Comp II: No More Drama

Bristol Community College

Instructor - Tom Grady Paper due: April 22

Of most contemporary art forms, drama, live theater, always seems to be on the brink of extinction. The following choices for writing allow you to explore and implicitly argue for or against the relative value of drama in your life and your world.

choose 1: choose 1: choose 1: choose 1: choose 1: choose 1: choose 1:

A. The Contemporary Corollary

Choose one of the plays we’ve read and draw corollaries to three different contemporary events. Show how any combination of the plays’ plots, themes, characters, settings, etc. have similarities to those of the events you’ve chosen.

You can use ANY COMBINATION of the following (parens are just suggestions):

1) A recent historical moment: (War on Terror, Imus, Immigration, Waco, Israel/Lebanon conflict, Watergate, South Africa, O.J. Simpson trial, Iraq War, Alberto Gonzales, Michal Jackson, the Guyana mass suicides)

2) Focus on one character: (Agave as Patsy Ramsey, Dionysis as Madonna, Pentheus as George Bush, Picasso as Tom Cruise)

3) Consider a setting or a state of affairs: (The Bacchae and the late 60’s counterculture movement)

For each corollary you must include a quote from both the play and a secondary source relating to the issue you’ve chosen for comparison. So if you were comparing, say, The Bacchae to the late 60’s counterculture movement, you would find a quote from the play and also a quote from some piece of research which examines the 60’s in the same way that you’ve found it similar to the play. 5 pages

B. Catharsis and Didacticism: Then and Now

Discuss how catharsis and didacticism work in The Bacchae and then investigate how a contemporary audience achieves that same sense of purging or transformation. Is it movies? Television? Live concerts? Are the emotions different? Does the author’s intent have any influence over the audience? Where do the similarities end, and what does that say about us and them as a people? Use specific examples, both from the plays and from whatever source you’ve investigated. Feel free to use personal anecdotes to support your theory, though beware of hasty generalizations. Use at least two secondary sources. 5 pages

C. Your Own Play: Update or Satire

Come up with an idea for your own play which achieves ONE of the following:

1) Set a play in a contemporary setting, placing characters who might not otherwise meet each other in a plausible environment: Allan Greenspan meets Bono, as Einstein met Picasso

OR 2) Create a satire of Greek Theater: exaggerate and/or ridicule those tropes which you think are ludicrous or exhausted about Greek Theater as a means of exposing its failings.

With either choice you must include the following:

1) a one page dramatist personae and summary of story and plot.

3) a two page scene excerpt done in play format.

4) a three page rationale for your artistic choices, citing examples from the texts.

Your play should duplicate all the necessary ingredients of Greek Drama, i.e. harmartia, discovery, hero, chorus, etc. You may want to discuss how these things play out in your rationale and quote the plays from which you were influenced.

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·All essays to follow MLA notation.

LEARNING OUTCOMES - evaluation criteria[1]

Writing: Students will move through the processes of writing: inventing, composing, revising, and editing according to the conventions of Standard Written English.
Critical reading: Students will critically read and respond to a variety of texts.
Audience, purpose, voice: Students will compose in a voice appropriate to the audience and purpose of the writing.
Thesis: Students will formulate a thesis and support it with evidence.
Organization: Students will compose coherent and cohesive essays and other texts.
Research, documentation: Students will locate, evaluate, integrate, and document primary and/or secondary source materials to support a position.

[1] Developed by the Writing Committee of Project Connect, a partnership of public higher education institutions in southeastern Massachusetts—Bridgewater State College, Bristol Community College, Cape Cod Community College, Massasoit Community College, and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.