November 19, 2008

One-Act Plays can run anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour or more. While technically, the one-act gets its name from having only one act (however long that might be), it's more commonly thought of as a play that isn't long enough to constitute a full evening. Arguably the most popular length for one-acts is around a half-hour.

Assignment: Collaborate with a fellow classmate to create a One-Act Play. You will be limited to a 30 minute duration. DUE: TBD

Criteria:

1. A good one-act focuses on one main action or problem; there's not time to get into complicated layers of plot.
2. Keep your play to one set and as few scenes as possible.
3. Develop characters only necessary to the plot.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMEBER 5, 2008
"All the world 's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts" ----William Shakespeare

Today, we begin working on the "10-minute play." Follow the outline below to get started:
A ten minute play takes place in ten minutes. One page of dialogue and stage direction is typically one minute of stage action.

1. Introduce Your Characters: Even if they’re just “boy” and “girl” with no stated names, you need to introduce your characters quickly and without reserve. Exposition and back story need be brief.
2. Build tension: Keep the tension taught. What mood or atmosphere would you wish to create at the beginning? At the end?
3. Add Conflict: Plays are, by and large, drama and drama is conflict.
4. Leave Audience Wanting More: Unlike most every other kind of art form, the ten minute play doesn’t always have an easy answer; it doesn’t always even have an answer at all! Ten minute plays are notorious for having endings which are glib, open ended, without resolution, left up to the audience to decide.

SHORT STORY ASSIGNMENT

DUE: October 31, 2008

Over the next week, your assignment is to complete working on your short story.

Final criteria is as follows:

• Well developed, organized exposition (character, plot, conflict...)
• Intriguing/creative title
• Four typed pages (minimum)

JOHN STEINBECK

"We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it."
-John Steinbeck

After reading and analyzing the first couple of pages of John Steinbeck's novels The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and East of Eden, compose a brief passage describing a familiar setting (North Salem, for example) in the style of Steinbeck's writing.

Remember, this is just a passage, a beginning if you will, not a complete story.

October 20

"What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon? And the day after that, and the next thirty years?"-Scott Fitzgerald

After reading and analyzing the passages of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Winter Dreams, and This Side of Paradise, compose a brief passage characterizing someone you know in the style of Fitzgerald's writing:

Be sure to use physical features, particularly his/her clothing, build, gait, facial features/expressions, skin tone, hair or speech to
convey some intangible characteristics.
Place your subject in a familiar setting, engaged in a predictable activity.
Remember, this is just a passage, a beginning, if you will, not a complete story.

KAFKA

"Theoretically there is a perfect possibility of happiness: believing in the indestructible element in oneself and not striving towards it."

Ray Bradbury is one of those rare individuals whose writing has changed the way people think. His more than five hundred published works -- short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, television scripts, and verse -- exemplify the American imagination at its most creative. Once read, his words are never forgotten. His best-known and most beloved books, THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, FAHRENHEIT 451 and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, are masterworks that readers carry with them over a lifetime. His timeless, constant appeal to audiences young and old has proven him to be one of the truly classic authors of the 20th Century -- and the 21st. In recognition of his stature in the world of literature and the impact he has had on so many for so many years, Bradbury was awarded the National Book Foundation's 2000 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, an the National Medal of Arts in 2004.

VIDEOS: http://www.raybradbury.com/about.html

October 6-10

Monday 10/5 - Tuesday 10/7

Assignment: Write a story with the character, setting, time period, and situation that you've chosen. The character that you've chosen should be the main character in the story, but isn't necessarily the ONLY character in the story. Likewise, most of the story will take place in the setting that you've chosen, but you can include other settings or elaborate on the setting that you have chosen (breaking it into several smaller settings, for example). The situation or challenge that you've chosen may involve the main character or your main character may observe someone else who must deal with the situation or challenge. In other words, you can combine these elements anyway that you desire, so long as all four are included in your story.

Character
a new mother
a photographer
a recent high school graduate
a restaurant owner or manager
an alien from outer space
a homeless child
a 93-year-old woman
an environmentalist
a college student
a jazz musician

Setting
near a National Forest
a wedding reception
a celebration party
an expensive restaurant
a shopping mall
a city park
the porch of an old farmhouse
a polluted stream
a college library
a concert hall

Time
during a forest fire
after a fight
the night of high school graduation
after a big meal
sometime in December
late at night
after a big thunderstorm has passed
in early spring
first week of the school year
during a concert

Situation/Challenge
an important decision needs to be made
a secret needs to be confessed to someone else
someone's pride has been injured
a death has occurred
someone has found or lost something
someone has accused someone else of doing something wrong
reminiscing on how things have changed
someone feels like giving up
something embarrassing has just happened
someone has just reached an important goal

Wednesday 10/8

Clutter, Clutter Everywhere
Develop a scene full of clutter. Feet shuffling through discarded containers, papers, garbage or clothes. Sinks piled with dirty dishes or laundry heaping on the bedroom floor. Add some smells for fun.

Thursday 10/9

School closed for religious observance

Friday 10/10

September 29-October 3

Monday, 9/29
"Place Poetry"

Tuesday, 9/30 - Wednesday, 10/1
School closed for religious observance

Thursday, 10/2


Friday, 10/3
Creative Inspiration Theme: TBD

September 22-26

Monday, 9/22
Maya Angelou







Tuesday, 9/23
e.e. cummings




Wednesday, 9/24
Muse Photo Prompt






Thursday, 9/25


Friday, 9/26
Open music creativity.....please bring in a musical piece of your choice to share with the class.

As a child did you play musical chairs? It's a game that requires one less chair than those playing. While music plays, participants walk around the chairs all going the same direction. When the music stops (at random intervals) everyone scurries to capture a chair. Last one standing is out and a chair is removed and the game is played again until one chair remains and one participant has claimed it when the music stops. For today'S class, we'll turn to our music for a musical prompt much like this game.

September 15-19

Monday 9/15
Whitman: "Leaves of Grass"

Tuesday, 9/16
Wadsworth / water

Wednesday, 9/17
Emerson / Self-Reliance

Thursday, 9/18

Friday, 9/19

" To have great poets, there must be great audiences" ----Walt Whitman

Take one of the topics expressed in Dickinson's poems, such as "Death" picking up a rider to the cemetery, and present the topic in a different form.

For example: create a diary entry, monologue, script, itinerary....

Title your work with a relevant quote from Dickinson's poetry.

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

~

“All truths wait in all things,
They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it,
They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon...”

~

I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the soul...
At another place he sings:
I have said that the soul is not more than the body.

~

The soul is always beautiful, it appears more or it appears less,
it comes or it lags behind,
It comes from its embower'd garden
and looks pleasantly on itself and encloses the world...

Man and woman: different entities?
I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,
And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man...

Explore "Leaves of Grass"

When art imitates real life.......

Reinaldo Arenas 1943-1990











Read and analyze the passages of My Lover the Sea, by Reinaldo Arenas.

Compose a brief reflection to this piece, providing your thoughts on its message, style and tone.