It’s been a great semester, and I hope you’ve found the class both enjoyable and rewarding.  For your final blog post, I’d like you to reflect back on the semester and write a short letter to next year’s students.  What advice can you give them about how to succeed in this class?  What skills will they get out of it?  What warnings might they find helpful?

“What the what?!?” You might well be saying… a bit of a sharp turn there, eh?

So… thoughts?  What does it mean?!? What is Gilman getting at?

As you’ll notice, Rebecca Gilman’s Dollhouse sticks fairly closely to Ibsen’s version of the play.  Think back to your impressions of Ibsen’s A Doll House and discuss how Gilman’s characters are different.  Pick one character to focus on and write a post addressing the changes Gilman has made (and/or how similar the representations are).  What kind of person is Nora in this version? Torvald? Kristine? What characteristics/personality traits does Gilman emphasize?  Is this a different character? How so?

Once you’ve watched the film version of Marat/Sade, I’d like you to reflect on the experience.  How did the film change your perception of the play? Of the characters?  What did it add?  Do you feel like you understand certain aspects of the play better? What did you find surprising? Do you now find certain arguments more compelling?  How did the staging affect your understanding of the performance? What stood out to you?

Now that we’ve spent some time discussing the play in class (and hopefully clarified some confusion), presumably you should feel better prepared to respond to Tuesday’s prompt.  Pick a passage from the play and discuss how it illustrates that character’s philosophical or moral position.  What do you think of his (or her) argument/claim?  At the end of the play, whose arguments do you find more compelling?  Who do you think “wins” the debate? Again, (if you feel so inclined) what connections might we be able to make between the ideas expressed in the play and contemporary political events?  In other words, despite its depiction of events from the 19th century, and the fact that it was written nearly 50 years ago, is this play relevant to contemporary audiences?

As we discussed in class, this play exhibits aspects of both Brecht’s theories and Artaud’s - both in presentation and attitudes towards violence expressed in the play.  While Marat and Sade are the central figures debating their ideologies, the other characters serve as mouthpieces for various philosophical positions in support of one or the other major character.  Again, Brecht advocated that epic theater should present two sides to a debate in an effort to get the audience to choose sides. At this point in the play, whose arguments do you find more compelling?

Select a short passage/few lines and transcribe them here. Then offer an analysis of it in terms of the rest of the play, and offer your own response.  What does the play/character say about violence? About religion? About poverty? Can you draw a comparison between some of the issues discussed and contemporary political events?

As I mentioned in class on Thursday, I’d like to revisit the post assignment from The Tempest where I asked you to “cast” one of the characters in the play.  Again, for full credit, you must offer an analysis of the image that you select - explain to me why that particular image fits your sense of the character.

Here are the instructions from the original assignment:

Upload an image from the internet of an actor whom you think would fit one of the parts in the play.  Try to find an image that aligns with your sense of the character - thinking about facial expression, attire (though it certainly doesn’t need to be Victorian), and the general tone or atmosphere of the image.  Be sure to include the link to where you found the image, and write a short paragraph both identifying the character you’ve cast and explaining your casting choice (i.e. why/how does this actor/image fit your understanding of the character).

See my post below as an example of what this would look like.  

Specific instructions: after finding your image, copy the url (or save the image to your desktop) and be sure to leave the page open so you can cite the source. From your dashboard, select the “photo” option and upload the image from your computer or click the link below the upload button to “use a URL instead.”  In the caption section, begin with “Image Credit:” and type out the name of the website where you found the image. Select/highlight the name of the website, then click on the little chain button in your formatting toolbar (this is how you add links).  Add a link to the website, then start a new paragraph to explain your casting choice. 

Contrasted with A Doll House, Mrs. Warren’s Profession presents very different attitudes toward gender and romance.  Here the roles seem to be somewhat reversed - Vivie is more practical/business-minded, while Frank seems more frivolous and romantic.  In fact, during the big scene between mother and daughter, Mrs. Warren accuses Vivie of having “no heart.”  

What do you make of the play’s portrayal of marriage and/or romance?  How does it differ from what we saw in A Doll House?  How is it, in some ways, a response to Ibsen?

Or, how does Mrs. Warren’s Profession treat familial relationships.  We see two examples of parent/child relationships.  Compare the two and offer a reading of what we might take away from those relationships.

For tomorrow’s blog post (if you’re brave enough), try practicing your summary skills on either the Boal reading or on Shaw’s “Apology” for Mrs. Warren’s Profession. If you were going to sum up the author’s points in a quick e-mail, how might you explain his argument.  What is the main idea behind his text and what are the points he uses to back up his argument?  What did you take away from the reading?

Now that you’ve (attempted to) summarized your play in a single page, it’s time to make that summary even shorter.  Imagine you are writing the “blurb” for the back of the book - essentially a summary in one or two paragraphs/150-200 words.  You need to encapsulate the important aspects of the play without wasting space on unnecessary details. What is this play about? Who are the major players? What is the main action/conflict? Keep in mind that you want to get people interested in your play without spoiling the ending or boring them with inconsequential information.  Try to come up with a catchy first sentence.  Think about why somebody might want to read this.  

Here are two examples pulled from amazon.com (both are too short, but you’ll get the idea):

(BAD Example - boring) from Editorial Reviews: Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s classic works. This play, about two lovers, ends in tragedy because of their quarreling families. 

(BETTER Example - enticing) from Editorial Reviews: In a society dominated by religion and bound by ties of strict family loyalty, two teenagers are trapped by their secret love. As a dangerous vendetta spills onto the streets, the young lovers are forced to risk all to be together in Shakespeare’s fast-paced tragedy of thwarted love.