Titus (Conclusion); Revision Project: Day 1; Final Exam Prep

We will screen the gory conclusion of Titus. Please turn in your viewing notes at the end of the film.

With time remaining in class, please continue to work on your play revisions. Choose the script you are revising and revise it. See the post below and the handouts for help revising your play scripts.

If your play script is revised, please submit it to our Google classroom. Once a play is submitted, I will be able to prepare it for the class to read/review on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday of next week.

Our final exam occurs Wednesday, Jan. 16. To help prepare, you should know the following content:

The Final Exam for Playwriting may cover any or all of the following items, please review the following:

The plays & playwrights: [we read 22 plays during this course]

• The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe
• Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry
• Spic-o-Rama by John Leguizamo
• 'Night Mother by Marsha Norman
• Oleanna by David Mamet
• "The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year" by John Guare
• "Words, Words, Words"; "Arabian Nights"; "Variations on the Death of Trotsky" by David Ives
• "The Zig-Zag Woman" by Steve Martin
• The Dutchman by Amiri Baraka
• The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter
• The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel
• The Mystery of Irma Vep by Charles Ludlam
• "The Play That Goes Wrong" & "Peter Pan Goes Wrong" by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, & Jonathan Sayer
• The Vampire Lesbians of Sodom by Charles Busch
• Red Scare on Sunset, Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Psycho Beach Party, The Woman in Question by Charles Bush
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
• Hamilton, An American Musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda 
• Antigone by Sophocles
• Agamemnon by Aeschylus
• Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare

Proper script format
How to create characters/characterization; tips about writing effective characters, plots, themes, and writing effective dialogue; etc.
Techniques to motivate and gather ideas

Play Vocabulary:

• Premise: a deeply held belief by the playwright which shapes a script.
• Conflict
• Structural Unity: all parts of the plot (exposition, rising action, turning point, climax, resolution, etc.) should work and fit together.
• The classical unities: the unity of time, place, and action. A well-written play should encompass only a short amount of time, use one main setting, and have only one main plot (subplots can occur, but only one plot should be the main plot). 
• Inciting Incident: the point of attack, the inciting incident forces the protagonist into the action of the play's plot.
• Events
• Major Dramatic Question (MDQ): the hook that keeps an audience interested in a play; a dramatic question that a reader/viewer wants answered.
• Major decision: A decision a character makes in the plot that creates the turning point for their character.
• The three C's: Conflict, crisis, complication: obstacles characters must face for an interesting and dramatic plot.
• Rising Action
• The dark moment/crisis: the lowest moment of a character's struggle--when all the world seems lost, the fight unbeatable, the "darkest hour before dawn" -- a stunning reversal of fortune and sense of failure.
• Deus ex machina: a contrived ending. Often one in which the characters did not have a hand in solving. (It is more interesting to see a character deal with their own problems rather than an outside force solving it for them.) literally, a "god from a machine"
• Enlightenment: When the protagonist understands how to defeat the antagonist. A revelation that begins the movement toward a climax.
• Climax
• Catharsis
• Roots of Action; Dramatic Triangle(s)
• Developing character, plot, and theme in a script 
• Ten-minute play format
• One act plays
• Full-length plays (2, 3, or 5 act)
• Monologues/Soliloquies
• Theatrical conventions
• Commedia d'ell Arte 
• Cross-dressing; pantomime
• Generating ideas for plays 
• Shakespearean/Elizabethan Theater
• Ancient Greek Theater
• Aristotle & his 6 parts of a play
• Peripety (Peripetia)
• Anagnorisis
• Hamartia 
• Chorus
• Farce
• The Event: a uniquely significant moment in the character's lives
• Time lock: setting up a time limit or specific deadline characters have to meet in order to spur them into action (for example having a script project due...)
• Place & setting
• Theme
• Scenario: an outline for a writer to identify major/minor characters, plot, and setting used BEFORE writing a script
• Catalyst: the event in the play that causes a character to take action
• Character flaw or tragic flaw
• Creating credible characters
• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Subtext: what is not said in a character's line. The subtext are the subtle details or clues used by the actor to develop their character.
• Beat: a short exchange of dialogue
• Different types of beats: physical, behavioral, inner-life
• Time lock: a deadline for a character to achieve his/her goal in a scene or play
• Signpost/Pointer: foreshadowing or hints that something will happen in a play
• Backstory
• A Confidante: a character the protagonist or antagonist can talk with to reveal necessary backstory
• Verisimilitude: the semblance of truth in characters and setting. "a king should act like a king, not a foul-mouthed beggar."
• Dialogue (tips and advice) 
• Types and categories of comedy
• Theatrical/literary periods: realism, modernism, comedy, Elizabethan, Greek tragedy, comedy, etc. 
• Contributions of various playwrights: (see list above)
• Play development & workshopping a play 
• Writing and rewriting a script (advice)
• At Rise: indicates the beginning of the play or act or scene
• Exits/enters
• Cross: indicates how a character moves from one place to another on stage. 
• Curtain: indicates the end of an act or scene break
• Lights 
• End of Play: indicates the play is over
• Motifs: repeated objects, symbols, or actions that hold significance or meaning in a story
• Synecdoche: parts representing the whole

HOMEWORK: Work on or complete your script revision. Revisions are due next week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or finally Friday as the last day to submit your work. Plays submitted Friday will not receive a class reading or workshop evaluation.