Play Project; Waiting for Godot: Day 1, Absurdist Theater

Period 1: Lab.

Please work on your play projects. Play projects are due Thursday, Jan. 18.

Period 2: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Pick up the play script from the library, then return to room 238. We will begin reading the play today.

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.

Quick Prompt: Today in your journals/notebooks, please write 3 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. Set these aside today. We'll discuss your options Thursday.

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). 

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.

As we read, complete the Waiting for Godot handout (and turn in for participation credit when done).

HOMEWORK: Complete your play projects. These are due next class at the end of our lab time.

Titus Andronicus: Conclusion

Because of our interruption, I have to complete the film by 8:30. Let's do that. I'll bring us down to the library lab after the event.

HOMEWORK: Please continue writing your play projects (drafts are due Friday, Jan. 18). 

Titus Andronicus: Day 3

LAB: (until 7:50)

Please continue working on your play projects. Our lab today will be cut somewhat short so we can finish viewing Titus. At 7:50, we'll return to the classroom to view the film.

HOMEWORK: Keep working on your play script projects.

Play Project: Day 3; Shakespeare's Theater; Titus Andronicus

LAB: Please turn in any missing work. Then, use your time to work on your play projects.

Play Project

Option 1: Write a one-act play. This option allows you to explore a single idea, theme or style. One act plays sustain a longer storyline and plot, usually with fewer characters than full-length plays, but complete their climax sooner and generally take less time to write than full length plays. One full one-act play should focus on one important action (although side plots can be included) and usually develop characters to a greater extent than a 10-minute play. Each full one-act play would typically be around 20-30 pages in length. Workshopping individual plays once you have a draft written would be doable. Having written a substantial play script will likely get the attention of college programs in writing or theater. Polished plays may be given a public reading or production during the playwrights' festival.

Option 2: Write 2 (two) 10-minute plays. This option allows you to dabble with different short plays and scenarios for students who have trouble sustaining a storyline or plot. You've done these before so there's no mystery here. Each 10-minute play should be somewhere around 6-12 pages in length (not including title or cast list pages). Workshopping one or more of your plays is expected. 10-minute plays are about the length we are looking for during the playwrights festival or for the Geva contest in March. Remember: because of their length, start your play very close to the climax.

Option 3: Write a shorter one-act play and a 10-minute play. Best of both options for those of you who write or have more than one idea you want to play around with. One acts, in this case, should be 15 or more pages (not including title page, character list, setting, etc.)--too long for a 10-minute play, but long enough for the Playwrights' festival. The 10-minute play is like option 2, but just one of them.

Advice:

• Start your process by taking some time to write some premises. What do you want to write a play about? Have any plays you have read sparked ideas? What's going on in society or your family or your own past experiences that might make for a good play idea? Avoid the television plot where one character gets upset with another because of infidelity (cheating on someone else...my god, we've seen this a thousand times; abuse plays are better for television or film; avoid low cultural topics--consider more philosophical ideas...)
• Consider your tone. Is your play's premise likely to be comedic or serious? Tragic or satirical? Realistic or suggested sets? Linear or memory or episodic or avant-garde? Choices, choices.
• Follow up your brainstorming with an outline or sketch out ideas (mind-maps or other graphic organizers can help!) to see if they might work and what length might be the best option for the story you want to tell. If you already have a short story you have written (or read from another source) you can turn that into a play for the stage. If you're a poet, consider writing a musical or verse play. Monologue plays and historical plays are also options we have already explored, but feel free to use the form if you'd like.
• Remember that all plays are created by placing a beat next to another beat next to another beat to form a scene. In a short play, one scene may be all you need to tell the story--in longer plays, you may need more than one scene--but try to consolidate action, time, and place (the three unities).
• Develop character, setting, and plot through monologues where appropriate. Develop each character you put into a play (even the spear carrier #1 or the waitress...)
• Be original and creative. Write something that would be interesting to see on stage. This is not the Lifetime channel...

Classroom:

Shakespeare's Theater

Unsure of how my colleagues cover Shakespeare each year (and whether or not you come from a tradition that includes the study of Shakespeare) it's my duty to give you a little info. We'll start with a quick (if dry) overview of the time period. Please take notes on what you learn on the graphic organizer. Turn this in as participation credit at the end of our class today.

Renaissance Theater video (7 min)

Theater, as we know it in Shakespeare's day being performed in a typical PLAYHOUSE, didn't occur until 1576. It was James Burbage who built the first playhouse called, appropriately, "the Theater"--a permanent building dedicated to showing plays for commercial interest. Before then, plays were generally performed in courtyards, tennis courts, inns or guild houses. Private showings for the nobles or upper classes would be commissioned as well in indoor theaters where anyone could afford a ticket.

