A. P. English – Hutchinson/Paul 2nd Semester Drama Assignment

Due: Monday, April 21

Now that you’ve seen some plays and are reading a couple in class this semester, it’s time to read a play on your own and do some work with it. Choose a play by one of the great American playwrights below and find a copy to read in any library or order it online. Then complete the activities outlined here.

(Listed in somewhat chronological order of when they were/are writing):

Eugene O’Neill (Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Iceman Cometh, Strange Interlude,

Desire Under the Elms, Moon for the Misbegotten, Mourning Becomes Electra)

Lillian Hellman (Little Foxes, The Children’s Hour, Toys in the Attic)

Thornton Wilder (The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Our Town, The Skin of OurTeeth)

Tennessee Williams (The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire,

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Night of the Iguana, Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo)

Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman, The Crucible All My Sons, A View From the Bridge,

After the Fall, The Price, Broken Glass)

William Inge (Picnic, Come Back Little Sheba, Bus Stop)

Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin in the Sun)

Edward Albee (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Delicate Balance, The Sandbox,

Ballad of the Sad Café, Seascapes, Three Tall Women)

Neil Simon (Come Blow Your Horn, Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple,

The Gingerbread Lady, Prisoner of Second Avenue, Biloxi Blues,

Broadway Bound, Lost in Yonkers. NOT Brighton Beach Memoirs!)

John Guare (The House of Blue Leaves, Moon Over Miami, Six Degrees of Separation)

David Mamet (American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed the Plow)

Sam Shepard (True West, Buried Child, Fool for Love)

August Wilson (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Piano Lessons, Jitney)

Wendy Wasserstein (Sisters Rosensweig, The Heidi Chronicles)

Rebecca Gilman (Spinning Into Butter, Boy Gets Girl, Blue Serge)

I.) ANALYSIS (50%) – Approx. 1 page each

A.) Compare the play to other great works you have read. Are any of the characters similar to those in other novels, plays, or short stories? How so? Do you see similar themes? Motifs? Foils? Discuss connections you see between this play and at least 2 other works of literature. Then trace these themes chronologic-ally in the “grand conversation” about the human condition. (Ex: notions of good vs. evil, God, family, love, living a meaningful life.) How does this later work add to or build upon the conversation?

A.) Choose two minor characters in the play that you find interesting. Explain how each character is central to the play in some way, and how his or her relationship(s) with one or more of the main characters makes each character important in the play.

II.) CREATIVE WORK (50%)

A.) Find a poem or song that strongly echoes a theme or motif in the play. Include a copy of the lyrics, and then explain how it relates in a significant way to the play. Be specific with lines or phrases of the poem or song. Do not choose a piece that only peripherally touches upon something in the play – be sure to choose a work that has a strong and significant connection. Your analysis should be approx. 2/3-page.

B.) Write a soliloquy of approximately 2/3-page in length for one of the main characters. Note where in the play the soliloquy would be inserted. Be sure to use the character’s authentic voice and diction, and let the character be thinking about what would be foremost on his or her mind at this moment in the play. Give us some added insight into the character that you believe the author has suggested but not stated in the play.