A Raisin in the Sun: Day 7; Play Script Project: Day 4

Today, let's aim to finish our reading of A Raisin in the Sun. With time remaining, please continue to write your play scripts. 

HOMEWORK: If we don't finish reading the play A Raisin in the Sun, please complete it as homework. You may work on your play script. Your draft is due Nov. 4 (Monday) Also, your journals will be due next week (Nov. 7), so please consider writing in your journal this weekend!

Happy Halloween!

A Raisin in the Sun: Day 6; Play Script Project: Day 3

Continue writing your short play. See the following for some tips/advice about writing plays:

• Top Tips from Playwrights
• How to Write a Play - 5 Tips
• Overcoming the Blank Page Syndrome (breaking writer's block!)

Rules for your Play Project:

1. Try to limit your cast to five characters or fewer. You will need at LEAST two.
2. Create a cast list with a brief description of each character (see cast list in your Raisin in the Sun play scripts).
3. Describe a vivid setting for your play. Keep your play in one setting: a kitchen, a living room, a house like A Raisin in the Sun, a porch, etc. Base your setting on a place that you know well--although you can fictionalize this setting. Add details that are made up! See the set description at the beginning of the play A Raisin in the Sun for a model. You may use the setting you described in your journal if you'd like--or create a new one.
4. Begin writing your scene once you have completed all steps before this one. 
5. Your play should be written as a script. For now, you can use the form used in A Raisin in the Sun. We will not use this form for long, as it is not the proper format for writers, but for now, it'll get us started.
6. Your play should be between 5 - 10 pages in length (excluding your cast list and set description--see #4 & #5.) Include a title and number your pages in a header or footer. 
7. Do NOT double space your play scripts. It is okay to skip a single line (one hard return) between lines. Names should be typed in upper case. Stage/acting directions should be written in parenthesis. You do not have to italicize stage directions unless you really want to

Your play drafts will be due Monday, Nov. 4.

At 10:00 we will continue reading Act 2, Scene 2 & 3 of A Raisin in the Sun.

HOMEWORK: None. You may work on your play script. Your draft is due Nov. 4 (next week!) Also, your journals will be due next week, so please consider writing in your journal this week!

A Raisin in the Sun, Day 5; Short Play Project: Day 2

A Raisin in the Sun: Act 2. When we complete Act 2, we will begin writing our own plays.

Begin writing a short play.

1. Start off by trying to recall a dramatic moment that you experienced (or that someone you know experienced--a family member, a neighbor, a friend, etc.)--recall who was involved and maybe what was said and by whom. What was the outcome? Jot down a list of details or make a mind-map of the details you can recall in your journal.
2. Fictionalize the details. Change the names or genders or ages of the real people involved and create a fictional cast list of at least 3 characters. You can combine people you know. If you have 2 sisters, combine them into one personality. If you have 3 old wives, combine them into one grandmother. If you have 200 friends, combine them into 2 friends. You get the picture.
3. Try to limit your cast to five characters or fewer. You will need at LEAST two.
4. Create a cast list with a brief description of each character (see cast list in your Raisin in the Sun play scripts).
5. Describe a vivid setting for your play. Keep your play in one setting: a kitchen, a living room, a house like A Raisin in the Sun, a porch, etc. Base your setting on a place that you know well--although you can fictionalize this setting. Add details that are made up! See the set description at the beginning of the play A Raisin in the Sun for a model. You may use the setting you described in your journal if you'd like--or create a new one.
6. Begin writing your scene once you have completed all 6 steps before this one. 
7. Your play should be written as a script. For now, you can use the form used in A Raisin in the Sun. We will not use this form for long, as it is not the proper format for writers, but for now, it'll get us started.
8. Your play should be between 5 - 10 pages in length (excluding your cast list and set description--see #4 & #5.) Include a title and number your pages in a header or footer. 
9. Do NOT double space your play scripts. It is okay to skip a single line (one hard return) between lines. Names should be typed in upper case. Stage/acting directions should be written in parenthesis. You do not have to italicize stage directions unless you really want to.

