FUNDAMENTALS OF SPEECH
WRITING PRODUCTION RESPONSES FOR STAGE PLAYS
PURPOSE: Your critical Response of a dramatic performance involves analysis, evaluation, and critical thinking. A Response is not just an “opinion paper.” You need to make claims about the success or failure of the Movement and Speech strategies used in the show, but most importantly, you need to give examples from the performance that prove your points. Don’t just discuss the production – use your critical thinking to support your claims with evidence!
FORMAT: Three full pages with 1.5 spacing and one-inch margins.
PLAGIARISM: you must use your own voice and resist the urge to plagiarize. This assignment requires no research, and is meant to be pure analysis of the play by you alone. Copying from sparknotes.com is easily detectable.
STRUCTURE: Make sure you include the basic information early in the opening of your Response: name of play, name of theater and location, writer(s), director(s), actor(s), designer(s), or any special information (premiere, revival, etc.). The body of your Response must include a analysis of the opening dance, brief summary of the story, a discussion of the themes, and your evaluation of the performers’ success or failure, analysis of the closing dance, and final thoughts.
The following questions may help you to analyze the production you’ve seen. The Production Response should not simply be short answers to these questions, which are only meant to help you evaluate the show. Organize your essay around your main points.
Study Questions for Responses:
1. IDEA: What is the subject of the play? What comment or statement is made about the subject? What was the playwright attempting to do in writing this work? Would you classify the play as tragedy, comedy, melodrama?
2. PLOT: Does the play have a good story? How unified are the events? How believable? Was it interesting? Why?
3. TITLE: How is the title appropriate or inappropriate for the work?
4. CHARACTERIZATION: Identify the central character(s). What motivates them? What facets of the character’s personality are revealed by what he or she does (action) in the play?
5. DIALOGUE: Did the dialogue approximate real conversation? Was there an attempt by the writer to create heightened language? Was the dialogue effective in creating a distinctive world for the play?
6. ACTING/SPEECH: Which actors were strong in their roles? Which were not? What were the primary reasons for an actor’s success or failure? How well did the actors speak? Did their work seem spontaneous, relaxed, and natural? Were they easy to understand? Did they have clear and resonant vocal qualities? How precise was their articulation? How well did they listen to each other? How well did they use gestures and movement to draw emphasis to their performance?
7. Dancers/Dances: Were the dancers strong in their roles? Which were not? What were the primary reasons for a dancer’s success failure? How well did the dancers emote? Did their work seem spontaneous, relaxed, and natural? Were they captivating? Did they have clear body language? How precise was the articulation of the movement? How well did they dance in the space together? How well did they use gestures and movement to draw emphasis to their performance? Were there vocals? How effective were the vocals? Were the vocals clear and resonant?
- Cited sources (13% or less plagiarism no citations needed, 14%-28% plagiarism must have cite sources, 29% and higher unacceptable)
- Clear introduction
- Clear analysis of the first dance
- brief summary of the story
- Clear Analysis of the performance
- Clear analysis of the last dance
- Final thoughts
- THIS IS AN ACADEMIC PAPER: Each paper will also be graded on proper Grammar and essay structure (paragraph segmentation (Indent first sentence of each paragraph, 3-6 sentences per, use proper punctuation, proper spelling, academic vocabulary, Academic language, DO NOT USE transitions and contractions)
You will submit your paper into the turnitin tab!
0 comments