Drama Assignment Focusing on Dialogue

1. Read Kennedy, Intro to Drama, Chap. 1 (Reading a Play), Chap. 3 (The Theater of Shakespeare), Chap. 3 (The Modern Theater), and Chap. 4 (Evaluating a Play). You might wish to watch a film of Othello or A Doll’s House rather than reading the entire text of those plays, but you should at least look at the text to see the conventions used for dialogue and stage actions.

2. Write a scene from a one-act play (4+ pages).

a) Use standard drama format (see examples in the text).

b) Be sure to include stage directions with the dialogue as needed.

c) Attach an outline of the unwritten portion of the play (the overall plot) so that readers may see how the scene fits into the play as a whole.

c) Accompany the scene with an explanation (several paragraphs long) of how the dialogue helps to establish the characters and plot elements.

3. Post your drafts in the Forums for your classmates and professor to review by Week 12. The final versions will be due at the end of the semester.

4. The scene will be worth 20 points plus 5 points for the explanation (25 points total).