-image of a class of very
naughty children (about 4 or a 5 on the scale). You will ring the bell
three times, and each time they can form a different still-image.
During the time between the bells, the reporters must note down
information about a particular feature, which you call out (see below).
If they wish, reporters can sketch what they see as well as write.
Bell 1:
What do you notice about the eyes and the
eyebrows? Look at as many as you can.
Bell 2:
Look at the different shapes that the mouths
make. Write or draw what you notice.
Bell 3:
What do you notice about the position of their
noses? What expression are they showing?
After you’ve rung the bell three times, ask students to swap over, so that each
person has an opportunity to be both a reporter and a Revolting Child.
Encourage students to avoid writing words such as ‘angry’ –
ask them to concentrate on noting exactly what they
observe, such as ‘eyes grow rounder’ or ‘deep frown’.
When they have their range of ideas, ask them to choose a couple they
particularly like, and give them an opportunity to tweak the language
so they are happy with it. Those who have drawn their observations
will need to find the language to describe two of the specific things
they observed so their ideas can be shared with the class.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part A: Broadening Experience & Capturing Ideas
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Performing A Facial Symphony
How it works:
Form circle and to bring with them their written observations from the
previous activity. Ask students to have some ideas ready to call out.
Choose a pointing implement that can be used as a conductor’s
baton. Say to students that when it is pointed upwards there is
silence but when the baton is pointed to a person, they must call
out a phrase that they have written down in the ‘Nice to Naughty:
Get Writing’ activity and repeat it until you ask them to stop.
For example, you point to someone in the circle and they might start to
repeat the phrase ‘widening eyes, widening eyes’. They will start to recognise
that this ordinary phrase has an interesting rhythm. Allow them to carry on
repeating this and point to someone else in the circle. They might say ‘eyes
round as plates, eyes round as plates’. The two phrases will sound interesting
layered one on top of the other. And you can keep adding and adding.
You may choose to continue to point to one person after another so that
their phrases layer one on top of another. You can even spin all around
the circle with the baton and hear everyone’s phrases all at once.
Tell students that you are going to play again in
different ‘movements’, like in a symphony.
Explain to students that for the first movement, when the baton is pointed at
them, they must repeat phrases about what they have observed in characters’
eyes. To being this movement, call out ‘eyes’, and then start to ‘conduct’.
Complete the movement by pointing your baton at the ceiling. Everyone is silent.
Conduct the second movement about mouths, and
the third movement about noses.
This playful activity allows students to play around with words and
hear ideas from all of the class, not just their own. They will start to
recognise the rhythms in their descriptions and may begin to form
connections between what could be written about their character and
themes that could be used to create a song. Sometimes a simple phrase
repeated over and over can be a good starting point for a song.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part A: Broadening Experience & Capturing Ideas
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Nice to Naughty Part Four:
Join My Gang
Further exploring the reactions of more than one character on stage
Purpose of the activity:
The strong characters truly enliven Matilda and Matilda The Musical and
the way those characters react to each other makes the story memorable.
In this last part of our ‘Nice To Naughty’ activity, students learn a little
about how characters might feel and react in different groups.
How it works:
Have a selection of cards ready, numbered from 1 to 5. Shuffle them and give
a card to each person. Their number refers back to the first game, where
each step depicted a gradual change from nice to naughty. So if the person
has number 5, this represents the most naughty or revolting character.
Students must not tell anyone else their number, but they must move
around the room – acting as their number – trying to form a gang
by matching up with others who they think are the same level of
naughtiness as themselves. In other words, if they are a 3, they must
try to find others who might be 3 too, using behaviour as a clue.
Tell students how many others they should expect to have in each
group. It might be helpful to give all of them a phrase to say to each
other as they move around the room. For example, ‘Miss Trunchbull
is an unholy terror’ or a similar line from the book or the musical.
Give students a time limit of around two minutes to try to find their
gang without showing their numbers. At the end, students show
their card to the others in their group to check for accuracy.
Reflection
Discuss the activity with students – draw out the importance of subtlety
in the change from ‘nice’ to ‘naughty’. Some questions to ask could be:
Were you exaggerating your character too much?
What could you have added in to be more like a four than a three?
Why do you think you were mistaken for being ‘nice’
when you were supposed to be ‘naughty’?
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part A: Broadening Experience & Capturing Ideas
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The Character Generator
Exploring a range of ideas for the creation of a new character
Show the students the Bruce Bogtrotter chapter from Dennis’s
film on the Character page. Ask students to listen to what Dennis
says about Bruce Bogtrotter. He really enjoyed writing the scene
about Bruce and the cake. Why do you think this is?
