Instructor:    Robert Donahoo

                        408 Evans Complex

                        Office Phone: 396-294-1421

                        Home Phone: 281-298-1442 (no calls after 9:00 p.m.)

                        Home E-mail:        donahoo@flex.net

                        Office E-mail:        eng_rxd@shsu.edu

                        Web page: www.shsu.edu/~eng_rxd

                        Office hours: 12:45-2:00 Tuesday/Thursday

Class Meets:    9:30 Tuesday/Thursday, Room 260 Evans

Texts: Ayckbourn, House and Garden, Faber and Faber
                Foote, Last of the Thorntons, Overlook Press
                Gilbert et al., Modern and Contemporary Drama, St. Martin’s Press
                Soyinka, Collected Plays 2, Oxford UP
                Stoppard, Arcadia, Faber and Faber

So what are you going to do in this course?

As the textbook list may suggest, we're going to read a lot of plays. But we're also going to think about them in two different but important ways: as works of literature--words written on a page in highly patterned and original ways; and as blueprints for a performance--descriptions, actions, and words meant to be reproducible before a live audience. The two are not always mutually exclusive, but they suggest two mind-sets not always covered in every literature course. We're also going to try to clarify the distinction between "modern" and "contemporary" that one of our texts uses in its title. In other words, we're going to think about how the art of drama has evolved in the twentieth century. In doing so, we'll focus largely on American and British plays, but not exclusively. Students should complete the course feeling they have had at least a taste of what the world of modern and contemporary drama has to offer.

You'll show your grasp of the course content—and earn grades—in three ways.

First, the class will undergo three essay exams. The first two will take place during the course, and the third will occur during the time scheduled for final exams by the university. Each exam will focus on only those plays covered during one third of the course, and my current plan is to provide questions in advance to maximize your ability to demonstrate your knowledge. Collectively, these exams will form one third of each student's grade for the course.

Second, students will work on a group project that plans a practical production of one play. These projects will be presented in class just prior to the mid-term point, and they will also include written commentary. A detailed assignment is found on my web page under the materials for this course. The paper is titled, "Drama Group Project Assignment." Grades on this project will be assigned to the group, and that grade will determine one third of a student's course grade.

Third, students will submit write two papers analyzing, from a literary perspective, two different plays. The exact assignment for these two papers can be found on my web page under the materials for this course. The page is titled, "Drama Paper Assignments." The grades on these two papers will combine to determine one third of each student’s course grade.

Finally, I must regretfully say a word about attendance. I hope the readings alone are enough to encourage students to come to class to participate in a discussion of ideas; I will certainly attempt to offer insights and ideas which students will find intellectually stimulating. However, a few students may need more urging than that. Therefore, I offer both a carrot and a stick. Each time a student attends a complete class, he/she will receive one extra credit point added to his/her next exam. Because this reward is extra credit, no account can be taken of the reason for any absence. To get the reward, you must be present--period. As for the stick, any student who misses 7 or more class sessions will be docked one letter grade on the final course grade. Any student missing 14 or more class sessions will automatically fail the course. This should be difficult to do, but I've known a few folks who have managed to find a way to do it. Also, because these numbers are fairly generous, no account will be taken of the reason a student misses a particular class—unless a lengthy absence due to illness is involved.

That behind us, let me present the reading schedule for the course:

Thursday, 1/10 Introduction to the Course: Getting Drama(tic)

Tuesday, 1/15        Ibsen, A Doll's House

Thursday, 1/17        Strindberg, Miss Julie

Tuesday,                  Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

Thursday, 1/24        "Don Juan in Hell" (Act III of Man and Superman)  http://www.bartleby.com/157/3.html

Tuesday, 1/29        O'Neill, A Moon for the Misbegotten

Thursday, 1/31 O’Neill, A Moon for the Misbegotten

Tuesday, 2/5        Miller, Death of a Salesman

Thursday, 2/7 Miller, Death of a Salesman

Tuesday, 2/12 Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Thursday, 2/14 Exam One

