Draft: this lesson was written with AI help and has not yet been read by a human editor.
1 What your class asks
This lesson asks you to show an understanding of some drama and theatre themes and traditions from a variety of times, communities and places. The museum links one record, on a nineteenth-century dramatist of the Caucasus; your class will add other traditions, including those the curriculum names. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- B3.1 demonstrate an understanding of some drama and theatre themes and traditions from a variety of times, communities, and places […]
2 The lesson
What does a theatre tradition carry?
Look at the expectation: it asks for themes and traditions from different times and places. For one play or playwright, note who wrote it, in which language, for which audience, and what it argues for.
Go deeper
Mirza Fath 'Ali Akhund-zada wrote six comedies between 1850 and 1857 in Adhari Turkish, the Azerbaijani Turkish of the Caucasus. 2 Several of his plays were published in Russian in the official journal Kavkaz and performed in Russian at Tiflis and St Petersburg. 3 Pupils of the Azerbaijani state schools gave the first performances in the original language at the end of the 1870s. 3
Why they did it
The Encyclopaedia of Islam says that the advance of the theatre at Tiflis under the military governor, Prince Vorontsov, gave him his push towards drama; he worked in Vorontsov's chancellery as an oriental interpreter. 2 It also says that he urged loyalty to the Russian authorities, to ease the passage of the Transcaucasian Muslims into modern life. 3
Think about it
Several of the plays were seen in Russian before pupils performed them in their original language. What does a play gain or lose when it is performed in a language other than the one it was written in, and why?
Into the museum
- Mirza Fath 'Ali Akhund-zada: his schooling, his plays and the languages they appeared in.
- Tiflis: the town where he worked, as the museum's older records describe it.
Try this
Read Mirza Fath 'Ali Akhund-zada and make a card that says where and when he wrote, what his plays argued against, and who first performed them in the original language. Then make a second card for a tradition from another community.
3 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Mirza Fatali Akhundov have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
A dramatist of the Caucasus. The Encyclopaedia of Islam calls Mirza Fath 'Ali Akhund-zada the first writer of original plays in a Turkish idiom, the Azerbaijani Turkish of the Caucasus. Between 1850 and 1857 he wrote six comedies and a historical-satirical narrative, putting progressive ideas against feudalism, the corruption of justice and superstition. Pupils of the Azerbaijani state schools gave the first performances in the original language at the end of the 1870s. What might a play in a community's own language add?
I can now