calendar-F2010

Daily Assignments Calendar

toc This page supplements the print version of the "Calendar of Assignments" you received as a handout the first day of the semester (available on [|D2L]). Below, I present information about how to access any materials that aren't part of the required texts sold through the bookstore and, in some cases, offer some context for reading or otherwise preparing them. For major (i.e. graded) project assignments, see the [|course D2L page].

For the daily discussion questions (and access to the board for responding to them) click here.

Unit I
 * REAL DRAMA: ORDINARY PLAY AND PERFORMANCE**

=WEEK 1= M Aug 30


 * VIEW (in class) -- “Dramatic Chipmunk”

"Dramatic Chipmunk" (actually titled "Dramatic Look" -- and it's not actually a chipmunk either: it's a prairie dog), can be found on YouTube at []

W Sep 1 (click here for the day's discussion questions)

> []
 * VIEW (before class) -- the **“Dramatic Chipmunk”** page on //Know Your Meme// (The Rocketboom Institute for Internet Studies, at [|http://knowyourmeme.com/]). Be sure to watch the main video. See

> []
 * VIEW (before class) -- the **“Charlie Bit Me”** page on //Know Your Meme//. Be sure to watch the main video. See

> []
 * VIEW (before class) -- from **“An Anthroplogical Introduction to YouTube,**” by Michael Wesch and the Digital Ethnography Working Group." You only need to watch parts of the video: from 0:00-5:50, and from 12:56-17:05. At

You may be interested in other sections of Wesch's video, and he offers a useful breakdown of its timeline, at []


 * "Charlie Bit Me**" is actually titled "Charlie Bit My Finger - Again!" and can be found on YouTube, at []

Transcript of video, adapted from //Wikitubia//, at [|http://youtube.wikia.com/wiki/Charlie_bit_my_finger_-_again_!]

> **CHARLIE:** Gah! (bites Harry's finger)

> **HARRY:** Ah-haha! Charlie...Charlie bit me.....UAAaahh.....mmm-hm-hm... (tries to put finger in Charlie's mouth)

> **CHARLIE:** (Bites finger)

> **HARRY:** Ah-ha! (hurt expression) Oooh-hoo-hoo...ouch...OUCH! OUCH, CHARLIE!! OOOOOOOOW!!! (looks at Charlie ) Ow Charlie, that really hurt... (wipes his bitten finger on his shirt and his face changes back to normal)

> **CHARLIE:** (Starts to laugh)

> **HARRY:** (Rubs his hand in his hair, mildy laughing) Charlie bit me... and that really hurt Charlie! and it's still hurting...

> **CHARLIE:** (interrupting) Ah! (laughing and rubs face in blanket on chair)

F Sep 3 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * YOUTUBE VIDEO ARCHIVE**

I've created a page for each section to post your links at http://realdrama.wikispaces.com/memes-102 (Section 102) and http://realdrama.wikispaces.com/memes-103 (Section 103).

In posting the link, I'd prefer that you actually embed the videos on the page using the video "Widget" function on the wiki's editing toolbar. But if you can't figure out how to do that, simply post the link. The information should include the names of the people in your group, the title of the videos, and the links to the videos.


 * DOWNLOAD, PRINT, and READ: **Anne Haas Dyson**, sections from chapters 2 and 4 of //Writing Superheroes: Contemporary Childhood, Popular Culture, and Classroom Literacy//. Available for download as a PDF through the Raynor library's online class reserves system. (Log in at []. Find our class (ENGL 2720 -- Introduction to Literature; Drama) and access the materials with the password "drama".
 * POST TO WIKI: your group's choice for a **YouTube performance meme** (should include an original and a re-enactment). We will view these in class.

=WEEK 2= M Sep 6

NO CLASS

W Sep 8 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * DOWNLOAD, PRINT, and READ: **J. Huizinga,** selections from //Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture.// Available for download as a PDF through the Raynor library's online class reserves system. (Log in at []. Find our class (ENGL 2720 -- Introduction to Literature; Drama) and access the materials with the password "drama".

