Fall 2000	Robert Pierce
English161 (Revised)	Rice 106, (440) 775-8583
-01: TuTh, 9:35-10:50 King 335	Office hours: MW, 1:30-3:00; TuTh, 11:00-12:00
-02: TuTh, 1:30-2:45 King 127	E-mail: Robert.Pierce@oberlin.edu

DRAMA THROUGH PERFORMANCE

Required text: Jacobus, Lee A. The Bedford Introduction to Drama, 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.

Assignments: Bring the text to class every day. Read the complete play and commentary by the day indicated and the play at least once more.

Sept. 7	'Night, Mother
Sept. 19	"Master Harold" . . . and the Boys
Sept. 26	The Cherry Orchard
Oct. 3	FIRST PAPER DUE
Oct. 5	Mother Courage
Oct. 24	Oedipus Rex
Oct. 26	REVISION OF FIRST PAPER DUE
Oct. 31	Hamlet
Nov. 9	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Nov. 21	A Midsummer Night's Dream
Nov. 30	SECOND PAPER DUE
Dec. 5	Endgame
Dec. 12	Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
Dec. 14	REVISION OF SECOND PAPER DUE

Course requirements: You will receive at least a B in the course if you miss no more than two classes without excuse and complete all the written and oral asignments on time. Do not expect to pass the course if you omit a major assignment, repeatedly turn in work late, often seem unfamiliar with the reading assignments, or miss four classes without excuse. B+ and A grades can be earned by getting bonus points on assignments (indicated by a +); excellent class participation through the semester will receive bonus credit. Group projects will receive group credit.

For each play except the two for which you do a production project, please turn in on the first day the play is assigned a written comment of roughly a page on some issue that you want to think out. You may use the topic I suggest below or discuss any other issue that interests you. Be sure to use these comments as opportunities to try out your ideas about the plays. Even if you don't get your idea fully worked out, put down on paper what you do have to say. It is legitimate to end with questions or to state both sides of a controversial issue when you don't yet have a clear preference. These comments will be graded Credit/No Entry, but I will keep track of them and will write brief comments of my own in response.

It is important to write these comments before the class period they are due; they should represent your first reactions to the play, before we discuss it. I will accept comments that are turned in late when you are absent for illness or other legitimate cause, and I will accept them late for partial credit even when stained with guilt. Please use 8 1/2 x 11 paper and either type or write legibly in ink. Legible corrections are perfectly all right. Remember that you need not use the topic I give if there is something else you want to discuss, and be sure to have your comment ready to turn in at the beginning of class on the first day for the play.

Sept. 7	Write about a page of dialogue between Mama and Jessie. You need not fit it into the present play, but imagine the situation clearly, and have it come to some sort of point. But above all concentrate on trying to make each character sound like herself.
Sept. 19	Neither of the two main woman characters in "Master Harold" . . . and the Boys, Hally's mother and Hilda Samuels, appears onstage. Choosing one of the two, discuss how Fugard evokes her as a character and what effect this mode of presentation has.
Sept. 26	After you read the play, re-read Lopakhin's speech on p. 792 beginning "No . . . they've got to get the luggage." What does he reveal about himself in this speech?
Oct. 5	Look at the list of characters on p. 995, and notice how few proper names there are. What would it be like to play one (or several) of these unnamed parts? How would the play be different if it were named Anna Fierling rather than Mother Courage?
Oct. 24	Oedipus Rex is clearly far removed from the conventions of realism, but unrealistic elements can have the effect of giving an insight into some element of reality. Look at the masks and costuming pictured on pp. 115-17, and discuss what they reveal about Iokaste, the Shepherd, or Oedipus.
Oct. 31	You are going to play Hamlet and are getting ready to read through Act One, Scene Two, with the rest of the cast. Identify several clues in the text that will shape your performance, and discuss how you will use one of them.
Nov. 9	Tennessee Williams is fond of giving physical details symbolic significance. Find such a detail, and notice everything that seems to be emphasized about it in the play. Then discuss its symbolism. (Of course that involves more than just naming an abstraction that it stands for.)
Nov.21	How are Oberon and Titania like and unlike Theseus and Hippolyta? What are the implications of this varied doubling in the play?
Dec. 5	The Theatre of the Absurd strives to express its sense of the senselessness of the human condition and the inadequacy of the rational approach by the open abandonment of rational devices and discursive thought. While Sartre or Camus express the new content in the old convention, the Theatre of the Absurd goes a step further in trying to achieve a unity between its basic assumptions and the form in which these are expressed. --Martin Esslin Discuss some of the ways in which Beckett breaks with audience expectations about such dramatic conventions as character, plot, and setting in Endgame.
Dec. 12	You are going to play Roy Cohn in Angels in America. You are working through Act One, Scene Two and thinking through your part. Assuming that the comic monster side of Roy will take care of itself, what else do you want to bring out in this scene? What is Roy's object? How conscious is he of Joe's presence when he is talking on the phone? How do you say your closing line?

