New free lesson plans are up for Trifles by Ed Levy and Alexander Craven, built for ELA and theatre classrooms looking for flexible, ready-to-use material.
Download the free lesson plans using the button above!
Trifles is a one-act musical adaptation of Susan Glaspell's landmark 1916 play, itself inspired by a real Iowa murder trial Glaspell covered as a young reporter. When Minnie Wright is jailed for strangling her husband, Sheriff Peters and a neighboring farmer search the farmhouse for a motive, while their wives, left alone in the kitchen, piece together the true story from the "trifles" the men have already dismissed — a burst preserve jar, a torn birdcage, an unfinished quilt. What the women decide to do with what they find is the whole of the play.
What's Included in the Free Lesson Plans
- Pre-reading and post-reading discussion questions centered on judgment, trust, and what gets dismissed as unimportant
- Character analysis activities that dig into Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters's growing alliance, and the offstage presence of Minnie Wright herself
- Cultural and historical activities introducing students to the real 1900 murder trial behind the play, women's exclusion from juries in this era, and daily life on an isolated Midwestern farm
- Creative activities including staging a silent scene, building a tableau from the play's key objects, and designing the Wright farmhouse kitchen
- Personal reflection prompts inviting students to consider their own experiences with being misjudged, protecting someone with a lie, and learning something private about someone they thought they knew
- Assessment options for analytical writing on evidence and meaning, comparative research against Glaspell's original, character monologues, and design presentations
- Text connections to short stories, plays, and films that explore silence, judgment, and who gets believed
