Waiting for Godot & Virtual Talent Show

Please complete your virtual talent show scripts by the end of period 1. Please see the previous post for details.

During second period, we will be traveling downstairs to pick up our next play: Waiting for Godot.

Here's a short interview and spotlight on the play performed on Broadway.

Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett is perhaps the best known absurdist play. Theatre critic Martin Esslin coined the term Theatre of the Absurd to characterize plays that dealt with the absurdity or meaninglessness of human life.

Please take a few notes about Theatre of the Absurd here (and look at the other hyperlinks above) and read the short handout on Absurdism.

For homework: Please finish reading Waiting for Godot. You should be able to apply what you have learned about playwriting to this play. Please look for the following in the text:
1. The time lock (how does time limit the action of the play?)
2. The trap (how does the playwright keep his characters trapped on stage?)
3. Off-stage action (what actions or events occur off-stage?)
4. Identify the major dramatic question (what do we, as the audience, want to know that keeps us watching?)
5. Interruption (how does Beckett delay gratification or resolution of conflict by interruption?)
6. Pick a character and identify his "dark moment."
7. Pick a character and identify his "enlightenment."
8. Discuss catharsis: what do you think Beckett's point is? How does he move or effect his audience?
9. Discuss meaning: what's this all about? Try to make sense of the initial metaphor working in this play.
10. Identify elements of absurdism in this play. (Use your notes about Absurdism)

Due Friday, Nov. 13.

NOTICE: You and your friends are invited to our first Coffeehouse Reading performance next week (Nov. 17 at 7:00). Please join the creative writing department for readings of original work, celebration of the written and spoken word, and, of course, coffee.

Playwrights get extra credit for attending and reading (or having their work read aloud...by actors, for example.)