Purpose of the activity:
The Character Generator is an online tool that spins up an assortment of details
about human personalities. Because it mixes up all the details, you will never
end up with the same character. This can be used as a stimulus for creating a
character for the scene. Many of the ideas have been written in the style of
Dennis, Tim or Roald Dahl, so this will give students a great starting point for
creating something that would fit in well with the rest of Matilda The Musical.
How it works:
As a class (either on the whiteboard or on individual computers) use
the Character Generator as an inspiration for the sort of individual
your students might want to create as the focus of their scene.
Show students that as you click on each section, the generator
will spin up a range of possibilities. You can see the way the
Generator is organised into different sections, below:
In this example, you can see we’ve generated a teacher who is short
with blinking eyes. They are both bitter and proud, and the final ‘key
question’ in the Generator prompts students to use their imagination to
create something about them, in this case, their hobby. This is important
because the hobbies that characters have in Matilda The Musical make
them very memorable. Miss Trunchbull is a hammer-thrower; Mrs
Wormwood is a dancer; Matilda is a book-reader and story-teller.
When students have had a chance to explore the Character Generator,
ask them to choose one character and to fill in a fact-file about them
that could be shared with the actor who will play them in the scene.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part A: Broadening Experience & Capturing Ideas
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Example Fact File
Name:
Miss Marionetta
What their character is like and why:
(this requires students to look at the two different personality traits
in the Generator and make a connection between them. Why is
the teacher above proud and bitter? What has happened?)
She appears very proud and straight-backed because
as a youth she was training to be an Olympic runner.
Unfortunately she has a great bitterness inside
because she was hit by a hammer while practising
on the running track. Although people know about
her injury they do not know this last detail. She
believes that it was Miss Trunchbull who threw the
hammer that injured her as she was training for
the hammer-throwing event the same day. She has
vowed to get her revenge on Miss Truncbull one
day for taking away her hopes and dreams. This is
why she has started teaching at Crunchem Hall.
Describe their appearance:
Tall, athletic, always in running
gear, but walking with a limp.
Their closest ally:
Miss Honey
Their greatest foe:
Miss Trunchbull
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part A: Broadening Experience & Capturing Ideas
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Nice to Naughty
Part Two: Planning &
Developing The Character
Character Back-Stories
Back ground details about individual characters
Show the students the Believable Character chapter from Tim’s film
on the Character page and ask them to listen to what Tim has to say
about two-dimensional characters. What do they think he means by
this and what does he want to see added to characters in a musical?
Now show Lauren’s film on the Character page asking the students to pay
attention to Lauren’s views on character’s back-stories. Ask: what did Dennis
and Tim do to help Miss Honey become more interesting to watch and to play?
Purpose of the activity:
In good writing, characters are rarely two-dimensional. Most of the
personalities in Matilda The Musical don’t just come from what we see
on-stage but from what we imagine has happened to them before that
point in the action. For example, we learn that Miss Trunchbull was an
Olympic hammer-thrower when she was young and that Miss Honey
was a very happy child until her father died. This will enable students to
understand how a character can become more real and interesting.
How it works:
A whole class of students is full of personalities who all have different
backgrounds that shape who they are. Print out the character picture-sheet of
the class of children (see next page). Ask your students to look at the pictures
of the children and imagine a simple detail about their background. For example,
it might simply be a detail such as ‘lives with their grandmother’, which on
the surface might sound like an ordinary idea, but with a little exaggeration
we might turn the grandmother into a world champion ten-pin bowler.
Sometimes even the most ordinary observations can lead us to something
more extraordinary. If students are finding it difficult to think of simple ideas,
encourage them to refer back to their work on the Character Generator.
Page 14 is about adults who might have a part in the story.
We’ve supplied a range of blank faces – print this out and ask
students to draw onto the faces a range of different people, and
next to the faces, to write a small detail about them.
In the next activity – the Exaggeration Game – students will choose one
of those characters, give them a name them and develop them further.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part B: Planning & Developing The Character
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Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part B: Planning & Developing The Character
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Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part B: Planning & Developing The Character
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The Exaggeration Game
Exaggeration versus reality; creating a character that
is big and memorable but not too over-the-top
Show students the Believable Character chapter from Dennis’s film
on the Character page. Ask them, what does he say about making a
character believable? Why do they think this is so important?
How it works:
With Dennis’ comments in mind play ask students to play a
written exaggeration game with a character of their choice.
