Monday, January 25, 2010

Performance Poetry & the Geva 10 Minute Play Contest

Today, even though the room is horrible for performance, we will perform the last of the collaborative poems. Please prepare these immediately.

When we have finished the performances, please work on a 10 minute play project for the Geva Theatre Play Contest.

To do this you will need to brainstorm the following:

Create an interesting setting. All plays have a short description of setting and indicate the time of day or the season before dialogue begins.

Example: On stage there is a bookcase with various titles, a four-poster bed, and a wash basin on a dresser. It is May, 1917, just before the Great War. Enter JOHN, drying his face with a towel. He sits on the bed and puts on his shoes. There is a knock on the door. It is PENNY. She enters.

Create a short cast list (no more than 8 characters, and at least 2). Each character should have a brief one-two sentence description describing the character:

Example: John: a 52 year old accountant. He is always dressed in jeans and smokes a lot.

Penny: A nun. She doesn't wear a habit. She can be played by an actress between 20 and 40 years old.

Please note that the cast list is usually printed just after the title and BEFORE the opening stage directions.

All plays deal with a complicated situation. To create a situation for a story/plot, you need to know the following:
1. Who is appearing in the play? (character)
2. Where is the action taking place (setting)
3. What are the characters doing? (action)

Once these questions are answered, you can complicate the situation by adding a "But...", "suddenly", "when...", or "uh, oh!" sort of statement.

Example: John is in his room when Penny the nun enters and tells him that War has just broken out.

Your play should stay in one setting and be anywhere between 3 and 8 pages in length.

HOMEWORK: Please finish your play draft for homework over the next week. Play drafts are due Tuesday, Feb. 2.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Collaborative Performance Piece

Today, we will be moving to the Ensemble Theatre to rehearse our collaborative poems. After we rehearse, we will be performing for a grade.

HOMEWORK: Please read The Death of Bessie Smith and the Sandbox.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Zoo Story & the Geva 10 minute play contest

Please get together for a quick 10-minute rehearsal of your collaborative poem. You will have your final rehearsal and performance next class. Afterwards, please go to the library and pick up the play collection Zoo Story and other plays by Edward Albee. Upon returning, please check out a bit of information about Albee here.

Gather in groups of 2 or 3 (only). Together assign parts and read "The Zoo Story." If you finish early, please continue to prepare your collaborative poems or study for Ms. Gamzon's grammar final.

Homework: (due Monday, Jan. 25) Please complete the other plays in the collection. Questions to follow.

Begin writing your own script. We will do more of this Monday, but you can get started. These drafts will likely be turned for the Geva Playwriting Contest. Your script should be no more than 10 pages and may not contain more than 8 characters. It should be, like the Zoo Story, set in one place.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Agenda 1/14

Print out your collaborative poem quickly in the next 5 minutes.
Let's go to the ensemble theatre to practice and prepare your collaborative work.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Agenda 1/12

Today, please complete your collaborative poem draft by the end of period 3. If you have completed the draft, print out enough copies for your group and begin to put it on its feet. Decide where to move, who says what line or stanza, consider what you are doing with your body, include appropriate gestures that help communicate your central idea, etc.

During 4th period, please prepare for your oral interpretation performances. We will move to room a240.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Collaborative Poem & Peformance

Please work on your collaborative poems. Try to write some lines and come up with a 1st draft with your collaborative group. Next week we will be visiting the theatres and practicing your collaboration, so having a "script" from which to work is essential.

4th period please go to room 240 to perform our oral interpretations.

ORAL INTERPRETATION is the process by which a speaker performs literature aloud for an audience.

Some advice:
1. In order to be effective performing Oral Interpretation you should UNDERSTAND your selected piece of literature.
2. Know your speaker - writers write with a TONE and VOICE. You need to bring these qualities to your own speech and vocal quality when performing. The better you know WHO is speaking the poem, the easier it is to convey meaning.
3. Know who your fictional speaker is speaking to - the better you know the occasion and reason your speaker is speaking and to whom your speaker is speaking to, the easier it is to convey to a real audience.
4. Know the setting (or the WHERE) your speaker is when speaking.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Rehearsal, Oral Interpretation & Collaboration

Please take about 20 minutes with your previously chosen groups to work on writing your collaborative poem. You should try to move toward a completed draft by the end of Friday's class.

For the next 20 minutes, please stop working on your poem, but you can stay in your collaborative groups. Taking turns, rehearse your oral interpretation (the poem you chose from your poetry collection M-Z).

During 4th period, we will retire to room a240 and begin delivering our poems.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Poetry Preparation & Collaboration

I hope you all had a restful vacation. We left off, you might remember, checking out (and reading) a collection of poems from authors (last names M-Z). You will need your book today to complete part one of the following assignment.

Part 1:

Choose your favorite poem from the collection or chapbook you read. Prepare this poem to perform (deliver) in front of the class. Your poem does not have to be memorized, but you will be graded on how long you can sustain your eye contact, how well you are prepared, and how effective your delivery of the poem is. I suggest using notecards (write the lines on the card) and use the cards as you did your speech. Give important lines or phrases their own card (or memorize parts of the poem--particularly the opening and closing lines).

1. When speaking someone else's words, you will need to know what the author means. Look up and define for yourself any words you are unsure of in meaning.
2. Consider who the speaker of the poem may be. Is this person a housewife, or a mechanic, or a brother, or son, or young or old? Why might this persona be speaking? (is there a special reason?) To whom may this character be speaking to?
3. If the poet repeats lines or phrases, consider why the author is doing this?
4. What images stand out strongly or vividly to you? It is often a good thing to slow down in descriptive moments of a poem.
5. Where does the climax or most important line in the poem occur? It is often helpful to raise the tension of the poem using our voice.
6. If a poet lists a great number of things (like in slam poetry) it is often a good idea to increase the pace of this section.
7. Consider gestures or posture. Is your character happy, sad, bored, eager, excited, fearful, or any other emotion? How will you best convey this to your audience through your body, facial expressions, or voice?
8. Is your character performing an action? If so, what gestures could you include in your performance that might help aid understanding?

Part II: The Collaborative Poem

Watch these video performances:
Black and White.
Spit.
Naomi Shihab Nye & Robert Bly perform Rumi.
How to Impeach the Worst President
Hold My Tongue

1. Get into groups of 2, 3, or 4. No one should work alone for this project.

2. After you have chosen your groups, gather together and decide on a topic or theme for your poem. As most collaborative slam poetry, it might be easiest to agree on a political or social problem that you are all concerned with. To gather ideas, each person in the group should suggest a topic, write down the topic, then go around the circle adding other options. After you have gone around a few times (and everyone has at least contributed two ideas) look at the list and agree on a topic.

Go no further than this step. Your group should FIRST agree with the topic. When you have decided, go on to step #3.

3. The rules:
A. All group members must speak.
B. All group members must contribute to the poem in some significant way.
C. Help each other.
D. Include gestures and "blocking" for your performance.

You may find it helpful to first come up with a response line or choral line: a repeated line that all group members recite together or at different times to cue your group members as to where you are in the poem. Write the draft of the poem together first. Once you have a draft, print out enough copies for each of your members, then gather to practice and block the performance.

This project is not yet due. You should pick your groups, decide on a topic, and begin your writing of the first draft by the end of class.

Homework: Please prepare your chosen poem from your poetry collection (part 1) for next class.

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