Theatre Arts & Performance Studies: TAPS 0100, S02, PLAYWRITING I, S02 Semester I, Fall 2013 Instructor: Elmo

Terry-Morgan, Associate Professor Theatre Arts & Performance Studies, and Africana Studies Artistic Director, Rites and Reason Theatre Office: 863-1707, Fax: 863-3559, Cell: 401-419-5507 Email: Elmo_Terry-Morgan@Brown.edu Office: Churchill House, 2nd Floor, Room 204 Tuesdays: 2:30 pm 4:00 pm Wednesdays by Appointment: 10:00 am 4:00 pm

Contact Info:

Open Hours:

Meeting Time: Location: Course Format: Enrollment:

Tuesdays/Thursdays: 1:00 am 2:20 pm Churchill House, Room B-9 Workshop Limited to 14

OVERVIEW Playwriting I is designed to provide students with an initial experience in Writing for Performance [W4P]. The workshop focuses on imagination and skill building exercises, text analysis techniques, and the development of a strong, first-draft, final play or performance work. The W4P works will be presented in an informal Readers Theatre PlayLab (days and times to be determined by the class). STRUCTURE The workshop is interactive. Students critique each others work, and volunteer to perform as readers and actors. Writers will be pre-selected to present their work in class. Email a copy of your assignments to elmo_terry-morgan@brown.edu as an attachment in word.doc or word.docx or other editable document: no pdfs. In the subject line write: PLAY1 F13 TITLE OF ASSIGNMENT YOUR NAME, e.g., PLAY1 FALL 1 MONOLOGUE SMITH. There are no book costs for this course. REQUIREMENTS 1. Regular attendance and active participation in workshop 2. Consultations with instructor (Student Initiative) 3. Complete assignments [8 page maximum EXCEPT where otherwise noted] 4. Final Play: Minimum 15-20 pages 5. Produce a Readers Theatre presentation of your final play/performance work. ASSIGNMENT PRESENTATION: MAKE IT READER FRIENDLY 1. Type-written 2. Provide title, assignment description, page #s, your name, date 3. Spell out character names unless the actual name is an initial like PJ

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Theatre Arts & Performance Studies: TAPS 0100, S02, PLAYWRITING I, S02 Semester I, Fall 2013 DUE DATES FINAL PLAY SUBMISSION of your play is due on or before the day of your PlayLab presentation. PLAYLAB: PlayLab readings begin Tuesday, December 03, 2013 HAND OUTS Text Analysis Model Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca Medea by Euripides The Owl Answers by Adrienne Kennedy ORDER OF STUDY Thu, 09/05/13: Introduction In-class exercise: Rituals Assignment Name: MONOLOGUE: Write a monologue Prompts: 1) ANY topic or subject 2) NOT to exceed one typewritten page Tue, 09/10/13: In-class exercise: Monologue language conversions and optimum sounds. Bring your computer to class. Assignment Name: MOSBACHER: The Mosbacher Technique focuses on creating innovative scene transitions. Prompts:
1. 2. 3. 4.

Use your monologue as inspiration for your story Story must span the time period of, at least, 20 years Blackouts CANNOT be used to make scene transitions Use scene transitions to help tell the story by moving the dramatic action forward by making a commentary or establishing a mood. Think of your W4P as a seamless musical composition.

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Theatre Arts & Performance Studies: TAPS 0100, S02, PLAYWRITING I, S02 Semester I, Fall 2013

Thu, 09/13/13: Read and Analyze Mosbacher plays by using Text Analysis Model Assignment Name: GLIZELGLUMP: this exercise focuses on essential plotting. Prompts: 1. Play cannot exceed two typewritten pages (standard: NO tiny fonts). 2. Play begins with Glizelglump woke up at dawn. 3. Play ends with Glizelglump went to bed at midnight. 4. Number 2 and 3, above, can be dialogue or stage directions, and must be evident to the audience 5. Play CANNOT be written in narrative (storytelling) style Tue, 09/17/13: Read and Analyze Glizelglump plays [Text Analysis Model] Assignment Name: MEDEA: This exercise focuses on storytelling with verbal language as the dominant dramatic element. Prompts: 1) Read Medea by Euripides 2) Creative Text Analysis: Interpolate a missing scene inside the body of the Medea text in the style of Euripides. 3) NO prologues or epilogues 4) Identify a section in Medea where you think significant information needs to be inserted, i.e., EURIPIDES WORDS: eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee YOUR WORDS: yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy EURIPIDES WORDS: eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

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Theatre Arts & Performance Studies: TAPS 0100, S02, PLAYWRITING I, S02 Semester I, Fall 2013

Thu, 09/19/13: Read and analyze Medea missing scenes Assignment Name: CLOSED DOOR: Team Writing: Whats behind the closed door focuses on creating and sustaining tension, interest. Prompts: 1. The closed door is never opened 2. The audience never learns what is behind the closed door Tue, 09/24/13: Read and analyze Closed Door plays Assignment: Work on our final play Thu, 09/26/13: Read and analyze Closed Door plays (continued) & assignments in the backlog Assignment Name: UNSEEN/UNHEARD: This exercise focuses on developing the background story, and is also a technique that allows you to populate your story with characters that do not have to be represented on stage by actors. This technique has practical applications for casting and production opportunities. Prompts: 1) Write a play where the principle character, the one that is driving the dramatic action, is not seen or heard on stage by the characters or the audience. 2) Theme: GREED Tue, 10/01/13: Read and analyze Unseen-Unheard plays Assignment Name: ESSENTIAL: This exercise focuses on making essential choices, to eliminate excess, by organizing the story around a metaphor. Prompts: 1) Read Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca 2) Dramatic choices must utilize deliberate and purposeful imagery, and be essential to the telling of the story 3) Character names must resonate with meaning. Do not mimic Lorcas use of titles for character names. 4) Organize the play around a metaphor: object, action or idea 5) Theme: PASSION

