For Colored Girls...Suicide, When the Raibow is Enuf

Please select a part in the play and prepare to read. If you are not reading a part aloud, please do the following:

1. Look for the theme in the play
2. Look for message or moral in the play
3. Look for content in the play (what are the important issues the play covers?)
4. Look for visual imagery: metaphor, simile, allusion, personification, figurative language, symbol, motif used in the play
5. Examine the plot and structure of the play: how is the play put together, what scenes happen and in what order?

Hand in your cards/notes at the end of our reading period.

HOMEWORK: Write a poem. Bring it to next class. This is in addition to the poem you were supposed to have written from last class.

The Piano Lesson Quiz & Discussion/Ntozake Shange

After our quiz on The Piano Lesson (period 7), we will spend a little time in small groups discussing and evaluating the play. For those students who finish their test early please return to the lab and complete the following research:
Who is Ntozake Shange?
Who is Tyler Perry?

• Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf
• Recent film trailer by Tyler Perry 
• Please watch this short interview with the playwright.

For 8th Period: 

Before we pick up "For Colored Girls..." from the library, please gather in groups of 4-5. Discuss the questions on the 1/2 sheet of paper for this play. You will have 15-20 minutes to discuss. Please focus on the questions/topics for your discussion--try not to digress...

Today we are going to begin reading Ntozake Shange's choreo-poem and masterpiece For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. Please return from the library to room 238. If you would like to read today for participation credit, please select one of the characters on the index cards provided.

HOMEWORK: Write a poem: your own topic, style, and you choose the length. Use your own chosen theme and message. Write your draft in your journal (or a separate sheet of paper) and/or type it up to hand in. Poem drafts are due next class. Bring your books back with you next class. We will complete our reading of the play in class.

The Piano Lesson

Please turn in any late or missing work by the end of class today.

Please read and examine the play as you read it. Use class time today to read and analyze the play. Complete the play over the break. Use these notes to help you.

NOTES on The Piano Lesson

As you read The Piano Lesson examine the text and try to answer the questions posed below (no need to write them, you will be tested on this sort of thing when we return from mid-term week):

The Piano Lesson concerns the struggle of two siblings over a family heirloom: a piano carved with images of their African ancestors and crafted by their enslaved grandfather. The piano itself becomes a symbol. As you read, try to figure out what the piano means.

As writers, our settings often have significant meaning. They contribute to the theme of the play, as well as hold significance, complicate plot, develop character, and create conflict. In the Piano Lesson, the setting is the Great Depression.

This setting serves as the historical backdrop to the play as well as black migration during this period from south to north. Such migration increased steadily until stabilizing in the 1930s and creating new black communities that would be devastated by the economic ruin. Wilson was inspired by Romare Bearden's painting "the Piano Lesson", seeing in its scene of a teacher and student an allegory for how African Americans must learn to negotiate their history. 

Romare Bearden's "The Piano Lesson"

 

Critic Sandra Shannon stated that Wilson formulated two thematic questions to address in his work: "What do you do with your legacy, and how do you best put it to use?" (The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson, 146).

Analysis & Questions to Examine While Reading

It is important to pay close attention to character motivation in a play. One of the tips for good playwriting is to give your characters interesting motivations.

But how do we do that?

Motivation in plays is developed by characterization: what a character does (actions), what a character says, and what other characters say about another character. A character's motivation is often closely tied to the major conflict and theme of a play. Actors read scripts carefully looking for motivation for their characters. It is an essential skill for an actor. A playwright needs to help these actors out by making sure that each character has a purpose and a reason to act and say what he/she does.

As you read, identify the motivation of each of the following characters. Be aware of how motivation creates complications, conflict, and characterization.

• Doaker
• Boy Willie
• Berniece
• Lymon
• Maretha
• Avery
• Wining Boy
• Grace

Acts usually end at a high point (or crisis: a crucial or decisive turning point or situation in a plot).

• How does Wilson end his first act? 
• How does an essential question linger in the minds of the audience? i.e. what will bring the audience back from the intermission ready for more? 
• What questions have been left unanswered?

In a second act, characters are generally developed even more through characterization. Additionally, in contemporary plays there is usually a reversal of fortune (someone who is about to win his/her motive suddenly meets opposition that we might not have considered before…although clues to such an event can be found in the first act).