Tuesday, 2/19        Group I Presentation

Thursday, 2/21 Group II Presentation

Tuesday, 2/26 Group III Presentation

Thursday, 2/28 Ionesco, "The Lesson"

Tuesday, 3/5        Becket, End Game

Thursday, 3/7 Albee, The Zoo Story

                                First Paper Due

Tuesday, 3/12 No Class, Spring Break

Thursday, 3/14 No Class, Spring Break

Tuesday, 3/19        Pinter, The Homecoming

Thursday, 3/21 Pinter, The Homecoming

Tuesday, 3/26 Stoppard, Professional Foul

Thursday, 3/28 Stoppard, Arcadia

Tuesday, 4/2         Stoppard, Arcadia

Thursday, 4/4        Exam Two

Tuesday, 4/9        Foote, The Last of the Thorntons

Thursday, 4/11 Fugard, "Master Harold" . . . and the Boys

Tuesday, 4/16 Wilson, Ma Raney’s Black Bottom

Thursday, 4/18 Second Paper Due

Tuesday, 4/23 Soyinka, The Lion and the Jewel

Thursday, 4/25 Soyinka, The Trials of Brother Jero and Jero’s Metamorphosis

Tuesday, 4/30 Ayckbourn, House and Garden

Final Exam for Graduating Seniors Must be Taken on this Date

Dramas, like all literary works, are usually thought to contain some idea or philosophy that the words, actions, and backdrop work to communicate. As students of literature, part of our task is, even if we don’t particularly "like" a play, to explain the ideas or philosophy lying beneath the surface. That task involves analysis and explication. Both paper assignments below ask you to do such work. However, the two assignments vary in the types of plays provided as the primary texts for each assignment. Assignment one has a brief list of plays that have been the subject of much academic discussion; assignment two has a list of plays that have yet to receive a great deal of scholarly attention.

Most students will write both papers. However, any student earning a grade of either "A" or "A-" on assignment one need not write the paper described in assignment two. Instead, those students need only select a play from the list provided for assignment two, read it, and schedule a conference to discuss the play with me. If they do so, they will earn the same grade for both assignments. However, anyone earning a grade of "B+" or lower, must write both assignments.

These two assignments are of equal value, and collectively they will determine one third of a student’s grade for the course.

Below is a list of Modern and Contemporary plays that have been the subject of much commentary by academic scholars and critics:

--G.B. Shaw’s Major Barbara

--T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral

--B. Brecht’s Galileo

--L. Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author

--E. O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh

--C. Odets’s Golden Boy

--L. Hellman’s The Little Foxes

--J. Osborne’s Look Back in Anger

--S. O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock

--A. Miller’s All My Sons

Once you have chosen a play for study, go to the library and begin to research what academic writers have had to say about your play. In your research, focus on book-length studies of your author, essays in essay collections, and journal articles; do not rely on internet information for basic research, though you may it find it useful to point you to print sources. Try to collect seven to 10 sources for a sense of how the play you selected has been read in academic circles as well as to make you more aware of your text’s major literary elements.

Drawing on your research and on your own careful and creative reading of the play, begin the work of analysis. A literary analysis attempts to understand how a written text produces a meaning by examining its literary qualities. As a process, it involves three major steps: identifying the dominant literary elements at work in the text, characterizing the nature or focus of each literary element, and synthesizing that information into an inclusive and complete statement of a meaning for the text.

The keys to success are

1. a good knowledge of literary elements. Hopefully, each student begins the class with an understanding of such terms as "plot," "setting," "image," and "symbol." These alone will carry a student quite far in analysis. However, the best students will seek to expand their critical vocabulary using literary handbooks and a guide found on my web page.

2. reasonable and clear characterizations of each element. It isn’t enough to say that a play has the plot boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy murders girl. A student needs to be able to see this is a revenge plot and thus give revenge a place in the meaning found in the play.

