Please turn in your take-home test ?'s for The Lion in Winter & Agamemnon!
Brainstorm: (pick one or more of these and brainstorm ideas)
How might the story be updated in a creative way for a play production or contemporary audience?
PLAY PROJECT (last one, possibly ever...)
Option 1: Write a one-act play. This option allows you to explore a single idea, theme or style. One act plays sustain a longer storyline and plot, usually with fewer characters than full-length plays, but complete their climax sooner and generally take less time to write than full length plays. One full one-act play should focus on one important action (although side plots can be included) and usually develop characters to a greater extent than a 10-minute play. Each full one-act play would typically be around 20-30 pages in length. Workshopping individual plays once you have a draft written would be doable. Having written a substantial play script will likely get the attention of college programs in writing or theater. Polished plays may be given a public reading or production during the playwrights' festival.
Option 2: Write 2 (two) 10-minute plays. This option allows you to dabble with different short plays and scenarios for students who have trouble sustaining a storyline or plot. You've done these before so there's no mystery here. Each 10-minute play should be somewhere around 6-12 pages in length (not including title or cast list pages). Workshopping one or more of your plays is expected. 10-minute plays are about the length we are looking for during the playwrights festival or for the Geva contest in March. Remember: because of their length, start your play very close to the climax.
Option 3: Write a shorter one-act play and a 10-minute play. Best of both options for those of you who write or have more than one idea you want to play around with. One acts, in this case, should be 15 or more pages (not including title page, character list, setting, etc.)--too long for a 10-minute play, but long enough for the Playwrights' festival. The 10-minute play is like option 2, but just one of them.
Grading and rubric information will be forthcoming, but what I'm looking for here is growth. Prove to me that you have learned how to write a play largely on your own. Quality counts, but it's not as important as your growth as a writer. For those of you who would like a challenge, challenge yourself by doing something out of the ordinary, something creative or unusual. For those of you who are having trouble writing or shouldn't have been a creative writing major, try to find the love of writing you once had by writing about subjects and characters you care deeply about. What do you want to say to the world? Not all plays come out as perfect works of art. My intention is to workshop your drafts provided you actually write--it's hard to workshop a piece that isn't really thought out or done. Most of the writing time, though, will be on your own clock. Start today with those premises! Don't hesitate or procrastinate too much or you'll never finish the project by the deadline (or won't have time to workshop your play).
NOTE: you can always change your mind about the options. Say you are writing one of your 10-minute plays and everything's clicking. You're on a roll. You write 12 pages, then 15, then 20. You can decide what option you want to fulfill after you write. And again, don't worry if you write something crappy. I'm looking for growth and effort, not perfection! Most plays suck until we workshop them, so...chill. And write.
The next few classes (after Agamemnon) we will briefly conclude our course with some helpful literature by exploring Elizabethan theater, naturalism, and absurdism. So no lab time. Start your play project on your own. If you have free time in Ms. Gamzon's class or a study hall, use the time there to help you get ahead. Feel free to use the exercises and information we have already completed as starting points for your own ideas. Look back through this blog for help if you need it. Do not procrastinate.
AGAMEMNON by Aeschylus:
The Oresteia by Aeschylus is the only complete Greek trilogy. These three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, the Eumenides tell the story of the House of Atreus in Argos. Today and this week we will be watching the production of Peter Hall's Agamemnon, translated by Tony Harrison. In Harrison's script, you will note the use of alliteration and kenning. These literary devices and techniques are Anglo Saxon in origin, not Greek. The Greeks had their own cadence and rhythm to their plays. Other elements, such as the use of masks, flutes, drums, and an all-male cast are standard Greek tragedy style.
Key mortal characters in the myth are: Thyestes, Atreus, Aegisthus, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus, Helen, Paris, Priam, Cassandra, Iphigenia, Orestes, and Electra.
Key immortal characters include: Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, The Furies (Eumenides...also called the Erinyes, the Kindly Ones, The Daughters of the Night were spirits of vengeance, murder, and jealousy. Their names are Tisiphone, Megaera, and Alecto).
Exposition:
HOMEWORK: None. Come up with an idea for your last play project. If you need a nudge, re-read How to Start by playwright Jake Jeppson.
Brainstorm: (pick one or more of these and brainstorm ideas)
- What is your favorite myth story?
- What is your favorite fairy tale, folktale, or legend?
- What is your favorite short story or poem or urban legend or historical event?
How might the story be updated in a creative way for a play production or contemporary audience?
PLAY PROJECT (last one, possibly ever...)
Option 1: Write a one-act play. This option allows you to explore a single idea, theme or style. One act plays sustain a longer storyline and plot, usually with fewer characters than full-length plays, but complete their climax sooner and generally take less time to write than full length plays. One full one-act play should focus on one important action (although side plots can be included) and usually develop characters to a greater extent than a 10-minute play. Each full one-act play would typically be around 20-30 pages in length. Workshopping individual plays once you have a draft written would be doable. Having written a substantial play script will likely get the attention of college programs in writing or theater. Polished plays may be given a public reading or production during the playwrights' festival.
