Welcome back!
Your play projects are due Friday. Please use the first period today to work on them. Remember to check your grammar, mechanics, and play script formatting. By now you should understand how American play scripts are formatted. You can find examples of the format on the blog and the Google classroom under "resources". You could also ask while I'm here to check anything in your script you feel is incorrect.
This play should illustrate why you should pass this course. Did you understand what I've been teaching you about play scripts? Do you understand the basic principles of playwriting? Do you understand that plays are fundamentally about characters in conflict? Do you understand that plays incorporate ideas that are important for an audience to consider, experience or think about in our human condition? Do you understand that there are limitations to stage plays (they are not movies or novels) and that there are tried and true theatrical conventions that have existed since the Ancient Greeks? [Many of the 20+ plays we have read or watched so far in this course are excellent models!] Have you incorporated Aristotle's 6 elements of a play in some way (your play should have characters, a plot (with all that plots entail), a central idea or question around which the play's conflict revolves, sound cues or music--humans like music and sound cues help establish setting or off-stage action--characters, just like people, might even sing..., some visual image or spectacle upon which artists and technicians and designers and costumers and directors and actors and audience find compelling or interesting--you are writing a PLAY, and finally, does your language use poetic devices like metaphors or similes to help create imagery and effective dialogue--is your dialogue interesting and creative? Or have you used one of Polti's 36 dramatic plots (that was the goal for this play after all)? Have you used the various points I've made in class to strengthen or write your script? Have you used what you read as a way of gathering ideas, sustaining those ideas, and delivering a script that would be producible by a theater like our own?
NOTE ABOUT FORMAT: You are writing a one-act play. One-act plays do not need to indicate that they are one-act plays. You would only indicate Act One, if there is an Act Two, or Act Three, or Act Four, or Act Five. If you have more than one scene, you would need to indicate the division of scenes. If you only have one scene, even naming scene 1 is unnecessary.
Common terms:
Period 2: A brief note about essay analysis writing:
We will begin screening the 1999 film Titus. Information about Julie Taymor (director; also directed The Lion King on Broadway, Across the Universe, Spiderman the Musical (on Broadway) and Frida) and the cast of Titus (1999) can be found at the hyperlinks.
While we're not exactly ready to discuss the finer elements of a film, Julie Taymor's film is an effective visual work.
Notice what the camera is doing while watching the film. The camera provides POV in a film and conveys meaning, both literally and symbolically. As you watch look for examples of:
Your play projects are due Friday. Please use the first period today to work on them. Remember to check your grammar, mechanics, and play script formatting. By now you should understand how American play scripts are formatted. You can find examples of the format on the blog and the Google classroom under "resources". You could also ask while I'm here to check anything in your script you feel is incorrect.
This play should illustrate why you should pass this course. Did you understand what I've been teaching you about play scripts? Do you understand the basic principles of playwriting? Do you understand that plays are fundamentally about characters in conflict? Do you understand that plays incorporate ideas that are important for an audience to consider, experience or think about in our human condition? Do you understand that there are limitations to stage plays (they are not movies or novels) and that there are tried and true theatrical conventions that have existed since the Ancient Greeks? [Many of the 20+ plays we have read or watched so far in this course are excellent models!] Have you incorporated Aristotle's 6 elements of a play in some way (your play should have characters, a plot (with all that plots entail), a central idea or question around which the play's conflict revolves, sound cues or music--humans like music and sound cues help establish setting or off-stage action--characters, just like people, might even sing..., some visual image or spectacle upon which artists and technicians and designers and costumers and directors and actors and audience find compelling or interesting--you are writing a PLAY, and finally, does your language use poetic devices like metaphors or similes to help create imagery and effective dialogue--is your dialogue interesting and creative? Or have you used one of Polti's 36 dramatic plots (that was the goal for this play after all)? Have you used the various points I've made in class to strengthen or write your script? Have you used what you read as a way of gathering ideas, sustaining those ideas, and delivering a script that would be producible by a theater like our own?
NOTE ABOUT FORMAT: You are writing a one-act play. One-act plays do not need to indicate that they are one-act plays. You would only indicate Act One, if there is an Act Two, or Act Three, or Act Four, or Act Five. If you have more than one scene, you would need to indicate the division of scenes. If you only have one scene, even naming scene 1 is unnecessary.
Common terms:
- At Rise: (indicates the beginning of the play or act, usually after the lights turn on or the curtain rises...)
- Character exits/enters
- Character crosses (moves) from one place to another on stage. Aim to avoid these directions. You are not directing your own play (usually) and actions should be revealed in dialogue, as opposed to nit-picky writers telling actors what to do. Actors have brains...usually.
- Curtain (indicates the end of an act break)/Curtain rises; Curtain (falls)--not all theaters have curtains...
- Lights (up or down or fade)
- End of Play (indicates the play is over)
- Plays are written in present tense. If you must refer to the audience, you may use the pronoun: we. Ex. We hear a strange gurgling sound from offstage--as opposed to "the actor spoke to the audience."
- Review your interjections and where your commas go! Avoid too many stage directions--especially actor notes. They are annoying.
- Fragments and short sentences are easier to remember. Specific language is easier yet to memorize for your actors. Be kind to your actors. Finally, remember that actors like to ACT.
Period 2: A brief note about essay analysis writing:
- Use MLA format for formal English essays (Yes, creative writing falls under English...); in particular, an MLA formatted heading and works cited page is helpful when you use outside sources.
- Start an essay off with a hook or attention grabber. This is followed by a "lead-in" that connects the two ideas to the subject matter you are writing about. This is then followed by a thesis statement.
- Use textual evidence to support your thesis. It's okay to reference the text, but you should also indicate line # or page # that you are using as part of your citation. See in-text citations and paraphrased citations. You still need to indicate where you took an idea, even if you summarize a section of the text or summarize the source material! Never be vague when you are writing a scholarly paper. Never! That just proves you don't know what you're writing about. Middle or elementary school students rarely know what they're writing about. High school students should. College students must.
- Titles of major works are italicized. Always. Short works (like the name of a poem, as opposed to the name of the poetry collection is quoted.) Learn more about all that here for the last time (I hope).
- Strengthen your writing by using sophisticated vocabulary (as long as you're right!) and by being specific and accurate. Aim for conciseness. Avoid blathering and sounding like you understand things you don't--a teacher or professor can tell when you're trying to dodge the fact that you really have nothing new to say about the subject, haven't read closely, or that you haven't done your work and come up with interesting viewpoints regarding the text. Varying your sentence structure is also helpful. Topic sentences and main points should be clear and concise! Details can be written in a longer and more intricate sentence style.
Period 2:
While we're not exactly ready to discuss the finer elements of a film, Julie Taymor's film is an effective visual work.
Notice what the camera is doing while watching the film. The camera provides POV in a film and conveys meaning, both literally and symbolically. As you watch look for examples of:
- Motifs (repeated objects, symbols, or actions)
- Frequency (how often a thing occurs)
- Synecdoche (parts representing the whole)
HOMEWORK: Complete your reading of Titus Andronicus. Keep writing. Your play projects are due next class! See tips above for help.
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