F Sep 10 (click here for the day's discussion questions)

NOTE: So that we don't get too far ahead of ourselves, I'm changing the day's reading assignment from how it is listed on the original print calendar. Our reading of **Anna Deavere Smith's** //Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992// will be put off until next Monday, September 13.

For today, I'd like you to review the two pieces we've read so far about ordinary play: Anne Haas Dyson's article on 2nd-grade children acting out superhero dramas and J. Huizinga chapter from //Homo Ludens// about play as an even more fundamental part of human experience stretching from childhood to adulthood.

=WEEK 3=

Mon Sep 13 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * READ: **Anna Deavere Smith**, //Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992//. This is one of the required course texts.

NOTE: the Goffman reading is being pushed back to Wed Sep 15.

As with all plays this semester, I'm asking you to read the entire thing BEFORE the first day we are scheduled to discuss it. For this particular play, I strongly recommend that you start by giving yourself 10-15 minutes online to familiarize yourself with the basic facts about the 1992 riots in Los Angeles that are the subject of the play: who was Rodney King, why did the verdict in his case trigger riots in L.A., what shape did those riots take. That way, the sometimes indirect way that characters have of talking about the events will make more sense to you.

Wed Sep 15 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * READ: Erving Goffman, from //The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life//. Available for download as a PDF through the Raynor library's online class reserves system. (Log in at []. Find our class (ENGL 2720 -- Introduction to Literature; Drama) and access the materials with the password "drama".

Fri Sep 17 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * Review both Goffman and Smith.

NOTE: On the print calendar, you'll see an indication that we will be Performing a "Group meme." We will not be doing this. Instead, we'll be doing this (I'll explain in class).

=WEEK 4=

Mon Sep 20 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * BRING Smith, Goffman, and Huizinga, and come prepared to talk about what you have planned for the essay

Wed Sep 22 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * PEER REVIEW: Theoretical Exploration essay. Bring two print copies of a full draft of your essay for review by your peers.

F Sep 24 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * DUE: Theoretical Exploration essay. Please read the assignment sheet carefully for my expectations about the finished version of this essay, and look at the course syllabus for the details of formatting your margins, typeface, etc.
 * BRING Lynn Riggs, //The Cherokee Night and Other Plays//. You DO NOT need to read anything from this for Friday's class.

=WEEK 5= M Sep 27 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * READ: //Green Grow the Lilacs//, the first play in one of our required course texts from the bookstore, Lynn Riggs, //The Cherokee Night and Other Plays//.

NOTE: You may want to begin planning ahead now to view the 1955 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's //Oklahoma!//, which I will be asking you to view in its entirety before next Wednesday's class (October 6). The item is available for viewing through the reserve desk of Raynor Library. But to avoid having 60 students over the next week competing to watch this one copy, I should also note that the film is widely available in video stores, through Netflix, etc.

W Sep 29 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * MEET in Marquette's Helfaer Theatre in a location yet to be announced (not our regular classroom).

We will be meeting with Stephen Hudson-Mairet, an experienced scenic designer and Chair of Performing and Media Arts in Marquette's Diederich College of Communication. He will be giving us a backstage look at what goes into a stage production, with specific reference to the current Performing and Media Arts production of the musical //[|The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee]//.

This show runs September 23 - October 3, 2010. And seeing it would be a good way to satisfy part of the course participation requirement (though it doesn't have to be this one, I'm asking you to see two plays at some point this semester). Tickets went on sale this week, and you might want to get them right away to get your choice of seating. Students rates are $10 per ticket. And if you come to the show on the second Thursday of the plays run (i.e., on September 30), students get in two for the price of one student ticket. See [].

NOTE: You may want to begin planning ahead now to view the 1955 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's //Oklahoma!//, which I will be asking you to view in its entirety before next Wednesday's class (October 6). The item is available for viewing through the reserve desk of Raynor Library. But to avoid having 60 students over the next week competing to watch this one copy, I should also note that the film is widely available in video stores, through Netflix, etc.

