The Colored Museum Collaborative Play Project; Introduction to The Mountaintop

This morning, please take the first 40 minutes to gather in your collaborative writing groups to do the following:

1. Share your monologue, song, or scene draft with your group members. 2. Get feedback from your peers about what's working or what needs or could be fixed to strengthen your piece.

To strengthen your writing try looking for the following:

--Is it clear (without stage directions telling us) where the scene takes place? Consider how props, sound effects, or lighting effects can be used to hint at where a character is, but the major way to indicate this is by having the character refer to his/her environment or setting!

--Is it clear (without stage directions) what is going on in the scene?

--Do we get a sense of the character's personality through the word choice or diction of the character?

--Is there conflict? Is something at stake for the character? Does the character have a clear goal or motivation to speak?

--Avoid using vague language. Try to change nouns into specific nouns and verbs into action verbs.

--Consider what the actor's physicality is contributing to the scene or monologue.

--Is the point of the scene clear? Is the character vivid and interesting?

3. Edit and revise your writing. 4. Title your scene or monologue (see The Colored Museum as an example--each scene has its own name...); record your first and last name AFTER the title. 5. Then, together, decide on a working title for your collaborative script project. 6. Copy and paste your revised and workshopped work into one of the two documents below. Edit and rearrange your group's document text in the order you would want the play to be seen. We will share these scripts with the whole class next week! We will begin reading The Mountaintop together after our workshop. Your collaborative play project will be due next week--but make sure it's still in the right order and that you spend your time workshopping during class.

Drama means conflict. Without conflict, a play or story gets pretty boring. One thing that sets plays apart from other genres is this key difference. Again, drama means conflict! In the structure of the play, the conflict can come from any of the typical sources: person versus person, person versus self, person versus society, person versus nature...and sometimes person versus fate or god. In order to create and sustain conflict in our plays, we usually have two important character types: The protagonist and the antagonist. In plays or dramas, the protagonist often acts as the antagonist to the other character. The antagonist is, therefore, also a protagonist. This dramatic duo is necessary for plays to retain their dramatic conflict. Many plays are written with just two main characters. We're going to look at some of them and examine how the writers use this 2-actor play structure to write really excellent plays. Let's see it in practice! Plays are written to examine or debate an issue or problem in our societies, communities, nations, etc. They allow us to experience the human struggle of our characters in conflict. After our workshop, we will begin reading The Mountaintop by contemporary playwright Katori Hall.

Please finish reading this play (see the PDF copy of the play in the attachments on Google Classrooms) and complete the play analysis form for Thursday, October 1.