Vampire Lesbians of Sodom: Day 1

After our writing/brainstorming, we'll pick up the collection of plays by Charles Busch: The Tale of the Allergist's Wife & Other Plays from the library. 

Just in time for Halloween: our next contemporary one-act. A one-act play might be a 10-minute play, but it is generally shorter than a full-length play (which usually lasts over an hour). It generally deals with one main action or dramatic question (main event).  

Let's just delve right into this one-act play, The Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. As we read, we'll stop and discuss how the playwright Charles Busch grabs our attention, writes fine (and funny) dialogue, creates a plot out of character's actions, develops a theme, introduces us to an interesting setting, and communicates a message that is pertinent to any contemporary audience. 

Bring your books back with you next class!

HOMEWORK: Complete your brainstorming activities if you did not complete them in class. Choose 1 of the OTHER plays in this collection and read it. You will be asked to write a play analysis of this chosen play. Choose from: The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Psycho Beach Party, Red Scare on Sunset, or The Lady in Question.

This analysis is not due yet.

EXTRA CREDIT: You might like to see Putnam County Spelling Bee. If you go see it and write a critique of the show, you can gain extra credit. 

God of Carnage: Day 2; Character & Dialogue;

TASK: Watch the film Carnage by Yasmina Reza, directed by Roman Polanski (2011). Starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christopher Waltz, and John Reilly. The play won a Tony Award for Best Play in 2009.

As you watch the film based on the play, examine the characters:

• Alan Raleigh
• Annette Raleigh
• Michael Novak
• Veronica Novak

Using the list above, argue what kind of character or what role(s) these 4 characters play within the drama. Take notes as you watch/read to help you build your case or answer.

1. Identify and explain each character's "role" (see above)
2. How do they shift or balance or grow or conflict? 
3. Which are protagonists or antagonists and when does this role shift in the play/film? 

Use evidence from the film or play script to support your answer. Your COMMENT response will be due today when we complete the film.


DIALOGUE TIPS

The Art & Craft of Dialogue Writing (short video)
Dialogue, Text, & Subtext, Part 1 (video)
How Character and Story Are Hidden in Dialogue (short video)

Dialogue isn't just talking. Dialogue HAPPENS. It happens when your characters' need to speak. It is also how they listen (or not listen), and the connotation, nuance, color and subtext of what they say, how they say it, and why they say it. Good dialogue is the result of well-defined characters in a well-structured plot. They may be compelled to speak (or not), but they should have a REASON for speaking.

Here are some tips to consider:

1. We usually talk because we want to communicate some need. If we want nothing, we say nothing, usually. We also speak when we want to: threaten, teach, explain, cajole, joke, murmur, pontificate, persuade, defend ourselves, apologize, seduce, evade, pout, challenge, yell, scold, cry, praise, question, convince, criticize, etc.

2. Dialogue is action. It is an action taken to satisfy a want or desire. What a character wants or desires moves them to speak and act. This is part of characterization--and the best way to build your character.

3. When we don't get what we want (often immediately), humans tend to become shy, aggressive, or hide our agendas in our words. This is often our subtext (the meaning hidden in a line of dialogue; or saying one thing, but meaning another) and is very important to actors. It is often this subtext that a good actor will uncover in a performance.

4. Actors have to hear each other. But characters often do not listen the same way we do. Characters interpret what is being said, ask questions, ignore speech, get confused, miss a meaning and even read special meaning into something that has no meaning. Listening, therefore, will often help build the conflict and drama in your scene. A response reveals something important about the listener. How a character hears, then, is an important point to consider.

Dialogue & the Roots of Action - Writing Exercise

HOMEWORK: None. Watch the videos concerning dialogue above. Complete the basic scene starter exercise we started in class. Get a character idea for an upcoming writing project. 

God of Carnage

Please turn in your play analysis for The God of Carnage.

