Teaching Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay in a second-year History of Early Drama course

Helen Ostovich

Major Assignment: Scene Performance and Research Essay

Rehearsal/Preparation

1. Meet and get to know your group members: get everyone's phone and email access. Read the play aloud together, discuss its meaning, and select a tentative scene for your 5-7 minutes of performance. This may take more than one meeting. Timing is a KEY factor. We may need 6 groups to perform within a 50 minute period. Keep your set to a minimum.
2. In the library or online, read current scholarly and performance views of your play. Each person should locate at least 3 articles of value in discussing meaning in the play as related to character, performance, setting, or any idea that appeals to you and which you would like to think about in terms of performance. Start with First Search. MLA Bibliography, and the Journal Portal online. Discuss what you've read with your group. Keep a list of what members of your group are reading and how you all assessed the articles. Do not expect one person to do all the research: each of you is responsible for finding scholarly articles and production reviews. Titles and abstracts of articles should be shared. One section of your final paper will be on the literature search (that means the list of research articles and books you've read) and how your group tried to incorporate, or decided not to use, the information. Information should be specific, AND you should be able to identify by name students who find great articles or argue convincingly for adopting an idea that developed out of reading. 
3. Read the scene you've selected with your group, experimenting with the casting. Look up any words or expressions you don't understand. Check the pronunciation of unfamiliar words. Scan the verse lines to make sure emphasis and rhythms are accurate. Make sure there is always someone to act as voice coach and movement coach.
4. Rehearse the reading of verse lines so that the delivery is clear, and so that intonations and pauses are meaningful. Experiment with different 'attitudes' in speaking and moving. You may discard many of your experiments, but they will help you find the right tone for your scene. Make sure each member of the group is projecting loudly enough, speaking slowly enough, and conveying a tone of voice important to the scene.
5. Discuss the shape of your scene: what point are you trying to make in your presentation? How does your scene help an audience to understand the rest of the play? Discuss the implications of your choices.
6. Work out blocking and movements to accompany your lines. Don't feel you have to accept editorial stage-directions [usually in square brackets]. Authorial stage directions should be considered carefully before you discard them. Remember that any staged action acquires meaning.

The Research/Performance Essay

The essay is due on the date specified. Check the date and schedule in the course syllabus. At your tutorial, you will receive reviews and participate in a de-briefing.

What do you include in your essay (10-12 pages)?

ESSAY FORMAT: a thesis is required, establishing your view of the play and the role you performed in it, which guided your perspective. You must have a research bibliography, including all articles or books you consulted, and including film or video consulted, and webpages consulted. The bibliography will list about 10-15 items, in alphabetical order by author, which includes all the materials consulted and shared by your group members. Check the Style Guide.

1. Comment on the group dynamic with your fellow-performers. How did rehearsals go? How were decisions made (about selecting and/or cutting the scene, casting, props, costumes, times to meet, voice, movement, etc.)? BE SPECIFIC ABOUT DECISIONS: GIVE EXAMPLES and name names. Attribute specific ideas to specific group-members. Did a director or voice coach emerge, or did you all share responsibility for voice and movement? How did your group's dynamic help or hinder the rehearsals or the actual performance? This section is not a rehearsal diary: you are trying to track the ideas and interpretations that shaped your scene. It is both practical and theoretical.
2. The literature search for articles, professional play reviews, and books related to your play: how did your research help you make decisions? Did you watch any videos, and how did they help? How did you arrive at a final interpretation of your scene? Were critical articles/reviews, group readings, or group discussion most important finally? Did the group agree, or were there unresolved areas? Last-minute changes? DO NOT DISCOUNT THE RESEARCH COMPONENT. This is a significant one-third of your essay assignment. You do not have to agree with all the research, but you do have to discuss it and its impact on the group. Your reasons for disagreeing will be shaping your view of the play and how it should be performed.
3. What did you learn about the play (the characters, the concepts, the poetry or rhetoric) by performing? What did you learn about the difference between reading, rehearsing, and performing? How did this exercise help you understand the kind of creativity that goes into reading, thinking about, and collaborating on drama? 

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