The Dumb Waiter; Mystery of Irma Vep: Day 2

Lab: Please complete the test on Pinter's The Dumb Waiter. Complete the test by the end of period 1. Turn in for credit.

If you finish early, please continue writing your play scripts (see previous post for details).

Advice:

• For both of your characters answer the following:
• Who are you? (character)
• Where are you? (setting)
• When are you? (setting)
• What's your situation here and now? (social, political, or economic)
• How do you feel? (physical and/or emotional)
• What are you thinking or worrying about? (intellectual?)
• What do you want from the other character [specify the character]? (desire or objective)
• Why do you want what you want from the other character? (motivation)
• What's the problem keeping you from getting what you want? (obstacle or conflict)
• How will you get what you want from the other character? (strategy or tactic)
• How does your past help define what you want, why you want it, and how you might get it? (exposition, monologue, backstory)
• What will happen as a result of all this? (main event or major dramatic question)

Period 2:

The Mystery of Irma Vep (day 2)

• Examine objectives, staging, plot or story, characters, conflict, dialogue, etc.

Viewing:

The Dumb Waiter, part 1

The Dumb Waiter, part 2

The Dumb Waiter, part 3

The Dumb Waiter, part 4
The Dumb Waiter, part 5

Oleanna: (with Bill Pullman & Julia Stiles)
Oleanna (film with William H. Macy)

The Mystery of Irma Vep (Buffalo Theater Ensemble; The Art of the Quick Change)
The Mystery of Irma Vep (Kansas Repertory Theater; preview)

HOMEWORK: View any of the videos above (optional). Read the 2 two person 10-minute plays: "The Red Coat" and "Slaughter in the Lake." Notice how the playwrights keep the action, setting, and dialogue concise and dramatic between only 2 characters.