A Raisin in the Sun, Day 4; Play Brainstrorming; Short Play Project

Today we will continue reading Act 1 and Act 2 of A Raisin in the Sun.

Last class, I asked you to write a description of a setting in your journal. Take that out for a moment and let's add to it.

All plays/films need characters in a setting involved in a conflict of some sort. The formula might look like this:

Character + Setting + Conflict = Situation

A playwright's job is to complicate a situation. This is the root of all plays/films.

A. List potential characters in your journal.
B. List potential settings in your journal (you started this last class! Add to your list)
C. List potential conflicts that humans often face.
D. Write a premise. A 1-sentence summary of your situation. This play will be about:

• An African American family (characters) living in the Southside of Chicago in 1959 in a small run-down tenement (setting) having to decide how to spend their insurance money (conflict).

After you have a situation, think of ways you can COMPLICATE the problem/situation.

Begin writing a short play in which your protagonist remembers a difficult event in his/her early life growing up. 

1. Start off by trying to recall a dramatic moment that you experienced (or that someone you know experienced--a family member, a neighbor, a friend, etc.)--recall who was involved and maybe what was said and by whom. What was the outcome? Jot down a list of details or make a mind-map of the details you can recall in your journal.
2. Fictionalize the details. Change the names or genders or ages of the real people involved and create a fictional cast list of at least 3 characters. You can combine people you know. If you have 2 sisters, combine them into one personality. If you have 3 old wives, combine them into one grandmother. If you have 200 friends, combine them into 2 friends. You get the picture.
3. Try to limit your cast to five characters or fewer. You will need at LEAST two.
4. Create a cast list with a brief description of each character (see cast list in your Raisin in the Sun play scripts).
5. Describe a vivid setting for your play. Keep your play in one setting: a kitchen, a living room, a house like A Raisin in the Sun, a porch, etc. Base your setting on a place that you know well--although you can fictionalize this setting. Add details that are made up! See the set description at the beginning of the play A Raisin in the Sun for a model. You may use the setting you described in your journal if you'd like--or create a new one.
6. Begin writing your scene once you have completed all 6 steps before this one. 
7. Your play should be written as a script. For now, you can use the form used in A Raisin in the Sun. We will not use this form for long, as it is not the proper format for writers, but for now, it'll get us started.
8. Your play should be between 5 - 10 pages in length (excluding your cast list and set description--see #4 & #5.) Include a title and number your pages in a header or footer. 
9. Do NOT double space your play scripts. It is okay to skip a single line (one hard return) between lines. Names should be typed in upper case. Stage/acting directions should be written in parenthesis. You do not have to italicize stage directions unless you really want to.

A Raisin in the Sun: Day 3

Today, we will read the rest of scene 1 (and possibly 2 or 3 of Act 1 or more) of this play. Please select a role to play to practice reading expressively out loud.

HOMEWORK: None.

A Raisin in the Sun: Day 2

Today, we will read scene 1 (and possibly 2 or more) of this play. Please select a role to play to practice reading expressively out loud.

HOMEWORK: None.

Extra Credit: Please join us for the creative writing department's Reader's Theater production of Pipeline by Dominque Morriseau. Here's a little clip of the Atlanta version.

Sketch Writing (Play Draft Due); A Raisin in the Sun: Day 1

During period 3 please complete the following tasks:

1. Work on completing your baseline play project: the sketch. Try to conclude your script if you have not already done so. Turn in (submit) for credit.

2. Research Lorraine Hansberry at this link (read the article). Be able to explain what important impact she had on American literature. What did she accomplish in her short lifetime? Take notes in your journal.

3. Please read this poem by Langston Hughes: Harlem. Hansberry is using Hughes' poem as an allusion for the title of her work. As you read the play, consider why she decided to do this.

4. Research the setting of A Raisin in the Sun. The south side of Chicago in 1959. Something important happened just a year or two before Hansberry wrote her play. Look here to find out what:
1957.

Please continue to research and find information about this time period. Some questions to help guide your research are:

• What were the social, economic, political and educational expectations and opportunities for African Americans at this time?
• What advances had been made in civil rights?
• What significant changes will occur in America during the years between 1950's and 1965?

