Homework Quarter II
Re-read "The General Prologue" of The Canterbury Tales so that we may quickly prepare a theatrical thingy to perform next Wednesday evening at the Medieval Banquet. I have an idea already cooking. It involves performing the General Prologue and then performing a short General Epilogue that consists mostly of death scenes.
Also, so that you are prepared,check out or purchase Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.
Other upcoming titles include Perrine's Sound and Sense - An Introduction to Poetry (no need to acquire this yet) and Gulliver's Travels.
Due Tuesday, November 18, 2008:
Memorize your lines - the two from the General Prologue and the two that you made up about another character's death.
Due Wednesday, November 19, 2008:
Bring money for the Medieval Banquet; have your lines memorized; have banners, flags, crests et al completed; have a costume in mind and ready to wear.
Also bring your enthusiasm and zeal.
After school on Wednesday evening, please arrive at the cafeteria in costume by 4:45 PM to rehearse the skit and otherwise get ready.
Great job Wednesday night!! Thank you very much for all of your effort and creativity!
Due Friday, November 21, 2008:
Create three essay topics for MacB*th, Hamlet and/or tragedy and bring them to class on Friday. One of them will quite possibly be the prompt for an in-class timed write.
Due Wednesday, November 26, 2008:
Write a 750- 2,000-word essay comparing and contrasting the plot of either MacB*th or Hamlet to a game, and submit your essay to turnitin.com no later than 5 PM.
Games to consider might be Chess, Risk, Monopoly, Life, Poker, certain video games, sports, etc... You may NOT use a game that was created for or around MacB*th, Hamlet or any other Shakespearean play.
The suggested structure for your essay would be compare/contrast. Remember to NOT write a tennis match. Be kind to your reader. Explore a concept fully before switching sides, and start a new paragraph when clarity is in question.
If you want to bring a laptop to class on Tuesday (there is wireless access for research) you may. But do so at your own risk.
Submit to turnitin.com the revision of your MacB*th or Hamlet as a Game essay. Make sure it is between 750 and 2,000 words and is submitted no later than 8 AM Monday morning.
Please also bring to class an MLA hard copy.
Due Tuesday, December 9, 2008:
Bring to class a copy of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
Due Wednesday, December 10. 2008:
Bring to class a copy of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and also be prepared to discuss what play you are going to write according to this assignment sheet.
Due Friday, December 12, 2008:
Bring to class at least a rough draft of your Act I (or more, if you feel compelled) and anything else that is evidence of your having worked on creating your own Stoppard-esque play in accordance with this assignment sheet.
Today's class notes -
Absurdism - It's all meaningless gobblety-gook.
Existentialism - It's up to individuals to divine their own meaning.
Dualities Explored -
Heads vs. tails
Choice vs. chance
Games/plays/metatheatre vs. life
Players vs. audience
Improvization vs. scripted works
Meaning vs. the absence of meaning
Reality vs. illusion/dreams/memories/perception
Destiny vs. free-will
Freedom vs. form/rules/censorship
Words vs. deeds
North vs. south (location vs. floating in the abstract)
Randomness vs. mindful orchestration
Approximation vs. exactness
Internal vs. external
Entertainment vs. "high" art
Intellect vs. emotion
Tastefulness vs. crassness
Ambition vs. sloth
Individual vs. community
Identity vs. the absence of identity
Pragmatism vs. idealism
Didacticism vs. open-endedness
Connotation vs. denotation
Presence vs. absence
Passivity vs. action
Themes - Existence, determinism, meaning, perception, time, location, identity, companionship, life, death...
Goal - Create a world that has its own logic and that gives rise to situations that explore some of the aforementioned dualities and themes -- or others of your choice as long as they seem mindfully explored. NEXT >>