How to Teach a Play: Essential Exercises for Popular Plays
Most students encounter drama as they do poetry and fiction – as literature to be read – but never experience the performative nature of theater. How to Teach a Play provides new strategies for teaching dramatic literature and offers practical, play-specific exercises that demonstrate how performance illuminates close reading of the text. This practical guide provides a new generation of teachers and theatre professionals the tools to develop their students' performative imagination.

Featuring more than 80 exercises, How to Teach a Play provides teaching strategies for the most commonly taught plays, ranging from classical through contemporary drama. Developed by contributors from a range of disciplines, these exercises reveal the variety of practitioners that make up the theatrical arts; they are written by playwrights, theater directors, and artistic directors, as well as by dramaturgs and drama scholars. In bringing together so many different perspectives, this book highlights the distinctive qualities that makes theater such a dynamic genre.

This collection offers an array of proven approaches for anyone teaching drama: literature and theater professors; high school teachers; dramaturgs and directors. Written in an accessible and jargon-free style, both instructors and directors can immediately apply the activity to the classroom or rehearsal. Whether you specialize in drama or only teach a play every now and again, these exercises will inspire you to modify, transform, and reinvent your own role in the dramatic arts.

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How to Teach a Play: Essential Exercises for Popular Plays
Most students encounter drama as they do poetry and fiction – as literature to be read – but never experience the performative nature of theater. How to Teach a Play provides new strategies for teaching dramatic literature and offers practical, play-specific exercises that demonstrate how performance illuminates close reading of the text. This practical guide provides a new generation of teachers and theatre professionals the tools to develop their students' performative imagination.

Featuring more than 80 exercises, How to Teach a Play provides teaching strategies for the most commonly taught plays, ranging from classical through contemporary drama. Developed by contributors from a range of disciplines, these exercises reveal the variety of practitioners that make up the theatrical arts; they are written by playwrights, theater directors, and artistic directors, as well as by dramaturgs and drama scholars. In bringing together so many different perspectives, this book highlights the distinctive qualities that makes theater such a dynamic genre.

This collection offers an array of proven approaches for anyone teaching drama: literature and theater professors; high school teachers; dramaturgs and directors. Written in an accessible and jargon-free style, both instructors and directors can immediately apply the activity to the classroom or rehearsal. Whether you specialize in drama or only teach a play every now and again, these exercises will inspire you to modify, transform, and reinvent your own role in the dramatic arts.

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How to Teach a Play: Essential Exercises for Popular Plays

How to Teach a Play: Essential Exercises for Popular Plays

How to Teach a Play: Essential Exercises for Popular Plays

How to Teach a Play: Essential Exercises for Popular Plays

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Overview

Most students encounter drama as they do poetry and fiction – as literature to be read – but never experience the performative nature of theater. How to Teach a Play provides new strategies for teaching dramatic literature and offers practical, play-specific exercises that demonstrate how performance illuminates close reading of the text. This practical guide provides a new generation of teachers and theatre professionals the tools to develop their students' performative imagination.

Featuring more than 80 exercises, How to Teach a Play provides teaching strategies for the most commonly taught plays, ranging from classical through contemporary drama. Developed by contributors from a range of disciplines, these exercises reveal the variety of practitioners that make up the theatrical arts; they are written by playwrights, theater directors, and artistic directors, as well as by dramaturgs and drama scholars. In bringing together so many different perspectives, this book highlights the distinctive qualities that makes theater such a dynamic genre.

This collection offers an array of proven approaches for anyone teaching drama: literature and theater professors; high school teachers; dramaturgs and directors. Written in an accessible and jargon-free style, both instructors and directors can immediately apply the activity to the classroom or rehearsal. Whether you specialize in drama or only teach a play every now and again, these exercises will inspire you to modify, transform, and reinvent your own role in the dramatic arts.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781350017535
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 01/09/2020
Pages: 312
Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.66(d)

About the Author

Miriam M. Chirico is Professor of English at Eastern Connecticut State University, USA. She is a Board Member of the Comparative Drama Conference and its journal, Text and Presentation, and has written extensively on modern and contemporary drama.

