Writing practices that you use
Summarizing: Students will
occasionally summarize the events in
the text.
Paraphrasing: Taking the given text
and rewriting the dialogue in your own render difficult language such as that of an
words.
Character Paperwork: My students
answer Uta Hagen’s nine questions
concerning the character they are
playing at the time. The questions are
as follows: Who am I? What time is it?
Where am I? What surrounds me?
What are the given circumstances?
What are my relationships? What do I
want? What is in my way? What do I
do to get what I want? It may seem
that some of these questions can be
answered quite quickly—however the
attention to detail and specificity of
their answers is a large part of this
writing and greatly informs their
achievement of class objectives.
Script Analysis: At times, students will Script Analysis helps to ensure that my students
Objectives that the practices help you achieve
This helps students to garner a well-rounded
understanding of the action and the trajectory of
the play. In addition, it can help them to find the
“catalyst” of the action in the play which will
greatly inform their characterization—are you
the doer? Or are you the one that rides out the
consequences of another’s actions.
While this task obviously helps students to
Ancient Greek dramatist or Shakespeare more
accessible, this task is also very valuable to
contemporary acting. By paraphrasing, the
student gets a better grasp of a character’s
objective (a theatre term that means what a
character wants). Every time a student takes on
a role they MUST identify their objective in
order to find success in their portrayal of that
character. Identifying an objective is frequently
an assignment in my class.
Another objective:
Develop and synthesize original ideas in a
drama/theatre work utilizing critical analysis,
historical and cultural context, research, and
western or nonwestern theatre traditions.
This sort of writing is more imaginative than it
is analytical. While students will draw from the
given circumstances of the script, they will also
fill in the blanks in order to make the character
they have their unique interpretation. No two
Hamlets are ever the same—and it is this work
that helps them to adopt the perspective of their
character. This type of writing helps them to
achieve the objective of portraying a character
in a truthful and believable manner.
Other objectives include:
Apply a variety of researched acting techniques
as an approach to character choices in a
drama/theatre work.
Synthesize knowledge from a variety of
dramatic forms, theatrical conventions, and
technologies to create the visual composition of
a drama/ theatre work.