Study Help Practice Projects

1. Research the Victorian period, and determine how accurate Wilde was in his assessment of the aristocratic attitudes of the period.

2. Design costumes that are historically accurate for each of the main characters in the play.

3. Research Wilde’s opinions about politics and art. How do they apply to his play?

4. Design the stage sets for Wilde’s play based on the stage directions, themes and purposes of the play.

5. Using sources about the time period of the 1890s, draw a map that shows the various London locations mentioned in the play: Half-Moon Street, the Albany, Willis’s, Grosvenor Square, Belgrave Square, the Empire, Upper Grosvenor Street, Bayswater, Gower Street and Holloway Prison.

6. Join with others to act out a particular conversation between characters in one of the scenes.

7. Research the trials of Wilde near the end of his life. What do they reveal about the use of evidence? About justice? About how the courts viewed different social classes?

8. Research, compose and act out an interview with Oscar Wilde. Include questions about Wilde’s life, attitudes and philosophy on art and beauty.