Experience 1: The Riddle
Pre-production refers to the most preliminary preparations for a theatre production. In this unit, pre-production relates to the initial preparations for students? learning. Using the Middle Ages as a vehicle for studying theatre, students? attention is captured with a curious and unusual event. 
A mysterious suitcase (or box or envelope) with a riddle is delivered to the classroom. Students try to guess the riddle to discover what journey they will be embarking on and begin asking their own questions about the Middle Ages. How do we use this information in our pre-production preparations?

Mental Joust: What is the answer to the riddle? What theatrical journey are we embarking on? What do you know about the Middle Ages? What do you want to know? How do we use this information in our pre-production preparations?

Time: 30 minutes

Materials: a suitcase (or box or envelope) addressed to the class with a variety of articles inside that relates to the Middle Ages (such as a Robin Hood-type hat or jester's cap, a crown, a picture of a castle and a quill), photocopies of the three "Huzzah" riddle letters in separate envelopes marked Open me first? Open me second? and Open me last? (These letters are located in the Handout Manuscripts section at the end of this unit).

Worthy Words: huzzah, Middle Ages, medieval, The Plague

Riddle Procedure:

1. Someone from the school office delivers a suitcase (or box or envelope) with the name of the class clearly printed on top and says, "Here's a special delivery for your class? 
2. Ask, "What do we have here? Does anyone know what this is about? Should we open it?
3. Inside is an assortment of items and three envelopes. ?Can anyone identify any of these items? How might these go together??
4. Open and read each of the three letters in order and ask, What do you think this means? What do you think huzzah means? (Huzzah meant hurray a long time ago.) What's The Plague? (Rodents from ships spread a devastating disease, the Black Plague, when the fleas from the rats infested people.) Does anyone know the answer to this group of riddles?
5. Explain to the class that they will be going on a theatrical journey back to the Middle Ages. Ask, What do you know about the Middle Ages? Have you learned anything about the Middle Ages from movies, TV or books? How about Robin Hood or King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table? What might you want to learn about the Middle Ages?
6. Provide an overview to the class describing that in the next few weeks they will be studying medieval times, culminating with a festival and feast where they will each play the part of a medieval character.

You may want to draw a KWL chart on bulletin-board paper as a reference for your class with the headings: What do you know, what do you want to know and what have you learned? Students could also create their own personal KWL charts to be completed later in the unit for self-assessment purposes. 

The first day of this unit would be an ideal time to begin a read-aloud experience from children's literature for 15 to 30 minutes each day. Some delightful age-appropriate books with medieval characters and themes are listed below. 

Branford, Henrietta. Fire, Bed, and Bone. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 1998.

Cushman, Karen. Catherine Called Birdy. New York: Clarion Books, 1994.

Cushman, Karen. The Midwife?s Apprentice. New York: Clarion Books, 1995.

De Angeli, Marguerite, The Door in the Wall. New York: Doubleday, 1949.

Fleishman, Sid. The Whipping Boy. Santa Barbara, CA: Cornerstone Books, 1986.

Gray, Elizabeth. Adam of the Road. New York: The Viking Press, 1942. 

Hodges, Margaret. St. George and the Dragon. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1984.

Hodges, Margaret. The Kitchen Knight. New York: Holiday House, 1990.

Pyle, Howard. Otto of the Silver Hand. New York: Dover Publishing, 1967. 

Aliki. A Medieval Feast. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1983.

Beckett, Wendy. The Duke and the Peasant: Life in the Middle Ages. New York: Prestel, 1997.

Cushman, Karen. The Midwife?s Apprentice. New York: Clarion Books, 1995.

Fleishman, Sid. The Whipping Boy. Santa Barbara, CA: Cornerstone Books, 1986.

Hodges, Margaret. St. George and the Dragon. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1984.