As stated before, characters are the driving force of a play. Without well designed and depicted characters, a play will certainly fall short. There are some types of characters we want to be intimately familiar with (so that they are 'cast' in our plays):

• Dynamic characters: characters that change through the events of the play or story.
• Round characters: characters that are fully developed. They often have contradictory traits. A  wise chauffeur who is illiterate (Driving Miss Daisy), or a cranky old Jewish lady who has a heart of gold (Driving Miss Daisy), a bitter couple who actually love one another, despite their bickering (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf), a distraught mother who needs to convince her daughter not to kill herself ('Night Mother), etc. These characters are interesting because they possess contradictory or conflictual traits or qualities.
• Confidante: someone in whom a character can confide or speak his/her mind freely.
• Foil: a character who enhances a quality or trait of a major character or protagonist through contrast.
• Sympathetic character: a character with whom an audience can identify.
• Unsympathetic character: a character with whom an audience cannot identify. Usually this character has motives that are questionable, unappealing, or difficult to understand.
• Ally: a character who helps the protagonist accomplish, achieve, or learn something.
• Messenger/Herald: Usually a minor character, although not always--this character delivers an important message or brings some sort of external insight to the protagonist.
• Minor characters: stock characters, spear-carriers, static, flat, cardboard cut-out, stereotype, supporting, allegorical, etc.

How do I develop a character?

• Know what role the character plays in your play/story.
• Use characterization: what a character says, what a character says about another character, actions, thoughts, or description. Description is best delivered through dialogue in plays. In fiction, it is delivered by description and imagery.
• Provide backstory through flashbacks (fiction), or monologues (plays)

TASK: Watch the film Carnage by Yasmina Reza, directed by Roman Polanski (2011). Starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christopher Waltz, and John Reilly. The play won a Tony Award for Best Play in 2009.

As you watch the film based on the play, examine the characters:

• Alan Raleigh
• Annette Raleigh
• Michael Novak
• Veronica Novak

Using the list above, argue what kind of character or what role(s) these 4 characters play within the drama. Take notes as you watch/read to help you build your case or answer.

1. Identify and explain each character's "role" (see above)
2. How do they shift or balance or grow or conflict? 
3. Which are protagonists or antagonists and when does this role shift in the play/film? 

Use evidence from the film or play script to support your answer. Your COMMENT response will be due when we complete the film.

Turn in your COMMENT at the end of the play for credit.

HOMEWORK: None.

Play Project Draft Due! Preparing Your Script; Yasmin Raza's The God of Carnage

Period 1: Please work on preparing your script.

Period 2:

God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza won a Tony Award for Best Play in 2009.

As stated before, characters are the driving force of a play. Without well designed and depicted characters, a play will certainly fall short. There are some types of characters we want to be intimately familiar with (so that they are 'cast' in our plays):

• Dynamic characters: characters that change through the events of the play or story.
• Round characters: characters that are fully developed. They often have contradictory traits. A loving uncle, but a pedophile (How I Learned to Drive), or a wise chauffeur who is illiterate (Driving Miss Daisy), or a cranky old Jewish lady who has a heart of gold (Driving Miss Daisy), a bitter couple who actually love one another, despite their bickering (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf), etc. These characters are interesting because they possess contradictory or conflictual traits or qualities.
• Confidante: someone in whom a character can confide or speak his/her mind freely.
• Foil: a character who enhances a quality or trait of a major character or protagonist through contrast.
• Sympathetic character: a character with whom an audience can identify.
• Unsympathetic character: a character with whom an audience cannot identify. Usually this character has motives that are questionable, unappealing, or difficult to understand.
• Ally: a character who helps the protagonist accomplish, achieve, or learn something.
• Messenger/Herald: Usually a minor character, although not always--this character delivers an important message or brings some sort of external insight to the protagonist.
• Minor characters: stock characters, spear-carriers, static, flat, cardboard cut-out, stereotype, supporting, allegorical, etc.

How do I develop a character?

• Know what role the character plays in your play/story.
• Use characterization: what a character says, what a character says about another character, actions, thoughts, or description. Description is best delivered through dialogue in plays. In fiction, it is delivered by description and imagery.
• Provide backstory through flashbacks (fiction), or monologues (plays)

As you read God of Carnage (due Friday, Oct. 18) please do the following:

1. Complete a play analysis for the play. Due Friday, Oct. 18.
2. As you read, examine and consider or identify how the characters in the play shift their character type roles throughout the play's narrative. 

We will discuss the play next Friday.

HOMEWORK: Read God of Carnage. Complete a play analysis of the play. Examine character types in the play. Bring your scripts back with you to our next class (Friday, Oct. 18).

Our Reader's Theater production opens next Thursday and Friday (Oct. 17 & 18) at 7:00 in the Ensemble Theater. Come see Pipeline (see clip for details about the play) and get extra credit! Cost is $5 and benefits the Creative Writing Department (for coffeehouse supplies, guest speakers, Scholastic contests, playwrights' festival, etc.) 