Ask students to choose a character from the Back-stories activity
above with an interesting detail that they particularly like. It needs to
be quite an ordinary detail that can be exaggerated little by little. Tell
them that they are allowed to keep exaggerating in up to five steps, and
they can allow themselves to exaggerate as much as they want to.
When they have done this, ask them to
take two different coloured pens:
Ask them to use one colour to put a ring around things they want
to keep, and the other colour to ring details that won’t work
because they are too unbelievable (see example below).
Below is an example.
Tristan is an only
child who lives
with his dad.
His dad works
from home and
often makes him
late for school.
Tristan’s dad
is a scientist.
Tristan’s dad is
an inventor who
makes Tristan
late for school
because he
uses him for a
guinea pig in
experiments.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part B: Planning & Developing The Character
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Tristan’s dad
is planning to
create a giant
robot based on
Miss Trunchbull
that has the
strength to
hammer-throw
cars and houses.
Tristan’s dad
is planning to
take over the
world with
his Trunchbull
robot, starting
by lifting the
Houses of
Parliament
and hammerthrowing them
into the Thames.
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The blue ring indicates the steps that have gone a bit too far in this
example. One element of the writing that needs to be considered is
that the students’ scene is part of a much bigger play and the part
they write can’t detract from the rest of the story. An inventor taking
over the world belongs in its own story. They also need to consider
that the scene is being produced for stage, so they must keep in mind
the idea that whatever happens must be possible to do in a theatre.
However, when the writer purposely exaggerated these steps, it
allows them to create an exciting idea for their character. A red
ring has been drawn around the section that mentions creating a
robot. Although a giant robot of Miss Trunchbull might not be
appropriate, perhaps another robot of a child could be created? This
is something that could be acted rather than needing a special effect.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part B: Planning & Developing The Character
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Story Threes
A simple first plan for the possible story of the character
Purpose of the activity:
This will provide the first opportunity for students to plan part of their
story. They look at the character they have chosen so far, consider
the details that they have created about them, and create four steps
that begin to tell a story about that character in the scene.
How it works:
Give students large pieces of paper (for example A3) and tell them that they are going
to plot out three moments about the character’s story in their scene (see below).
This needs to be spread across the page so extra details
can be added afterwards in another colour.
They must write about three things: their name and who they are; a
problem they have, and their plan for overcoming the problem.
Name
Problem
Their Plan
Tristan wants to create
a robot of himself so
that it looks like he is
never late for school.
Tristan, son of
an inventor
Dad is always
using son as
guinea-pig in
experiments.
As a result he
comes to school
late and often
looks dishevelled.
On his first day
he is thrown
in the Chokey.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part B: Planning & Developing The Character
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Asks his friend who
comes from a family
of 10 children to look
after the robot and
walk to school with
it (The robot will be
unnoticed in a house
of so many children).
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After this, using a pen of another colour, students can start to
build in extra details to make their character more rounded. For
example, they may introduce information about their appearance:
Name
Problem
Tristan, son of
an inventor
Dad is always
using son as
guinea-pig in
experiments.
As a result he
comes to school
late and often
looks dishevelled.
On his first day
he is thrown
in the Chokey.
Broken glasses
Messy knotted hair
Eyes
looking quickly from
left to right
Nose
Continually sneezing (because
he is reacting to experiments)
Mouth
Pursed lips that mostly
whisper rather than speaks
Their Plan
Tristan wants to create
a robot of himself so
that it looks like he is
never late for school.
Asks his friend who
comes from a family
of 10 children to look
after the robot and
walk to school with
it (The robot will be
unnoticed in a house
of so many children).
Trunchbull’s attention is drawn
to him on first day because
she hears him sneezing as
he walks past her office.
As you can see above, in our example, the writer has started adding
details about appearance. They have drawn out ideas from the activities
they have done in class, focussing specifically on what we might notice
about eyes, noses and mouths (in the style of Roald Dahl). They have
also used this as an example of how one character’s reaction to another
may shape the way the story develops. It is because Miss Trunchbull
reacts to Tristan’s sneezing that he is caught for being late.
Students should now be ready to move onto the next step of their writing.
Activities they experienced in class will have prepared them with a range
of possibilities for deciding who their character might be and giving them
a colourful personality by considering their appearance, their background,
their problem and how other characters might react to them.
The next step to writing their scene will be to create a great plot
that will work well in the existing musical. The activities linked
to the Plotting page will move them onto this next stage.
Write Here, Write Now with Matilda: Character Resources
Part B: Planning & Developing The Character
©RSC Education packs written by: Jo Howell
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