"Единственный зритель, которого должен представлять себе автор, это идеальный зритель, то есть он сам. Все остальное имеет отношение к театральной кассе, а не к драматическому искусству." Nabokov [ The only spectator, any author should invision, is an ideal spectator, i.e. himself. The rest has relation to box office, not to dramatic art. i AA ] Outline of the page-chapter:

Use glossary, topics, subjects and themes pages! The future influences the present just as much as the past. ~Friedrich Nietzsche


SHOWS: 12th Night

2003-2004 * Modern Drama (textbook): This comprehensive and balanced anthology offers a collection of 25 works of modern and contemporary drama from the 1870s through the early 1990s. Features twenty-five plays that often demonstrate a significant breakthrough in maturity of expression and style for each playwright — important leaders in the development of modern and contemporary drama.

Summary

Part I. Craft Antiquity *
Part II. Art Shakespeare *
Part III. Theory Chekhov *
Part IV. Play

Questions

Chekhov's monologues and scenes. (Boor) NOTE: This translation was first published in 1922 by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. It is now a public domain work and may be performed without royalties.

Notes

200 Words Post (after reading each play):

Paragraph 1: Plot Summary -- Describe in one paragraph the storyline of the play (six or seven sentences).

Paragraph 2: Theme(s) (Meaning or premise) -- What is the playwright saying to us? What is the point of the story or plot? What comment is the writer making about society? Support your theme statement from an action, dialogue or scene from the play.

Paragraph 3: Form -- tragedy, comedy, melodrama, or tragicomedy? Why you believe it is a particular type of play by using examples from the play (refer to definitions in texts to justify your selections).

Paragraph 4: Conclusion -- Discuss the play's universality. Will it withstand time? 100, 1000 years? Why? Peronal Opinion (Summary). O'Neill online *

PLAYS online ***

According to Goethe, "Gozzi maintained that there can be but thirty-six tragic siutations. Schiller took great pains to find more, but he was unable to find even so many as Gozzi." (list of sources at the bottom) NEW: Part V: Writing *

Playscript Analysis

Dramatic Literature

Shaw -- Pygmalion
In 215 at the end of the semester you write YOUR own monologue. In 413 -- a scene.

I will try to collect all playwright pages here (like new ones in PLAYS directory -- wright, wrong and etc.), but first you have to understand the difference between drama analysis for performers and writers.

I am changing the usual designation of meaning "text" in theatre; I call TEXT the performance, therefore any play is "pre-text"... So, actors and directors "write" their texts based on pretexts (plays). If you are a playwright, you should know how to write the texts pregnant with the TEXTS on stage!

Perhaps, you better read my old paper 3 Texts in Theatre Theory directory.

...

The new pages for playwrights (wright, right, wrong, rules and etc.), some in script.vtheatre.net directory (writer page, for instance). "New" means not fully developed.

Anatoly, Fall 2003 ...

Playwrights

2007

Sample monologue from The Bear, one-act by Chekhov:

SMIRNOV: I don't understand how to behave in the company of ladies. Madam, in the course of my life I have seen more women than you have sparrows. Three times have I fought duels for women, twelve I jilted and nine jilted me. There was a time when I played the fool, used honeyed language, bowed and scraped. I loved, suffered, sighed to the moon, melted in love's torments. I loved passionately, I loved to madness, loved in every key, chattered like a magpie on emancipation, sacrificed half my fortune in the tender passion, until now the devil knows I've had enough of it. Your obedient servant will let you lead him around by the nose no more. Enough! Black eyes, passionate eyes, coral lips, dimples in cheeks, moonlight whispers, soft, modest sights--for all that, madam, I wouldn't pay a kopeck! I am not speaking of present company, but of women in general; from the tiniest to the greatest, they are conceited, hypocritical, chattering, odious, deceitful from top to toe; vain, petty, cruel with a maddening logic and in this respect, please excuse my frankness, but one sparrow is worth ten of the aforementioned petticoat-philosophers. When one sees one of the romantic creatures before him he imagines he is looking at some holy being, so wonderful that its one breath could dissolve him in a sea of a thousand charms and delights; but if one looks into the soul--it's nothing but a common crocodile. But the worst of all is that this crocodile imagines it is a masterpiece of creation, and that it has a monopoly on all the tender passions. May the devil hang me upside down if there is anything to love about a woman! When she is in love, all she knows is how to complain and shed tears. If the man suffers and makes sacrifices she swings her train about and tries to lead him by the nose. You have the misfortune to be a woman, and naturally you know woman's nature; tell me on your honor, have you ever in your life seen a woman who was really true and faithful? Never! Only the old and the deformed are true and faithful. It's easier to find a cat with horns or a white woodcock, than a faithful woman. (The Boor)

[ How to approach the writing project? ]

playwrighting.net

Monologue as a "mini-play" (Aristotle's Six Elements checklist)