Course Requirements:

Response Papers
Everyone must submit FOUR response papers over the course of the semester.  Response papers are due in class on the day that we are discussing the work with which the paper deals.  These should be typed, double-spaced papers of approximately 3-4 pages, and they should focus on the play text.  However, if critical essays have also been assigned, you might apply or comment on the critical perspective adopted in the essay in writing your response paper.  It probably makes the most sense to write responses about the plays to which you have the strongest reactions (either positive or negative).  What is it that affected you?  Are there certain characters, themes or images that are particularly striking to you?  Can you imagine staging this play?  What would that entail?  What sort of set, costumes and props do you think are called for?  Why?  There are many other issues you could address in a response paper.  If you are stumped, look ahead in the syllabus to the discussion topic identified for the day on which you will submit your response paper.  Does that give you any ideas?

        Given the way that the schedule is set up, THREE of your response papers MUST be submitted BEFORE Spring Break.

Final Project
        At the end of the course you will submit a 12-15 (undergraduate) or 20-25 (graduate) page essay on a topic of your choice.  The Roosevelt, Columbia and DePaul libraries have excellent holdings on contemporary women’s drama, and your RU ID gives you lending privileges at all three.  You will have no problem locating ample research materials to help you write a detailed critical paper.  Take careful notes on the graduate student reports on supplemental readings.  You may find a topic that interests you in one of these texts.  Keep careful reading notes on the play texts and critical works that we read together.  You might want to read additional work by one of our playwrights and consider the common themes (or lack thereof) in their scripts.  Perhaps a particular critical perspective will capture your imagination and you will choose to apply it to dramatic texts that the original author does not discuss.

        For those of you who are creative writers, you may submit a script of your own as your final project.  However, it should be new, original work and NOT a script that you have been writing for some time.  Also, you should include a 3-5 page discussion of how you see your play fitting into the canon of women’s drama and addressing any pertinent critical or theoretical perspectives from the theatre and performance theory that we have read as a class.

Paragraph-length descriptions of your final project topic are due on March 22.

You will submit a draft of your final project to me two weeks prior to your scheduled project presentation date (see below).

 
Project Presentation
        On the last two class days, we will host a mini conference in class, and everyone will present a 15-minute talk on their final project.  You may be as creative with this presentation as you wish.  If there is a web site dedicated to the text(s) you are writing about, we can arrange to have a computer with internet connection in the classroom and visit it together.  If there is a video version of a play that you are discussing in your paper, we can view an excerpt from it. (Please make technical arrangements of this nature with me at least two weeks in advance).  You will still have time to refine your project before you turn it in after you have made your presentation.  So, if your audience raises issues that you have not fully considered, you will have the opportunity to use their feedback to your advantage as you complete revisions.

Outside Reading Report  (GRADUATE STUDENTS ONLY)
        Each student taking the course for graduate credit must prepare one report on an essay or performance text in addition to the required reading for the course.  These pieces should be chosen from the reading list provided.  I will either supply the text for you, or help you to acquire it from the library.  While all of the graduate students are invited to read EVERY supplemental text, you are only required to report on one.  When preparing your report, keep in mind that it is possible that no one else in the class will have read this material.  Summarize the main points as clearly and succinctly as you can.  Prepare a handout if you think it would help the class follow your report.  Also, there is a method to the madness.  Each of the readings has been placed in a particular place in our reading schedule.  An important question to consider (and to guide your classmates in contemplating) is: What is the connection between this essay or performance text and the texts that were assigned for today?

        These reports should be no more than fifteen minutes long.  However, discussion of the issues raised might occupy much of the class period.  Although the presenter does not need to stay in the hot seat for the entire class, you are certainly welcome to help direct any ensuing discussion.

Grades will be calculated as follows:

Undergraduate                                                                    Graduate
Response Papers             40%                                            Response Papers                 20%
(10% each)                                                                              (5% each)   

Project Draft                    15%                                             Project Draft                        15%            

Project Presentation      15%                                             Project Presentation           20%

Final Project                     30%                                            Final Project                          30%

                                                                               Outside Reading Report      15%