From Page to Stage

Other Online Course Materials, ENGL 127-01

Other Online Course Materials, ENGL 127-02

Required books

Beckett, Samuel. Krapp's Last Tape. New York: Grove, Atlantic.

Brown, Carlyle. The African Company Presents Richard III. Dramatist's Play Service.

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. NY: Random House, 1994.

MacLeod, Wendy. The House of Yes.

Nigro, Don. Lucia Mad.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth.. Signet

Shakespeare, William. Richard III. Signet

Shepard, Sam. True West. Samuel French.

Recommended Books

Joseph Gibaldi. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Fourth Edition. New York: MLA, 1995.

Diana Hacker, The Bedford Handbook, Third edition. NY: St. Martin's Press,

Course Objectives and Methods

1. To read, study, discuss, and appreciate a range of scripts with an emphasis on plays in production. When live productions not available easily, we will use plays for which we can see videos of movies worthy of discussion and which may form some dialogue among themselves with regard to issues, ideas, different styles, periods.

2. To examine practically and theoretically the theoretical and practical differences between scripts and plays, scripts and other genres of literature.

3. To gain fluency in reading scripts to contribute to competence and enjoyment in attending plays.

4. To contribute to competence in understanding the key differences in various literary genres and media.

5. To develop sophisticated skills in writing about drama with attention to issues of performance and with attention to other analytic concerns important in literary criticism.

6. To explore possible variations in interpreting scripts by performing well-prepared scenes in class and by experimenting with impromptu scenes in class.

7. To gain skills in analyzing scripts for performance choices, particularly how a range of choices may be authorized by a script and how to assess the consequences of particular sets of choices.

8. To build confidant, articulate skills in discussing drama with specificity, analytic rigor, imagination, and critical thought. Skills at listening, exchanging views, and self-expression will be valued and developed.

Course Requirements

Attendance and participation (this requirement is not assigned a specific fraction of the final grade, but this factor can raise or lower your final grade)

Attendance is required and more than three absences will result in a lowered grade. With each three absences, the grade will be lowered 1/3 (e.g. from a B to a B-, then to C+, then to C) without ANY contingencies considered, other than medical illness and then only with a doctor's report.

Strength in class discussion (cogency, helpfulness to others; thoughtfulness; creativity; thorough preparation; listening well) will raise your final grade and weakness (poor preparation; wasting class time; habitual reticence; interrupting; lack of respect) will lower your grade. See the instructor to discuss ways to address hesitation to participate in class discussion if you are finding yourself reticent.

In-class scene and scene journal 20%

Each student will perform in one scene over the semester. The scenes will be fully memorized, and involve costumes, props, a set, and other production needs. The scene journal will be due at the class following the scene performance.

Everyone in the group will receive a collective grade for the group effort, an individual grade for contributions to the scene and strength of preparation and work, and a grade on the journal, each about 1/3 of the overall grade. Grades will reflect commitment to the work shown in intellectual engagement, imaginative engagement, thorough investigation of the performance choices and their consequences, ability to discuss the scene deeply. Higher grades will be given for lively, stimulating, well thought-through, engaging scenes. Attention to costumes, props, ideas, sites, and involving students in discussion will all raise grades. Students will be not be graded on acting ability, but grades will be lowered if memorization is poor, if scene lacks intensity and commitment, poor attention to costumes, props, setting, ideas.

The journal will be about 10 pages long and include a log of activities, actually written after each rehearsal, and an extended commentary containing the following elements:

a. A character study -- as much as you can possibly glean from the entire script about your character; what other characters say about the character; your character's gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity, color, class, status, experiences, education, occupation, views, personality, etc. Consider ways to develop your character: you can think about what do they wear most of the time; how do they move, sit, use their voice, etc. You might ask yourself: Does your character smoke? How does your character hold a glass? Sit down or get up? Greet a good friend? Give someone a tip? Consider other ways to bring your character to life: what do they do with their dirty clothes? You don't have to answer any one of these questions, though you might; the point is to imagine and embody your character very materially and practice movements, postures, using props, etc. in ways that make this character knowable, recognizable, unique, and significant. Think about What do they eat for breakfast; what time do they tend to go to sleep, what music do they listen to when alone, how do they sit in a chair, how do they enter a room of strangers, etc. Write out some comments on your ways of working out your character's style and habits.

Also, consider what do earlier and later scenes tell you about your character's journey? Where do they start in terms of motives, goals, self-knowledge, relationships, and where do they end up? Be sure to discuss your character's journey through the play.

Also, write about what are your character's objectives ("I want TO X") with attention to actions and goals, rather than adjectives about their traits or judgments about them. Analyze their overall super-objective for the play; their objective for your scene; and their smaller objectives, play-by-play, through each mini-action, or beat, as their objectives are thwarted or fulfilled.