• Find an example from the second act where we learn more about a character. How is this character developed further in the second act through characterization?
• Find examples of a reversal of fortune in the second act. What clues were we given in Act I that suggests that this reversal was coming?
• What is the protagonist's dark moment? A dark moment for a character is their lowest end.
• What is the character's enlightenment? An enlightenment is the sudden understanding of how to get up from the character's dark moment. How does the enlightenment lead to the climax?
• And then, finally, do you consider the ending pleasing, satisfactory, acceptable? 
• How might you change the ending if you were writing the play?

HOMEWORK: Please complete your reading of The Piano Lesson. Be prepared for a test on the play when you return to next class.

Midterm & August Wilson/Fences

After your midterm, please read the following information and take notes on August Wilson (who is he, why is he important, etc.) Then, watch the video clips of his interview and some scenes from his plays. On an index card, for participation credit, please note:

1. What advice does August Wilson give writers in the interview?
2. What are some things you noticed about August Wilson's plays after viewing the clips?

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson (April 27, 1945 - October 2, 2005) is one of the most influential writers in American theater. His plays chronicle the tragedies and aspirations of African Americans during the 20th century.

August Wilson's is one of America's most celebrated dramatists. His writing earned him numerous awards, among them the Tony Award (1985), the New York Drama Critics Circle Award (1985) and the Pulitzer Prize for drama (1990). The Virginia Theater on Broadway in NYC was renamed the August Wilson Theater in his honor in 2005, and the African American Cultural Center of Greater Pittsburgh was renamed the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in 2006.

The Pittsburgh Cycle of Plays:

In 10 separate plays, each covering a different decade of the 20th century, August Wilson explored the lives, dreams, triumphs and tragedies of African-American history and culture. Often called the "Pittsburgh Cycle," all but one of the plays is set in the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh where August Wilson grew up. Thus, he is a regional writer.

August Wilson's cycle of plays, in order by the decade in which the play is set:

"Gem of the Ocean," 1904
"Joe Turner's Come and Gone," 1911
"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," 1927
"The Piano Lesson," 1936
"Seven Guitars," 1948
"Fences," 1957-58 and 1963
"Two Trains Running," 1969
"Jitney," 1977
"King Hedley, II," 1985
"Radio Golf," 1997

August Wilson gained inspiration from African American artist, Romare Bearden. "When I [August Wilson] saw his [Bearden's] work, it was the first time that I had seen black life presented in all its richness, and I said, 'I want to do that -- I want my plays to be the equal of his canvases.'"

Please watch the following interview:

August Wilson interview  

• Interview Documentary of Fences
• Denzel Washington's opinion about Fences and more Denzel.
• Denzel in Fences
• And another scene.

• Clips from Cygnet theater's The Piano Lesson

Some other August Wilson Plays:

• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• Joe Turner's Come and Gone
• Jitney
• Gem of the Ocean: montage

HOMEWORK: Please read The Piano Lesson (you will have next week to finish reading this play. Once you have read the play, please respond to the play on our forum.)

Play Scripts: Draft Due! & Midterm

Today, please complete and print out your play scripts. These are due at the end of class. If our printer is broken or not printing, please send an attachment of your work to bradley.craddock@rcsdk12.org with your name on the file.

Use any time remaining after completing your script studying for our midterm. The midterm exam will be given next class, Wednesday, Jan. 16.

HOMEWORK: Study for our midterm exam. See previous post(s) for test review and materials.

Mid-term Review

1. Please read and discuss A Streetcar Named Desire with one other student. Answer the 2 questions about light and sound on the post below. DISCUSS these points, you do not have to write responses down.
2. Please turn in your homework notes on A Streetcar Named Desire. This is due today.
3. Today, please continue to write your play script. The script draft is due by the end of MONDAY, Jan. 14. Please refer to yesterday's post concerning this project. (see post below)
4. If you need a break from writing your script, please write a poem for extra credit for the Black History Performance.
5. If you need a break from writing your script, please study for your mid-term exam. See material below.

Your mid-term in The Craft of Writing will be held on Wednesday, next week, Jan. 16. This is also the date that your Black History poem draft is due, if you are writing one. Please study for this exam. Look over old tests/quizzes, re-read the blog and handouts on this material.

The exam will cover the following material:

The complete writing process, techniques to avoid writers block, theme, the four common themes in literature, techniques and tips about writing poetry, fiction, and plays.

