Prof. Derek P. Royal

ENG 442 – Survey of American Literature II

ENG 442 – Drama Presentation

There will be a series of five drama presentations this semester, with the class dividing into groups of 5-6 to present jointly. Everyone in the group will be responsible for carefully reading the play in its entirety, discussing it within the group, and taking significant part in the group oral presentation and formal write-up. For your drama presentation, your group needs to make sure it does the following:

• Introduce the playwright and give a very brief biographical sketch.
• Present an outline of the play to the class—who the main characters are and what happens.
• Discuss the basic dramatic elements of the play, including such aesthetic issues as structure (how the action or the scenes are put together), point of view, dialogue, characterization, setting, theme(s), symbolism, and irony.
• Highlight what you consider to be some of the most significant scenes within the play—to this end you may want to read the passages out loud, present a brief video of a performance of the scene (check with me ahead of time about this), or even have the group members perform the scene.
• Discuss some of the major issues brought up in the play, and what those issues may reveal about playwright’s place and time in American history.
• Give a brief overview of the criticism surrounding this play. Here you will want to look at the initial criticism (responses to the play drama during the time it was originally performed) as well as the “longer range” criticism (more current assessments that have the advantage of historical distance or hindsight).
• Explore some of the problems you might see in the play (remember, just because these authors are anthologized doesn’t mean they’re literary gods or without error).
• Since many of you are in education, it would be a good idea to speculate on how you would teach this play to high school or even a junior high school class. (Or, would you even consider teaching your play to a high school or junior high school class?)
• Provide a 4-5 page formal essay, jointly written and edited by the group, that encapsulates the issues you bring up and discuss in class.

Remember that this is a group effort, which means that everyone in the group must participate in the class presentation as well as contribute to the writing/editing of the essay. So you’ll need to assign responsibilities accordingly. (In other words, if someone’s really good at doing research, that person can do a survey of the criticism. Or if two group members are good writers, they could write up an initial draft that can be critiqued by the others. Or if one of your group members is good at “hamming it up,” they can be the front person for any possible performance in class.) You will need to exchange contact information with your fellow group members and make arrangements to meet several times outside of class. Feel free to use any sort of media in your class presentation, but please keep in mind two things: 1) if you choose to use visual media of any kind you must check with me at least a week before your presentation so that I can make arrangements with Media Services, and 2) make sure that the glitz or dazzle of any media that you use (e.g., video, PowerPoint) does not overshadow the content of your presentation. I’ll be grading your group on content, not how pretty or animated your graphics are.