Introduction to Playwriting

DRAM 251/3.0

Overview

Intended Student Outcomes, or, What This Course Is For: To complete this course, students will demonstrate their ability to:

- build a plot;

- create characters;

- understand what the words 카지노 게임 컬렉션action카지노 게임 컬렉션 and 카지노 게임 컬렉션motivation카지노 게임 컬렉션 mean;

- understand what plays are for, in terms of 카지노 게임 컬렉션theme카지노 게임 컬렉션 and 카지노 게임 컬렉션message카지노 게임 컬렉션;

- exploit the limitations of live theatre and use them expressively.

In other words, 카지노 게임 컬렉션Introduction to Playwriting카지노 게임 컬렉션 is designed to introduce you to playwriting. So, since I have yet to find a better way to learn to write plays than by writing plays, each of you is going to write one: a first draft of a 15- to 30-minute-long one-act, on a topic of your choice (subject to some restrictions), under the guidance of the rest of the class, our T.A., and myself. The Play is due a week after the final class.

The students in this class will be divided into groups, called 카지노 게임 컬렉션labs카지노 게임 컬렉션, of five or six students each. (In the first of our weekly videos, I mistakenly say 카지노 게임 컬렉션ten카지노 게임 컬렉션 students; this is incorrect.) Every student is to write five to ten pages of new material per week, and dis-tribute it on line to the other members of the student카지노 게임 컬렉션s lab, our T.A., and myself. This ma-terial must contain both some dialogue and some notes, each week.

The material can be submitted at any time during the week, from just after mid-night on Monday morning to midnight on the following Sunday. This term, however, be-gins on Thursday, Sept. 6, so our first week is a 10-day 카지노 게임 컬렉션week,카지노 게임 컬렉션 running from just after midnight on Thursday morning, Sept. 6, to midnight on Sunday, Sept. 16. I will take advantage of that long first week by asking you to submit your first week카지노 게임 컬렉션s material by midnight on that Sunday, Sept. 16.

Each student is also expected to read his or her lab-mates카지노 게임 컬렉션 submissions, and write comments on the submissions; the comments, too, will be distributed to the other lab members. My T.A. and I will also read all of the submitted material and comments, and make our own contributions. The comments should not take the form of value judgments on the quality of your lab-mates카지노 게임 컬렉션 work, but rather the form of suggestions on where to take the work next. (Praise and encouragement, however, are always helpful.)

The official name of this course is 카지노 게임 컬렉션Playwriting and Dramaturgy I카지노 게임 컬렉션. 카지노 게임 컬렉션Drama-turgy카지노 게임 컬렉션 means reviewing, editing and helping with another person카지노 게임 컬렉션s script. We all form inevitably warped impressions in our minds of our lab-mates카지노 게임 컬렉션 work, and send them sug-gestions based on those inaccurate images. The playwright카지노 게임 컬렉션s job is to sift among those suggestions and choose what works best for the play. Don카지노 게임 컬렉션t by shy about taking an active part in the analysis and discussion of your lab-mates카지노 게임 컬렉션 work. It helps them, of course: even feedback that wildly misunderstands the play can be helpful, suggestions that may seem silly are valued in this course, and the 카지노 게임 컬렉션dumb카지노 게임 컬렉션 idea often opens the door to a useful idea. But also, giving them your feedback both motivates them to help you when it카지노 게임 컬렉션s your turn, and familiarizes you with the workshop process.

There are also four specific Assignments through the term, two of which are versions of a specific kind of exercise called a 카지노 게임 컬렉션Seven-Eleven카지노 게임 컬렉션. I will describe each Assignmentin more detail in its own handout. Each Assignment is due by midnight on Sunday at the end of the week after it is assigned. There is one exception: Assignment 3 is due on Week 7, which, this term, is a shortened week to allow for our two-day midterm break (Oct. 25 & 26). Therefore your deadline for that assignment is extended to the following midnight, Monday night, Oct. 29. (Your deadline that week for the regular, un-graded weekly pages will still be Sunday, Oct. 28.)

            Finally, one more feature: we are going to use the video conferencing program 카지노 게임 컬렉션Zoom카지노 게임 컬렉션 to have a live, real-time group discussion among the members of your lab, with all our seven or eight faces on screen together (including myself, and, I hope, our T.A.), once during the term for each lab. These are yet to be scheduled. That discussion will be an informal conversation about how each of you are doing with your play, including sug-gestions from the rest of the lab for each individual student 카지노 게임 컬렉션 pretty much the same sort of work we카지노 게임 컬렉션ll be doing in written form during the rest of the term, but on this occasion, orally, and with faces to attach to the names.

A BRIEF SUMMATION of the Activities in the Course: Each week, there will appear on the website, under 카지노 게임 컬렉션Modules,카지노 게임 컬렉션 a video lecture on principles of playwriting, written by, directed by, and starring, me. There will also appear a written transcript of the text of each video. You are required either to watch these videos or to read their transcripts. You are expected to write five to ten pages of their play each week, and submit them to the other members of their Lab and to me and my T.A. (The pages to be submitted are not listed in the schedule below; they are due every week.) You will have four written Assignments. And on one occasion during the term for each Lab, as yet unscheduled, we will have a video conference and actually talk to each other in real time.

Learning Outcomes

After completing DRAM 251, students will be able to:

  • write a play 카지노 게임 컬렉션 which includes being able to:
    • construct a believable and engaging plot;
    • write believable and engaging dialogue for multi-faceted characters;
    • understand how the text of a play can conceal and reveal emotional subtext;
    • exploit the supposed 카지노 게임 컬렉션limitations카지노 게임 컬렉션 of the live theatre to their advantage, using symbolism and theatrical techniques to convey a story;
    • accept dramaturgical advice from others in a professional way, unencumbered by shame or defensiveness, and use it in their writing;
    • work collaboratively with directors, actors, designers and stage managers in script workshops and in rehearsal.
  • and understand, and assist in, the playwriting of others, which includes being able to:
    • create, and recognize and analyze the inner plot structure of plays written by others;
    • and critically analyze playwriting by others, and offer useful and coherent dramaturgical support.