F Oct 1 (click here for the day's discussion questions)

NOTE: Change to original calendar of assignments


 * BRING: Green Grow the Lilacs

NOTE: You may want to begin planning ahead now to view the 1955 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's //Oklahoma!//, which I will be asking you to view in its entirety before next Wednesday's class (October 6). The item is available for viewing through the reserve desk of Raynor Library. But to avoid having 60 students over the next week competing to watch this one copy, I should also note that the film is widely available in video stores, through Netflix, etc.

=WEEK 6=

M Oct 4 (click here for the day's discussion questions)

NOTE: Change to original calendar of assignments


 * READ: Mordecai Gorelik, "On Stage" (just part of this chapter) and "Pictures and Platforms," from //New Theatres for Old//. Available for download as a PDF through the Raynor library's online class reserves system. (Log in at []. Find our class (ENGL 2720 -- Introduction to Literature; Drama) and access the materials with the password "drama".

This is an analysis of the role of scenic design in the theater from 1938-1940, roughly contemporary to all three of the plays we are looking at in this unit: //Green Grow the Lilacs// (1931), //Oklahoma!// (1943), and //Power// (1938).

NOTE: You may want to begin planning ahead now to view the 1955 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's //Oklahoma!//, which I will be asking you to view in its entirety before next Wednesday's class (October 6). The item is available for viewing through the reserve desk of Raynor Library. But to avoid having 60 students over the next week competing to watch this one copy, I should also note that the film is widely available in video stores, through Netflix, etc.

W Oct 6 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * WATCH: the 1955 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's //Oklahoma!// You should watch the entirety of this movie prior to today's class. The item is available for viewing through the reserve desk of Raynor Library. The film is also widely available in video stores, through Netflix, etc.


 * Production details of film:** Samuel Goldwyn Company; music, Richard Rodgers; book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; screenplay by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig; produced by Arthur Hornblow, Jr.; directed by Fred Zinnemann

F Oct 8 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * CONTINUE TO DISCUSS //Oklahoma!//

=WEEK 7=

M Oct 11 (click here for the day's discussion questions)

> []
 * READ Arthur Arent, //Power: A Living Newspaper//. Available through the //New Deal Network// at [], with the script itself at:
 * PRINT OUT AND BRING: Scene One: "Opening Scene" and Scene Three: "Kilowatt Hour"

If you prefer this in print form, I have placed a collection of Federal Theatre Plays on class reserve at the reserve desk in Raynor Memorial Library.



W Oct 13 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * BRING //Power//, scenes one and three (same as Monday) PLUS scene five
 * READ (DON'T NEED TO BRING) from the New Deal Network, "Electricity in the Limelight: The Federal Theatre Project Takes on the Power Industry," online at [].



F Oct 15 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * READ around in the production notes for //Power//, dir. by Brett Warren, as produced at the Ritz Theatre in New York, February-August 1937. Poke around in this at []. Find, print, and bring at least one page that you find interesting.

=WEEK 8=

M Oct 18 (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * PEER STAGING of rewritten scene for the Formal Analysis project. Come with a finished draft of the scene rewrite portion of your project.

W Oct 20 NO CLASS (but click here if you'd like to post a question to the discussion board)

F Oct 22

NO CLASS (but click here if you'd like to post a question to the discussion board)

NO CLASS NOTE: Your original print version of the calendar has the Formal Analysis project listed as due today at 5:00 p.m. Disregard this. The project will be due in class on Wednesday, October 27.

=WEEK 9=

(click here for the day's discussion questions)
 * M Oct 25**


 * PEER REVIEW of Formal Analysis project. Come with a finished draft of the analysis portion of your project.

NOTE: This represents a change from the original schedule.

(click here for the day's discussion questions)
 * W Oct 27**


 * DUE: Formal Analysis project
 * BRING: Theodore Ward's //Big White Fog//. This is one of the required texts from the bookstore. You do not need to read it before class - just bring it.

