Schools

Risky Phil
Study Guide

INTRODUCTION

This guide was written by Stephanie Long.

As you scroll through the guide, you will find the usual sections included in all our guides: curriculum connections, discussion questions, units of study, and more. If you wish to create your own lesson plan from the study guide copy, we have created a lesson plan template for your use. We hope you will find this guide to be a useful resource. Should you have any questions or feedback or have inquiries about the use of this guide (which is copyright protected), please feel free to contact Karen Gilodo, Associate Artistic Director, Education at kgilodo@youngpeoplestheatre.org.

THEMATIC OVERVIEW

As the title suggests, risk is a central theme in this play. Phil, the young protagonist, has always been very calculated in the choices he has made in his life. He learns to take risks in his relationships when he opens himself up to trusting family members who have let him down in the past.

This study guide aims to explore the interrelated themes of trust, risk, and fairness. Through activities that use movement and imagination, students will engage with these themes in both abstract and concrete ways. This study guide will help them to better appreciate the underlying issues in the play and to unpack their theatre-going experience.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

  • Social Sciences & Humanities
  • Health & Physical Education

CHARACTER EDUCATION CONNECTIONS

  • Responsibility
  • Honesty
  • Respect

THEMES

  • Managing Risk
  • Believing in the Capacity for Change
  • Navigating Father/Son Relationships
  • Honouring Commitment

CURRICULUM EXPECTATIONS

Language, Arts, Physical Education

Through these activities students will:

  • generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience.
  • apply the critical analysis process to communicate feelings, ideas, and understanding in response to a variety of drama works and experiences.
  • demonstrate the ability to make connections that relate to health and well-being – how their choices and behaviours affect both themselves and others.

SYNOPSIS

“Risky” Phil is extremely cautious. He has always lived with his colourful Aunt Gigi, a hairdresser with a flair for the dramatic. When a new client shows up, the story of Phil’s history starts to unravel and he discovers he isn’t the orphan Aunt Gigi always said he was. As Phil works to build a relationship with his father, he is forced to navigate concepts of trust, truth, and indeed risk-taking.

Content Note: This play involves issues of parental neglect, abandonment, and mental illness, and thus may be upsetting for some audience members. We hope that this guide helps teachers to scaffold the viewing experience in a way that promotes accessibility and comfort for students.

GLOSSARY

Risk
The possibility that something unpleasant or unwelcome will happen.

Atonement
The action of making amends for a wrong or injury.

Contract
A written or spoken agreement that is intended to be enforceable by law.

Negotiation
Discussion aimed at reaching an agreement.

Consent
Permission for something to happen or agreement to do something.

PRE-SHOW DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • What does it mean to take a risk?
  • How does it feel to take a risk?
  • How do you decide when to a take risks?
  • Why might it be a risk to trust someone?
  • If someone lies once, can they ever be trusted again?

PRE-SHOW UNITS OF STUDY

Pre-Show Exercise #1: Follow my Lead

Objective

Students will explore power relationships and experience issues of trust and consent inherent in agreed-upon power dichotomies.

Materials

  • Space in which to move

Directions

  1. Put students into partners or have them pair up on their own.
  2. Label students A and B.
  3. Ask students to face each other approximately a meter apart.
  4. Tell B to imagine that A has a string tied between the palm of their hand and B’s forehead.
  5. Ask A to start with their palm open facing B’s forehead.
  6. Ask A to slowly start moving their hand and coach B to move in response to A’s slow and steady gestures.
  7. Encourage A to move deliberately and slowly at first. More “risky” and “tricky” moves can be tried toward the conclusion of the activity.
  8. After a few minutes of silent movement, the activity can be brought to a close. The debriefing will be key to helping students make sense of the experience.

Debriefing Questions

For A:

  1. What was difficult about having so much power over B?
  2. Did it seem like B trusted you?

For B:

  1. What was frustrating about this activity?
  2. Do you think you were treated fairly?
  3. Did you trust A to be gentle and sympathetic?
  4. What risk did you take in allowing yourself to be controlled this way?

For All: Why is it sometimes a risk to trust someone?

Pre-show Exercise #2: I’m SORRY!

Objective

Students will explore the process of “making amends”.

Materials

  • Space in which to move

Directions

  1. Divide students into pairs.
  2. Ask them to label themselves A and B.
  3. Ask students to imagine that A and B are friends, however A has lied to or otherwise lost the trust of B.
  4. Have students choose one of the following scenarios (pick out of a hat, or decide as a pair).
    • A has revealed B’s secret ambition
    • A broke a promise to B
    • A took something special of B’s without asking
    • A copied B’s answers on a test
    • A didn’t invite B to a party
  5. Student can also work to come up with new scenarios to use in this exercise.
  6. Tell students that A must ask B for forgiveness without using the phrase “I’m sorry.”
  7. Give students two minutes to resolve the conflict.
  8. Ask students to share their experience. What would it take for A to convince B that real and lasting change will take place?
  9. Can A regain B’s trust?

