Quizzes

There will be ten, brief, ten-item unannounced quizzes. They will consist of short answer and identification questions. They will cover the reading for that day and any terms and concepts discussed in previous classes or presented during lectures. The quizzes will be handed out at the beginning of class and collected after fifteen minutes. If you are not present for a quiz, you will receive a score of zero on that quiz.  Quizzes may not be made up.

Examinations

There will be two examinations.  They will only cover the material in that section, that is, the second examination will not be cumulative.  The exams will consist of a take-home portion given out the class before the exam.  You are responsible for being in class to pick up the take-home portion.  It will not be available after class has ended.  The take-home will ask you to answer one or two questions in depth and following the format requirements described above.  The in-class portion will include short answer, quote identification, vocabulary, and usually an essay question.

Discussion Leaders

In groups of about six, you will be in charge of leading class discussion of a particular play for forty-five minutes on a particular day.  You are expected to be thoroughly familiar with the play and able to relate it to the ideas and themes of the course and to other plays.  On the day you are to lead the discussion, you must give me a set of materials in paper and electronic form (you may email the electronic version as an attachment).  These materials will include 1.) a brief (one full page) biography of the writer,  2.) a bibliography (in MLA style) of the writer’s primary works in their initial publication and their most recent English publication, (if the text is anonymous, provide a brief (one full page) account of the contexts, including location, language, time, etc. and a bibliography of extant editions/translations of the text). 3.) a list of five open-ended discussion questions that refer to specific parts of the text that you will use as a foundation for your discussion.   These questions may compare/contrast the text to others we have read, highlight important themes in the text, or link the text to ideas and themes we have discussed.  And 4.) two exam questions about the play.  These questions are to be open-ended essay-style, requiring an answer that demonstrates knowledge of the play as well as the relevant themes and ideas.  They may be used for one of the examinations.

            Your discussion will be graded on the materials you give me, equal participation by group members, level of preparation and knowledge of the text, level of engagement with your classmates, and a Group Member Evaluation Form for each member and a Peer Rating of Group Members.  These forms are available on the Desire2Learn Site and the course website.  You must print them out and complete them before your discussion.  Late forms will result in a loss of ten points.

            Be sure to have your spelling and pronunciation correct!

            Tips for leading a discussion may be found on the D2L and course website. A sample evaluation rubric for this assignment is available on the D2L site.

Performance Projects

As a means of exploring how performance alters the way we understand a play text, in groups, you will be given an opportunity to perform a selection from a play we are reading this semester.  The objective of your project is to use performance to show how seeing a play live can affect an audience’s understanding of a play, especially compared to reading.  As we have seen in class, the decisions made by the director, costume designer, lighting designer and many others can distinctly shape the way a play is interpreted.  This is your opportunity to demonstrate your interpretation of a play.

The project will be performed in groups during the final exam period (tentatively, Thursday 5 May, 10.00 – 11.50).  Each group will have fifteen to twenty minutes.  Each group will choose a brief (c. 200 – 300 line) scene or part of a scene from a play we are reading this term.  You must cast, costume, prepare a script and direct the scene. The performances will take place in the classroom, so observe the potentials and the limits of the space.  The script must contain the actual lines, speech prefixes, stage directions, director’s notes, and any other information used for your scene.  It is due the day of the performance. 

            You will be evaluated in two ways.  Twenty-five of the one hundred possible points will be based on your interpretations of the scene and how effectively you communicate that interpretation to the class.  (You will not be judged on your acting ability.)  This score will be modified by the peer response forms in order to determine each student’s score.  The remaining seventy five points will be based on a three to four page written essay, which follows the rules for written assignments.  In the essay, you might explain your (not your group’s) interpretation of the scene or write about what preparing and/or performing taught you about the play that reading did not.  Or you might write about how your opinion of the play changed after you performed it and why it changed.  Be sure to use quotations from the play to illustrate your point.  Don not summarize your scene.  Assume that your reader is familiar with it.  Each group member is to work independently on the written portion.  This part of the project is due on the day of the performances.

            In sum, on the day of the performance each group will give me: a copy of their script and a copy of the group’s statement of goals; each group member will give me his or her essay on the performance and his or her Group Member Evaluation Forms and Peer Rating of Group Members form.  Failure to turn in these forms will result in the loss of ten points from the project score.  A sample evaluation rubric for this assignment is available on the D2L site.

Oleanna Review

We have talked at various points about how particular parts of the plays we have read might appear on stage.  We’ve looked in particular at moments of ambiguity, when the text does not provide a clear guide as to what the audience sees.  Directors and their acting companies must address these moments and decide what does or does not happen.  These decisions reflect the director’s interpretation of the play.  Thus, an important element of reviewing a dramatic performance is familiarity with the play being performed and recognizing a director’s interpretive choices and how these choices affect the play as a whole. 

            This is a three to four page formal review of the film of Oleanna that we watch in class.  This is to be a formal review, not like a brief newspaper or popular magazine review.  The review should have three parts:

1. An introduction, which gives the basic information about the play/film, date, director, lead actors, length, etc.  This should be no more than a paragraph and introduce only the characters mentioned later in the review.

2. The second part is a summary of the film.  This is not a summary of the playscript, but of the film that you saw.  It is conventional, but must address any changes made to the basic playscript.  The summary should be no longer than two paragraphs.  3. The third part is your analysis of the film.  As an interpretation of a play, what are its strengths and weaknesses?  The analysis should take up about two-thirds of the review.  It should have a thesis statement or argument that presents your opinion of the director’s interpretation.  An example might be, “Michael Almereyda’s film of Hamlet successfully adapts Shakespeare’s play to a postmodern, urban, American context.”