Poetry: line breaks, stanza forms, sound devices, diction, tone, voice, caesura, enjambment, cadence groups, onomatopoeia, assonance, alliteration, consonance, euphony, cacophony, rhyme, diction, texture, imagery, figurative language, metaphor, simile, personification, allusion, symbol, allegory, meter, iamb (iambic), trochee (trochaic), dactyl (dactylic), anapest (anapestic), spondee (spondaic), couplet, tercet or triplet, quatrain, sestet, octave, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, Terza Rima, Shakespearean sonnet form, free verse, prose, persona, moral or message.

Fiction: plot; plot structure: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, crisis or turning point, climax, denouement or resolution; conflict; the different types of conflict; linear versus non-linear plots; setting; setting (artificial or manufactured and natural); exterior versus interior settings; locale; functions of setting; regional writers; POV; the different types of point of view; omniscience; multiple-viewpoint; skeptical POV; objective 3rd person POV; choosing a point of view; hamartia; round versus flat characters; characterization; character types; portraying a character; persona; description (particularly using description to characterize a character); character key terms; ways to develop a character; structuring a story and techniques to structure a story (Nov 1 post); ideas for fiction; genres; reader's expectations of any of the following genres: science fiction, romance, literary fiction, historical fiction, mystery/thrillers, fantasy, realistic fiction, etc.; types of readers: fantacists, realists, pragmatists

Drama: Being a playwright (handout chapter); What Makes a Play (handout chapter); how plays differ from films and novels; the use of conflict in script writing; Alfred Uhry & Driving Miss Daisy; setting: interior/exterior; plot: cause and effect; Peter Shaffer & Amadeus; Mozart; tips about what makes a play effective; Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie; Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire; Memory plays & the characteristics of a memory play; synecdoche; expressionism; premise; 10-minute play form; flat/round characters; proper play script format; tips when writing a play script; the unities; how to turn ideas into plays (handout chapter); advice on how to start a play; the magic-if; Elia Kazan, Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh.

A Streetcar Named Desire

Please turn in your homework!

A Streetcar Named Desire can be described as an elegy, or poetic expression of mourning, for an Old South that died in the first part of the twentieth century.
The plot of A Streetcar Named Desire is driven by the dueling personalities of Blanche and Stanley (protagonist and antagonist).

1. Light is used as a motif and symbol in the play. Consider what its presence or absence indicates. Particularly, what does it mean as a personal symbol for Blanche?
2. Williams uses sound as a dramatic device. When and what does Blanche hear music? Look for this sort of symbolism throughout the play. Music helps create tone, as well.

The two most complex characters in the play are Blanche and Stanley. What follows is an examination and analysis of the main characters in the play. When we read a novel, short story, or watch a film or play, we should be ready to examine the meaning as well as analyze the characters. Who are they? How does the author or actor portray them?

Blanche DuBois
"When the play begins, Blanche is already a fallen woman in society's eyes. Her family fortune and estate are gone, she lost her young husband to suicide years earlier, and she is a social pariah due to her indiscrete sexual behavior. She also has a bad drinking problem, which she covers up poorly. Behind her veneer of social snobbery and sexual propriety, Blanche is an insecure, dislocated individual. She is an aging Southern belle who lives in a state of perpetual panic about her fading beauty. She does not want to belong in this setting, but she fits in quite nicely to our image of New Orleans as a cesspit and ancient behemoth. Stanley quickly sees through Blanche's act and seeks out information about her past.

In the Kowalski household, Blanche pretends to be a woman who has never known indignity. Her false propriety is not simply snobbery, however; it constitutes a calculated attempt to make herself appear attractive to new male suitors. Blanche depends on male sexual admiration for her sense of self-esteem, which means that she has often succumbed to passion. By marrying, Blanche hopes to escape poverty and the bad reputation that haunts her. But because the chivalric Southern gentleman savior and caretaker (represented by the ideal Shep Huntleigh) she hopes will rescue her is extinct, Blanche is left with no realistic possibility of future happiness. As Blanche sees it, Mitch is her only chance for contentment, even though he is far from her ideal.

Stanley's relentless persecution of Blanche foils her pursuit of Mitch as well as her attempts to shield herself from the harsh truth of her situation. The play chronicles the subsequent crumbling of Blanche's self-image and sanity. Stanley himself takes the final stabs at Blanche, destroying the remainder of her sexual and mental esteem by raping her and then committing her to an insane asylum. In the end, Blanche blindly allows herself to be led away by a kind doctor, ignoring her sister's cries. This final image is the sad culmination of Blanche's vanity and total dependence upon men for happiness."

