ENG 4150 DMWA Berggren
GROUP WORK:
SCENE STUDY ASSIGNMENTS
Each of you will take part in a collaborative fifteen-minute oral presentation that comprises two different but related activities. The goal of this assignment is to experience the plays from multiple perspectives, both as an actor and as a critic. These interrelated activities account for approximately 15% of your final grade.
- The first step in your preparation is to spend time reading and rehearsing the scene among yourselves. I have selected a series of scenes crucial to the development of the play in question, with an indication of how many roles are involved in each of the scenes. Most of them call for three or four actors. You may divide the lines among yourselves as you prefer. For the actual performance video, you will have to decide as a group how to handle the direction and videotaping. You will post the video of your scene to the course blog the day before the oral presentation is scheduled for critique and discussion by the class. We will devote part of our second class session to modeling how this scene study should be approached.
- The second step is to speak to the class about the scene, as critics whose understanding has been enhanced by the experience of performing. I will propose some questions about the scenes in question, but you should feel free to add others as different points of importance occur to you.
- 1. YOU MUST MEET TOGETHER BEFOREHAND TO ANALYZE THE MATERIAL AND WORK OUT A PLAN TO SHARE YOUR IDEAS WITH THE REST OF THE CLASS. THOUGHTFUL TEAMWORK IS ESSENTIAL.
2. YOU SHOULD NOT READ OR MEMORIZE YOUR REPORT. THESE ARE TO BE INFORMAL BUT WELL PREPARED PRESENTATIONS. Divide the material among yourselves and know it well enough to have a conversation about it with each other and the others members of the class.
3. TO ENRICH YOUR INTERPRETATION OF THE MATERIAL, DO SOME SUPPLEMENTARY RESEARCH THROUGH BOTH LIBRARY AND WEB INVESTIGATIONS. Document all your sources for the class and be sure that you do not simply read (parrot) the ideas of your sources. Absorb them and offer them from a critical distance.
Be sure that your presentation has a THESIS: what point of view are you advocating?
GROUP 1 – John Lyly, Endymion
Reading: 5.1.10-152 (3 participants)
DUE: Monday, 25 February
Shazia Ahmed
Briana Kaufmann
Angelic Rivera
GROUP 2 — Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus
Reading: 5.1.9-118 (4 participants; some doubling required)
DUE: Wednesday, 6 March
Peter Barone
Wendy Chow
Karly Lawniczak
Raymond Vazquez
GROUP 3– Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker’s Holiday
Reading: Scene 16, ll.1-143 (4 participants)
DUE: Monday, 18 March
Jasmine Bajraktari
Jillian Gritz
Melissa Salamat
Peter Wang
GROUP 4 – Ben Jonson, Volpone
Reading: 3.7.19-164 (4 participants)
DUE: Wednesday, 10 April
Tomasz Augustynowic
Kayla Callahan
Emma Green
Glenda Rodriguez
GROUP 5 – John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi
Reading: 3.2.1-144 (4 participants)
DUE: Monday, 22 April
Melissa Carbuccia
Daisy Chan
Lyaman Izmaylova
Jonathan Lambert
GROUP 6 – Thomas Middleton and Thomas Rowley, The Changeling
Reading: 4.3.1-103 (4 participants)
DUE: Monday, 6 May
Eda Deniz
Sabrina Esclavon
Thomas Hamill
Zsolt Rozsavolgyi
GROUP 7 – Philip Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old Debts
Reading: 3.1 1-102 (2 participants)
DUE: Monday, 13 May
Peter D’Antonio
Eugene Kharonov