For the October 3 assignment write an analysis of one character from The Cherry Orchard as though you were going to play him or her. Begin by trying to get inside the character, to see things from his or her point of view. Consider such topics and questions as the following: What is the character's main object during the play? What forces--both inside and outside the character--aid or resist the attainment of that object? What are the main character traits, and how are they displayed? Are there any physical objects associated with this character, and what are their implications? Are there parts of the character that do not fit the analysis you have developed--unpredictable bits of behavior, unrelated traits, etc.? Include a detailed analysis of the character in one significant episode--roughly half a page to a page of the play.

For the October 26 revision relate your ideas from the October 3 paper to some larger topic about the play. You need not incorporate everything from the first paper, and you may bring in new ideas and material. For example, if your character were Mama in 'Night, Mother, you might write this paper on the trap of the ordinary as a theme in the play, focusing on Mama.

For the November 30 paper write a review of some play production from this fall either on campus or in Cleveland, as though you were writing it for the Oberlin Review, or you may use the film of one of our plays. Use a different play from the topic of your first paper. Write taking for granted that your reader may not have seen the production or film, but avoid the sort of review that is largely a summary of the plot. You can look at the reviews in our text as possible models.

For the December 14 revision develop an idea or topic about the play or film, using the material from your review. Again you need not use it all, and you can add new material. Thus a paper on 'Night, Mother might discuss how the techniques of filming create something different from the stage version. Or you might discuss how Elizabeth Taylor's performance of Margaret is affected by its being on film.

For all of these papers you may draw on whatever historical or theoretical material is relevant to your discussion. Avoid going over ideas that we have discussed at length in class. It is perfectly appropriate to develop ideas you started in a one-page comment. The assigned length is 5-7 pages, but that is merely a guide; a paper should take enough space to say what it has to say and then stop.

If you use scholarly or critical reading to develop your paper, be sure to document the use specifically. Footnote any ideas that you take from a written or Web text, and indicate with quotation marks and a footnote any use of someone else's words. Use one of the standard forms of footnoting, such as this one.¹ (Notes may be either at the bottom of the page or on a separate page at the end of the paper.) When you quote from a play in our text, use act, scene, and line numbers in this way: (1.2.112-18). If there are no line numbers in the text, substitute a page number.

Your papers may be typed, printed by any form of computer printer, or neatly handwritten in ink. Use 8 1/2 x 11 paper, and double-space (not space and a half). you may use both sides if you wish. Papers are due either in class or by 4:30 at my office, Rice 106. I am fairly liberal about extensions, especially short ones, if you check with me in advance. I would be glad to talk with you about ideas for a paper or to look at a draft.

¹ Robert B. Pierce, Exciting Footnotes I Have Met (Oberlin: Bentley and Son, 1982), p. 132.

Each group should learn the lines, plan out how to perform the scene, present it on the day assigned, and on the day of performance hand in a 2-3-page commentary on your production decisions and how they contribute to your group's vision of the scene. After the performance your group should stay in front to discuss it with the class.

Oct. 3 The Cherry Orchard Act Three from Mrs. Ranevsky's line "And Leonid still not here," p. 424, to Trofimov's fall downstairs on p. 426 (Have Varya read Yasha's line)

Lyubov___________ Varya_____________ Trofimov____________

 

Oct. 12 Mother Courage Scene Six from "Is that all right," p. 1014, to end of scene

Mother Courage ______________ Chaplain_______________ Kattrin_______________

 

Oct. 26 Oedipus Rex Line 84 ("Teiresias: seer: student of mysteries,") to 169 ("Kreon desires in secret to destroy me!")

Oedipus____________________ Teiresias_____________________  

For this assignment choose a passage from your play to present to class. Be sure to notify Mr. Pierce at least a week in advance what your scene will be. Four people should sign up for Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, two for Endgame, and three for each of the other plays.

