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Academic Year 2003/2004
A Playwright's Workshop--Great Experiments in Theater
THEA 299 FA
This course may be repeated for credit.
While the course will cover the fundamentals of playwriting, the emphasis is on the students' own work. Published plays will be read and discussed to illustrate certain points, but the majority of the time will be spent
doing writing exercises, reading each others' work aloud in class and responding to it, discussing specific concerns, interests or problems the students may be confronting in their writing, and experimenting with
different
directions and solutions. By the end of the course, each student will have written a play, which will be presented to the public as a rehearsed reading.
MAJOR READINGS
We will read a few contemporary scripts to observe the way other playwrights have directed their own experiences, memories, fantasies, and worldviews toward the dramatic moments which support every play.
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Open-ended playwriting exercises--designed to facilitate the discovery of dramatic material--will form the bulk of the work.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
Essential aspects of dramatic writing--plot exposition, pacing, one act vs. full length, the importance of stage action--will be discussed and technical problems inherent in the dramatic form will be considered. A
workshop atmosphere will prevail so
that students can engage in the kind of collaborative approach to problem solving which all dramatic writing requires. Two individual conferences with the instructor will be scheduled as part of the workshop. Students
will be asked to concentrate on on
e project for most of the semester--a project they are already at work on or one they discover for themselves in the workshop.
COURSE FORMAT:
Lecture/Discussion
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
NONE
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
NONE
Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-19-2004
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459