Some links to help you:

Images of the civil rights movement
Images of “the children’s crusade" of the civil rights movement
Timeline of the civil rights movement

Period 4: We'll pick up the play from the library and begin reading it.

HOMEWORK: None. Please bring your play scripts back to our next class.

Sketch Writing (Baseline Script)

Today, after a few examples, please use your class time to write a sketch of your own.

Types of Sketches

To help you get going here are a few tried and tested comedy formats for sketches.

1) Escalation: A funny idea starts small and gets bigger and bigger, ending in chaos of ridiculous proportions.
2) Lists: Sketches in which the bulk of the dialogue is a long list of funny items. The best example of this is "Cheese Shop" in Monty Python. (See handout from last class!)
3) Mad Man, Sane Man (opposites): This format speaks for itself--one character is sane, the other (or others) not so much. But don't go for obvious settings.
4) Dangerous Situations: For example, sketch set on a flight deck of an aircraft or during a disaster.
5) Funny Words: Sketches which use the sound of language itself to be funny. For example, use of the words "blobby" or "wobble"; Names can be funny if you want people to think of your work as comedy or humorous. Some names are just funny: Aloysious Butterbean is a funnier name than Tom Johnson or man or nurse.
6) Old and New: Getting a laugh from putting something modern in a historical setting (Or, vice versa) Example: Abraham Lincoln using a cigarette lighter shaped like a handgun. Benjamin Franklin inventing the fidget spinner, Alexander the Great using a cell phone, Jesus dining at the Cheesecake Factory, etc.
7) Big and Small. Getting humor from large differences in scale. For example, a pig trying to make love to an elephant (South Park). Generally, a comic pairing of opposites also creates humor: fat & thin, tall and short, hairy and bald, smart and stupid, etc.
8) Parody. Poking fun at a well-known book, TV show, or film.

• Watch sample "famous" sketches from a variety of TV shows/performances (some may not be suitable due to language or situations, watch at your own risk):
• The Dentist (Tim Conway from the Carol Burnett show)
• Pink Tights & Plenty of Props (Rowan Atkinson)
• Roll Call (Rowan Atkinson)
• Substitute Teacher (Key & Peele)
• Nazi Sketch (Mitchell & Webb)
• Mister Robinson's Neighborhood (SNL)
• Avengers v. Game of Thrones Family Feud (SNL)
• Goddesses of Creation (SNL)
• Barbie Instagram (SNL)
• Evil Boss (SNL)
• Homey D. Clown (In Living Color)
• Polite War The Whitest Kids You Know
• Hard Day The Kids in the Hall

Sketch Writing:

1) Brainstorm and then choose a setting. Avoid common set-ups. Think original. Only set the sketch in one location!
2) If you're trying to sell your material [or enter a contest], don't put in anything expensive like a helicopter [or car]. Most TV shows [or theaters] are on a tight budget.
3) Three [or four] characters is more than enough for a short sketch. Don't write for a big cast. Avoid crowd scenes where the actors do not speak.
4) Think about what is happening visually as well as the words you use to communicate an idea. Be specific! A speckled trout wearing a fake mustache is funnier or more vivid in the audience's mind than a fish. As you describe your characters or the situation, consider well-chosen words to describe the scene visually.
5. Write your sketch draft (baseline script). A good length for a sketch is between 3-6 pages. Skip a line between each speaker in a script.

If you need inspiration, watch any of the sketches above as models/examples* (please use headphones...)

HOMEWORK: If you did not complete your script in class today, please complete as homework. Turn in your draft of a sketch by Tuesday, Oct. 15 to our Google Classroom.

Fiction Reading; Introduction to the Sketch

Period 3:

Choose one of your short story drafts to read out loud to the class. 

Remember Good speakers...

• Make eye contact
• Speak clearly and loudly
• Use gestures
• Have energy
• Change tone
• Perform with sincerity

After volunteers, we'll pick randomly.

Period 4:

Today, let's read a few sketches (short, short plays). See handout, then we'll see the original sketches and compare our performances with theirs.