Actors joined an acting company. Shakespeare, for example, first belonged to the Chamberlain's Men, then to the King's Men (after Elizabeth's death). Only men were allowed to act in the Elizabethan theater. Younger actors (boys) often played the female roles because they would have looked more like women (i.e., no beard). This helps to explain why so many of Shakespeare's plays include cross-dressing. Consider that Juliet, for example, would have been played by a boy to the older actor playing Romeo. New actors were often given smaller roles so as to train with the experienced actors--who often played the major roles. Shakespeare himself was recorded as playing various small roles in his plays. The most famous example was the ghost of Hamlet's father in Hamlet.

Plays were written (often in collaboration) by the actors in the company (who also doubled as the house manager, director, props master, producer, etc.) This helps to explain why some characters in Shakespeare's plays disappear mid-play or return as new characters in the 4th or 5th acts. It's hard to be on stage while also taking money at the door.

Lines for a play were written on sides and distributed to the company members. It would be rare for an actor to have a complete script (the writer would, of course) but printing costs money, so copies were kept to a minimum. This helps explain why there are A sides and B sides to Shakespeare's works. Some lines or sides were changed by the actors or the writer during the performances. Famous actors might even change the author's lines by slipping in a bit of well-rehearsed and well-known comedic business for the audience's benefit.

Finally, having one's works collected in a folio book or quarto would have been rare. Scripts that got out of the hands of a company could be stolen by other theater companies, so copies were not passed around generally. The King's Men must have thought a lot about Shakespeare to have his works printed and bound! Luckily they did--or we could not frustrate future high school students by forcing them to read his plays!

The structure of a Shakespearean play (most 5 act plays) is:

ACT ONE: Exposition, Inciting incident, Major Dramatic Question is introduced, sometimes the protagonist has made a Major Decision. Often a complication occurs to disrupt the status quo.
ACT TWO: Rising Action, Complication(s), Establishment/development of the Major Conflict, sometimes the protagonist has made a Major Decision. Introduction to subplot (minor plot).
ACT THREE: Crisis or Turning Point, Dark Moment, Major Decision.
ACT FOUR: Enlightenment, development or Resolution of minor plots.
ACT FIVE: Final climax, Resolution of minor and major plots, falling action. Major Dramatic Question is answered.

Titus Andronicus is believed to be Shakespeare's first tragedy. He may have co-authored it with George Peele (although we can't be certain) between 1588 and 1593. Popular in his day, the play is thought to be needlessly violent and the most bloody of all his plays. It has the common Shakespearean themes of revenge and madness. Common motifs can be found below...

The play is set at the end of the Roman Empire and tells the fictional story of a Roman general, Titus, who runs afoul of Tamora, Queen of the Goths. As you watch the play/film (see below) please take notes on the following:

Major Characters:

• Titus Andronicus – A renowned Roman general
• Tamora – Queen of the Goths; afterward Empress of Rome
• Aaron– a Moor; involved in a sexual relationship with Tamora
• Lucius – Titus's eldest son
• Lavinia – Titus's daughter
• Marcus Andronicus – Titus's brother
• Demetrius – Tamora's son
• Chiron – Tamora's other son; allusion to the centaur Chiron
• Saturninus – Son of the late Roman Emperor; afterward declared Emperor
• Bassianus – Saturninus's brother; in love with Lavinia

Minor Characters:

• Quintus – Titus's son
• Martius – Titus's son
• Mutius – Titus's son
• Young Lucius – Lucius's son 
• Publius – Marcus's son 
• Nurse
• A Clown
• Sempronius – Titus's kinsman
• Caius – Titus's kinsman
• Valentine – Titus's kinsman 
• Alarbus – Tamora's son (non-speaking role)

Themes/Motifs:

• Revenge
• Human Kindness & Pity (and its limitations) (Cruelty, as its opposite as well)
• Limbs (usually being hacked off--"parts" of the body, just as children are "part" of the parent's "body", and citizens are part of the body politic...)
• Animals (particularly fierce bestial animals...like a wilderness of tigers, but also birds of prey, and their victims)
• Astrology (reference to Fate and the stars)

Allusions:

Ovid's Metamorphoses (the story of Philomela, in particular)
Seneca's play Thyestes (the myth of the House of Atreus--, and, of course, Aeschylus' The Orestia)

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)

While we're not exactly ready to discuss the finer elements of 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)

Listen to how TONE is created by the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound elements. As you watch, also keep in mind the key themes and development of plot and characters Shakespeare uses in this play.

