Text-Performance Papers

How to proceed:

• choose the play you'd most like to talk about
• choose a video production of the play
• watch the video all the way through
• make some choices: which scenes do you like best? which treatment of character? which parts of the video address the aspects of the play you like best?
• out of these choices, make a rough outline
• watch the video again
• re-read those parts of the play that pertain to the video choices you have made
• throw out the topics you don't have much to say about and expand your exploration of the stuff you do have a lot to say about (i.e., narrow your topic to the good stuff)
• refine the outline into one that will guide you through writing the essay

As you write, consider these aspects of the essay:

• introduction: an introduction should include at least these features: the name of the play you are discussing and its dramatist; the production you are discussing and its director (date is nice too); a "nest" or set-up of the thesis (this nest may take various forms, but a conventional--and conventionally useful --one is a brief narrative of the play that introduces the characters you will need for your reader to know and the surfacing in the plot of the issue or issues you'll be exploring; a thesis, in which you present the specific points you want to discuss and indicate the "spin" on those points that your argument will take (the thesis should hint at an answer to the "so what" question; see conclusion, below).
• middle paragraphs: these paragraphs are for the presentation of evidence. I recommend that you address issues in the text of the play you've chosen before turning to the production. Therefore, I recommend one of the following discussion patterns:

Pattern 1:

¶: issue #1 in text

¶issue #1 in production

¶: issue #2 in text

¶issue #2 in production

¶: issue #3 in text

¶issue #3 in production

However, if this pattern makes you feel like you are in a tennis match, try this:

Pattern 2:

¶, ¶, ¶: all issues in the text that you want to discuss

¶, ¶, ¶: comparable treatment of those issues in the production

 

• conclusion: the conclusion of any essay should address the "so what" question; that, simply put, is "so what"? what difference does it make to the reader/viewer that he/she notices the points that you've made? what "good" does it do in helping him/her understand and appreciate the intellectual and artisitic dimensions of your subject?

Writing about plays:

There are some conventions that pertain to writing about plays. Here are some:

• cite passages (and I absolutely expect, indeed I require, that you quote from the play to document your point) by act, scene, and line: 1.2.14-22 = act one, scene 2, lines 14-22; if you prefer Roman numerals, use I.ii.14-22.
• do not give directions in your text by way of act, scene, line:

right: When Richard interrupts the funeral procession, Anne spits out insults: "Foul devil, for God's sake hence, and trouble us not"; "In thou foul throat thou li'st!"; and "Out of my sight, thou dost infect mine eyes!" (1.2.50, 93, 148).

wrong: In act one, scene two, lines 50, 93, and 148, Anne spits out insults when Richard interrupts the funeral procession: "Foul devil, for God's sake hence, and trouble us not"; "In thou foul throat thou li'st!"; and "Out of my sight, thou dost infect mine eyes!"

• quotes of two lines or less are worked into your prose: Richard, in reply, calls Anne "Sweet saint" and "divine perfection of a woman" (1.2.48, 75)
• should that quote run over a line, indicate the line break with a slash and omitted words with ellipsis: "Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,/... By circumstance but to acquit myself" (1.2.75-77).
• quotes longer than two lines should be rendered in a block quote (indented, single-spaced, line breaks where they break in the text, no quotation marks unless the passage itself contains quotes; i.e., a little xeroxed piece of text).

Remember: the purpose of these papers is to address the ways in which the text and the performance work together and/or work against each other in the treatment of an issue (or character, language, etc.) in the play. These papers are not so much comparisons of the text and performance as considerations of the ways the text and production contribute to certain shared aspects of characterization, genre, and/or cultural issues.

These papers should run 5-7 pp. or 1250 - 1750 words. I prefer typed (word-processed) but will take hand-written if the paper is double-spaced. I expect proof-reading; use spell-check for modern English.

The biggest mistake students make on this assignment is to give me a "review" of the video production. Don't do this! Work hard to focus equally on the play and video.