Kelly Younger is Professor of English and Affiliate Professor of Theater Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, USA. He is the recipient of numerous teaching awards, including the Fritz B. Burns Professor of the Year. As a playwright, his work has been staged Off-Broadway and internationally. He is a Board Member of the Comparative Drama Conference and its journal, Text and Presentation.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments x

Introduction 1

The Exercises

Hubris and Hamartia based on Aristotle's Poetics 14

Agamemnon Aeschylus 18

The Eumenides Aeschylus 21

Antigone Sophocles 25

Oedipus the King Sophocles 29

Medea Euripides 33

Lysistrata Aristophanes 37

The Twin Menaechmi Plautus 40

The Second Shepherd's Play by The Wakefield Master 43

Atsumori Zeami Motokiyo 46

Everyman Anonymous 50

A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare 54

A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare 57

Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare 60

The Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare 64

The Tragedy of Hamlet William Shakespeare 68

The Tragedy of Hamlet William Shakespeare 72

The Tragedy of Othello William Shakespeare 75

Measure for Measure William Shakespeare 78

The Tragedy of King Lear William Shakespeare 81

The Tempest William Shakespeare 84

Life Is a Dream Pedro Calderón de la Barca 87

Tartuffe Molière 90

The Misanthrope Molière 93

Restoration Theater Audiences 96

The Country Wife William Wycherley 99

The Rover Aphra Behn 102

The Way of the World William Congreve 106

The School for Scandal Richard Brinsley Sheridan 110

Woyzeck Georg Büchner 114

A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen 117

Miss Julie August Strindberg 120

Hedda Gabler Henrik Ibsen 123

The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde 126

Three Sisters Anton Chekhov 129

The Cherry Orchard Anton Chekhov 133

Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw 136

Trifles Susan Glaspell 139

Six Characters in Search of an Author Luigi Pirandello 142

Juno and the Paycock Sean O'Casey 146

Machinal Sophie Treadwell 149

The House of Bernarda Alba Federico García Lorca 152

Our Town Thorton Wilder 156

Mother Courage and Her Children Bertolt Brecht 160

Long Day's Journey into Night Eugene O'Neill 164

The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams 167

Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller 170

Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 174

Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 178

The Crucible Arthur Miller 180

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Tennessee Williams 183

Endgame Samuel Beckett 186

The Birthday Party Harold Pinter 189

Rhinoceros Eugene Ionesco 192

A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry 195

The Zoo Story Edward Albee 199

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Edward Albee 203

Dutchman Amiri Baraka 206

The Homecoming Harold Pinter 209

The House of Blue Leaves John Guare 212

Death and the King's Horseman Wole Soyinka 215

Fefu and Her Friends María Irene Fornés 218

And the Soul Shall Dance Wakako Yamauchi 222

Zoot Suit Luis Valdez 225

True West Sam Shepard 228

Top Girls Caryl Churchill 230

Cloud Nine Caryl Churchill 232

"Master Harold" … and the Boys Athol Fugard 235

Glengarry Glen Ross David Mamet 239

Fences August Wilson 241

The Other Shore Gao Xingjian 244

The Piano Lesson August Wilson 248

M. Butterfly David Henry Hwang 252

Fires in the Mirror Anna Deavere Smith 255

Angels in America, Part One Tony Kushner 257

Information for Foreigners Griselda Gambaro 261

Oleanna David Mamet 264

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Tom Stoppard 267

Blasted Sarah Kane 271

"Art" Yasmina Reza 274

How I Learned to Drive Paula Vogel 278

Topdog/Underdog Suzan-Lori Parks 281

Doubt: A Parable John Patrick Shanley 284

Dead Man's Cell Phone Sarah Ruhl 287

Water by the Spoonful Quiara Alegría Hudes 290

Sweat Lynn Nottage 294

Vietgone Qui Nguyen 298

Exercise Template 301

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