NOTE: This represents a change from the original schedule.

(click here for the day's discussion questions)
 * F Oct 29**


 * READ: Theodore Ward's //Big White Fog//.



=WEEK 10=

(click here for the day's discussion questions)
 * M Nov 1**


 * BRING: //Big White Fog//

(click here for the day's discussion questions)
 * W Nov 3**


 * READ & BRING: Aristotle's //Poetics.// This is one of the required course texts. Concentrate on pages 10-36 (sections VI through XVIII). You should read through sections I through V (pages 1-10), but don't worry too much about the content. And you can skip sections XIX through the end (pages 36-60) in their entirety.
 * BRING: //Big White Fog//

(click here for the day's discussion questions)
 * F Nov 5**


 * BRING //Poetics// and //Big White Fog//

=WEEK 11=

(click here for the day's discussion questions)
 * M Nov 8**


 * BRING //Poetics// and //Big White Fog//

(click here for the day's discussion questions)
 * W Nov 10**
 * BRING //Poetics// and //Big White Fog//

(click here for the day's discussion questions) PEER REVIEW: Dramatic Evaluation essay
 * F Nov 12**
 * BRING: two print copies of a full draft of your essay for review by your peers.

=WEEK 12=

(click here for the day's discussion questions)
 * M Nov 15**
 * DUE: Dramatic Evaluation essay. Due in print in class.
 * BRING: William Shakespeare, //Macbeth//

Intro (Witches) from Republic Pictures production of //Macbeth// (1948), directed by Orson Welles media type="youtube" key="Z1_I36qHDts?fs=1" height="385" width="480"

(click here for the day's discussion questions)
 * W Nov 17**
 * READ & BRING: //Macbeth.// In reading, concentrate on the following 8 scenes: **Act I:** Scene I and III; **Act II:** Scene II; **Act III:** Scene IV; **Act IV:** Scene I; **Act V:** Scenes I, V, and VIII.

Assassination scene from Republic Pictures production of //Macbeth// (1948), directed by Orson Welles

media type="youtube" key="MF6a9QQWM10?fs=1" height="385" width="480"

(click here for the day's discussion questions)
 * F Nov 19**
 * BRING: //Macbeth//
 * READ: Wendy Smith, "The Play that Electrified Harlem," in the Federal Theatre Project Collection of the Library of Congress's //American Memory// site. Link to from []. The article is 4 pages long and you will have to click through each page individually.
 * SKIM & BRING ONE PRINTED PAGE FROM: Production notes for Macbeth, as directed by Orson Welles for the Negro Unit of the New York Federal Theatre Project, April 14-June 20, 1936. Link to from []. Look at anything you'd like. But you might especially enjoyed browsing the first few pages of the playscript, starting on pg. 17 of the production notebook.

=WEEK 13= (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * M Nov 22**


 * READ: James Franco, "A Star, a Soap and the Meaning of Art" from the //Wall Street Journal//, December 4, 2009, at []
 * VIEW: "Acting With James Franco Episode 1: [|Sense Memory] ," on //Funny or Die//.

media type="custom" key="7540725"

Yoko Ono, "Cut piece" (1965) [] []

Marina Abramovic, "Rest energy" (1980) []

Jackson Pollock 51 []

NO CLASS: Thanksgiving Break
 * W Nov 24 - F Nov 26**

=WEEK 14=

M Nov 29
(click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * READ & BRING: Euripides, //The Trojan Women// (this is one of the required texts from the bookstore).

You will find it extremely helpful to read the brief introductory note to the play at the beginning of our Dover edition of it. And if you are not familiar with the basic story of the Trojan War (who the Acheans and Trojans were and where they lived, what role Helen & Paris played in sparking the war, what the Trojan Horse was, what happened to people like Odysseus, Hecuba, Agamnenon, and Cassandra after the war), I strongly suggest you look this information up in any basic reference source.

