Problems in the preparation of a school play for opening night are discussed in this paper for the benefit of directors who may not have had any previous experience in play production. The questions of what the director does, when he does it, and why he does it are all explored in sections on choosing a play, establishing command, casting, the…

For an introduction to Shakespeare's "Tempest," dramatic interest and tension were created in the classroom through taped interviews with survivors of present-day sea disasters, student improvisations of scenes, music, and historical accounts of shipwrecks. (MF)

An analysis of the works of black playwrights since 1821 (the date of the earliest recorded play) reflects the Afro-American's concern with social revolution and his commitment to revolt. Early forms of protest in black drama revealed the desire to become active members of American society. Following a void in black playwrighting during the…

In terms of structure, the play "Othello" is a distortion of an initiation ritual. Arnold van Gennup, in his book "The Rites of Passage," reduces all initiation rituals into three definable phases: separation, transition, and incorporation. The general pattern of the initiation ritual in "Othello" is as follows:…

An interpersonal perception mode of analysis can provide insight into a playscript, eliminating the protagonist-oriented view of drama and creating a dramatic production with richer texture. Since drama represents its characters' inabilities to process information satisfactorily or to maintain successful interpersonal relationships, all the…

The author presents the argument that television reality is a new kind of performance in our environment: we don't respond to it and it doesn't acknowledge our presence. The images and sounds of television reality are "its", and our human organisms must be disconcerted by these "its" occuring in the privacy of our homes. We are being taught to…

The distinctive philosophies of Bertolt Brecht and Jean-Paul Sartre concerning man's existence directly influence their attitudes toward character, action, and the total drama. Both playwrights reveal that drama is an inseparable and reciprocal molding of content and form. The relationship between their ideas and their expressions of them is so…

This report summarizes part of an investigation of audience response to theatrical settings; it proposes a direction for further research which would examine attitudinal relationships among theatre experts and laypersons, scenic designers, and directors; and it describes additional design-oriented quantitative studies. For the major investigation,…

Theater, ranging from Chicano "actos" to classic Spanish-language drama, is increasingly becoming the forum to preserve and present an emerging body of Hispanic heritage and folklore. (Author/NQ)

The acting career of Alla Nazimova in America is examined, with particular reference to technique and style, which are shown to be nothing more than her personality. The suggestion that her belief and practice was rooted in Stanislavsky's principles is examined and refuted. (JF)

Characters in this short play, designed to interest students in learning about punctuation, are punctuation marks. (MKM)

Scenes from the agreeable "entre-deux-guerres" sojourns of French dramatist Jean Giraudoux in America. (Text is in French.) (DB)

Discusses the implications of structuralism by examining "Introduction to The Structural Analysis of Narrative", a contemporary writing by Roland Barthes. Explains Barthes' terms and concepts by using Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway character for an example. (MH)

Discusses the depiction of women characters in the plays of Alice Childress. Analyzes "Wine in the Wilderness" to demonstrate Childress' skill at characterization and calls for further scholarship on this neglected playwright. (KH)

Presents a dramatic reading which simulates a discussion between Talaat, Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, and Pol Pot with their lawyer, Satan. Explores some of the limitations of the United Nations Genocide Convention and the importance of its revision and expansion to include more events of mass murder of any group within or outside a country's…