Task 1 - Analysing a web page
Read the web biography entry for Jenny Greer on pp. 28-29 of Part 1 of your Learning Resource and answer the following questions: HAS BEEN ATTACHED
(a) How does the web page present the biographical information?
(b) What is the effect of the inclusion of the two photographs?
(c) How does this text influence your perspective on women in wartime?
(d) Would this web page be a suitable related text for the elective ‘Distinctively Visual'? Explain your answer.
Write 300 words or less.
Task 2 - Creating a visual text
Imagine that you are one of the women prisoners. You want viewers at an exhibition to understand and be moved by your experiences.
(a) Draw or paint a picture or create a collage or other visual text which depicts or illustrates your experiences in the prisoner-of-war camp and which reflects the feelings you had at the time.
Your painting or drawing is to be included in an exhibition to commemorate the 65th anniversary of your liberation.
You should provide a title and caption for your visual text.
(b) Attach your visual text to your assignment.
(c) Reflect on the visual text you have created. What techniques have you used to shape the viewer's response? What effect would you like your visual text to have on viewers? How is your visual text different from a written description?
Write 150 words or less.
Task 3 - Personal response
Write a letter to your teacher giving your first response to the play The Shoe-Horn Sonata.
(a) Describe how your personal context influences your response to the subject of civilian prisoners of war and the difficulty of living with traumatic memories.
(b) Discuss what you understand the composer's context to be. Use quotations from the Author's Note on page 16 in the text. (You could also refer to the interview with John Misto in Part 3 of your Learning resource.)
(c) Explain what aspects of The Shoe-Horn Sonata had the greatest impact on you.
Task 4 - Notes for a review
Imagine that you are a theatre critic for a daily newspaper. You have just seen a performance of The Shoe-Horn Sonata.
Write notes for the review you will write. Choose AT LEAST FIVE of the following points: your reaction to the set the effect of the photographs projected on screens on stage (e.g., Act 2 when the women of the Empire bow to the Japanese) the effectiveness of the music (e.g., the vibrant sequence using The Blue Danube Waltz at the end of the play) examples of sound effects (e.g., the sounds of water as the evacuation boat sinks) and their impact examples of lighting effects (e.g., the use of the spotlight in the opening scene) how the play's structure and dramatic techniques enable the audience to visualise the women's experiences during World War II the symbolism of the shoe-horn the author's desire for his play to serve as a memorial to the women and civilians who die in war the cathartic effect on Sheila and Bridie of reliving their wartime experiences.