Turn in your graphic organizer by the end of class today on Elizabethan theater.

HOMEWORK: Complete your reading of Titus Andronicus. Keep writing your play projects! 

Agamemnon: Part 2

Today we will watch the second part of Agamemnon.

HOMEWORK: Write your play scripts. Read Titus Andronicus.

Agamemnon; Last Play Project

Please turn in your take-home test ?'s for The Lion in Winter & Agamemnon!

Brainstorm: (pick one or more of these and brainstorm ideas)

• What is your favorite myth story?
• What is your favorite fairy tale, folktale, or legend?
• What is your favorite short story or poem or urban legend or historical event?

After coming up with your favorites, list the characters as you remember them in the story.
How might the story be updated in a creative way for a play production or contemporary audience?

PLAY PROJECT (last one, possibly ever...)

Option 1: Write a one-act play. This option allows you to explore a single idea, theme or style. One act plays sustain a longer storyline and plot, usually with fewer characters than full-length plays, but complete their climax sooner and generally take less time to write than full length plays. One full one-act play should focus on one important action (although side plots can be included) and usually develop characters to a greater extent than a 10-minute play. Each full one-act play would typically be around 20-30 pages in length. Workshopping individual plays once you have a draft written would be doable. Having written a substantial play script will likely get the attention of college programs in writing or theater. Polished plays may be given a public reading or production during the playwrights' festival.

Option 2: Write 2 (two) 10-minute plays. This option allows you to dabble with different short plays and scenarios for students who have trouble sustaining a storyline or plot. You've done these before so there's no mystery here. Each 10-minute play should be somewhere around 6-12 pages in length (not including title or cast list pages). Workshopping one or more of your plays is expected. 10-minute plays are about the length we are looking for during the playwrights festival or for the Geva contest in March. Remember: because of their length, start your play very close to the climax.

Option 3: Write a shorter one-act play and a 10-minute play. Best of both options for those of you who write or have more than one idea you want to play around with. One acts, in this case, should be 15 or more pages (not including title page, character list, setting, etc.)--too long for a 10-minute play, but long enough for the Playwrights' festival. The 10-minute play is like option 2, but just one of them.

• Start your process by taking some time to write some premises. We'll do that today. What do you want to write a play about? Have any plays you have read sparked ideas? What's going on in society or your family or your own past experiences that might make for a good play idea?
• Consider your tone. Is your play's premise likely to be comedic or serious? Tragic or satirical? Realistic or suggested sets? Linear or memory or episodic or avant-garde? Choices, choices.
• Follow up your brainstorming with an outline or sketch out ideas (mind-maps or other graphic organizers can help!) to see if they might work and what length might be the best option for the story you want to tell. If you already have a short story you have written (or read from another source) you can turn that into a play for the stage. If you're a poet, consider writing a musical or verse play. Monologue plays and historical plays are also options we have already explored, but feel free to use the form if you'd like.

Some professional advice:

Grading and rubric information will be forthcoming, but what I'm looking for here is growth. Prove to me that you have learned how to write a play largely on your own. Quality counts, but it's not as important as your growth as a writer. For those of you who would like a challenge, challenge yourself by doing something out of the ordinary, something creative or unusual. For those of you who are having trouble writing or shouldn't have been a creative writing major, try to find the love of writing you once had by writing about subjects and characters you care deeply about. What do you want to say to the world? Not all plays come out as perfect works of art. My intention is to workshop your drafts provided you actually write--it's hard to workshop a piece that isn't really thought out or done. Most of the writing time, though, will be on your own clock. Start today with those premises! Don't hesitate or procrastinate too much or you'll never finish the project by the deadline (or won't have time to workshop your play).

NOTE: you can always change your mind about the options. Say you are writing one of your 10-minute plays and everything's clicking. You're on a roll. You write 12 pages, then 15, then 20. You can decide what option you want to fulfill after you write. And again, don't worry if you write something crappy. I'm looking for growth and effort, not perfection! Most plays suck until we workshop them, so...chill. And write.

The next few classes (after Agamemnon) we will briefly conclude our course with some helpful literature by exploring Elizabethan theater, naturalism, and absurdism. So no lab time. Start your play project on your own. If you have free time in Ms. Gamzon's class or a study hall, use the time there to help you get ahead. Feel free to use the exercises and information we have already completed as starting points for your own ideas. Look back through this blog for help if you need it. Do not procrastinate.