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Theatre Arts & Performance Studies: TAPS 0100, S02, PLAYWRITING I, S02 Semester I, Fall 2013 Thu, 10/03/13: Read and analyze Essential plays Assignment Name: SECRET: This exercise is a shake up the cobwebs in the brain challenge, whereby you need to envision the ending of the story before you begin the story. The secret in the future technique automatically propels another story. Prompts: 1) Write a play where you put a secret in the future. Tue, 10/08/13: Read and analyze secret plays Assignment Name: 10: Select an important American and/or international issue, concern, and/or crisis and create a W4P. Prompts: 1) Write the play as your 10-year old self Thu, 10/10/13: Read and analyze 10 plays Assignment Name: MOVEMENT: This exercise focuses on telling a story with nonverbal language, expanding your options. Prompts: 1) Very sparse use or no use of verbal language 2) Focus on physical movements and situations 3) Experiment with sounds and music 4) Experiment with visuals: setting, props, costumes, lighting, staging Tue, 10/15/13: Read and analyze Movement plays Assignment Name: NO DIRECTIONS: This assignment focuses on developing performative language, language that makes something happen. The goal is to make actions happen in your story without providing supplemental instructions. All information must exist within the body of the dialogue. Prompts: 1) No time indication, e.g., Summer 2013 2) No location indication, e.g., Providence, RI 3) No stage directions, e.g., Mary enters carrying a teapot 4) No acting directions, e.g., Crying, Shouting 5) Page Limit: Maximum 3 pages

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Theatre Arts & Performance Studies: TAPS 0100, S02, PLAYWRITING I, S02 Semester I, Fall 2013 Thu, 10/17/13: Read and analyze No Directions plays Assignment Name: SURREAL: This exercise focuses on creating abstract realities with symbols, metaphors and disruptive language. Prompts: 1. Read The Owl Answers by Adrienne Kennedy 2. Write a play in an abstract, surreal style. 3. Do not mimic Kennedys use of multiple character names such as SHE who is CLARA PASSMORE who is the VIRGIN MARY who is the BASTARD who is the OWL 4. Page limit: Maximum 3 pages Tue, 10/22/13: Read and analyze Surreal plays Assignment Name: NON-HUMAN: This exercise is an imagination-builder that focuses on creating non-human characters that grapple with real human problems. Prompts: 1) Characters can be animals, birds, insects, plants, elements, tables, geometric shapes, ideas; anything but human 2) Non-Human characters deal with real human problems Thu, 10/24/13: Read and analyze Non-human plays Assignment 1: Prepare for special class meeting with Intro to Africana Studies: ETM presentation on the development of the Black Lavender Canon: Plays with Black LGBTQ Content. Ill provide you with reading materials and Vimeo links to performances in advance. Meeting location: George Houston Bass Performing Arts Space [BASSPAS], Churchill House, 1st floor Assignment 2 Name: REVERSO: This exercise is another shaking up the cobwebs in the brain challenge by imagining a reverse society. Imagining a new world could take up hundreds of pages, because you would have to re-examine every aspect of life. For this exercise a short exploration into an issue is enough to create a new point of entry into an old conversation. The exercise is due in class on Thu, 10/31/13. Prompts: 1) Select one or more American social norms and imagine a reverse society, e.g., Norms: Heterosexual, White, Male, Tall. The new norms in your reverse society would be: Homosexual, Black, Female, Short.

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Theatre Arts & Performance Studies: TAPS 0100, S02, PLAYWRITING I, S02 Semester I, Fall 2013 Tue, 10/29/13: Blended Class Meeting with Intro to Africana Studies Assignment: Refer to Thu, 10/24/13 Thu, 10/31/13: Read and analyze Reverso plays Assignment Name: MUSIC & HISTORY: This assignment combines 2 exercises: [1] Incorporating music into your story, and [2] Getting outside of your comfort zone by writing a play that happens before the year 1900. Prompts: 1) How you use music is your choice: traditional Broadway, revue/cabaret format, opera, music that is organic to the story, e.g., musicians are principle characters; people make music with found objects 2) Story can happen anywhere in the world, but must be before the year 1900 Tue, 11/05/13: Read and analyze Music and History plays Assignment Name: CHANGE OVER: From this point forward we will read sections of final plays-in-progress, and plays in the backlog. Thu, 11/07/13: Change Over Design PlayLab Logistics Tue, 11/13/13: Change Over Thu, 11/14/13: Change Over Tue, 11/19/13: Change Over Thu, 11/21/13: Change Over & Review PlayLab logistics Tue, 11/26/13: No Class Thu, 11/28/13: No Class Tue, 12/03/13: PLAYLABS BEGIN Thu, 12/05/13: PLAYLABS CONTINUE AS NECESSARY The final PlayLab presentation is the last day of class: Wrap-Up Note: Course Evaluations are done on-line for this class.

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