This is the time and place when you get to reflect on what you've learned about drama these past few weeks. Look over the plays we've read and the handouts I provided and review your RJs. Then recount one or two things you've learned about drama that you find more remarkable than the rest, something new you didn't know before. Explain, illustrate, give us something of note to look over at the end of our focus on this lively genre.
Due Sunday, May 19, at midnight
For this blog, let's have some creative fun again. Just like you did in a Fiction Blog 2B, this time, write a letter of advice from one of the characters from a play we've read to another character in a different play that we've read. Address the letter with Dear [fill in the blank], so we know which character you're addressing, and end with some sign off, like Best wishes, [fill in the blank], so we know which character you're writing in the voice of. The letters you wrote for that fiction blog amazed me for how creative and developed they were and for the deep understanding you all showed for the characters you chose -- of both the letter writer and the recipient. These blogs are some of my favorite to read!
Have fun with this one! Due Sunday, May
19, at midnight
You've now either read or watched (or
both) A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry's realistic
modern drama about the Younger family who live in the southside of
Chicago. The full-length play is linked to on this blogsite (see down the
right column), and I encourage you to watch it! I won’t mind if you don’t read
the text because the play comes to life when it’s produced, and I know it’s a
challenge to read full-length plays. This play is neither a comedy nor a
tragedy, but falls in the genre we call Realism (as does the one-act play Trifles). The
discussion this week asks you to consider the elements of realism in this play
that remains current for our own time.
Write about one of two options:
Either write about the character you find most compelling, for
whatever reason. Maybe you personally relate to that character, or maybe you
appreciate that character's qualities, or maybe that character frustrated you?
Or write about the family's frustrations and challenges, either because you relate to them, or because you gained some insights you didn't have before.
Your paragraph should be about 200 words minimum, and it's due Sun., May 12, at midnight.
p.s. Be sure to read Langston Hughes' poem, "Dream Deferred" which is where
the play's title comes from
Trifles is a shorter kind of a play, referred to as a "one-act
play" in the drama world. As you may have noticed, this play has two plot
lines: the one offstage involving Mrs. Wright and Mr. Wright, and the one
onstage involving Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale plus the 3 men who walk on and off
the stage and belittle the women each time they pass through. The onstage drama
is the most central, because that is, in fact, what is acted out. In your
response to the prompt below, be sure to stick to one of these plot lines (don't
jump plot lines!).
For the sake of
discussion, let's focus on Mrs. Wright. Some would say that she's the
protagonist of this realistic drama, since all the action and dialog of the
play centers around her and her alleged actions. But how can she be the
protagonist if her character is not portrayed by an actor on the stage? Minnie
Wright is not among the characters listed for this play. Take the stand that
her character CAN be considered a protagonist, or take the stand that some
other character/s are clearly the protagonist/s of what is acted out on stage.
Either way, defend your position.
Your paragraph should be
about 200 words, and it's due Sun., May 12, at midnight.
You've watched some videos about Greek tragedy, and this week you read -- or I welcome you to just WATCH the play -- Death of a Salesman. The full-length play is linked to here on our blogsite -- you'll see it under the heading "Scenes from Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman" in the links to the right (scroll down a bit).
Arthur Miller's version of the classical form of
tragedy brings the genre of tragedy closer to home by giving us an American
family of the mid-1900s, with a cast of characters and struggles that are
familiar to us to this very day.
Willy is indeed a hero, in particular, a "tragic hero,"
which has some requirements not often seen on the stage or screen these days.
Willy's character meets all the elements. For instance, we can see that Willy
has had a great fall that he himself caused. We see the tragic consequences of
that fall in the washed up lives of his sons who are affected by it. It's no
doubt challenging when we see him so washed up to see him as a hero, so we must
consider how he is regarding by his family. We see how Willy is regarded as the
"king of his castle," as per the norms of 1950s American. And we see
that this "prince" of his family (as Biff calls him) is also the
cause of the "contagion" in his "kingdom" of the Loman
household. He hardly seems royal and noble when we meet him at this late stage
of his life, though he manages to engage our sympathies.
Consider how Willy does indeed fit the role of a tragic "hero." Write
a paragraph of at least 200 words in which you explore this topic. Draw
parallels to someone you know, if you want.
Due Sun., May 5 by midnight
To get ready for this first blog on drama, you'll want to gather the handouts on drama that cover tragedy and comedy -- from our Week 5 module on Canvas. You'll also want to read again the introductory pages in our text, pages ix - xxvi (we are now reading the next volume of our text, called Plays). It might be eye-opening for you to learn about the origins of drama, and it'll certainly mean you'll "see" more in the plays and movies you watch in the future. To do that means we need to get to know something about ancient Greece, the plays that emerged during the festivals to Dionysus, and the social function of plays to the people of the "birthplace of democracy." I hope this sounds fun and intriguing to you. :)
Start by viewing a couple of the short videos about the origins of
drama (under the "Historical Beginnings of Drama" heading to the
right), to give us an easy introduction to the origins and elements of drama:
watch "Intro to Classical Greek Comedy and Satyr plays" and
"Intro to Classical Greek Tragedy." Then study the handout on Greek
Tragedy and Comedy in our Week 5 module, and compare what the videos and the
handouts cover about these two primary forms of drama.
