More Samuel Beckett: Come & Go; Play

Today in your journals/notebooks, please write 5 metaphors. While one half of the metaphor may be a grand human idea: freedom, love, justice, revenge, marriage, hope, wealth, etc. the metaphor you create should be fairly concrete: "hope is a thing with feathers", "love is a battlefield", "revenge is a dish best served cold". Come up with 5 metaphors. 

Now let's chat about absurdism.

Although various classical and important plays have toyed with absurd situations, it was the futility of WWII combined with the surreal and existential that birthed such a movement. When any moment we are threatened with total destruction, what else is there to do but sit stunned and blankly in misunderstanding, or weave a web of words that lack meaning?

Traditional theater often attempts to show a realistic portrayal of life. Situations and characters are firmly rooted in reality and the common human actions that result in drama. Most plays trust the word. Words we use carry meaning. But what occurs when, with the threat of nuclear annihilation, we are not able to use our human reason and the symbol of such reason (our words) to alter our own fate? If we remove the trust in language, reason, logic, and traditional conventions of story telling, we are left with something that has no inherent meaning, but in that shape is given meaning by its opposite. Modern life is futile, lacking a sensible God figure, in which the answer to the question "what is the meaning of life?" is a resounding blackness or emptiness. All is meaningless, particularly that which is supposed to bring the comfort of meaning (i.e., words). 

Other playwrights (some of whom we will visit again next year) in this style or mode are: Eugène Ionesco, Jean Genet, and Harold Pinter, although these writers were not always comfortable with the label "absurdist" and preferred to use terms such as "Anti-Theater" or "New Theater", these writers attempted to create metaphors for human life out of the chaos that is called absurd. Other contemporary playwrights associated with this type of theatre include Tom Stoppard, Arthur Kopit, Edward Albee, Peter Weiss, Vaclav Havel, and Jean Tardieu. Neil Simon they are not.

In the hands of playwrights like Samuel Beckett, the portrayal of a such meaningless absurdity becomes a metaphor for our own modern lives--filled as they are with anxiety, fear, hesitation, incompetence, misunderstanding, and the lack of fulfillment.

Today we will watch two short plays by Beckett: Come and Go and Play. "Play" with actor Alan Rickman.

After viewing the two plays, you will have two options. One is to read Samuel Beckett's play Happy Days by yourself in the lab. The other is to complete the following:

1. Choose one of your metaphors and twist it into a premise for a short 10-minute or actually 5-minute play. You will need to know what you want to say about the human condition. If you chose hope, for example, what is your opinion of hope for us humans in this crazy world? Philosophize. Make a point. Have an opinion. Once you have a premise (a one or two sentence concept for a play), move on to the next part of this exercise:

2. Brainstorm possible settings (remember that you want to rely on metaphor/symbol rather than common sense and logic), characters (characters are often allegorical, representing ideas), and infuse your props and costumes (also part of a setting) with meaning as we did last class with our brainstorming exercise.

3. After you have a setting, and a character or two, begin writing. Now. This is the trick...write. Don't worry about plot. Don't worry about meaning. Focus on your premise, yes, but don't worry about the lines. Let them flow from you quickly, without your brain getting in the way. Words in the absurdist sense are meaningless, so why worry about words? Yes, they should be real words (those which for humans have a meaning), but when spouted out one after the other like a water hose, they, too, cannot be relied on to convey any kind of truth.

Write for the rest of the period without stopping. Force your way through writer's block. At the end of class write a line that repeats or states your metaphor.

4. Take the script home with you and add details, dialogue, stage directions, and anything else that you can think of within the time limit of having the play draft done by next class. Don't judge your work. Just work with it.

HOMEWORK: For next class, please read ACT ONE of Happy Days. If you spent your time reading today in the lab, go home and complete the writing portion of this assignment. Follow the same steps as above. Stop judging yourself and write. You should have both the draft and ACT ONE of the play ready for next class.

Waiting for Godot: Part II

This morning please warm up with the following activity (you may work with a partner or alone):

1. Make a column in your notebook/journal of common things. Props or objects.
2. Make a second column of ideas or feelings (ideas might be DEMOCRACY, or TRUTH, or TRANSUBSTANTIATION, or HUMANISM, for example; Feelings are, well, feelings.

Make sure both columns are equal in number. Please wait for further instructions for this exercise.

After our journal writing, please gather in the groups you had last class and continue reading the play: Waiting for Godot. As you read, please examine, discuss, and fill out the reading questions given to you in class. Turn these in by the end of class today.

HOMEWORK: If you did not complete the play, please do so over the weekend. You may find the entire play in video here: Waiting For Godot. Please feel free to watch the staging and how the actors interpret the play. Compare your vision of the play with the production.

REMINDER: Please watch Endgame and post your response to the forum for extra credit (links and material can be found in the previous post).

Wrapping up a marking period

Please take the first 5 minutes of class to review for your quiz. See Cherry Orchard Acts III & IV  post below for a complete list of topics possible on the quiz.

