The Staging of Eleven by Sandra Cisneros

  The scene I’ve selected is the only scene in Sandra Cisneros’ Eleven in which the main character and narrator of the short story is excited about her birthday but ultimately becomes discouraged due to the inconsiderate actions of her teacher Mrs. Price. Though Mrs. Price doesn’t think of this interaction as much, and continues to tend to other students, Rachel, the narrator, is impacted greatly by this and her whole day is ruined. Though this interaction may seem insubstantial, it changes the way both the reader and the narrator think about the teacher significantly, which is why if this scene were in a play, it’s really important to set it up right and how the actors act and talk will influence the impression that Mrs. Price and the rest of the class give to the audience.

        The setting of this story is a (probably) 5th grade classroom. It seems pretty chaotic because Mrs. Price seems like a busy teacher, so the stage would be set up with the teacher probably in front of a whiteboard or chalkboard on stage left and a lot of desks probably 4 columns with 5 rows. The stage should be lit well because a classroom is usually such, and people should be dressed like they’re at school, but still make it look like their parents choose their outfits if that makes sense. The desks should also all have math books on them because they are doing math in the story.

The actor of Mrs. Price should strut the room with authority because she’s older than the children and like we talked about in class, the older seem to have more importance and jurisdiction. She should probably act like an inconsiderate person when giving the sweater to Rachel and then not paying attention. The children shouldn’t all be paying attention to class after the sweater is given and class continues. In fact, some should probably turn and look at Rachel making her seem like she’s being picked out and humiliated. Rachel should act socially awkward, as it’s hard for her to speak up to Mrs. Price.

Rachel should talk very quietly and Mrs. Price should talk loudly. She should scream at Rachel when she fails to put on the sweater and gets mad. The students should be conversing with each other before Mrs. Price starts to talk, and subsequently be quiet so Mrs. Price is able to be heard. After yelling at Rachel, she should show no emotion and shouldn’t feel bad at all and instead continue with the lesson. It’s important that Rachel and Mrs. Price acts in these ways to portray the characteristics that the author intended for this story. This is so the viewer has the same impression of these characters that the reader would.