DramaFreePrintable

Cultural Stories in Drama

A free drama worksheet ready for your classroom. Open in Kuraplan to grab the print-ready PDF, customize it for your students, or generate a fresh version in seconds.

Download now

Name:Date:

Cultural Stories in Drama

Read the original story below, then explore how drama can share stories of identity, memory and belonging. Cultural stories are diverse: no single story represents everyone in a culture. When adapting a story, find out who has the right to share it, listen to the people connected to it, and avoid presenting invented details as fact.

The blue suitcase

This fictional story was created for this worksheet. It is not a traditional story. When Leilani’s family moved to Aotearoa New Zealand, her grandmother packed a small blue suitcase. Inside were a family photograph, a recipe written on a card, and a smooth shell from the shore near their old home. Years later, Leilani asks her grandmother to bring the suitcase to a community storytelling evening. At first, her grandmother is unsure: “These are our memories. Let’s decide together what we want to share.” They choose to tell one memory: the day the family cooked together before the move. Leilani sets three chairs in a row to suggest a kitchen bench. Her cousin taps a gentle rhythm on the table while the family members speak, one at a time, about what they remember. The details differ, but they laugh when they realise they all remember the same burnt rice. At the end, Leilani leaves an empty chair in the scene. Her grandmother says it represents the people who are not there tonight, but whose stories helped shape theirs.

Read the story closely

Use details from “The blue suitcase” to answer Questions 1–5.

1.What is the blue suitcase most clearly used to hold in the story?

Only objects that are valuable to sell
Objects connected to family memories and the past
Props borrowed from the community hall
Items Leilani needs for a journey that night

2.Name two objects from the suitcase and explain what each might help the family remember.

3.The family members remember the cooking day differently, but they share a memory of the burnt rice. What does this detail suggest about memories?

4.What might the empty chair represent? Give one idea supported by the story.

5.True or false: Leilani’s grandmother agrees that every family memory should be shared publicly.

TrueFalse

Turn the story into drama

Think about how performance choices shape what an audience understands.

6.Match each drama choice to the effect it could create in this scene.

A. A gentle rhythm tapped on the table
B. Three chairs arranged in a row
C. A pause before the grandmother speaks

2. Builds atmosphere and supports the spoken memories
3. Gives the audience time to notice the importance of her words
1. Suggests a shared space without building a realistic kitchen

7.Name one drama technique, other than the chairs and rhythm already used, that could show the family’s different memories. Explain how it might work.

8.Imagine your group is asked to perform this story. Write one respectful question you would ask the family before deciding which details to include.

9.A performer adds a dramatic scene that never happened and presents it as a true family memory. What is one problem this could cause, and what could the group do instead?

10.In 3–5 sentences, explain how performing a cultural story can help people connect, and name one responsibility performers have when sharing someone else’s story.