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Assignment
Write a 7+ page/2,500 word+ paper using one play and at least five scholarly sources in which you conceptualize the play in a different time period, cultural milieu, using a different theorist’s ideas about performance, or representative of a different culture or racial identity than what was originally intended. A directorial concept paper outlines and details the historical, social, economic, and cultural context of the original play and the production you are planning.
I expect you to provide context for the original production and to analyze why your choice highlights the playwright’s intentions for the play. You can only write about plays written between 1880-1945!!!!!
Important Note:
You are not re-writing the play’s script or creating an adaptation. You must approach this paper with a play’s text as it is written. Your hints to other time periods, genres, styles, must be made scenically, through costumes, visual effects, other other signifiers of time and culture. You must not intend on altering the script’s text in any way.
Examples of directorial concepts:
Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie is about a white family with roots in the south. Productions that explore black or multiracial casts bring out specific cultural messages from the text and story. A directorial concept paper that changes the racial identity of specific characters from white to Black or African American, Middle-Eastern, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, or even a mixed-race identity without altering the script could be a fruitful way to critically analyze a play and conceptualize it in performance.
Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman can be imagined in a contemporary time period and location without altering the script. Placing this play in Los Angeles in the 21st century in a Latinx family can visually bring about new messages to audiences that were not considered before. The same is true for setting a play written in the late 1800s into the 21st century. Specific choices about the physical location of the play can provoke critical thoughts about the city or country in which a play is set and how that location and culture is emphasized and presents critical messages about culture and racial identity to audiences.
Choosing to dramatize Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett using the style and philosophy or Nō drama would also be a fruitful way to critically examine and reimagine the play.
Objectives and Purpose
By writing this paper you will practice analyzing a play using historiographical research as well as critically developing a directorial approach. When formulating a directorial concept and completing the dramaturgical research that goes into conceptualizing a performance, you are merging your creative skill sets with those of research and writing.
Format
(Re)set your margins to 1”
(Re)set your paragraph settings to zero spacing before and after paragraphs
(Re)set your line spacing to “double”
Select Times New Roman 12-point font, Cambria 11-point font, or Calibri 11-point font
When citing quotes or paraphrased examples from sources, use MLA style
You MUST include a bibliography that cites the play and articles and textbooks you use to support your claims!!!
Instructions
Choose one play that was written between 1880-1945.
Conduct your research for this assignment:
You must include and integrate five scholarly or academic sources in your paper.
What are scholarly or academic articles?
You must choose scholarly articles from a peer-reviewed academic journal such as Theatre Survey, Theatre Journal, Modern Drama, Theatre Topics, Asian Theatre Journal, Ecumenica, Theatre Histories, etc.
Appropriate Sources
You must use at least two of these sources. These sources are part of a critical conversation about a play of which you should participate.
Scholarly Books
A book by a University Press or a known theater scholarship press (Routledge or Methuen) is a scholarly book.
The book you use must be written for the purpose of informing and dispensing accurate and critical knowledge about the known subject.
Not Appropriate Sources
You may use these sources in addition to your scholarly sources, but they will not count as the two appropriate scholarly sources required for this assignment.
If a source says “review” on it as in it is a book review or a play or film review, it is not an appropriate scholarly source for this paper.
Dissertations or Theses
These “books” are written as educational assignments. They are not appropriate as a scholarly source for the purpose of this assignment.
In the event you have a rare topic and the only source you can find is a PhD dissertation, let me know beforehand and I may approve its use as a scholarly source.
Websites
Historical websites may provide stellar information for your assignment. Use them in that capacity. However, they will not count as the two appropriate scholarly sources for this assignment.
Notable and Objective News sources (print or video)
Newspapers often provide statistics, facts, historical references that you may find useful. You may use this information but, again, it will not count as the appropriate scholarly source required for this assignment.
Interviews
Using a playwright’s own words is great to include them in your work, but they are not writing critical analysis about their own work. The point of this assignment is put yourself in conversation with scholarship about the play. You may use an interview to support a point in your paper, but they will not count as appropriate scholarly sources for your paper.
Play introductions
Introductions from your text book or to a printed play are informative, but often they are not contributing to the scholarship about a play, but rather are historicizing the play. You may use these in your paper, but they will not count as an appropriate scholarly source.
Never Appropriate
These should never be used on an academic paper.
Social media posts.
With the only exception of a comment made by the director or playwright, you should never use these in your paper. Even quotes by directors and playwrights will not count as scholarly sources.
Online news sources that present biased or unfounded information. You know what they are. If you don’t ask me or a librarian before you use the source.
Memes. They may make a point in jest, and I may find that humorous, but do not consider them a source of any kind to support your points in your papers.
YouTube, Vimeo, other online videos. They may have accurate information, but they are not written for the purposes of scholarship.
Using scholarly and academic sources, research the play’s production history, socio-economic and historical context, its cultural and racial connections.
Using scholarly and academic sources, research the socio-economic and historical context, the cultural and racial connections of the directorial concept you are imagining.
Consider locating a diverse range of sources that match the following required aspects of your paper:
One solid scholarly source (book) regarding the historical aspect of the time period in which the play was written
One solid scholarly source (book) regarding the historical aspect of the time period in which you want to set the play
One scholarly source (book or peer-reviewed article) that provides useful critical analysis about the playwright’s intentions or messages (in this play or others written by this playwright)
One solid scholarly source (book or peer-reviewed article) that offers critical analysis about a particular social issue you are addressing in your paper (racial casting, gender roles, sexism, LGBTQIA2S+ representation, religious oppression/freedom, legal rights, or ethical standards) – these sources can be found in non-theater related journals or books.
One solid scholarly source (book or peer-reviewed article) that may be useful in defending your directorial concept – this could be a second historical source like those listed above, it could be a critical analysis of a genre, fashion style, architectural design, dialect, language grouping, cultural perspective, or a source offering cultural history and practices of a particular community or family group.
Keep in mind that having 4 sources about the time period and no sources about the cultural aspects of your concept is an imbalanced research paper. Choose a variety of sources to cover the various aspects of your paper.
Write an annotated bibliography for these five sources.
Outline your paper in a way that helps you organize your thoughts.
Organize your paper so it clarifies and explains the context of the original play as you see it, then clarifies and explains the context of your directorial concept, and ensures that you are critically analyzing why your production enhances the messages found in the play.
Critical analysis of why you are making the decisions you are making is just as important as clearly explaining and illustrating through words the artistic choices you are making.
Consider making the dramaturgical context portion about half of your paper. Explaining your concept and your ideas should be the other half.
More historical context may be appropriate and take up more of your paper, which is fine, but do not squeeze your concept into a single page. If your context takes longer, that means your paper may be longer.
Write a compelling thesis statement that clearly states what your directorial concept is and why and how it will highlight a specific message or set of messages about the play. Include this on your Annotated Bibliography or at least the research question you are working with as you start researching your paper.
Write your paper.
Ensure that you are using cited quotes or paraphrased examples from the play and all five academic sources in your paper to support your foundational thesis.
Rubric and Criteria
Checklist for success:
Did you confirm that all your scholarly sources are considered academic?
Do you have a strong thesis statement?
Does your thesis statement offer key words and phrases that you can flag in your topic sentences?
Does each paragraph have a topic sentence that sets up the idea presented in the paragraph?
Does each paragraph have a critical analysis section that clearly states your point, how you came to your point, and the message about the plot that you are clarifying?
Does your conclusion paragraph draw conclusions that synthesize and clarify the whole of the messages presented in each paragraph? Have you left the reader with a final synthesized idea of how your thesis evolved to specific points throughout the paper?
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