Developing a Theatrical Performance about Flag Day

As promised, here’s a slightly more substantive blog post about next month’s theatrical performance to end the school year.

If you remember, I’ve mentioned that in late October, we organized a play about Guy Fawkes’ Day, which is on the 5th of November and was made famous in America for its relevance in the film “V for Vendetta.” Then in December, there was the Nativity Story for Christmas and in March, we presented the history and evolution of celebrating Easter.

Our fourth and final play will be about Flag Day and the history of the flags of the US, the UK, Canada and Russia. I know Flag Day is a fairly obscure holiday that doesn’t garner much attention, but the only options for a spring holiday play (after Easter but before Independence Day) were Flag Day, Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day. Out of those three, Flag Day was the easiest to write a short playscript. The remaining two were fairly challenging when I had to think of how I might portray and present their histories.

The bonus of recognizing Flag Day is that we could make it multinational and speak about different nations. I didn’t know much about the histories of flags aside from the United States until I did some basic research before writing the playscript (which I’ll include in a separate post).

The sequencing of the play proceeds as follows:

1. George Washington asks Betsy Ross to sew a flag for the Continental Army. 
2. Francis Scott Key writes the Star-Spangled Banner after the bombardment at Fort McHenry. 
3. Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson pushes Parliament to create a Canadian national flag. 
4. The creation of the Union Jack after the unification of English and Scottish thrones following the death of Queen Elizabeth I. 
5. A short presentation about the history of the Russian flag and what the colors symbolize. 

There were some difficult decisions that I made while writing the script. First and foremost was the inclusion of the Betsy Ross legend, which most of us learn about while in elementary school. The problem with including the legend is that Betsy Ross is a woman and this is a play at a boys-only boarding school. Although a student might be willing to volunteer and dress as a female in a dress, it’s always safer to write in a fictional character. In this case, I resolved this minor problem by creating a fictional husband named “Bill Ross,” who George Washington asks if Betsy can sew a flag. I would have used her real husband, but he was slain during the early stages of the war. Betsy was a widow at the time she allegedly sewed the flag.

Writing a short scene about Francis Scott Key penning the future American national anthem was easy. The only part that might turn out to be awkward is the actual playing of the national anthem due to the current tensions between Russia and America.

What was difficult about concluding the section on the American flag was how much information to include. There will be plenty of images of different flags that were used over the years, such as the Serapis Flag, but many others will also be omitted. The biggest omission is probably the Confederate Flag. To discuss the controversy surrounding the Confederate flag from its usage in the Civil War to today requires a greater awareness of cultural and historical tensions that my students can’t comprehend due to their language and cultural barriers.

According to the Common European Framework of languages, most of my students would probably fall in the category of B1 or lower. There are some at B2 and maybe even C1, but most aren’t. On top of it all, US history isn't a major topic in the national Russian education curriculum, so a three-minute theatrical excerpt won't do much except likely confuse them.

But moving on.

Canada was also fairly easy due to the relative youth of the current Canadian flag, which has only been in use since 1965. However, the “Great Flag Debate” had to be simplified a lot since I only have six students who will be performing the play and each one will have several different roles.

Which brings us to England's history. I'll be narrating the entire section on the UK because of the shortage of students. I can be slightly more detailed as I present the background while the students act out my description of the events that lead to James I's inheritance of the English throne.

And finally, the Russia's section of the play is even shorter than England's because there just hasn't been many changes in the Russian flag. The Russian Federation uses the same flag design as the one used by the Romanovs. The only time the current Russian flag wasn't used was under the Soviet Union, which used the iconic Hammer & Sickle. It's actually a story that is similar to Germany's as the current German flag is the same as the one used during the Weimar Republic before Hitler's rise to power.

The play itself will rely heavily on multimedia elements. I've got some videos I've found on YouTube such as a short clip from Mel Gibson's The Patriot and another clip of a waving Russian flag. There's also plenty of music and sound from national anthems to cannon-fire. Working with lights will be minimal as well as costumes, but I hope I can find just enough costume elements in our wardrobe that I can create a starker contrast between eras and nations. The sad thing is that I won't have any flags aside from the Russian flag for the performance. Alas...

Following the performance, my current plans are to run a simple barbecue with grilled sausages and some cookies. It's not a lot but it's something to treat both the performers and the audience. While I will definitely grill the sausages, I regret to say I won't be returning to my Phi Tau roots by baking homemade cookies. I, unfortunately, won't have that much time. Undoubtedly, the final hours before our final performance will be chaotic enough that I'll barely have a chance to have the barbecue supplies set up for after the show.

As a last note, if you read the playscript and have any suggestions for future edits that I might make, please feel free to suggest. Also, here's a picture of me from about 2 weeks about with my coworker who arrived from Donetsk in January. We were assisting an event called "Intellectual Marathon" which consisted of inviting different students from around the school to compete in a series of activities based on subject. We ran the English table. At times, it was pretty chaotic evaluating students' submissions while handing out additional tasks for them to do.