3. devising a meaning statement that grows organically from the elements analyzed as well as one that is complete in itself. Too often students will substitute a topic for meaning: "This play is about love." Even if the statement is true, it tells only the play’s topic, not its meaning. Similarly, students often devise meaning statements that leave the key issue in doubt: "This play is about how a person succeeds in life." Here, the word "how" represents what the reader most wants to know—the heart of the meaning--, but the statements omits it. A better meaning statement is found by "doing the math": adding the characterizations found in the analysis of elements into a coherent statement. For instance, if in reading August Wilson’s play Fences, I found the play contains images of working, symbols of slavery, a happy tone, a comic form, and a summer job setting, I might well write a meaning statement for the poem such as, "August Wilson’s Fences suggests that summer jobs are joyous experiences of hard work, just like slavery." This example, of course, suggests one problem: it’s possible to come up with a meaning statement that defies common sense or our common understanding of language. In this case, "slavery" is not generally connected to joy. When this occurs, the student should examine the play again to see if the characterization of the elements is correct. Perhaps the "chains" initially seen as symbols of slavery were actually the golden kind that is, more appropriately seen as jewelry and therefore symbols of wealth.

4. waiting to write until the analysis is complete. Let me emphasize that writing should not begin until the task of analysis is complete because the meaning statement should not be written before analysis uncovers the text’s elements. Writing should involve producing a brief introduction that uses the meaning statement found through explication as the thesis for the paper. Writing should also produce a catalogue of the elements found, arranged in order of their relevance to the meaning statement/thesis. Each element found needs to be discussed in its own paragraph, proved to be part of the text, and its connection to the meaning statement established. Finally, writing should produce a brief conclusion, often focusing on the question, "So what?" This is the point in the paper where a student can agree or disagree with the idea found in the text or where the quality of the story can be evaluated based on its successful or unsuccessful use of elements.

5. proofreading the paper, making sure that it is formatted according to MLA style and free of mechanical errors.

The more mechanical aspects of the assignment are:
--the paper should be approximately 5-10 pages in length. The variation is due to the varying degrees of commentary and complexity found in each play. Let the complexity of your material determine your paper’s length.
--the paper must follow MLA style for documentation and format. A paper that does not follow MLA format will be returned unread with a grade of "F," and there will be no opportunity for revision.
--the paper is due Thursday, March 7. Because of constraints on my time for grading, no late papers will be accepted.

 The criteria I will use in grading the paper are:
--mechanical and stylistic correctness. Be sure to read your own writing, and check, don’t guess, about MLA rules.
--evidence of careful reading of the literary text. Be sure you don’t settle for the surface of the play.
--evidence of academic research. Use the library—books and journals—not just the internet.
--evidence of an analysis based of examination of literary elements.
--a definite, argumentative thesis that grows out of and is connected to the analysis.

We will practice some of this analysis in class, but students should feel free to ask questions and send me rough drafts—particularly draft thesis statements.

Finally, take this advice: start early and have fun. When questions arise, contact me. I would greatly like to see your thesis statement before you write the paper. That can be done through a conference in my office hours or via e-mail.

Below is a list of Modern and Contemporary plays that, while not ignored by academic critics, have generally been the subject of less academic commentary:

Sam Shepard's Fool for Love

David Mamet’s A Life in the Theater

Craig Lucas’s Reckless

Marsha Norman’s ‘Night Mother

David Rabe’s Streamers

Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw

Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls

David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly

Vaclav Havel’s Temptation

Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles

Alfred Uhry’s The Last Night of Ballyhoo

Christopher Durang’s The Marriage of Bette and Boo

One limitation must be placed on a student’s choice of plays. Three of these offerings are plays covered in the group assignment project. If your group focused on a particular play, do not write on the same play for this assignment.

As with paper one, students are encouraged to do research to help them jump start their thinking about the play, but be prepared to find limited information—much of which will likely be biographical in nature (seldom useful since you are not writing a report) or dealing with specific performances (of some value, but still limited). However, armed with whatever information they can find, students should undertake the job of analysis, keeping in mind the same ideas and issues discussed in assignment one.

Once analysis is complete, students are ready to form a meaning statement/thesis for their paper. If students have any doubts about the direction of their meaning statement, they are strongly encouraged to discuss it with me. Some of these plays are, to put it nicely, odd and may leave students a bit confused.