Debriefing Questions

  1. Can you forgive someone even if you’re not sure that they will change?
  2. What happens if you trust someone and then they upset you again?
  3. What is the difference between forgiveness and trust?

Pre-Show Culminating Exercise: Let’s Make a Deal

Objectives

Students will demonstrate how to effectively communicate when resolving a conflict.

Materials

  • Paper and writing utensils (possibly student journals).

Directions

  1. Re-establish the relationships from Exercise #2.
  2. Ask students to write down a list of agreements as a “contract” that will help them to re-establish trust, eg. “I will never tell your secrets again.” Encourage both students to contribute, eg. “And I will make it clear if I don’t want you to share something I tell you.”
  3. Share ideas as a group.

Debriefing Questions

  1. What agreements do you have with your friends that help you to treat each other fairly? (These might be spoken or unspoken.)
  2. Are these similar to agreements you have with your parents and teachers? Why or why not?
  3. What stops people from trusting one another to be fair?

Extension

As a class, make a list of things students think that they need from friends to feel that they can trust them. The list can be divided into three and also address what they need from teachers and family members.

POST-SHOW DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • Why is it difficult for Phil to trust Gigi?
  • Why do you think Gigi lied to Phil?
  • Why is it difficult for Phil to trust Junior?
  • What does Junior do to try to earn Phil’s trust?
  • What risks does Phil take in the story?

POST-SHOW UNITS OF STUDY

Post-show Exercise #1: Thought Tracking — Learning to Trust

Objectives

Students will explore Phil’s journey of learning to take a risk by trusting those who love him.

Materials

  • Space in which to move

Directions

  1. Speak with students about how Phil might be feeling after the first time he meets Junior.
  2. Have students imagine that they are Phil after this initial meeting. They should at first do this without moving and then can slowly stand and begin moving in their own spaces, without interacting with the other students.
  3. Once all students are on their feet, tell them to freeze.
  4. Explain that when a student is tapped, they should say one thing that they are thinking as Phil (eg. “That was my DAD?!”)
  5. Tap students on the shoulder, one at a time.
  6. Repeat the exercise for at least two of these other pivotal moments in the play:
    • When Phil realizes his mom is alive.
    • After the upsetting bus ride with Junior.
    • At the end of the play.

Debriefing Questions

  1. How did Phil change over the course of the play?
  2. What made him take the “risk” and trust these people, despite his hesitations?
  3. Was the result of taking the “risk” worth it?

Pre-Show Exercise #2: Trust me?

Objective

Students will use body language to explore how relationships in the story changed once trust was lost.

Materials

  • Space in which to form two lines of students

Directions

  1. Ask students to form two rows facing one another.
  2. Students in one row will assume the role of Gigi and the other will assume the role of Phil.
  3. Ask students to remember these points in the story and consider how their character might be feeling.
    • When Phil is trying to get Aunt Gigi to allow him to play hockey.
    • When Phil confronts Gigi about her lie
  4. Ask them to show with their bodies (silently) how they are feeling.
  5. Ask the students who were in the “Phil” role to now take on the role of Junior. The other row of students will now step into Phil’s shoes.
  6. Ask students to remember these points in the story and consider and show how their character might be feeling.
    • Phil asking Junior to stay for dinner
    • Junior begging Phil to accept him in his life

Extension: Hall of Voices
(to more deeply explore the inner conflicts of each character)

  1. Ask the students to widen the space between the rows.
  2. Ask a volunteer to walk very slowly between the rows.
  3. Ask students to imagine that this student is still in character, and is trying to decide what to do next (eg. Phil deciding if he should accept Junior).
  4. Ask the students to each say one sentence that represents what this character may be thinking when the student passes them by.

Debriefing Questions

  1. When someone is begging another person for something, how might this be reflected in body language?
  2. How does someone’s pose and body language reflect their sense of power compared to another person?
  3. How does a character’s “status” change when they are found to be dishonest?
  4. How might the poses change when trust is restored?

Post-Show Culminating Exercise: Putting it in Writing

Objective

Students will write in role to express their understandings of trust and atonement.

Materials

  • Journals/paper
  • Writing utensils

Directions

  1. Ask each student to assume the role of either Phil or Junior.
  2. Ask the students to write the following:
    • An email from Phil to Junior outlining the main things he would like his father to commit to, in order for their relationship to be solid and sustainable.
    • An email from Junior to Phil assuring him that he is a trustworthy person who will commit to being a part of Phil’s life.
  3. Students can then partner up and share a sentence or two (or more, if comfortable) from their writing.

Debriefing Questions

  1. How might Phil feel if Junior didn’t agree to his requests?
  2. How might Phil feel if Junior didn’t keep his promises?
  3. What might stop Junior from being able to keep his promises or stick to his goals?
  4. Is it possible to have a good relationship with someone even if you can’t be 100% sure they can be trusted? In what ways is this a risk?
  5. What makes a person “worth the risk” of trusting them?

SOURCES

Ontario Elementary Curriculum

English Oxford Dictionary

APPENDIX

APPENDIX: Success Criteria

(can be posted and reviewed with students before and after each unit)

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