Kelly Bremner (Theatre and Drama)
Assignment 2—15% of final grade
You are interning as a dramaturg for New Classics, a theatre company in London. You have been assigned to the upcoming performance of Anouilh’s Antigone to be directed by the world famous director Sheila Nowslitle. You have received the following e-mail, so please respond to her.
Listen… we are in a bit of a jam on the upcoming production. I understand you can’t come over here until you are through with the semester, but I need your help as soon as possible. Maybe with all those great libraries around you can get together a little something for me? My biggest questions at this stage are:
- What was going on politically in Europe as Anouilh was writing that might have caused him to make the changes from the Sophocles version to his version?
- What kinds of visual art and music may have influenced Anouilh’s play?
- Should we try a Brechtian approach to the script?
Could you maybe look into one of these questions and send me your findings? Five pages or so will be fine. Oh and could you tell me where you found the information and what kinds of things you were able to find in each source? You’re the best!
J Sheila
A successful response will involve some research into the topic. You will need to summarize that research and make some suggestions on how that research may help the director interpret the play. You will also need to keep track of what sources you consulted in an annotated bibliography. This requires using MLA form to list the sources (see the MLA Handbook, or the MLA website, or the campus’s Writing Center website) and then writing one sentence about what you found in each of them. We will talk more about how to do this in class.
This assignment will come in stages, which I will collect.
Due Date 1 (four weeks before the end of class)—choice of question and one paragraph of preliminary thoughts on the topic (in journal).
Due Date 2 (three weeks before the end of class)—your annotated bibliography so far and your introductory paragraph ending in your thesis statement.
Due Date 3 (two weeks before the end of class)—drafts of your paper, conferencing with your peer groups and professor to follow. You will get your drafts back from me at the conference.
Due Date 4 (last day of class)—final copy of your paper.