Paragraph 1: Plot Summary -- Describe in one paragraph the storyline of the play. Be brief -- six or seven sentences maximum.
Paragraph 2: Theme (Meaning or premise) -- What is the playwright saying to us? What is the point of the story or plot? What comment is the writer making about society? Support your theme statement from an action, dialogue or scene from the play.
Paragraph 3: Form -- Is this a tragedy, comedy, melodrama, or tragicomedy? Tell why you believe it is a particular type of play by using examples from the play. Feel free to refer to definitions in texts to justify your selections.
Paragraph 4: Worth -- Discuss the play's universality. Will it withstand time?
Questions
Wait! More "you must":
Apply the concepts in textbook to the play reading
Write and present a thorough analysis of a play of your choice (Midterm Paper)
Avid class participation
The elements of research as applied to play analysis (especially for your Final papers)
Attend all UAF Theater Productions
Writing assignments: 200 words post after reading each play. Midterm (Outline, 1st Draft, Final), Final (and/or the Scene -- the same three stages or rewrites), tests.
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I do not know when I will be teaching this class again. I am to use this directory for dramaturgy and playwghting ...
Useful Questions to Ask Yourself about a Script Under Review 1. Is there anything special about the title? Does it focus on a character, the milieu, or a theme? Is it taken from a quotation or is an allusion? Does it contain a point of view or suggest a mood?
2. Make a note of unrealistic elements and consider their meaning. Does it include documentary material and, if so, to what effect?
3. Is there a main theme? Consider the tempo of the various sections?
4. How many acts and scenes are there? What motivates the divisions of the play and how are they marked (curtains, blackouts, etc.)?
5. What are the retrospective elements of the play and are they explicit or implicit?
6. Is there secondary action and what is its relationship with the main action?
7. Consider the characters entrances and exits and how they are motivated?
8. Is there any difference between playing time (the time it takes to perform the play) and illusory time (the time the action is supposed to take)? What is the relationship between the two, if any?
9. Where is the play enacted? Is the playwright vague or exact about the environment? Is this important?
10. How does the playwright economize with the number of roles? Could any be omitted or doubled? What function do the various secondary characters have?
11. Who is the protagonist? The antagonist?
12. What are the relationships among the characters and how do they change?
13. Is the play in verse, prose, or a mixture?
14. Is the play a translation? Can you compare it to the original? With other translations? Are there significant differences?
15. Is the playwright making significant points of interpretation with the use of punctuation? With breaks and overlaps? With silence?
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