On Broadway: Behind the curtain

Objective & content

This Look Closer episode (On Broadway mini-series, episode 113) is a one-minute documentary about the people who work behind a Broadway musical, told with real photos and drawings. A single narrator explains that the audience can see the actors, the singers and the dancers, but not the musicians in the pit, a big space lower than the stage, or the helpers behind the stage who change an actor's costume in a few seconds; some actors also learn other parts, so another actor plays the part if someone is sick. Learners meet there is and there are (There's a big space), can and can't (the audience can't see them), lower than, the present simple (The musicians play there) and a closing Would you like to ...? question; they also hear If an actor is sick, ..., for understanding only. The vocabulary is about the theatre, music, clothes and jobs. Learners listen, then answer the 10 questions in the app: 9 on facts and 1 on vocabulary (pit).

Materials & prerequisites

You need the episode (audio and slideshow) and the printables: a one-page pupil pack and teacher pack (the text, three pictures, the key words and the 10 questions, with the answers highlighted in the teacher pack), a pupil question sheet and a teacher answer key. There is no lesson plan. Learners should know the present simple, there is and there are, and can for ability. Musical and costume name the subject, so they are taught for understanding; pit is explained in the episode.

Curriculum alignment

Tagged art-and-expression-of-feelings (6e, "Arts et expression des sentiments", study topic "Welcome to Broadway", Cycle 3). The episode targets CEFR level A1+.