When you have completed your quiz, please read about the advice on the post below and Absurdist Style. Take notes on Beckett and view a clip of Endgame. After 1st period, we will begin reading Waiting for Godot. More details about small groups will be forthcoming in class.

Samuel Beckett, Endgame & Act I of Waiting for Godot

Samuel Beckett: (Beckett will separate the true playwrights from those who just pretend to be talented or intelligent)
Perhaps one of the strangest plays you are likely to see (there are several, actually--see below) is Samuel Beckett's End Game.

The story involves Hamm, a blind old invalid unable to stand, and his servant Clov, who cannot sit down. They live by the sea in a tiny house. The dialogue suggests that there is nothing left outside—no sea, no sun, no clouds. The two mutually dependent characters have been fighting for years and continue to do so as the play progresses. Clov always wants to leave but never seems to be able (similar to the characters in Waiting for Godot). Also present on stage are Hamm's legless parents Nagg and Nell, who live in trash cans upstage who also bicker continuously or talk inanely.

"The English title is taken from the last part of a chess game, when there are very few pieces left. Beckett himself was known to be an avid chess player; the struggle of Hamm to accept the end can be compared to the refusal of novice players to admit defeat, whereas experts normally resign after a serious blunder or setback."

Endgame lacks action, in Beckett's typical absurdist style. Critics have compared this play with Shakespeare's Hamlet (the protagonist Hamm, for example, is thought to be a shortened version of the name).

The implication in the play is that the characters live in an unchanging, static state. Each day contains the actions and reactions of the day before, until each event takes on an almost ritualistic quality. It is made clear, through the text, that the characters have a past (most notably through Nagg and Nell who conjure up memories of tandem rides in the Ardennes). However, there is no indication that they may have a future. Even the death of Nell, which occurs towards the end of the play, is greeted with a lack of surprise." The play suggests the futility of life, and the random boredom, argument for argument sake, and the waste of human effort.

This scene occurs just after Clov has his opening soliloquy, then is joined by Hamm, who establishes the master/servant relationship between the two characters. Nell and Nagg will appear half-way through the scene to complete the company.

Here's the continuation of the scene. If you like what you're seeing, feel free to watch the rest of the show. Check the sidebar on Youtube to see the continuing scenes or you can view this complete version with actor Michael Gambon (better known as Dumbledore). This production is about 1:35 minutes and is worth extra credit, if you post about your opinions of it on the forum.

Feel free to watch Endgame on your own. We will continue our work with Samuel Beckett next class.

HOMEWORK: It is likely you have read up to Act II, if you have not for some reason, please complete Act I for homework. Begin brainstorming ideas for your next play. Make a list of character names and types; make a list of conflicts; check out the links to the side of this post (36 dramatic situations, for example) and begin mining ideas. Bring these ideas with you to next class.

Absurdism

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

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.

 For no point in particular, let's go check out Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

HOMEWORK: None. Please bring your plays back with you to next class.

More & More Advice: Character

Remember that plays are essentially about characters. A character can drive a plot forward based on the needs and motivation of that character. A well written character is constructed to be believable (human) and so there are a few ways we can ensure this:

1. Characters are often aspects of the writer. Shatter your personality into fragments, with each fragment a part of YOU. Remember that there are opposites to your standard behavior and personality. If you are a quiet, shy person, perhaps your shadow-self is a loud-mouthed bully.

2. Make your characters make decisions. Conflict and plot are driven by decisions. You need characters who are willing to risk everything for what they want/need. Or by contrast, characters, like Chekhov's people, who do nothing but are still interesting characters whose inaction pushes the play forward.

3. Characters have a function. Whether archetypical, stereotypical, as a foil, or as a protagonist or antagonist, characters serve a function and purpose in a play. Characters that do not, should be removed.

4. The better the author knows his/her character, the better he/she can develop the character through characterization.

The Cherry Orchard: Acts III & IV

Today in class we will complete our viewing of The Cherry Orchard. Next class we will have a short marking period quiz that will cover the following material:

Anton Chekhov, Constantine Stanislavski, The Moscow Art Theatre, subtext, the building blocks of dialogue, play tips, play length: the ten minute versus the one-act, the one-act versus the full length: two act, three act, four act play, play development (handout), the scenario, Charles Busch, cross-dressing in the theater, commedia dell'arte, theatrical genres: realism, drama, tragedy, sentimental comedy, farce, dark comedy, situational comedy, satire or parody, working with actors and the play reading experience, rewriting, etc.

You should also be familiar with the terms: the premise, the event (9/26), major decision, protagonist, antagonist, major dramatic question (MDQ), inciting incident, conflict, crisis, complication, dark moment, enlightenment, the three unities of time, place, action, verisimilitude, Aristotle and the six parts of a play: plot, character, theme or idea, music, spectacle, language or diction, catharsis, the trap, the time lock, Sarcey's principle of offstage action, the scenes, acts, beats, and so on.