AGAMEMNON by Aeschylus:

The Oresteia by Aeschylus is the only complete Greek trilogy. These three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, the Eumenides tell the story of the House of Atreus in Argos. Today and this week we will be watching the production of Peter Hall's Agamemnon, translated by Tony Harrison. In Harrison's script, you will note the use of alliteration and kenning. These literary devices and techniques are Anglo Saxon in origin, not Greek. The Greeks had their own cadence and rhythm to their plays. Other elements, such as the use of masks, flutes, drums, and an all-male cast are standard Greek tragedy style.

Key mortal characters in the myth are: Thyestes, Atreus, Aegisthus, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus, Helen, Paris, Priam, Cassandra, Iphigenia, Orestes, and Electra.

Key immortal characters include: Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, The Furies (Eumenides...also called the Erinyes, the Kindly Ones, The Daughters of the Night were spirits of vengeance, murder, and jealousy. Their names are Tisiphone, Megaera, and Alecto).

Exposition:

• Atreus and Thyestes (brothers, sons of Pelops) fought because Thyestes challenged the throne of Argos and seduced Atreus’ wife.
• Thyestes was defeated by his brother and driven out of Argos, but returned as a suppliant with his children. A suppliant is like a homeless beggar.
• Atreus invited the family to a feast (where he slaughtered Thyestes children and served them to their father as dinner).
• Thyestes ate his children, unknowingly.
• When he found out what had happened, he cursed the house of Atreus and fled with his remaining son, Aegisthus.
• Agamemnon and Menelaus are the sons of Atreus, inheriting Argos.
• Agamemnon married Clytemnestra
• Menelaus married Helen.
• Helen ran off with Paris (or Paris, like Thyestes, seduced Helen) and this started the Trojan War.
• Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had three children: Iphigeneia, Electra, and Orestes.
• Menelaus convinced his brother Agamemnon to help him get his wife back from Troy.
• The gods (Artemis) were protecting the Trojans and didn’t bring them the wind needed to sail to Troy
• Calchas, the prophet, divined that the gods were angry and wanted a sacrifice.
• Calchas and Menelaus encouraged Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia.
• Agamemnon did so and gained favor and wind from Zeus; the Athenians sailed to Troy, won the war and sacked Troy. The battle lasted 10 years. This is, of course, the Trojan War.
• At beginning, Aegisthus has returned to Argos, now the lover of Clytemnestra (think Penelope and Odysseus), and exiled Orestes (he’s the rightful ruler, you see).
• Greek torchbearers or Messengers will light the beacon fire when Troy has fallen.
• Agamemnon, with his “prize” Cassandra (the daughter of Priam, king of Troy), returns after the war to a “warm” welcome.

CLASSROOM: Agamemnon, Part 1.

HOMEWORK: None. Come up with an idea for your last play project. If you need a nudge, re-read How to Start by playwright Jake Jeppson.

Historical Play Project: Due!; Hamilton Conclusion; The Lion in Winter/Agamemnon

Lab: (period 1)

Please turn in your Antigone quizzes!

This morning please complete your historical play projects. These are due by the end of period one!

• Make sure your script format is correct!
• Include a title page & a character/setting page!
• Proofread!
• Punctuate interjections, adverbial clauses, and filler words correctly!
• End your sentences with punctuation marks!
• Be true to your premise! Make sure you're making a point or develop a theme!
• Develop your characters and story with monologues!
• Use imagery! (Look over your diction and make sure it's specific and expressive!)
• Make sure your scene(s) are developed! 
• Cut unnecessary scenes, beats, or characters!
• Consider your production limitations!
• Make sure your work is thoughtful, honest, and entertaining!

Period 2:

We'll conclude our examination/reading/listening to Hamilton: Act 2. Answer the notes concerning Greek tragedy and Hamilton: the Musical and turn in today when we complete the play.

We will then get you started on The Lion in Winter. See homework!

HOMEWORK: As much as I hate to do this, there's some reading to be done over break. If you are focused, you can complete the work before you go on break (work on completing the plays today and tomorrow...!) Otherwise, the test assignments are due when we return from break (Jan. 2).

Please complete The Lion in Winter and answer the 10 questions as a test grade. Do the same with Agamemnon. Both plays are due by Jan. 2 when we return from Winter Break.

• Help from Shmoop
• Help with Lion in Winter

In any case, have a happy holiday. Rest, recuperate, read--and above all relax and have fun with your families.