Each of the following activities is broken into three “steps” to encourage all audiences, but especially students, to consider this production of Primary Trust and reflect on their personal experience of it to draw connections to their lives and other work with which they might be familiar. Their reflection can then spark their own creative project.
Jump to:
Where’s Your Third Place?
READ: Read “What Is a Third Place?” in this Upstage Guide.
REFLECT: Do you have a third place? Where do you spend the most time outside of work/school and home? What do you like about it? Reference back to the characteristics of a third place. Using this as a checklist, does your third place meet the criteria?
CREATE: If your third place meets the criteria, create a piece of media to attract new people to come to the third place. This can be an elevator pitch, blog post, Tik Tok, poster, Instagram post, etc. Use what you learned about the benefits of a third place as well as any rhetorical devices that would support your argument.
If your third place did not meet the criteria, create a rebuttal to Oldenburg’s criteria. Using what you know about the third place and your reflection above, lay out a new set of criteria and explain why it is a better measure. Your criteria should include at least 3 characteristics. You may choose to present your argument in any form.
Songs and Storytelling
Eboni Booth specifically chose a handful of songs that would be featured in Primary Trust. There are also some original compositions from the featured musician. How can music support a story—especially when it is not advancing the plot as in a musical?
RECALL AND REFLECT: Think back to the music used in Primary Trust. Did it reflect the setting, mood, or action? How so? Did a particular music moment stick out to you? What was it about that moment and the quality of the music that set it apart? Consider the genre, pacing, rhythm, and pitch. What effect did the qualities of the music have on your physical experience? Your emotional experience?
CONNECT: Are there other movies, TV shows, or plays that have used music in an interesting or surprising way to help support the storytelling? What was similar or different from your experience of music in this production of Primary Trust?
CREATE: Choose a character from Primary Trust. Create a playlist that you think captures them. Consider what you learned about them from the production: their personality, their lifestyle, any important life events, or relationships. Think about how they might feel about these things or how they want to feel and use that to inform your song choices. Write a note to accompany the playlist as if you’re giving it to them as a gift.
"A Version of Home”
Wally’s Tiki Bar and Le Pousselet are two restaurants featured in Primary Trust. Kenneth describes Wally’s as “a version of home” but expresses some apprehension about Le Pousselet before going with Corrina.
REFLECT: Why do you think Kenneth was less interested in Le Pousselet? What about it has prevented him from going before now? What about Wally’s makes it feel like a version of home to Kenneth?
CONNECT: What do you think are the qualities of “home”? Do you have a place that feels like “a version of home”? Think about the atmosphere, the people who are there, the soundtrack, and the décor. What does it smell like? Is there food? What kind of food? How is your version of home like Wally’s for Kenneth? How is it different? Share the description of your place with a partner or small group.
CREATE: Choose an artistic way of designing “a version of home.” It can be a visual representation, a poem, a musical piece, or whatever method you can best express yourself. Your “version of home” can be a place that already exists, a place you wish existed, or a place you think others might want to go. Be sure to think about the description you and your partner or small group shared out.