Option 2: Write 2 (two) 10-minute plays. This option allows you to dabble with different short plays and scenarios for students who have trouble sustaining a storyline or plot. You've done these before so there's no mystery here. Each 10-minute play should be somewhere around 6-12 pages in length (not including title or cast list pages). Workshopping one or more of your plays is expected. 10-minute plays are about the length we are looking for during the playwrights festival or for the Geva contest in March. Remember: because of their length, start your play very close to the climax.
Option 3: Write a shorter one-act play and a 10-minute play. Best of both options for those of you who write or have more than one idea you want to play around with. One acts, in this case, should be 15 or more pages (not including title page, character list, setting, etc.)--too long for a 10-minute play, but long enough for the Playwrights' festival. The 10-minute play is like option 2, but just one of them.
- Start your process by taking some time to write some premises. We'll do that today. What do you want to write a play about? Have any plays you have read sparked ideas? What's going on in society or your family or your own past experiences that might make for a good play idea?
- Consider your tone. Is your play's premise likely to be comedic or serious? Tragic or satirical? Realistic or suggested sets? Linear or memory or episodic or avant-garde? Choices, choices.
- Follow up your brainstorming with an outline or sketch out ideas (mind-maps or other graphic organizers can help!) to see if they might work and what length might be the best option for the story you want to tell. If you already have a short story you have written (or read from another source) you can turn that into a play for the stage. If you're a poet, consider writing a musical or verse play. Monologue plays and historical plays are also options we have already explored, but feel free to use the form if you'd like.
Grading and rubric information will be forthcoming, but what I'm looking for here is growth. Prove to me that you have learned how to write a play largely on your own. Quality counts, but it's not as important as your growth as a writer. For those of you who would like a challenge, challenge yourself by doing something out of the ordinary, something creative or unusual. For those of you who are having trouble writing or shouldn't have been a creative writing major, try to find the love of writing you once had by writing about subjects and characters you care deeply about. What do you want to say to the world? Not all plays come out as perfect works of art. My intention is to workshop your drafts provided you actually write--it's hard to workshop a piece that isn't really thought out or done. Most of the writing time, though, will be on your own clock. Start today with those premises! Don't hesitate or procrastinate too much or you'll never finish the project by the deadline (or won't have time to workshop your play).
NOTE: you can always change your mind about the options. Say you are writing one of your 10-minute plays and everything's clicking. You're on a roll. You write 12 pages, then 15, then 20. You can decide what option you want to fulfill after you write. And again, don't worry if you write something crappy. I'm looking for growth and effort, not perfection! Most plays suck until we workshop them, so...chill. And write.
The next few classes (after Agamemnon) we will briefly conclude our course with some helpful literature by exploring Elizabethan theater, naturalism, and absurdism. So no lab time. Start your play project on your own. If you have free time in Ms. Gamzon's class or a study hall, use the time there to help you get ahead. Feel free to use the exercises and information we have already completed as starting points for your own ideas. Look back through this blog for help if you need it. Do not procrastinate.
AGAMEMNON by Aeschylus:
Key mortal characters in the myth are: Thyestes, Atreus, Aegisthus, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus, Helen, Paris, Priam, Cassandra, Iphigenia, Orestes, and Electra.
Key immortal characters include: Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, The Furies (Eumenides...also called the Erinyes, the Kindly Ones, The Daughters of the Night were spirits of vengeance, murder, and jealousy. Their names are Tisiphone, Megaera, and Alecto).
Exposition:
• Atreus and Thyestes (brothers, sons of Pelops) fought because Thyestes challenged the throne of Argos and seduced Atreus’ wife.CLASSROOM: Agamemnon, Part 1.
• Thyestes was defeated by his brother and driven out of Argos, but returned as a suppliant with his children. A suppliant is like a homeless beggar.
• Atreus invited the family to a feast (where he slaughtered Thyestes children and served them to their father as dinner).
• Thyestes ate his children, unknowingly.
• When he found out what had happened, he cursed the house of Atreus and fled with his remaining son, Aegisthus.
• Agamemnon and Menelaus are the sons of Atreus, inheriting Argos.
• Agamemnon married Clytemnestra
• Menelaus married Helen.
• Helen ran off with Paris (or Paris, like Thyestes, seduced Helen) and this started the Trojan War.
• Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had three children: Iphigeneia, Electra, and Orestes.
• Menelaus convinced his brother Agamemnon to help him get his wife back from Troy.
• The gods (Artemis) were protecting the Trojans and didn’t bring them the wind needed to sail to Troy
• Calchas, the prophet, divined that the gods were angry and wanted a sacrifice.
• Calchas and Menelaus encouraged Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia.
• Agamemnon did so and gained favor and wind from Zeus; the Athenians sailed to Troy, won the war and sacked Troy. The battle lasted 10 years. This is, of course, the Trojan War.
• At beginning, Aegisthus has returned to Argos, now the lover of Clytemnestra (think Penelope and Odysseus), and exiled Orestes (he’s the rightful ruler, you see).
• Greek torchbearers or Messengers will light the beacon fire when Troy has fallen.
• Agamemnon, with his “prize” Cassandra (the daughter of Priam, king of Troy), returns after the war to a “warm” welcome.
HOMEWORK: None. Come up with an idea for your last play project. If you need a nudge, re-read How to Start by playwright Jake Jeppson.
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