Stanley Kowalski
"Audience members may well see Stanley as an egalitarian hero at the play's start. He is loyal to his friends and passionate to his wife. Stanley possesses an animalistic physical vigor that is evident in his love of work, of fighting, and of sex. His family is from Poland, and several times he expresses his outrage at being called “Polack” and other derogatory names. When Blanche calls him a “Polack,” he makes her look old-fashioned and ignorant by asserting that he was born in America, is an American, and can only be called “Polish.” Stanley represents the new, heterogeneous America to which Blanche doesn't belong, because she is a relic from a defunct social hierarchy. He sees himself as a social leveler, as he tells Stella in Scene Eight.

Stanley's intense hatred of Blanche is motivated in part by the aristocratic past Blanche represents. He also (rightly) sees her as untrustworthy and does not appreciate the way she attempts to fool him and his friends into thinking she is better than they are. Stanley's animosity toward Blanche manifests itself in all of his actions toward her—his investigations of her past, his birthday gift to her, his sabotage of her relationship with Mitch.

In the end, Stanley's down-to-earth character proves harmfully crude and brutish. His chief amusements are gambling, bowling, sex, and drinking, and he lacks ideals and imagination. His disturbing, degenerate nature, first hinted at when he beats his wife, is fully evident after he rapes his sister-in-law. Stanley shows no remorse for his brutal actions. The play ends with an image of Stanley as the ideal family man, comforting his wife as she holds their newborn child. The wrongfulness of this representation, given what we have learned about him in the play, ironically calls into question society's decision to ostracize Blanche." (both taken from Sparknotes)

Mitch and Stella provide Stanley and Blanche with appropriate foils. They complete the possible futures for Stanley/Stella and Blanche/Mitch.

There is a lot in this play (as in all Tenessee Williams' work). Characters are complex, plot is driven by the desires of its characters, conflict is nicely supported through characterization, setting is significant, and literary devices such as symbolism run rampant through its pages. No wonder the world knows this play. It is fine play writing.

A Streetcar Named Desire clips:
The 1951 film starred a young Marlon Brando and actress Vivien Leigh. The movie was directed by Elia Kazan. Read a little about each actor and the director--this is important for those of you interested in film production. We will take an entire course on film next year.

Here's the famous Stella scene.
And the screaming contest it created. 

Then take the next ten minutes of class to view this video clip from the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire. You may also watch these scene clips if interested:
Scene Nine
Scene Ten
Scene Eleven

10-Minute Play Project

Today in class, please continue writing your script. Hand in your Streetcar Named Desire notes. See the blog post above for details and discussion on A Streetcar Named Desire.

Here are some tips to consider:

• All plays should have a beginning, middle, and end. They can begin or end just like a poem or story (i.e., ending with a circular, surprise, summary, or open-ending, etc.)
• All plays are written for the stage (not to just be read); they are meant to be performed live by live actors. To get good at this reading and watching plays is essential. Acting in them is even better!
• All plays are written in present tense (not past); all plays use a specific and distinct format (check your format with the handout from last class or on the link page to the side of this blog)
• All plays are more powerful if they are tightly written. To be "tightly written" you should avoid using broad-sweeping plots, with many cinematic scene changes. 
• Don't forget that details, diction, literary devices like imagery, allusion, and figurative language enhance a script and its language. 
• The action of your script should start just before the climax of the story because we are condensing a long plot into something that will take about 10 minutes to perform (this is not a full-length script...)

Our short plays should adhere to what are called the unities:

1. The unity of time (plays should not span many years)
2. The unity of place (plays should concentrate action in one or few settings)
3. The unity of action (plays should limit their plots so they are not confusing)

All plays require conflict
Conflict should be balanced (in other words the struggle between protagonist and antagonist should be a fair fight); it is often better to have an antagonist who is slightly more powerful.

Characters often are antagonists to each other in plays.

Meaning (theme) in a play is tied to the action and conflict being presented on stage. As a playwright, consider what you want to SAY to the world!

