Review for Final Exam

The Final Exam for Playwriting may cover the following items, please review:

The plays:

Nzotake Shange: For Colored Girls...Rainbow is Enuf
Dael Orlandersmith: Monster
Jane Martin: Talking With
Peter Shaffer: Amadeus
Anthony Shaffer & Harold Pinter: Sleuth
Charles Ludlam: Mystery of Irma Vep
Harold Pinter: The Dumbwaiter
Mitch Albom: Tuesdays with Morrie
Charles Busch: Psycho Beach Party; Vampire Lesbians of Sodom; Lady in Question; Red Scare on Sunset
Christopher Durang: (particularly: Desire, Desire, Desire; For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, Death Comes to Us All Mary Agnes, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You, The Actor's Nightmare, Titanic, 'dentity Crisis, The Life and Purpose of the Universe)
August Wilson: Fences; The Piano Lesson

Proper script format

Play Vocabulary:
Premise: a deeply held belief by the playwright which shapes a script.

From handout: chp. 3 'Structure, Part One: story and plot':

Aristotle's six elements of plays: plot, character, diction (dialogue), thought (theme), spectacle, song/music
Conflict
Structural Unity: all parts of the plot (exposition, rising action, turning point, climax, resolution, etc.) should work and fit together.
Inciting Incident: the point of attack, the inciting incident forces the protagonist into the action of the play's plot.
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

Ten minute play format
One act plays
Full length plays (2, 3, 4, or 5 act)
Monologues/Soliloquies
Cross-dressing and theatrical tradition (blog)
Generating ideas for plays (from handout & blog)
Absurdism (blog)
Commedia dell'Arte (blog)
Farce
From Handout: 'Structure, Part two: creativity, scenario, & writing'
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...)
French scenes
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
Positive Motivation
Character flaw
need vs. desire
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
Backstory
A Confidant: 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."

Plays, Contests, & the Playwrights' Festival

Your play drafts are due Monday, Jan. 24. No late scripts will be accepted, so please plan accordingly. Use your time in lab this week to get your plays written, proofread, and formatted correctly.

Also, please consider submitting fiction or poetry to Sokol, Lelia Tupper, & Gannon writing contests.

AND: want to see your own play produced by your peers? Consider submitting one or more of your scripts to me for the Playwrights' Festival (opens in March). I need to select the scripts being produced by the end of the month.

Playwrights' Festival scripts should be formatted correctly, relatively free of errors, and able to be produced in the black box theater.

Absurdism

Weather got you down? Feeling as if there's no point to life? Check out this style of writing...

by the way, you are more than welcome to add elements of absurdism (if you haven't already done so) to your play scripts (for example, if you wanted inspiration for another 10-minute play)

Characteristics of Absurdism:

1. Characters are often threatened by an unknown outside force.
2. The world or diegesis of the play/film is unpredictable or lacks meaning which the characters must contend with.
3. There is often an element of horror or tragedy; characters are often in hopeless situations or trapped.
4. Dialogue is often playful, full of nonsense, repetition, or engages in silly wordplay or banter.
5. Plays are often funny, although theme is usually serious and symbolic. Absurdist theatre is often called "tragicomedy", having elements of broad humor and tragedy.
6. There is often a good deal of farce (mistaken identity, physical comedy, slapstick, sudden entrances and interruptions, etc.)
7. Theatre of the absurd often presents characters failing at something without suggesting a solution to the problem. Characters are often "losers" who cannot dig themselves out of the problems they find themselves in.
8. Characters are often unable to communicate with others (particularly about their feelings, desires, or needs).
9. Plot is often cyclical or repetitive.
10. Plots have a dreamlike or surreal quality to them, akin to nightmare. Plot events are often taken at face value; characters are unwilling or uninterested in examining "why?" something happens and instead react to "what" happens. Therefore plot is often lacking the cause. The effect is often stressed as being more important.

Projects due 1/24

Today, please continue to work on completing your major writing projects. Getting your play scripts written and completed before the deadline will allow you to workshop and look over your work before you turn it in.

What's due:

For an automatic "A": 4 10-minute plays, or 2 One-act plays, or 1 one-act play and 2 10-minute plays, or 1 full length (at least 40 pages of script in script format) play.

Otherwise: 2 10-minute plays, 1 one-act play is due as a correctly formatted, proofread play.

The majority of the class, left to their own devices, is not effectively using the lab. Please use the lab to get your CREATIVE WRITING work done. This is not a study hall.

All play reviews should be turned in by this time.

Writing/Testing

For those of you not taking the NYS Regents Exam in English today, please continue to work on your play scripts.

Your play projects are due on the 24 of January. You need a minimum of 2 ten minute plays (roughly 20 pages collectively), or a one-act play (about 20 pages or more). Students working on a full length play should keep writing. A full length play is the equivalent for our purposes of two one-act plays (about 40 pages or more). Traditionally, a full length script for stage is anywhere between 60 and 120 pages.

HOMEWORK: None, but your play projects are due on the 24.

Ideas & Discussion

After our discussion of August Wilson's plays, please continue to work on your play projects.

If you are opting for the 2-4 10-minute plays (or a second one-act), consider the following:

1. Plays are centrally about ideas.
2. These ideas are represented by characters and setting.
3. Props can also symbolize or represent larger ideas.

--Write a 10-minute play about a chosen theme: love, death, God, loss, weakness, addiction, family unity, communication, life, or any other philosophical idea (obviously, you can pick your own theme).
--Represent your theme by creating a character or characters that REPRESENT your theme. Your "Antagonist" usually is the opposite (for example: if you are writing about the theme of loss, then the antagonist probably HAS LOTS, or has won something that the other character wanted) Ta da! Instant conflict!

Your setting should also be metaphorically representative of your theme. Consider how place and time suggest meaning to support your main theme.

Also, consider using a PROP symbolically and representative of an idea. For example, a crown on a fluffy white pillow might suggest God.

If you are working on a one-act or full length play project, the same idea can apply to you script. Now that the words are flowing and the play progressing: what does it mean?

HOMEWORK: Please finish the play reviews. We are done with August Wilson's Piano Lesson and Fences. You may return these books to the library.

Fences/Piano Lesson/August Wilson Quiz & Projects

To prepare for the quiz, please watch the following video clips. Please take notes as you see fit. You will be able to use your notes on the quiz. You have 15 minutes to prepare:
Denzel Washington's interview regarding his performance as Troy in Fences and a second interview with Denzel Washington.
Denzel Washington in a scene from Fences
August Wilson biographical information.

After our quiz, please continue working on your play projects. If you still have your critique for The Piano Lesson, please finish it and turn it in. It is due Friday.