Summarize who your character is by discussing their key choices and tactics, their language style, etc, what they do and say, rather than a set of adjectives or categorical terms (teen-ager; domestic worker; chauffeur).

b. Scene analysis -- what are the given circumstances in your scene, what conditions obtain for the characters (what has happened and what is the situation); what problems face the characters? In your scene, what are each character's objectives and how are the character's objectives pursued, frustrated, redefined, re-pursued through the course of the scene. Where are the conflicts and accords, discoveries and changes? What does this scene accomplish for the play, in terms of plot, character, situation, and theme?

c. Finding signals for performance choices: where are the major scripted signals you must observe? What kinds of signals demand definite, specific choices? What signals indicate an optional choice must be made but do not show exactly how to make the choice? What other signals do you find for choices you need to make about costume, props, blocking, line readings, characterization? Costume, style of movement, posture? What choices do you make that can be supported by the script although the script does not indicate such choices? Are you making choices for your scene that work there but would not work if the scene were performed with the rest of the play? What is your justification for doing that?

Three papers 45% (each paper 15%)

a. The three papers may be on any of the plays specified for that unit and should be 6 -7 pages long.

b. Each paper will be preceded by a draft, due about a week before the paper is due. You will have conferences with either the writing consultant or the instructor on all of your three drafts (turn in the draft with your paper and the draft should have on it the initials of the person who went over the draft with you). Early in the semester, workshops will be held to address special issues in writing papers on drama.

c. All papers must conform to the rules for format and documentation as laid out in the MLA Handbook.

d. Be sure to buy and use a handbook if you have any problems with either format or rules of grammar and punctuation learn the rules and do not repeat errors. Your grade will be lowered for heavily repeated mistakes.

e. Many instructor comments and corrections will use the abbreviations and refer students to relevant passages in the Bedford Handbook. Be sure to buy and use these optional books if you have any problems with either format or rules of grammar and punctuation.

Study Questions, 20%

Study questions will be posted regularly to create specific ways to address particular ideas, issues, or problems. Written answers and/or thinking about study questions will provide a vehicle for students to prepare for taking an active and responsible role in discussion.

The instructor will design study questions, but students can invent their own, as well. Study questions will be posted in advance for many classes, and students will prepare in writing a response to at least one of the questions for each meeting for which study questions are posed or required. During any one-week, students may offer one study question of their own or refashion a given question.

Students will also be assigned partners who will write out a Response to at least one of their Answers each week. Students will exchange their Answers and Responses to study questions with their partners either by giving them a hard copy, or sending them an email attachment in Word, or emailing their Answer or Responses within the body of the email. Students will keep a portfolio of hard copy texts of all their own Answers and their partners' Responses. All Answers and Responses will show the date written and bear the author's name. The Portfolios will be handed in on the last Friday before the midterm break and on the last day of classes of the semester. Answers will be graded for consistency of preparation, variety in types of answers and questions considered, specific and in-depth thinking, creativity, careful analysis, various forms of intellectual and creative excellence. Students will also be graded for their Responses with the same types of criteria. An overall grade will be given to the Portfolio as a body of work.

The objectives of exchanging Answers and Responses will be to build a greater intellectual dialogue between class members, enhancing the group production of knowledge and critical thought. Exchanges can help students to see how their answers lead a classmate to make further discoveries of their own, to learn how their answers might be improved, to test their interpretations and arguments, and to gain skills in challenging, respectful, and constructive dialogue with peers.

Answers to study questions may reach any length, but should total at least one page, double-spaced. Responses should employ two or three paragraphs, at a minimum. Here are goals for the Answers.

Cite texts in specific ways; refer to particular essays and writers in the reader and handouts; use clearly defined concepts and theories and show your sources with clear references or footnotes; think creatively and critically to take questions or topics in directions that interest you personally. Over the semester, try your hand at a variety of types of questions: some will address performance choices; some might engage with theory; some could address interpretative puzzles; some will respond to historical readings; some could grapple with current readings on violence. Over the semester have fun also devising your own study questions to meet your interests; to raise issues or methods that you think have not been addressed; to help accomplish syntheses of historical and current issues, or the like.

Responses from partners should do the following:

1. Always begin by saying what you think the main thrust or achievement of the answer is. Take a non-evaluative, descriptive approach. Spend a paragraph on this.

2. Responses must always be constructive, respectful, and show careful attention to what your partner is trying to accomplish. In a further paragraph or two help your partner see how their Answer leads you to make your own discoveries or how you have learned from an oppositional dialogue with it. You need to explain, very specifically, how an Answer helps you make particular discoveries. Here are some ways to do that.

a. You might suggest some specific alternative reading, method, theory, or set of ideas that the person might consider, and show specifically how the Answer might have been pursued quite differently (not necessarily "better") by using different references, examples, theories, or methods. This is not to indicate that the partner's choices were wrong, just show how the Answer suggests alternatives to you and where those alternatives lead you.

b. You could engage in a form of oppositional debate or a provocative exchange to show how the Answer leads you toward a strong difference that you find interesting and productive. The goal here is not so much to create conflict as to use difference and disagreement to enhance close thinking, careful argumentation, and an engaged discussion founded on respect and careful attention to what the other person is saying.

c. You can compare your own Answer to the very same question analyze how and why your answers are the same or different, what each accomplishes, and what each of you can learn from each other.

d. You can describe and analyze how the partner's Answer was, in practice, useful in the actual class discussion, and what you noticed about others' responses to the Answer in class. If there wasn't much response, you can imagine how the discussion might have gone further, had there been more time, or if people had responded more fully.