HERE ARE SOME BASIC FACTS TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE PLAY

Background
This mock CNN report created for a 2004 Los Angeles production of the Trojan Women gives a useful introduction to the region in which the play is set and some of the background events, at: []

Names
And how to keep them straight.

The Trojans and the Greeks (Achaeans) were the two opposing sides in the Trojan War.


 * The Trojans:**
 * Troy was located on the northwest corner of the Anatolian peninsula in what is today Turkey, along the Aegean Coast between Izmir to the south and Istanbul to the north.
 * The Trojans were were defeated by the Greeks in the war: the men were killed (including the King Priam, and his sons Hector, Paris, and Astyanax), the women were taken into slavery (including Queen Hecuba and her daughter Cassandra), the city was burned, and the temples were desecrated.
 * In //The Trojan Women//, the city of Troy is also referred to as Ilium; the Trojans forces are sometimes referred to as the Phrygians; and Paris (who had kidnapped Helen from the Greeks) is also called Alexander.


 * The Greeks:**
 * The Greeks - most often referred to as the Acheans in the play - came from a number of regions of what is today Greece.
 * The Acheans defeated the the Trojans by sneaking into their city walls hidden inside a large wooden horse. In the atrocities that followed, the angered the goddess Athena. As a consquence, they suffered much after the war: Odysseus condemned to wander for years, Agamnenon killed by his wife (that's a whole separate set of tragedies), etc.
 * In //The Trojan Women//, the Greek forces are variously referred to as the Achaeans, the Argives, the Danaans, the Hellenes, or the forces from Argos, Athens, Sparta, or Achaea.


 * The Gods:**
 * At the beginning of the play, we see the god of the seas, Poseidon, speaking with one of the daughters of Zeus, Athena.
 * Poseidon was allied with the Trojans, and Athena with the Greeks; but Athena was offended by the Greeks actions following the victory over Troy, and conspires with Poseidon to create trouble for the Greeks on their return home.
 * In //The Trojan Women//, Athena is sometimes called Pallas Athena or simply Pallas (in Roman mythology, she would become Minerva); Aphrodite is sometimes called Cypris or Cytherea (in Roman mythology, she would become Venus).

Map


Map developed by Daphne Kleps for the //Iliad Homepage// for the Humanities 110 course at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, at []

W Dec 1
NOTE: NOT in our usual classroom (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * MEET: In Raynor Library, room 245 for a Library Instruction Session with Marquette Librarian Susan Hopwood.

It will help if you come with a pretty good idea of what play and what productions of it you would like to research.

F Dec 3
(click here for the day's discussion questions; this will take you to the same page noted below)


 * BRING: Euripides
 * POST: Any facts or links you can find concerning the the Federal Theatre Project production of //The Trojan Incident//, New York, Apr 21, 1938-May 1938. I will create a page for you to do so on our wiki (click here).

Edit this page to add in any scrap of information you can find about the 1938 Federal Theatre Project's adaptation of Euripides's //The Trojan Women//, which they titled //The Trojan Incident//. This could include details of cast and crew, information on performance dates, primary materials related to the production, bibliographic information for performance reviews or relevant scholarship, or anything else you can come up with. I'll get you started with some treasure hunt questions, but to make this work it will help to pick up the trail where others leave off.

=WEEK 15=

M Dec 6
(click here for the day's discussion questions; this will take you to the same page described on Friday, December 3)


 * BRING: Euripides

W Dec 8
(click here for the day's discussion questions)
 * BRING: Euripides

F Dec 10
PEER REVIEW of Research Essay (click here for the day's discussion questions)


 * BRING: two print copies of a full draft of your essay for review by your peers.

=FINAL EXAM WEEK=
 * DUE: Research Essay
 * DUE: Participation Reflection

Both of these items are due at the same time, and they should be turned into me personally in my office (333 Coughlin):
 * If you are in section 102 (11:00 MWF), they are due 1:00-3:00 p.m., Wed. Dec. 15,
 * If you are in section 103 (1:00 MWF), they are due 1:00-3:00 p.m., Tue. Dec. 14