Vincent Van Gogh – a monologue (plus quiz and suggestions for discussion)

Description

Vincent Van Gogh – a monologue (plus quiz and suggestions for discussion) is is the first of a set of monologues I will be writing to accompany the set of 2 speaker scripts below (Let’s Meet … series)

Reading Time: approximately 10 minutes (not including quiz and discussion)

Let’s Meet Series (so far)

2 speakers (famous person plus interviewer) 5 minutes reading time (not including quizzes).

List (so far)

• • • Boudicca
    • Henry VIII
    • Henry VIII – 2 scripts & 2 quizzes:
    • Wives
    • The Reformation
    • Elizabeth I
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Vincent Van Gogh (10 minutes)

Plus scripts between

• • • Queen Victoria and Elizabeth I
    • Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole

This series of reading texts are based on famous characters – past and present –will include monarchs, adventurers, poets, inventors, politicians, space explorers with two objectives:

1. 1. 1. To Bring History Alive (as with my plays)
      2. To make reading a more lively, interactive experience – for both student and teacher

Sample Text

Course, I could reel off all the names of my most well-known paintings – The Potato Eaters, Bedroom in Arles, Portrait of Dr Gachet (big thank you to him for trying so hard to help me), Wheatfield with Crows, The Starry Night – though needless to say I gained nothing during my lifetime from these – any recognition of my talent came later. I think I sold one painting – and it certainly didn’t run into the millions of dollars as that Sunflower picture did! Forty million dollars at auction? How crazy is that? I’d have been lucky to get over one hundred!

But, as I hope I’ve conveyed to you, it was the physical act of painting that drove me and which made me its slave. I had not a thought in my head of fame and fortune. It was just producing those works of art, translating what I felt inside onto the canvas via brushstrokes, that made me feel alive. I truly lived and breathed those paintings. And I do so hope something of my passion conveys itself to the beholder. Otherwise, my work will have been in vain.

Sample of Quiz Questions and Discussion Themes

Quiz

1. 1. 1. What was Vincent’s first job?
      2. Who helped him get this job?
      3. What was Vincent’s father’s profession?

Discussion themes

1. 1. 1. What makes a great artist? Why is their work memorable?
      2. Why is passion so important in the creative process?