Final Review/Exam, 15%

During a two-hour exam period, students will write (or discuss in an oral examination in small groups) three essay questions that address relationships between particular scripts and performances studied over the semester. The questions will take into account productions and videos as well as class scene performances. Questions will be based on review questions handed out in advance. Students may bring scripts and notes with them. The goal of the final exam will be to use methods and discuss issues that make connections, through interpretation or theory, between works studied separately over the semester.

Schedule

DATE	ACTIVITY	ASSIGNMENT
Tues 9/5	Intro to Course
Thurs 9/7	Richard III, Act I	Study Question
Sun 9/10	Showing of Richard III video	Mudd 050, 2-5 pm
Tues 9/12	Discussion of RIII video scenes and script	Study Question
Thurs 9/14	RIII, Acts 2-3	Study Question
Sat 9/16	Workshops on writing papers	Time and place TBA
Tues 9/19	RIII, Act 4-5	Study Question
Thurs 9/21	RIII, scenes
Fri 9/22	Draft for Paper I due	Paper is on Richard III
Tues 9/26	The African Company Presents RIII	Study Question
Thurs 9/28	The House of Yes	RIII scene journals due Study Question
Thurs 9/28	Performance of House of Yes, Little Theatre, 8 p.m.	Required attendance at one showing during the run
Fri 9/29	Performance of House of Yes, Little Theatre, 8 p.m.	"
Sat 9/30	Performance of House of Yes, Little Theatre, 8 p.m.	"
Sun 10/1	Performance of House of Yes, Little Theatre, 2 p.m.	"
Tues 10/3	Discuss production of The House of Yes	Paper I due
Thurs 10/5	The African Company Presents RIII	Study Question
Thurs 10/5	Performance of The African Company Presents Richard III, Hall Auditorium, 8 p.m.	Required attendance at one showing during the run
Fri 10/6	Performance of The African Company Presents Richard III, Hall Auditorium, 8 p.m.	Required attendance at one showing during the run
Sat 10/7	Performance of The African Company Presents Richard III, Hall Auditorium, 8 p.m.	"
Sun 10/8	Performance of The African Company Presents Richard III, Hall Auditorium, 2 p.m.	"
Tues 10/10	Discussion of production of The African Company Presents RIII
Thurs 10/12	True West	No study question. Portfolio of Study Question Answers and Responses due.
Thurs 10/12	True West performance, Little Theatre, 8 p.m.	Required attendance at one showing during the run
Fri 10/13	True West performance, Little Theatre, 8 p.m.	"
Sat 10/14	True West performance, Little Theatre, 2 p.m.	"
Tues 10/24	Discussion of production of True West
Thurs 10/26	True West scenes	Study Question
Fri 10/27	Draft of Paper II due	Paper may be on True West, House of Yes, or The African Company PresentsŠ
Tues 10/31	Macbeth	Study Question
Thurs 11/2	Macbeth	True West scene journals due; Study Question
Sun 11/5	Production of Macbeth, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Ohio Theatre, Cleveland	Required attendance
Tues 11/7	Macbeth, discussion of production	Paper II due
Thurs 11/9	Macbeth	Study Question
Tues 11/14	Macbeth	Study Question
Thurs 11/16	Macbeth scenes
Sun 11/19	Macbeth video	Mudd 050, 2-4 p.m.
Tues 11/21	Lucia Mad	Macbeth scene journals due
Tues 11/28	Lucia Mad	Study Question
Thurs 11/30	Krapp's Last Tape	Study Question
Fri 12/1	Lucia Mad, Little Theatre, 8 p.m.	Required attendance at one showing during the run
Sat 12/2	Lucia Mad, Little Theatre, 8 p.m.	"
Tues 12/5	Lucia Mad, discussion of production
Thurs 12/7	Raisin in the Sun	Study Question
Fri 12/8	Raisin in the Sun	Study Question
Sun 12/10	Raisin in the Sun video	Mudd 050 2-4:30 p.m.
Tues 12/12	Raisin in the Sun scenes	Draft of Paper III due. Paper may be on Macbeth, Raisin in the Sun, Lucia Mad, Krapp's Last Tape
Thurs 12/14	Course wrap up	Raisin scene journals due
Sat 12/16	Paper III due
Mon 12/18	Final Oral Exam, 127-02, 9-11 a.m.	Portfolio of Study Question Answers and Responses due
Tues 12/19	Final Exam, 127-01, 7-9 p.m.	Portfolio of Study Question Answers and Responses due