 

Nov. 7 Hamlet

 

Nov. 16 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

 

Nov. 30 A Midsummer Night's Dream

 

Dec. 5 Endgame

 

Dec. 14 Angela in America

 

Get together and rehearse your scene several times through. Prepare for the rehearsals by learning your lines and thinking through your character. It would be good if you can read the whole play from the point of view of your character. Know the meanings of the words, allusions, etc., in your part.

You can catch me to ask me any questions about problems in the scene, though I don't guarantee to have the answers. If you feel nervous, that actually helps up to a point. And keep in mind that you and your fellows in the scene probably know more about it than anyone else in the class, including me, if you have put in some time on careful thought and hard rehearsing.

These scenes are rather short, but it is essential to catch every mood and shift of feeling in your character. What is your object, the thing or things you as the character are striving for in this scene? What are the inner and outer obstacles to it? What are the things you aren't saying? How are you reacting when you aren't speaking? What is said by your posture, your movements, any objects or bits of costume you have?

Be very clear about your environment: how it is set up, where exits go to and where they are, what is on the fourth wall, what furniture is in the acting space. And bring in as many props and activities as you think will fill out the environment and action. Have something actual for any prop you handle, whether or not it is realistic. There should also be real sounds for sound effects.

Concentrate on the language. Memorize your lines as accurately as possible, and keep your pronunciation clear. Don't drop ending d's, t's, and other consonants. Listen for rhythms and repeated sounds and words. Use the rhetoric rather than fighting it or making it low-key. In general, play things big, with exaggeration rather than understatement.

Try to get inside your character, seeing the world as he or she does. People don't usually think of themselves as "I am a villain" or "I am silly." Keep in mind that as a character you don't know what is going to happen next in the scene. In a long speech discover it as you go along, thinking and feeling as you go. When you say something, say it clearly to someone. In a soliloquy or aside, try saying it to one person in the audience. (You can shift from one person to another.)

Above all, treat rehearsal and even the actual performance as a time of experiment and exploration. Don't finally reject ideas until you try them out, even if you are pretty sure they are wrong. Try different approaches: movements, inflections of the lines, reactions to what is said. Don't foreclose different possibilities on the basis of some view of what the play is about. Don't ask, "Is this right?" but "What happens if I do it this way?" Of course you finally have to choose one way, but make such final choices as late as possible.

Have fun with your scene. The Elizabethans called actors players, and theater from pick-up amateur to seasoned professional is in a very important sense playing.

Below are some questions to think about as you study the plays of this course. The first group are questions to be considered scene by scene. The second group look back at the whole play.

I. 1. Choose one character in the scene: what is that character trying to achieve? How does he or she go about it? What resistance does he or she encounter, whether from outside or from inside?

2. How are the other characters reacting to what is said? (Don't forget silent characters.) How does our perception differ from the characters'?

3. Are there any parallels or contrasts suggested between characters? between events? between intentions and actual outcomes?

4. What kinds of language are in the scene? How do characters differ in their language? What shifts occur within one character? within one speech?

5. How are the setting and props important to this scene?

II. 1. What is the relationship between this play and ritual or ceremony? Are there rituals in the play? Is the play itself a ritual act?

2. The term "play" suggests a contrast with work and thus emphasizes the play as entertainment. Is this play play? Is it work? Is it about the contrast between the two?

3. Hamlet says that drama holds the mirror up to nature. Does this play do so? What kind of mirror? What does it show? distort? Why?

4. Genres are important parts of drama because they create a set of expectations and conventions. If a play is tragic, it is likely to be concerned with the heroic and to use tragic irony, in which characters' actions have results very different from their intentions. Comedies usually emphasize entertainment, but they can also be serious. They often focus on characters as types, that is, socially defined roles. What genre is this play most closely related to? What are the effects of its conventionality and its breaks with convention?

5. How is the world of this play constructed? What are its main qualities? Which characters seem most/least attuned to it?

6. How are the characters constructed? What implications does that have for what it means to be human? for being a part of the society portrayed? In this play do characters change?

7. What is the role of symbolism in the play (if any)? How does the play give imaginative power to its symbols?

8. A play is normally written for a specific kind of theater, using certain theatrical conventions. How do such elements affect this play?

9. Plays are shaped to evoke some kind of audience response, for example, varying degrees of detachment toward or involvement with individual characters. By what means is that done in this play, and with what effect?