Let’s Meet Vincent Van Gogh

Description

Let’s Meet Vincent Van Gogh is for 2 speakers (famous person plus interviewer) with 5 minutes reading time (not including quizzes)

Let’s Meet Series (so far), 2 speakers (famous person plus interviewer) and 5 minutes reading time (not including quizzes) each.

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 story)

Plus scripts between

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

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

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

Vincent:          My life? You really think anyone wants to hear about the life of a madman, a loser?

Interviewer:    So, you really think to have produced over two thousand works of art, that makes you a loser?

Vincent:          And the lunatic bit?

Interviewer:    OK. So, it must have been so difficult. Today, mental health problems are dealt with, with sympathy and understanding

Vincent:          Sympathy? Understanding? They were in short supply in my time.

Interviewer:    Which makes your achievement all the more remarkable.

Vincent:          But let me tell you something. It was my art that kept me going – even if my life of thirty-seven years may seen short to you. I was driven.

Interviewer:    I totally understand that. All great artists are driven. How lucky you are!

Vincent:          Sorry. Lucky?

Interviewer:    Yes. To have that creative impulse. That drive to make something of your passion.

Vincent:          But there was a price to pay.

Interviewer:    I know. But as a gift? What would the rest of us not give for that talent?

Vincent:          Hmm. You’re right. Artists are driven. And yes, that produces great works of art. But the personal cost is huge. Maybe without that gift I may have lived beyond thirty- seven years!

Sample Text 2

Vincent Van Gogh – Tortured Genius

Short Story – Stepping out from the picture

So, there I was, standing in front of this painting at the National Gallery …

when I suddenly felt I was not alone.

This was a bit strange, as I had taken great pains to visit the gallery at a time when normally there is nobody else there. So, who was this other visitor, who had so quietly and unexpectedly invaded my space?

‘So, what do you think of it?’

I spun around, realising that my new companion was standing right behind me. And .. well, I’m not sure you’re going to believe this, but standing right there, within touching distance, was … the great artist himself, Vincent Van Gogh!