Driving Miss Daisy Seminar/Discussion; Play Project Draft

This morning, please turn in your Driving Miss Daisy analysis (either in the in-box or in Google Classroom). We will conduct a discussion/analysis of the play:

There are two types of sets a playwright can prepare a script for:

A. a realistic set
B. a suggested set

A realistic set (like the set used in 'Night Mother or The Mountaintop) is a standard, realistic set that looks and feels like the actual setting of the play. It is more detailed and infinitely more expensive. Characters interact with props, costumes, and set pieces. It is not practical to change the setting or location in a realistic set.

A suggested set (like the set used in Driving Miss Daisy or Spic-O-Rama) allows actors to create the setting through actions (like pretending to drive a car--which would be impractical in a theater) or through dialogue. Setting is described, not built. We use our imagination. Ah, the power of words...

 

Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry. Sample discussion questions:

1. Pay close attention to the role of the dynamic triangle in this play. Explain how Uhry uses it effectively.
2. Examine the characters of Daisy, Hoke, and Boolie. 
• How are each of these character's connected? 
• What is it they want from one another? 
• How is each character an antagonist to another character in the play? 
• Why do you think Uhry built his characters this way? 
• What dramatic tension is inherent in the characters and how does this play out in the course of the play?
3. Plays deal with human issues in our society that are often overlooked, unsolved, or important. What are some human issues that Uhry works within this play? How are these themes and issues introduced, developed, and resolved?
4. What are some absolute truths (about society, human life, ourselves, each other, community, etc.) communicated to us in this play? Are these truths relevant or important in our contemporary lives? Why or why not?
5. Would you pay to see this play performed live? Why or why not?
6. Other*

Period 2 (or after our discussion...)

Continue to work on and write your play. So far we have written a draft (draft 1 that was 2-3 pages;) then draft 2, (we developed each character in your play draft with a monologue and provided backstory, allowing our audience to get to know who each character is a bit;) then draft 3 (which introduces us to the idea of the dramatic triangle, while deepening your character's beliefs (Absolute Truths and Lies and What a Character Believes/Where a Character Lives). A draft of your play will be due Thursday, this week, October 10.

HOMEWORK: Work on the finishing touches for your play draft. Play drafts are due Thursday, Oct. 10. 

The Dramatic Triangle/Universal Truths/Lies; David Ives (Day 2); Play Writing Project

Period 1: please continue writing your play drafts. See the handouts and try to incorporate the following into your play:

The Dramatic Triangle & Universal Truths/Lies

• 2 characters in a story create a relationship. Relationships are often tested by the demands or conflicts of the story and undergo changes that affect the characters involved in positive or negative ways. 
• A stronger choice is not a linear connection between two characters, but a triangle connecting 3 points. There is often a third "character" that affects what happens between 2 characters. I.E., a dramatic triangle.
• The role or identity of the 3rd character (the third actor) can change from beat to beat or scene to scene.
• Dialogue should engage the audience in 2 ways: the unique details of the "world of the play: the setting, characters, events within this world, using dialogue to move the story (plot) forward revealing more and more about the setting, characters, events, etc. AND dialogue functions as the world in which we inhabit (the audience's world, our world!) by presenting universal statements, beliefs, adages, laws, principles, etc. of both the characters and us, the audience.

Complete the task as suggested by the handout. In your play draft, create a dramatic triangle (or several triangles) by doing the following:

1. Identify the relationship between 2 characters. 
2. Choose a specific beat or part of the scene you wish to focus in on this relationship.
3. For each character, identify at least one important fact that could affect how he or she interacts with the other character. [a relationship can be physical, personal, intellectual, professional, positive, negative, deep, shallow, etc. Consider what brings the characters together or pushes them apart...]
4. Answer: what is the relationship between character 1 and character 2? [Usually, one character relationship is not equal]
5. If character 1 is the first point, character 2 is the second point, who or what is the 3rd point of the triangle? [How will this character/event affect/influence the relationship?]
6. Sprinkle your dialogue with universal truths and lies (see handout!)

