"Artzy" Art during World War II
Group Activities:
By this time, each of you should have completed the questions to be answered by your character on a separate sheet of paper. You should have a timeline of important events that your character's country was involved in during World War II. You should have a 1-2 page written response to a letter from World War II, in the perspective of your character.
Next Step:
Click on the link for character analysis and answer the questions about your character.
After each of you has started a character analysis, you will be given one of the following scenarios or situations by your instructor. You may need to work through the skit before you can answer some of the questions about your character.
As a group, you will collaboratively write a short skit that includes the following criteria.
Each character must interact with the others in some way.
Each character must reveal something about their country that was discovered through the research.
Each of you must introduce your character through dialogue or actions, so the audience will know who is who.
Your skit must include the scenario given to you.
Your skit must have a beginning, middle and an ending.
Your skit must have a climax or problem to overcome, followed by a resolution.
Keep in mind that you must remain in your designated character throughout this activity, so that your audience can visualize how your character would have reacted to the given situation in World War II. The setting for each scenario is World War II.
Scenarios:
Group 1--The setting is Europe during World War II. All of you have been captured by the Italian army, for different reasons. You all end up in the same prison cell, where you will remain indefinitely. One of you will be executed by the Italian regime.
You must figure why each of you were caught and how.
You must figure out how you will interact with each other in this prison cell, which is very small.
You must figure out which one of you is to be executed and why.
Group 2--The setting is the Pacific Ocean during World War II. Somehow, each of you has made it aboard the same ship. The ship sets sail and is almost immediately bombed from the air. There is an explosion but none of you are killed in the explosion itself. By the time you get to the deck, there is only one lifeboat available, and it will only hold three people. The others will have to go down with the ship, and it is sinking quickly.
You must figure out how each of you got on the ship and why you got on the ship.
You must figure out which country's ship it is and who is bombing the ship.
You must figure out if anyone is injured due to the explosion and how.
You must decide who will get on the lifeboat and who will stay behind and why.
Group 3--The setting is the United States during World War II. All of you have been placed in an internment camp. You are all considered prisoners of war by the U. S. Some of you may have been wrongfully imprisoned.
You must figure out who was wrongfully imprisoned and why.
You must figure out how you will get out of the internment camp.
You must figure how you ended up in the camp in the first place.
Group 4--The setting is Nazi Germany during World War II. For some reason, all of you have been sent to a concentration camp. People are dying all around you, thousands of them every day and any of you could be next. The guards are known to kill at will, if anyone messes up or even looks at them wrong. One of you will die and one of you will escape.
You must figure out why each of you is in the concentration camp.
You must figure out who will die and how.
You must figure out who will escape and how.
You must figure out how each of you handle this situation.
Group 5--The setting is the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, at the end of the war. The United States has just dropped an atomic bomb on the city. All of you end up in the same hospital for treatment. One of you has been burned very badly and will not make it. One of you is trying frantically to get in touch with your family, to make sure they are okay. One of you is suffering from radiation sickness, and you don't know if you will live or die. One of you is trying to help some of the many patients in the emergency room.
You must figure out how you will interact with each other.
You must figure out who will live and who will die.
You must figure out why you are in Japan at all.
Group 6--The setting is Russia during World War II. One of you has somehow intercepted a German message about an impending attack on Russia. Two of you find out about this message by mistake. Your lives could be in danger if the wrong people find out that you know about this attack. You have the chance to warn somebody. What do you do?
You must figure out who intercepts the message, and who finds out about it by mistake.
You must figure out how this information is discovered.
You must figure out who is in danger.
You must figure out if and who you will warn about the attack.
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