Research teams

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Gabriela/Xavier: MET opera

Jonathan/Andy: Playwrights Horizons

Joanna/Chandanee: New World Stages/The play that goes wrong

David/Emmanuelle: YMCA/Jim Dale

Dez/Bryan: Theatre for a New Audience

Donell/Corey: Apollo 

Andrew/Kyla: Public Theater

Sharee/Andrew: New York City Center

David R/Amari: The Shed (Luna Luna)

Carolin/Jacob: La Mama (Mephistopheles) 

Jalen/Jeremy: St. Ann’s Warehouse

Michamba: 

Post Link to your Google Folder Here

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Reply and post shareable link.

Log into your Google account. Go to Google Drive and create a new folder (naming it with your first and last name and section number). Within the course folder, create three subfolders: 1) drawings, 2) class notes, and 3) research project. 

MAIN FOLDER: FirstName LastName D001
SUBFOLDER: Drawings
SUBFOLDER: Class notes
SUBFOLDER: Research project

Please make sure that all these folders are shareable and can be viewed by all.

  1. Right click folder
  2. Select SHARE
  3. Under General Access select ANYONE WITH LINK
  4. On the right hand side of the dialogue box, select role as VIEWER
  5. Click COPY LINK
  6. Past this link by responding to the appropriate Discussion Board post on OpenLab.

You will never need to email your drawings, class notes, or research project elements since I will have access to all of these in your Google folder. I will be going into your folders throughout the semester to check on your progress.

All the world is a stage

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DUE SUNDAY MARCH 16

View and read Act IV scene 1 from the play Henry V: 

  • Video—1 hour and 27 minute to 1 hour and 41 minute (1:27-1:41)
  • Text—https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/henry-v/read/

Describe in one paragraph (5 sentences minimum) how Shakespeare explores the idea of “metatheatricality” in the scene. Remember that metatheatricality has to do with self-referentiality. How does Shakespeare play with the idea that theatre is like life, and life is like theatre? Is there a sense that there is a “play within the play” happening on stage? You must provide two direct quotes from the play to support your response.

Kurozuka and Throne of Blood

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There are two parts to this discussion. You are graded on your participation in both parts. Please always remember to write your names and sections numbers in the posts.

 
PART I: Due Sunday February 23. I will monitor them and reveal these comments the next day. 
Watch the Kurozuka clip. Take note of the sense of ma, that is, the interval between beats created by the drums, singers, stomping, and stillness. (Ma is discussed in the “Empire of Stillness” reading.) What might be the purpose of the slowing of time in the spinning scene? What emotion is expressed and how does the ma enhance that? Now watch the Throne of Blood clip, which references the Noh scene. In this scene, Macbeth and Banquo are returning from a victory on the battlefield and encounter a witch that gives a prophecy. Macbeth will be king and Banquo will be the father of kings. Kurosawa (the director) sets the play in feudal (Samurai) Japan, the same period in which Noh theatre was at its height. Why do you think Kurosawa used the Noh imagery from Kurozuka in his depiction of the scene?
 
PART II: Due Sunday March 2
After the first responses are revealed, begin a conversation with a classmate who wrote something similar to your own response. The two (or three) of you should then get into a conversation (back-and-forth) developing this idea further. What other moments or aspects of the play or the movie–or Noh theatre in general–support your points?

Antigone

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DUE SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16

This post requires two responses. First, respond to the four questions below. Replies to the post are moderated. I will read and release them for group discussion the day after the due date. Once released, respond to a post written by one of your classmates (see below).

Write your name and section number on the top of your written reply. 

FIRST RESPONSE (2/16): As you learned from the reading and videos from the last two weeks, Ancient Greek theatre has roots in the religious rituals of that society. The questions below are about the relationship between religious ritual and theatre. Answer all of the questions. 

  1. Locate the quote by Mircea Eliade in the “Crash Course, Intro to Theatre” video (week 1). In your own words, describe Eliade’s definition of ritual. 
  2. According to Weinstein (week one reading), how does amphitheater architecture contribute to the sense of ritual time (the past being made present)?  
  3. Watch the taped stage production of “Antigone” in Digital Theatre +. What is the previous time that the character Antigone is trying to make “present” in the play “Antigone”? In other words, what action does she want to take and who will be made “present” for the other characters in the play?
  4. As you can see from the BBC production of “Antigone”, it is not staged on an outdoor amphitheater, but rather in a proscenium style, indoor theatre. The size of the audience for the BBC production was surely smaller than the Ancient Greek performance in an amphitheater and in a proscenium arrangement there would be less awareness of other audience members. While watching the play, think about how the staging would need to change in an outdoor space in front of 4,000 spectators. Choose one scene that you believe would have greater impact if staged in an outdoor amphitheater, specifically in terms of helping the audience feel that the events of Antigone are “made present” (that the audience is watching the original mythological event — think about what Weinstein wrote about the effect of performances in the amphitheater). When citing the scene, add the hour/minute mark on the video so that it can easily be referenced. 

DISCUSSION RESPONSE (2/25): Respond to one of your classmate’s responses that you do not agree with. Argue that the scene they chose might work better on a modern, proscenium type stage than in an amphitheater. Explain why.