• Ex. In 'Night Mother, Jessie and Thelma make up the two characters; the relationship is mother/daughter. There are several "third" points to their triangle: Loretta, Dawson, Thelma's late husband, Ricky, epilepsy and, of course, the threat of suicide. Some universal truths might include Jessie's dialogue about the reasons why she is about to kill herself. 
• Ex. In 'The Mountaintop' Camae and Martin Luther King Jr. make up the two characters; the relationship is client/maid, but it also turns out that Camae is an angel sent by God (the third point of the triangle). The prophetic assassination also looms over the tension in the scene to create a "third" character (although not one that appears on stage...). Some universal truths include the truth of Dr. King's dialogue or the revelations he receives from the angel of God, Camae.

Use the exercise in this handout to affect the scene you have been writing. Introduce and develop your "third" point of the dramatic triangle. If you need some ideas about the top 5 relationship problems (conflicts) take a look here: Russell Brand.

Period 2:

We will read the short plays "Universal Language", "Words, Words, Words", and "Variations in the Death of Trotsky."

If we finish before the end of class please continue to read Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry. Complete this play (and a play analysis sheet) for TUESDAY, Oct. 8 or work on your plays.

HOMEWORK: Read Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry. Complete a play analysis sheet for this play. Continue to work on and write your next draft of your play. So far we have written a draft (draft 1 that was 2-3 pages;) then draft 2, (we developed each character in your play draft with a monologue and provided backstory, allowing our audience to get to know who each character is a bit;) then draft 3 (which introduces us to the idea of the dramatic triangle.)

NOTE: if your characters are still not well defined, you may use the exercises: "What the Character Believes" and "Where the Character Lives" to further develop your characters.

Oleanna: Conclusion; David Ives; Driving Miss Daisy; The Dramatic Triangle

Mamet's advice...

After we finish Oleanna this morning, let's look at David Ives collection of plays. We'll start with "Sure Thing"--a short one-act based on an improv game, with the contemporary issue of dating.

Find out more information about David Ives at this link.

Let's read the short plays "Sure Thing", "Universal Language", and "Variations on the Death of Trotsky" by David Ives.

These plays use what we call "The Dramatic Triangle"--let's take a look!

• 2 characters in a story create a relationship. Relationships are often tested by the demands or conflicts of the story and undergo changes that affect the characters involved in positive or negative ways. 
• A stronger choice is not a linear connection between two characters, but a triangle connecting 3 points. There is often a third "character" that affects what happens between 2 characters. I.E., a dramatic triangle.
• The role or identity of the 3rd character (the third actor) can change from beat to beat or scene to scene.

Complete the task as suggested by the handout. In your play draft, create a dramatic triangle (or several triangles) by doing the following:

1. Identify the relationship between 2 characters. 
2. Choose a specific beat or part of the scene you wish to focus in on this relationship.
3. For each character, identify at least one important fact that could affect how he or she interacts with the other character. [a relationship can be physical, personal, intellectual, professional, positive, negative, deep, shallow, etc. Consider what brings the characters together or pushes them apart...]
4. Answer: what is the relationship between character 1 and character 2? [Usually, one character relationship is not equal]
5. If character 1 is the first point, character 2 is the second point, who or what is the 3rd point of the triangle? [How will this character/event affect/influence the relationship?]

• Ex. In 'Night Mother, Jessie and Thelma make up the two characters; the relationship is mother/daughter. There are several "third" points to their triangle: Loretta, Dawson, Thelma's late husband, Ricky, epilepsy and, of course, the threat of suicide.
• Ex. In 'The Mountaintop' Camae and Martin Luther King Jr. make up the two characters; the relationship is client/maid, but it also turns out that Camae is an angel sent by God (the third point of the triangle). The prophetic assassination also looms over the tension in the scene to create a "third" character (although not one that appears on stage...)

Use the exercise in this handout to affect the scene you have been writing. Introduce and develop your "third" point of the dramatic triangle. If you need some ideas about the top 5 relationship problems (conflicts) take a look here: Russell Brand.

Period 2:

We will stop by the library to pick up your homework, Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry. Complete this play (and a play analysis sheet) for TUESDAY, Oct. 8.

When we return from the library, please work on developing your short play draft project.

HOMEWORK: Read Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry. Complete a play analysis sheet for this play. Continue to work on and write your next draft of your play. So far we have written a draft (draft 1 that was 2-3 pages;) then draft 2, (we developed each character in your play draft with a monologue and provided backstory, allowing our audience to get to know who each character is a bit;) then draft 3 (which introduces us to the idea of the dramatic triangle.)

NOTE: if your characters are still not well defined, you may use the exercises: "What the Character Believes" and "Where the Character Lives" to further develop your characters.