The more mechanical aspects of the assignment are:
--the paper should be approximately 5-10 pages in length. The variation is due to the varying degrees of commentary and complexity found in each play. Let the complexity of your material determine your paper’s length.
--the paper must follow MLA style for documentation and format. A paper that does not follow MLA format will be returned unread with a grade of "F," and there will be no opportunity for revision.
--the paper is due Thursday, April 18. Because of constraints on my time for grading, no late papers will be accepted.

 The criteria I will use in grading the paper are:
--mechanical and stylistic correctness. Be sure to read your own writing, and check, don’t guess, about MLA rules.
--evidence of careful reading of the literary text. Be sure you don’t settle for the surface of the story or poems you select.
--evidence of academic research. Use the library—books and journals—not just the internet.
--evidence of an analysis based of examination of literary elements.
--a definite, argumentative thesis that grows out of and is connected to the analysis.

We will practice some of this analysis in class, but students should feel free to ask questions and send me rough drafts—particularly draft thesis statements.

 Finally, take this advice: start early and have fun. When questions arise, contact me. I would greatly like to see your thesis statement before you write the paper. That can be done through a conference in my office hours or via e-mail.

Unlike most literary texts that are fixed and unchanging on a published page, a play is part of a collaborative, living process that makes each production a unique interpretation of the written text. This project is designed both to enable students to practice some of the elements of that process and to experience the joys and frustrations of collaborative work.

Following the first week of class, students will be divided into three groups and assigned to work on one of the following plays:

Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love

Caryl Churchill's Top Girls

David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly

For their assigned play, each group will need to make decisions about the following elements of production:

set design (how can the descriptions offered in the text be realized in a way that will best facilitate the action that must take place? what will the general "look" be?)

costume design (what kind of clothes should the actors wear? will you keep the period of the play or alter it? what clothes will signal to the audience the characterization you want them to see?)

                                                     textual changes (does the play need cutting for either audience endurance or for clarity?)

                                                     casting (what actors or actor-types would work best in the major roles and why?)

program design (what will the audience be handed as they arrive that will help them start to think about the play as you want them to think?)

background music (if music is called for in the text, what music should it be? what music should be played between acts or during scene changes)

directing guidelines (what instructions should the director give to each actor about the way to play his/her character.

audience reaction (what effect does the production want ideally to achieve on those who watch it? How should this effect be defined in terms of both intellect—what the audience is made to think—and emotions—what the audience is made to feel?

In a presentation to the class, the group must offer to the class:

                                                    --a brief summary of the play

                         --a statement of the meaning the group feels the play is trying to communicate and that they wish to                             stress in their production.

--pictures, descriptions, models, mock-ups, sound-bites, etc. for each of the items listed above, explaining during the presentation how these reflect or encourage the interpretation of the play the group has made.

The exact method of presentation is up to the group, but it must all be accomplished within 30-40 minutes. Also up to the group is the best method for organizing itself to get the work done.

In addition to the oral presentation, the group must submit to me in writing (typed of course):

--a one page (maximum) statement of the meaning of the play arrived at by the group and the basic reasoning the group used to arrive at this meaning.

--a one or two page description of the work done by individuals in the group (example: Bill and Sally came up with the costume ideas; Bill hunted down photos of some costumes in magazines while Sally sketched drawings).

Everyone in the group will receive the same grade (unless the group reports that one or two members offered no contribution), and that grade will be determined by

--the clarity of the interpretation.

--the degree to which the production elements support the interpretation.

--the thoroughness of the justifications for each production element.

--the degree of intellectual interest encouraged by the presentation.

Take these presentations seriously. Read the play carefully, and do research (for brownie points, you could always turn in a bibliography). You can even ask questions of the professor. Also, note that no class sessions are set aside for the groups to work; part of the task of this assignment is to coordinate schedules and set up communication channels. Ideally, the groups should plan on at least three other sessions to discuss the play, assign responsibilities, and be sure each group member is carrying his/her load.

Presentations will take place February 19, 21, and 26. Be ready and show your creativity and your knowledge.