1. Take your homework (see posts below) and choose the most interesting
situation(s) and choose the most interesting character(s) from your
brainstorming. Combine situation(s) and character(s) in any way you
choose to tell an interesting story. Think about your story before plunging into it.
2. Choose an OPENING from the types of story openings. Choose an ENDING from the types of endings. Jot these down on the back of the index card. Use them to guide your story.
3. Go to the lab. Write the story. Your story should be short (there is no novel here, just the short story). Work toward the chosen ending. Compose a draft. Your story might be 500 words, it might be 10,000 words. You haven't completed this draft until you reach a satisfying ending. Call this story draft #1.
Use the time in the lab today to write your draft. Proofread and turn in your story (see below).
HOMEWORK: If you do NOT finish (did not write to a satisfying ending with some sort of point, character development, diction, tone, and setting) then complete your draft and turn it in January 3.
EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY: Play watching for those eager young playwrights!:
Our next unit is play script writing. Feel free (for extra credit) to watch any of the following over the break. To gain extra credit, watch the performance then respond to the question on the FORUM.
The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year by John Guare (part one)
The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year by John Guare (part two)
A Day for Surprises by John Guare
Mystery of Twicknam Vicarage by David Ives
Mere Mortals by David Ives
English Made Simple by David Ives
The Hardy Boys and the Mystery of Where Babies Come From by Christopher Durang
The Funeral Parlor by Christopher Durang
2. Choose an OPENING from the types of story openings. Choose an ENDING from the types of endings. Jot these down on the back of the index card. Use them to guide your story.
3. Go to the lab. Write the story. Your story should be short (there is no novel here, just the short story). Work toward the chosen ending. Compose a draft. Your story might be 500 words, it might be 10,000 words. You haven't completed this draft until you reach a satisfying ending. Call this story draft #1.
Use the time in the lab today to write your draft. Proofread and turn in your story (see below).
HOMEWORK: If you do NOT finish (did not write to a satisfying ending with some sort of point, character development, diction, tone, and setting) then complete your draft and turn it in January 3.
EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY: Play watching for those eager young playwrights!:
Our next unit is play script writing. Feel free (for extra credit) to watch any of the following over the break. To gain extra credit, watch the performance then respond to the question on the FORUM.
The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year by John Guare (part one)
The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year by John Guare (part two)
A Day for Surprises by John Guare
Mystery of Twicknam Vicarage by David Ives
Mere Mortals by David Ives
English Made Simple by David Ives
The Hardy Boys and the Mystery of Where Babies Come From by Christopher Durang
The Funeral Parlor by Christopher Durang
1 comment:
I couldn't comment the Forum from home, so I'm going to put my responses here.
The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year by John Guare (Parts 1 and 2)
This play seemed very interesting when I started watching it, a little odd, but interesting. The idea of a man and woman meeting in a park and then becoming friends (and a little bit more than friends) seemed like it could have great potential. The characters had quirks that were good for a laugh or two but then the plot just went crazy and it seemed like it was just trying to be weird for the sake of being weird. There might have been some kind of deeper meaning I wasn’t getting but it didn’t really make any sense to me. I liked the acting; they were able to pull of the odd play very well.
A Day of Surprises by John Guare
This play just started out strange and just threw itself down the rabbit hole. I feel like the walking lion wasn’t really necessary… but I guess it gave the play character. Something I did like about both of Guares plays was that he didn’t make the sets too difficult, he just had his characters describe it for us and we filled in the blanks. This way the audience has to think and make up the set for themselves and it’s cost effective for the people putting on the show.
Mystery of Twicknam Vicarage by David Ives
This play, though also strange, was at least a little easier to make sense of. The mystery was plain and simple, but had an interesting twist, pulling an Agatha Christie (Murder on the Orient Express) and making everyone the killer. I thought this was going to be a nice, tidy ending, but then it turns out the Joey isn’t dead at all (which doesn’t really get explained it plain English) which seems like a bit of overkill, but is funny all the same.
Mere Mortals by David Ives
Mere Mortals is one of those kind of plays where you think you know what’s going on and then BAM! Out of nowhere there’s a random twist thrown in that you never saw coming. “I’m the Lindbergh baby!” is quite an announcement, and it seems a little random, and you would never expect Charlie, a lowly workman to have been the Lindbergh baby, but that seems to be the theme of this play; anybody could be anybody. Later Frank says that he is the son of Czar Nicholas II of Russia of Russia, which is even more random and impossible than the Limburg baby story. Lastly Joe decides to tell everyone that in a former life he was Marie Antoinette, which makes no sense whatsoever. The really strange thing is that after they finish their lunches they just go back to work like nothing’s happened (I guess that’s the funny part, but it all just seemed strange to me.) I think the setting was great, however, I mean anything could happen 50 stories above the ground, I just don’t think that Mr. Ives used this setting to its full potential.
English Made Simple by David Ives
I really liked the way this play was set up. The way the narrator would instruct the conversation, and the demonstrators would give ‘real life’ examples of what she said. What I really liked was at the end when they did the “Would, should, could” sequence, and the demonstrators kind of took over from the narrator and did their own thing and showed how love sometimes does work out and sometimes is doesn’t. I really liked this because it shows how communication its one of the very important keys to love , friendship and life.
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