English 398/CrWr 330	David Walker
Fall 1998	Rice 24 (x8584)

Texts:

Harold Pinter, Other Places (Grove)

Eric Lane, ed., Telling Tales: New One-Act Plays (Penguin)

Tony Kushner, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (TCG)

This course is intended to introduce you to some of the central challenges and skills inherent to the art of playwriting. It doesn't pretend to be able to turn you into a successful playwright in 13 weeks, but it should give you some tools and ideas that will be useful to you if you pursue playwriting in the future, and in any case should provide you heightened understanding of how plays are made and how they work.

To get credit for the course, you'll need to complete all assignments (on time except in case of emergency); participate regularly and conscientiously in class discussions; and generally demonstrate commitment to the goals of the class. I put a good deal of emphasis on the mutual effort it takes to achieve a harmonious group dynamic; that means, among other things, learning to listen well to each other. My office hours are MF 3:30-5:00, TTh 1:30-3:00, and other times by appointment. I'll be scheduling conferences with you at midterm and at the end of the semester, but please see me whenever you have questions or problems you'd like to talk about. You can also email me with quick questions or comments at david.walker@oberlin.edu.

Based on suggestions from former students, I'm reorganizing the course to some extent from the way in which I've taught it in the past (I'll explain in more detail in class). I will be making adjustments as we go, trying to respond to the group's needs and interests, so I can't give you a detailed syllabus in advance. But here are some general guidelines:

1. In the first nine weeks of the course, you'll be working through a series of assignments, some short-term, some long-term. Then you'll work more independently on a longer project. Your first short-term assignment is to read for next Tuesday (9/8) Pinter's Other Places and come prepared to discuss it (we'll focus on A Kind of Alaska). Your first long-term assignment, for Tuesday 9/15 (but due by noon on Monday), is to write a dramatization (roughly 5-15 pp.) of any short story (or part of one, or chapter of a novel) that you think lends itself to dramatic adaptation.

2. To write effectively for the stage, I believe you need to train your imagination to think in specifically theatrical terms (different in kind from those of film or television). Some of you have theater training, but many of you don't, so I'm asking you to take advantage of every opportunity to immerse yourselves in thinking theatrically this fall. See the plays that are available to you; think about taking a drama class concurrently; watch videotapes of theater productions; read theater articles and reviews in the New Yorker and the New York Timesƒ. You're also required to read at least four contemporary plays (in addition to those we're discussing in class)--more if possible--and turn in notes on what you learn from them about playwriting. The more knowledgeable you become about what contemporary playwrights are doing, the more options will become available to you in your own writing.

3. Each of you should try to recruit a group of three actors who will be available to help try out work in progress. If they're used extensively enough, they can earn an hour of credit. We'll talk more about this in class.

Here's a schedule for the first few weeks:

Th 9/3	Introduction
T 9/8	Discuss Other Places, looking particularly at Pinter's language
Th 9/10	Continued discussion of Pinter; in-class writing exercise
M 9/14	By noon: short story adaptation due
T 9/15	Discuss short story adaptation
Th 9/17	Discuss short story adaptation
T 9/22	Monologues and dialogue: Discuss Fugard's Statements after an Arrestƒ, McNally's Andre's Mother, and Nelson's Flyer (all in the anthology)
Th 9/24	Continued discussion; in-class writing
M 9/28	By noon: Monologues-to-dialogue assignment due
T 9/29	Discuss Monologues-to-dialogue assignment
Th 10/1	Discuss Monologues-to-dialogue assignment
T 10/6	Naturalism and non-naturalistic forms: Discuss Fornes's The Conduct of Life, Greenberg's The Author's Voice, and Hwang's The Sound of a Voice
Th 10/8	Continued discussion; in-class writing
M 10/12	By noon: Non-naturalistic piece due
T 10/13	Discuss Non-naturalistic piece
Th 10/15	Discuss Non-naturalistic piece