Open Theater Assignment 3 – Group rewrite of a small portion of a play or creation of a new scene

Students will work in groups to either rewrite and recreate a small portion of a scene from a familiar play, or write and create a new scene for a play or movie. They can take an existing small portion of a play (10% or less) and create a parody of it, or add a new twist. Rewriting portions of a scene for a different time period may be another example, or changing a character or their decision at a certain point in the play is another. We encourage the students to use their imagination and creativity. Students will work on different aspects of the production. For example, one student may focus on recreating lighting, while another focuses on set design to fit the mood of the scene.  Another can focus on costume design. A fourth student writes the lines of the characters. Sound design is also considered in the assignment. Overlap of effort on the elements of the production can occur within the group. Collaboration, imagination, creativity and flexibility are key elements of working together on the assignment.

Students will agree to post their new or rewritten scene (or small portion of a play) on the Pressbook site, “Introduction to Theater – Learning Resources.” A new chapter will be created to display the students’ images of lighting, costumes, makeup, set design, sound and the rewrite of the lines. The students will give the name of the play and scene they are creating or recreating, as well as the author and director. The students will make a list of the characters they are including, with descriptions of changes to the characters of the scene and plot. They will include the new lines of the play for each of the characters listed in their scene. Images of lighting, costumes, makeup, and set design can be sketches, or digital images created by the students in graphic programs and posted with the new lines within the Pressbook site chapter. They can also use found images of costumes, lighting, makeup, and sets to convey their thoughts, within usage rights. Students can embed sounds or songs found on the internet to convey mood. Students will be asked to put a Creative Commons CC BY notice with their work.

Assignment 3 supports the learning objective, “By the end of the course, the student will be able to apply knowledge of theater production and history towards creating short theatrical moments.”

Aligning course materials include Theatrical Worlds, Chapters 1-6 (Intro to Theater, Acting, Directing, Set Design, Costume Design, and Lighting Design), and Playwriting 101 website, Chapter 12 on writing dialogue (see: http://www.playwriting101.com/chapter12).

The students will compile their images, descriptions of changes, and the new dialogue within a PowerPoint presentation or Word document and upload it to the learning management system as a backup and proof of work for grading purposes.

Rubric for the Group Assignment 3:

Alternative to Assignment 3: Individual Development of an Aspect of a Scene

Students will work individually, choosing an aspect of a scene of their choice. They can pick an existing scene within a play and recreate an aspect of it, such as lighting, set design, costumes, historical context, characters and new dialogue, or the student can work on one of these theatrical elements for a scene of their own creation. The student will give the name of the play and scene they are recreating, as well as the author and or director. If the student is creating a new scene, she or he will give a title to their play and scene. Recreations of existing plays, will only be a small portion of a scene (less than 10%). These can be parody, anachronistic, or express a twist of plot or character. The student will thoroughly represent his or her chosen theatrical element, explaining it in writing, describing his or her thoughts behind decisions and representations. The student can include photos of hand drawn sketches, digital photo-montages or illustrations created in a program of their choice, or use found images within usage rights. Students will be encouraged to use their creativity and imagination.

Students will agree to have their new or rewritten theatrical element of a scene posted on the Pressbook site, “Introduction to Theater – Learning Resources.” A new Chapter will be created to display the students’ images of lighting, costumes, makeup, set design, characters, and the rewrite of character dialogue.

Assignment 3 supports the learning objective, “By the end of the course, the student will be able to apply knowledge of theater production and history towards creating brief theatrical moments or elements of a scene.”

Aligning course materials include Theatrical Worlds, Chapters 1-6, and Playwriting 101 website, Chapter 12 on writing dialogue (see: http://www.playwriting101.com/chapter12)

The students will submit their images, descriptions of changes, and/or the new dialogue within to a Blackboard assignment as a backup and proof of work for grading purposes.

Instructions Written for Students

In this assignment, you’ll work in a group towards creating a small portion of a play. The amount should be around 10% or less to avoid copyright infringement.  It’s okay to focus on one scene, or aspect of a scene. Aspects of the play or scene that you can recreate include: rewriting the dialogue of characters, introducing a new character/s if needed, costume design, set design, blocking of characters on stage, lighting, and thoughts about sound design.

Decide who will work on which aspects of the production. It’s not necessary to assign one person exclusively to one role. Cross-pollination of ideas is okay. Work on areas of theater production that appeal to you.

For writing dialogue, you can use Jonathan Dorf’s Chapter 12: Dialogue Element found at www.playwriting101.com as a reference on how to format it.

For costume design, set design, blocking and ideas about lighting, you can create drawings with color pencil, graphic programs that you are familiar with to convey ideas, and/or found images on the web.  Please be sure to cite your sources using MLA format found at the Purdue: OWL site (see: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/).

You can take photos of your drawings with a digital camera or phone and upload them to the assignment area as .jpg, .png or .gif files. You can also use a scanner found on the third floor of the Multimedia lab in the Michael Schwartz Library to digitize drawings.

Photos of miniature sets, dolls used as actor stand-ins with costumes (See: http://www.shfiguarts.com/ or https://youtu.be/LByz-QMRoFQ), colored-modified flash light and actor positioning are also welcome. A wooden 3-D model exists for Blender, if you’d like to use this 3-D program for posing, lighting or set design. (See: https://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/74733). You can use whatever you can get your hands on to convey your artistic vision.

For images found on the web that convey your vision, consider creating a Pinterest account and creating a public or unlisted board of images for the assignment. You can then use Pinterest embed code within Pressbooks to place the image in a chapter. Pinterest will also generate a URL that you can copy and paste into either a chapter in Pressbooks, a Word document or Power Point presentation. An example of a board called Renaissance Women’s Clothing can be found at https://www.pinterest.com/hcaprette/renaissance-womens-clothes/. The URL for this was generated from Pinterest’s Widget Builder tool. One down side to Pinterest is that it’s not always possible to discern where an image originally came from, in order to give credit to the original author.

For sound ideas, you can record your own sound effects, or songs, and upload these files to the Bb assignment as well as insert them as media in the Pressbook’s chapter. You can also find sound effects or songs that you want to use and either link to them, or embed Youtube video code in the Text view of Pressbook’s content editor.

The final assignment will be published in a Pressbook called Introduction to Theater – Learning Resources – Spring 2018 hosted by the Michael Schwartz Library at CSU. You can work on building a chapter there with all the components you create, and you can turn in Word documents, Power Point presentations, image and sound files within your assignment in Blackboard Learn. When you submit your group assignment, list the name of your chapter in the Pressbook that you created, all members of the group and who worked on which components. It would be helpful to pick one group member to create the Chapter within Pressbooks.

For an example of what could be submitted for this assignment, please see Chapter 3.1 A twist on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in a Fall 2017 Pressbook called Introduction to Theater – Learning Resources – Fall 2017.

An example of a completed rubric for Heather Caprette’s assignment 3, A twist on Romeo and Juliet, is below:

The assignment can contain some flexibility about degree to depth of coverage of multiple scenes, if multiple scenes are worked on.