Students from Mr. Congo’s Latin class went to the extreme to complete a presentation to best represent ancient arts.

“I gave the students links to collections of Greek and Roman monologues, and they selected their own from various plays,” says Mr. Congo. “I wanted students to select their own so that they had to do some basic research and compare the different genres.”

There were various genres for the students to choose from, such as tragedies and comedies.

Mr. Congo continues, “The tragedies were all Greek and the comedies were all Roman. Most of the tragedies deal with mythological stories. Most of the comedies come from a collection by Lucian who created speeches from the gods’ perspectives complaining about how mortals portray them.”

Next, the Latin students came up with a character description, and met with the art students to bring their characters to life. After creating a sketch, they worked together to make papier mâché masks.

“In the ancient world, actors would create masks to wear on stage. These masks were highly ornate and often exaggerated to convey emotion to the audience,” says Mr. Congo.

It took approximately four and a half days just to finish the masks. The students used plastic mask forms, paints, and recycled material for the embellishments. The masks are on display in the glass showcases in the front hallway.

“We drew an image of what we thought the masks would look like. Then, we presented it to the Latin students to decide if it portrayed their character properly before we started to make the actual mask,” says Jada Brown, a student in Mrs. Lakso’s art class. “It was hard to decide what the masks would look like, but once we started to make them, it was fun.”

Afterwards, the Latin students met with the drama department to learn about Greek theatre. The drama students became acting coaches and helped the Latin students edit and block their speeches.

With this interdisciplinary approach, Mr. Congo’s assignment was successfully taken to the next level.