In groups of 4-5, please read Driving Ms. Daisy and complete the play for Friday, May 18. There will be a quiz on the play.
Plays are representational. They represent real life, they are NOT real life. Actors are representations of their characters. Set pieces are representations of real locations, etc. How symbolic or metaphorical the representation will be is completely up to the playwright (and often the director).
As playwrights, you should be aware that you want to match your action/plot/characters to the style you are attempting to create. A realistic play should "look" real. It should be realistically delivered, often in a realistic setting, using realistic dialogue. Anything that brings attention to itself as being "unrealistic" harms the "realism" of a play/act/scene or beat (a single moment) on stage. Most common ways of bringing attention and harming your realism is switching sets or having actors do something that they wouldn't "realistically" do. Realism, however, works on a continuum. The more "unrealstic", the more the play relies on metaphor or formalistic elements. Pay attention to those moments when a story gets "weird" -- usually the writer has a reason for this to occur.
In Driving Ms. Daisy please answer (complete for homework, if you do not finish during class):
Plays are representational. They represent real life, they are NOT real life. Actors are representations of their characters. Set pieces are representations of real locations, etc. How symbolic or metaphorical the representation will be is completely up to the playwright (and often the director).
As playwrights, you should be aware that you want to match your action/plot/characters to the style you are attempting to create. A realistic play should "look" real. It should be realistically delivered, often in a realistic setting, using realistic dialogue. Anything that brings attention to itself as being "unrealistic" harms the "realism" of a play/act/scene or beat (a single moment) on stage. Most common ways of bringing attention and harming your realism is switching sets or having actors do something that they wouldn't "realistically" do. Realism, however, works on a continuum. The more "unrealstic", the more the play relies on metaphor or formalistic elements. Pay attention to those moments when a story gets "weird" -- usually the writer has a reason for this to occur.
In Driving Ms. Daisy please answer (complete for homework, if you do not finish during class):
--What actions or events occur that are realistic?HOMEWORK: Please finish reading the script Driving Ms. Daisy.
--What actions or events occur that we see as REPRESENTATIVE?
--How does the playwright create a suggested set? How is the set's flexibility used to keep the action of the play going and continuous from scene to scene?
--How is this play different from others you have read or seen? (Streetcar Named Desire or The Piano Lesson? for example)
--What is the play's major dramatic question? That is: what question is lingering in the minds of the audience? What does the audience want answered by the end of the play?
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