Guideline for Playgoing Report #3

NOTE: EACH PLAYGOING REPORT IS DIFFERENT. MAKE SURE TO USE THE CORRECT GUIDELINE FOR THE REPORT YOU ARE DOING. IF YOU USE THE WRONG GUIDELINE YOUR OVERALL GRADE ON THE REPORT WILL BE LOWERED 10 POINTS AUTOMATICALLY.

The plays you use for reports must have been seen no earlier than one month before the semester started. A play that you saw SEVEN months ago, for example, will not be accepted for these assignments.

Music concerts and Dance concerts cannot be used for these assignments. If you are not sure of the difference, email the instructor to ask.  

ABOUT THESE REPORTS:

The point of the Playgoing Reports is to

Connect what we are looking at in class to what you are watching and experiencing when you go to the theater.

Define what you will be posting and talking about in the Discussion thread.

When you are doing these reports, you don’t need to look at in the same way you would a term paper or an essay.  The guidelines I am giving you are pretty specific, but they are really intended to give a prompt for posts in the discussion thread.

Each Playgoing report will have a different focus to it, depending on what we are covering in class.

I encourage you, when you go see the play to take notes, and also make sure to grab a program. It’s a good reference to have, and I also might ask you to say specific things about it.

REPORT #3

In your post include:

1. The name of the Play

2. The name of the theater where you saw the play

3. The Date you saw the play

4. Style of Theater space; Thrust, Proscenium, Arena or something else (describe space if not one of these three)

5. State about how many people you think the theater seats. A rough guess is fine.

6. The Playwright’s name

7. The Director’s name

8. A brief synopsis of what the play was about (three or four sentences)

9. Choose ONE of the design elements of the play. You can talk about either the set, lights, costumes or sound (please note that sound design does NOT refer to how the actors use their voices, how loud they are or any of that. Sound design for purposes of this assignment, refers to added sound that is part of the story telling. In your program their should be a sound designer listed. You are analyzing his/her work, not the work of the actors). Give a brief description of what you saw or heard. Talk about why the design choices either worked or didn't work for the play you saw. Be specific. Avoid just saying things like "I liked it", or "I didn't like it." Give details and explain how they supported, or didn't support, the play you saw. Choose only ONE design element to focus on. I want you to choose only one element of design to encourage you to go more in depth in your analysis. It is very easy to talk about three different things and give one quick sentence about each. That is not what I am asking for. I would like you to really look at the design you are choosing and make what connections you can as to how those design choices supported or did not support the show you watched. Remember that everyone who participates in putting on a play is a story teller in their own way, and they are all trying to help tell the same story. So think about and write about whether or not the design you choose helped tell the story, or not, and how it achieved this, or, where it missed. Be as specific as you can.  

Your original post should be about 200 words and is worth a possible 30 points.

Your 2 responses to other people’s posts should be about 150 words each, and worth a total possible 5 points each.