10-Minute Play Draft Due!

Today, please complete your 10-minute play drafts. As this is the last day for our play unit (we'll pick up new projects next week), please complete the assignment. If you finish early, feel free to relax a bit, but please do not bother other students who are working to complete their projects. PLEASE BE COURTEOUS!

HOMEWORK: None. Complete your 10-minute play script if you haven't completed it in class/lab. The project is due.

10 Minute Play Project: Geva Submission

Workshop

Please take the first 20 minute in class today to complete your workshop of various student-written plays. Then, we will begin our next project:

Writing the 10-Minute Play Project

The 10 minute play has gained quite a bit of respect over the last few decades. Starting as a theater gimmick and festival curtain risers, the 10 minute play can usually be produced with little or no budget, a theater can produce several new playwrights in an evening, and the plays are short (lacking the attention span one needs when seeing Shakespeare)--which appeals to a contemporary audience.

You will need a premise: the organizing theme or idea that defines everything in the play. A good premise will indicate an interesting inciting incident to help you start off your drama with some effective action or conflict, and will carry you through to the end of your play. The things to remember about 10-minute plays is that they are similar to short stories:

• They have a premise
• They have a dramatic situation (setting, characters in action, & a complication)
• They have a beginning, middle, and end
• They have a tight structure (most never change scene or setting)
• They are at most 10 pages long.
• There are usually fewer than five characters. Often two or three at most.
• The beginning of the play starts at a very early POINT OF ATTACK (inciting incident).
• By the end of the first page or the top of the second the argument or conflict has been presented.
• The play usually has only one conflict and one plot line.
• There is not much exposition. By the middle of the first page, exposition has been stated.
• The end of the play falls very close to the climax. Only a few lines are devoted to resolution.
• Most plays deal with the exceptionally brief, but powerful moment in a character's life.

Take ideas from your journal, reading, or handouts, or your own memory & imagination; Use the graphic organizers, if you need them, and read the handouts "The Dramatic Triangle" & "The Roots of Action" given to you this morning on plot and use the "Exercises" to help you create a play. You may work alone or with a single partner for this project.

Then write. Brainstorm, draft, write. Try to avoid unnecessary fooling around or off-task talking.

HOMEWORK: Your draft will be due next Friday. A 10-minute play should be between 5-10 pages in script format. If you are working with a partner, plan to use Google Docs or some way to share your files so you both can work on it during midterm week.

Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You

This afternoon, let's read the play "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You" by Christopher Durang. If we finish reading in class, time will be provided to continue reading and commenting on your scenes in your workshop groups.

HOMEWORK: Complete the reading of this play. To turn in Thursday, please examine the play for its effective use of the following literary terms/techniques: theme, message/moral, characterization, setting, premise, and plot. Explain how the author effectively uses these ideas in his play. Also, study for any exams you have coming up.

Play Script Workshop; Christopher Durang

Please get into two separate groups to read a variety of plays/scenes that your peers have created. Select members of your group to read various character parts and stage directions.

After reading each student's work, please comment on:

--Are these characters interesting? Why or why not?
--Is there a protagonist or character that is developed through characterization?

--Is there a central conflict in the scene? If so, what is it?

--Does the scene have a coherent plot? 

--What line(s) surprise us as listeners?

 

During period 8, please move next door to read Christopher Durang's play: 'Dentity Crisis.

Monologue Scene Draft

Use your monologue to write a short scene where you place your character in a situation/setting where at least 1 other character can respond to or interact with your monologue character. Use dialogue and write no more than 3 pages (i.e., a short play). You may place your monologue in the beginning, middle, or end of your scene.

HOMEWORK: None. Complete homework from last class if you did not already do so.

Durang; The Monologue Scene

This afternoon, please read and comment on the 1-minute play drafts we have written.

--Are these characters interesting? Why or why not?

--Is there a central conflict in the scene? If so, what is it?

--What line(s) surprise us as listeners?

After reading Mrs. Sorken, Woman Stand Up, Funeral Parlor and DMV Tyrant, please return to the lab to complete the following writing exercise:

Use your monologue to write a short scene where you place your character in a situation/setting where at least 1 other character can respond to or interact with your monologue character. Use dialogue and write no more than 2 pages (i.e., a one-minute play). You may place your monologue in the beginning, middle, or end of your scene.

HOMEWORK: Read the following plays from your Christopher Durang book: pg. 9-131.

1-Minute Play Exercise

During 7th period, please complete the following:

1. Select a partner you would like to work with
2. Together create two characters (one per partner, for example). 
3. Create a setting. 
4. Then write your own 1-minute play. Each play should be no longer than 2 pages in length. Use the lab time to write your 1-minute play. Complete your play, title it, print and turn it in. Next class we will read these original works together.

Please turn in your homework: Homework was to create a character or identify a speaker. Then write a monologue of at least 1 paragraph where your character talks.

Period 8, please go next door with your Christopher Durang books. We will read out loud in class.

HOMEWORK: Complete the play we are currently reading on your own.

Workshop; & the 1-minute play project

During 7th period, please gather in groups of 4-5 and workshop your portfolio writing. The goal of your workshop is to share the work you wrote or created during the portfolio project, and get some feedback and reaction from your workshop group.

Use 7th period to share, comment on, and critique each other's writing. If you finish earlier than the bell, please use the time to write. I am collecting your portfolios after 7th period.

During 8th period, let's read the short 1-minute play samples.

After reading, select a partner you would like to work with and write your own 1-minute play. Each play should be no longer than 2 pages in length. Use the lab time to write your 1-minute play. Complete your play, title it, and turn it in. Next class we will read these original works together.

HOMEWORK: Create a character or identify a speaker. Then write a monologue of at least 1 paragraph and be prepared to share this monologue with the class on Wednesday.