• Marty Feldman: The Bookseller Sketch
• The Cheese Shop Sketch: Monty Python's Flying Circus
• The Dead Parrot Sketch: Monty Python's Flying Circus
• Self Defense Against Fruit Sketch: Monty Python's Flying Circus
• The Headmaster Sketch: Rowan Atkinson

Types of Sketches

To help you get going, here's a few tried and tested comedy formats for sketches.

1) Escalation: Funny idea starts small and gets bigger and bigger, ending in chaos of ridiculous proportions.
2) Lists: Sketches in which the bulk of the dialogue is a long list of funny items. The best example of this is "Cheese Shop" in Monty Python. (You can find all the Python sketches at www.planetcomedy.force9.co.uk/bookstore.html.)
3) Mad Man, Sane Man (opposites): This format speaks for itself, but don't go for obvious settings.
4) Dangerous Situations: For example, a sketch set on a flight deck of aircraft.
5) Funny Words: Sketches which use the sound of language itself to be funny. For example, use of the words "blobby" or "wobble"; Names can be funny if you want people to think of your work as comedy or humorous. Some names are just funny: Aloysious Butterbean is a funnier name than Tom Johnson or man.
6) Old and New: Getting a laugh from putting something modern in a historical setting (Or, vice versa) Example: Abraham Lincoln using a cigarette lighter shaped like a handgun. Benjamin Franklin inventing the fidget spinner, Alexander the Great using a cell phone, Jesus dining at the Cheesecake Factory, etc.
7) Big and Small. Getting humor from large differences in scale. For example, a pig trying to make love to an elephant (an example from South Park).

HOMEWORK: None.

Class Notes Exercise (short story #3)

If you completed your "Hit Man" story draft, please submit that to our Google Classroom today. 

If you did not complete your draft, you may turn it in late (with a reduction in the score) during this marking period.

EXTRA CREDIT: If you'd like to use "Popular Mechanics" as a model, you may write an extra credit story draft and include it in your draft docs for Thursday (see below). The prompt: take a Biblical or mythological story and retell it for a modern/contemporary reader/audience. Here are some ideas you can use for Bible stories...or myths. The extra credit may be completed at any time during this marking period to count as extra writing credit.

Period 3:

Short Story Exercise #3: Read "Class Notes".

1. Select a class (this one or another...see handout) and for each member of the class, make up a story about what will happen to that person 10 or 20 or even 50 years after graduation from high school. Keep the year consistent. High school reunion of 10, 20, or 50 years!
2. Where are these people now? What happened to them? [please change the names of your friends and classmates so as not to upset anyone...but you can hint at who you are writing about with creative details if you must...). 
3. Write the draft. Your TONE of this draft should be as if you are the class president who sends out an update about the graduating class of 2023. It is largely objective and positive, but, of course, you may exaggerate and surprise us with the futures of your classmates. Each classmate should be included with anywhere from 1 to 5 sentences about where are they now? Have fun!

Period 4: (about 10:15)

Choose one of your short story drafts to read out loud to the class. 

Remember: Good speakers...

• Make eye contact
• Speak clearly and loudly
• Use gestures
• Have energy
• Change tone
• Perform with sincerity

After volunteers, we'll pick randomly. Those performers who do not read today will read next class!

HOMEWORK: None. If you did not complete your Class Notes draft (or any other drafts we have been assigned so far) please complete these drafts and turn in.

So far we have written:

1. The Who's Writing This Non-Fiction Draft
2. The Baseline Non-Fiction Draft
3. The Baseline Poetry Draft (Ars Poetica)
4. Various poem drafts from writing exercises (including the dice poem exercise and various prompts)
5. The 500 Word Short Story Draft
6. The Hit Man Style Story Draft
7. The Class Notes Style Story Draft (complete as homework if you did not complete it during class!)
8. EXTRA CREDIT: various poem drafts from prompts (see blog posts for ideas!)
9. EXTRA CREDIT: The Popular Mechanics Style Story, based on a myth or Bible story
10. Drafts for Ms. Gamzon...