Essay Instructions: Required plays: (plays that we read in class)
In the Blood Suzan-Lori Parks
Wit Margaret Edson
The Goat, or Who is Sylvia Edward Albee
Doubt John Patrick Shanley
The Shape of Things Neil LaBute
Arcadia Tom Stoppard
Your Theatre Today.
This class is about the contemporary theatre. It is called Theatre Today. We read plays, wrote about plays and discussed plays. We explored the analytical, literary and theatrical potential of the plays we read and discussed. Uta Hagen, in her acting book Respect for Acting, says that all theatre should involve some kind of revolt.
?To rebel or revolt against the status quo is the very nature of an artist.?
We explored literary conventions like theme, motif and symbol that illustrate this revolt. We analyzed theatricality and the language/mechanics of the stage that articulate this revolt. Making reference to the plays we?ve read and watched this semester, discuss what you think the theatre today should look, sound, feel and smell like in order to ?rebel or revolt against the status quo?. What should it do and how should it do it?
I think that you could adequately respond to the final in as little as three pages (double spaced) but you may write as much as you need to in order to describe your vision. Were you in the LIVE class, this would be a blue book exam, which should give you an idea of length. I do expect a little more out of you than the live class because you have a lot more time.
Remember to refer to the class content (concepts, plays, and vocabulary)as you articulate your theatre. The final will be graded on content alone. So don?t worry about structure. Just clearly convey your vision of the THEATRE TODAY.
One more thing: I have posted a series of clips from productions at a contemporary theatre festival in Europe. The video referenced in the prompt is (Festival IberoAmericano). I have also uploaded some other vids for your entertainment, inspiration and edification (Steve Jobs Stanford University Commencement, 2005), (RSAnimate of another Ken Robinson Talk) and (Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity). I think that the RSAnimate of Ken Robinson is especially relevant to our course.Watch it before you begin writing. Hopefully it will inspire you as you explore what the modern theater should look like for you. This video represents a different aesthetic than the plays that we?ve watched and read. Everything we have discussed has been very English (American/British/British Isles). This festival represents theatricalism that is distinctly more European, more anti-realistic. I hope that it helps to broaden your perspective in terms of what is theatrically possible. I am interested in what moves you ? what kind of theatre you think we should be making. Anything is possible.
Remember that I feel strongly about the role of the theatre and that we, especially at Cal Rep, may not be making theatre for you. If you were in a Fall or Spring session of this course, you?d be seeing UP and Cal Rep productions with me. Why would these productions change the way you see your place in society, your point of view or your aesthetic self? Maybe they would and maybe they wouldn?t but I do worry! When we discussed Absurdism, I spoke at great length about Beckett. Beckett was attacking logic and language in the context of existential philosophy and a post- World War II landscape that seemed meaningless because meaning had been destroyed by the inanity of war. Beckett launched this attack on language, logic and the insanity of this post-World War II landscape through the vehicle of the popular entertainment of the time. So Beckett's Absurdism was steeped in vaudeville and variety. Well, we are quite possibly entrenched in a war even more inane than World War II. If you?ve been following presidential politics since the election, you know that, in the shortest terms, the conflict in Afghanistan will not end until 2014. The larger ?war on terror? seems to be an infinitely expanding and all-encompassing morass. All signs are that we enter into a NEW conflict with Syria that will undoubtedly spill over the border into Iran.
Certainly, the popular entertainment of the time has changed. Vaudeville is now Jersey Shore. If Beckett were writing today it would look quite different. As a mater of fact, Shakespeare was not writing elevated, lofty English literature for study in schools. He was writing popular entertainment for an aural, largely illiterate society. He was making Jersey Shore, not Shakespeare. SO PLEASE REMEMBER that if the theatre you?ve read this semester felt distant or unrelated to your world, aesthetic and experience, it is wholly possible that those feeling were largely justified. Again, the theatre does not always comfort and it?s seldom easy. You need to work for it. You need to be part of the communal ritual. Still, we at Cal Rep do not always make theatre for you. The plays we read may not have been for you. I believe this to be true.
In this light, the final essay prompt is quite simple. Show me that you understand the literary, methodological, conceptual and theatrical through-line of this course as you explain to me what "theatre for you" would look like. Make reference to the plays so as to relate what works and what does not work FOR YOU. What kind of theatre should we make FOR YOU?