• All plays should be entertaining (and written to be performed). If you're bored with the idea or the idea for the premise of your play is overdone, it is not fresh, new, exciting, or even creative. Avoid boring plots, characters, settings, etc. Be creative in your thinking!
• All plays should communicate an idea (or belief about the human condition). There are only four themes in writing: nature, love, life, death. What do you want to say about one of these?
• All plays are REPRESENTATIVE of real life. They are NOT real life.
• Plays are NOT movies. Avoid cinematic writing. The best way to learn how to write scripts is to read them and see play productions whenever possible.

10-Minute Play Project & Black History Month

1. Please read the article on play formatting. Your 10-minute play script should be written in the standard play script format. Please note that the plays we have read were NOT in this format, because they were published scripts from a publisher, not a script meant to be used by actors or theaters. Please follow the format outlined in the article given to you today in class.

2. From last class you should have a premise (an idea about what you want your play to be about and the message that you want to share with the world), 2-5 characters, and a basic plot outline.

Today in class, please begin writing your script. A 10-Minute play script is usually about 5-10 pages in length (in proper playwriting format, see handout). The action of your script should start just before the climax of the story because we are condensing a long plot into something that will take about 10 minutes to perform (this is not a full-length script...)

If a plot event is impractical or difficult to perform on stage allow it to occur OFF STAGE. Characters in plays talk (dialogue). So a difficult to stage plot event can be TALKED about, without having to stage it. Refer back to the advice given to you in the articles you should have read on writing play scripts. Avoid cinematic writing. You are writing for the stage, not the screen.

3. If you need a break, please move on to the extra credit Black History poem project. It is detailed here:

The Creative Writing department has been commissioned to participate in the SOTA Black History month performance on Feb. 5. The music department (Mr. Gabriel) is looking for UPLIFTING, POSITIVE, and G-Rated original poems celebrating Black History. You might write about an important historical character/person, or overcoming obstacles successfully in a difficult world, or about the importance of hope and freedom and achieving your dreams. Before you write anything, spend some time today reading some examples of the form.

Please read this essay first: Jazz as Communication (essay by Langston Hughes). The poems selected will be accompanied by jazz music.

Here are a few examples:

• Homage to My Hips
• I am a Cowboy in the Boat of Ra
• Still I Rise 
• Name Calling 
• The Gospel of Barbeque
• Kin
• Mother to Son
• American Income
• Won't you Celebrate with Me?

Start with an idea. What do you want to communicate as a human truth? Write down your message in your journal. If you could say something important to people who need to hear something important about succeeding in life or dealing with daily problems or social issues, what would it be? Write down as many messages as you can think of. You will be able to pick from these after you brainstorm a little.

Choose one message and consider WHO might speak this message, what the persona of your poem might SAY, and to whom is the persona speaking to? (likely our Black History month celebration audience).

The tone of your work should be positive. We are interested in your positive message. We get enough negative messages from our peers, the media, society, and our families.  

HOMEWORK: Complete reading A Streetcar Named Desire. As you read, please complete the handout to be turned in by Thursday, Jan. 10. No late work will be accepted. Black History poems are due by 1/16/13 (next Wednesday) if you write one. Poems for the concert are extra credit for this marking period.

The Glass Menagerie; Brainstorming; Streetcar Named Desire

After our quiz on The Glass Menagerie, we will pick up the play A Streetcar Named Desire also by Tennessee Williams. For details about the playwright, please see the post below. When you have completed your quiz, please turn it in and begin reading the article on "Where do you start? Turning Ideas into Plays." This will help you complete tasks 2 and 3 below. You should have a good idea for a play by next class.

Use the lab today to complete the following tasks:

1. Take the quiz on The Glass Menagerie. When you complete your quiz, please move on to #2. 

2. Please brainstorm an idea for a 10-minute (about 8-10 page) play script. Read the article "Where do you start?" to get some ideas.

3. Create 2-5 characters for your play. Come up with an appropriate setting and describe the basic plot for your story idea. Use the handouts to help brainstorm your ideas.

4. Begin reading A Streetcar Named Desire. As you read, please complete the handout to be turned in by Thursday, Jan. 10. No late work will be accepted.

HOMEWORK: Please read and answer the questions for A Streetcar Named Desire. Homework is due THURSDAY, Jan. 10. NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED.

Glass Menagerie & Amadeus

After answering any questions you have about your reading: The Glass Menagerie, we will screen the next part of the film Amadeus. Please continue to complete your handouts during the film, looking for plot, character, setting differences between the script and the film.