April 15 – R & G – Act 1 Agenda: R & G are Dead Pre-reading Study Questions: Act 1 Homework: Complete Study Questions 1-9 (Read through page 32) Take out: The book Pen/Pencil Notebook

Who are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

Brainstorm: What do you already know about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from the play Hamlet? What do they do? What are they like? What do we know about them already?

Brainstorm: One of the major points of R & G are Dead is to ask existential questions about all of our favorite AP Lit themes (life, death, individual meaning, humanity, etc.). Why use these specific characters to explore these ideas? Why use Hamlet?

Reading Groups You need a reading group of FIVE to read Act 1: Reader 1: Rosencrantz Reader 2: Guildenstern Reader 3: Stage Directions Reader 4: Player, Claudius, Polonius Reader 5: Alfred, Gertrude, Hamlet

Reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead The play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead operates on multiple levels. Stoppard uses the characters, situation and ideas originally developed by the bard to explore and impose existentialist questions other ideas upon a contemporary audience. As such, little in the play – and therefor in these questions about the play – should be taken at face value… you’re going to need to call upon all of you analytical abilities for this one. Read the first act of the play with your group, pausing to answer the questions as you come to the corresponding sections of the play. Be thorough – the more you think about it, the more sense this absurdist, nonsensical, postmodernist play will make!