Day 12 Wednesday 7/13

Final coaching sessions

Reading excerpts from Glass Menagerie and "Duet for Bear and Dog", as well as Matt's play "Buried Treasure"

KEEP IN MIND:
Anything you want copied by me-- must be e-mailed to lesliepatient@rocketmail.com by 8:30pm tonight!!! Otherwise you need to come into class tomorrow with enough copies yourself.

THUR:
Choosing/casting/rehearsing staged readings

FRI:
Staged Readings

Day 11, Tuesday, 7/12

Final work day before scripts due for copying

REMEMBER: If you want your work in the readings on Thursday/Friday then you must have enough copies of them for all characters + 1


UPCOMING:
Tomorrow-- reading excerpts from Glass Menagerie, "Pill Box Hat"
Thursday-- rehearsing staged readings
Friday-- doing staged readings-- RECAP of What we learned

DAY 10, Monday, July 11

Museum Inspired Monologues:
Vermeer's Girl With A Pearl Earring inspired a novel
Seurat's Sunday in the Park inspired a full musical
What inspires you?

Work time on final projects.

Day 9 -- Friday, July 8

Writing Day (the whole time)
conferencing order:
Matt
Veronique
Priya
Lucy
What you can be working on:
Revision of 5-10 page play (due typed with copies Wed [or emailed by Tue night])
Questions to ask yourself:
Are my characters well developed? Contrasting? Believable?
Is my dialogue natural? Believable? Helping to establish character?
Is my plot plausible? Action driven? Have a beginning, middle and end?

Monologue (1st draft due by end of class on Friday, Final draft [typed] due Wed-- have copy for self and for me)
Questions to ask yourself:
Does my character have a NEED to speak?
Is there a beginning, middle, punch ending?
Do I reveal character through the voice, using natural pauses, phrases or dialect?

BONUS ASSIGNMENT: (everyone must attempt this-- but can be in any draft stage by Wed-- clearly more bonus for more polished)
-Eavesdrop on a conversation between people you don't really know
-write/record/remember exactly what they say
-CRAFT this into a scene with stage directions, character descriptions, beginning/middle/end

DAY 8, Thursday, July 7

MONOLOGUES-- what they are and how to write them (see handout)

ADDITIONAL Coaching time:
5. Sophie
6. Bella
7. Katie
8. Priya
9. Matt
10.Veronique
11. Lucy

Day 7-- Wednesday, July 6

Work day--- concentrate on natural dialogue, using subtext, contrasting characters

Order for "coaching"
1. Katarina
2. Elika
3.Tatijana
4. Julie

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.
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DAY 6, TUESDAY, July 5

Playreading: scenes-- "The Children's Hour", "Spring's Awakening"
Natural dialogue/subtext in stage directions and character development
Developing "voice" for characters
Workshop Readings: anyone with copies ready
Writing Time remainder of class
ASSIGNMENT: make sure you have your play started for workshopping-- remember e-mail to Leslie or have enough copies for all characters + stage directions.

Day Five, Friday, July 1

Ambiguous Dialogue
Writing Day
goal for end of class--
1. Strong character descriptions
2. At least three pages of dialogue complete

ASSIGNMENT: Feel free to continue working on your plays -- you will eventually have to type them, so it's worth getting these first few pages into the computer now, as well, if you have time. IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER!!! If you want to have your piece read out loud you must come to class with enough copies for all characters + stage directions. (You can also e-mail to me at lpatient@purnell.org and I'll bring in copies OR if you know how to use google docs-- you can "share" with me. HOWEVER-- this must be done by 8pm the night before you want your piece read.) By Wednesday-- everyone should have at least one of their pieces read so you will have revision time.

Day 4, Thursday, June 30

Finish "This Property's Condemned"
-discuss subtext, character development
debrief on character, setting, dialogue

Objective
Action
Tactics
Obstacles
Stakes
Playwriting format (Ch. 9 in book, Look at links to right for other format discussions)

Mantra #3 Keep It Simple, Silly (KISS)

ASSIGNMENT: Start on own plays Maximum Five Characters/Actors

DAY THREE, Wednesday, June 29

Scenarios (guess theme) (5 minutes to finish)
"This Property's Condemned" by Tennesee Williams (20 minutes)
Assignment: Start thinking about a possible monologue and 5-minute play.

DAY TWO, Tuesday, June 28

Catron Definition of a Play (p 18 in text)
A play is a structured and unified story, comic or dramatic, complete in itself, with a beginning, middle and end, that expresses the playwright's passion and vision of life, shows unfolding conflict that builds to a climax and deals with dimensional life-like humans who have strong emotions, needs and objectives that motivate them to take action. It is constructed with a plausible and probable series of events, written to be performed and therefore told with speeches and actions, plus silences and inactions, projected by actors from a stage to an audience that is made to believe the events are happening as they watch.

Subheadings "What Makes A Play?"
#1 Writer's Mantra SHOW DON'T TELL -- "actions speak louder than words"
#2 Drama is Conflict

Credo: I BELIEVE (free writing 10 minutes)
ASSIGNMENT: Choose Two of Your Strong beliefs and write a 5-7 sentence scenario of a play that could possibly embody that theme. DO NOT STATE THE THEME!!!! Think ACTION only.

Day One, Monday June 27

info index cards
Always Sometimes Never Chart: What is a Play? What isn't a Play?
TYPES of Stages: Arena, Amphitheatre, Black Box, Thrust, Proscenium
FOR MORE INFO LOOK AT THIS presentation on Types of Theatre Spaces


ASSIGNMENT: If you want to take a look at pages 1-17 in Catron Text. Come with 3-Ring Binder!!