Because Theatre New Brunswick has announced that they are putting on a production of a play, Private Lives by Noel Coward, that is worth finding out about and that may, in addition, be fun to see, I've decided to take some time right now to work on a couple of things that are part of my goals for this course. They have to do with giving you a chance to see more deeply how information and ideas can be found on the Internet and in the library and how they can usefully be shared, and to reflect on the way written  language interacts with oral language. Here's how we can do this.

We'll all need to see the play. As I said in the introduction, this is part of what might substitute for textbooks in this course. As a student, you can get tickets to TNB productions for $10 (an amazing bargain) through the TNB Box Office on Queen Street or online or by phone at their Web site ( http://www.tnb.nb.ca/tickets/ ). The play will be performed Thursday through Saturday, October 17-19 at 7:30 and Saturday afternoon at 2:00. You can attend any performance. We'll be discussing it on line afterward.

One thing I should make clear at the outset is that you'll go to the theatre already knowing quite a bit about the play, so the plot won't be a surprise. I know, yes, about "spoilers"; my opinion is that if a book, play or movie is "spoiled" because you know the ending it's not really much of a book, play or movie (think about how many times we go back to reread a book or rewatch a movie, or to see a new production of a play).

There is a great deal written and published about this play and his author. Lots of it (not all, by any means) is available on line. The interesting problem is, how do you find it and how can we, as a group, cover as much ground as possible, sharing what we learn, between now and the 17th?

We'll start the way people often do, with Google and Wikipedia. These sources are often characterized as superficial and unreliable, and no one ever depends on them for serious academic work -- but they are the most effective possible ways to begin learning about something you're completely ignorant of (or nearly so). The point about both is that they can take you to information, opinions, and ideas that you can take seriously, and that matter for all of us. Part of what we're going to be doing over the next week is seeing how that might work.

There are challenges with organizing this exploration. One major one is that there are 37 people and we need to avoid having everybody follow the same trails and look at the same sources; another is that some exploration routes are either dead ends or far too difficult to attempt without equipment. The ones that, in this case, yields the most information and ideas with the least difficulty are Wikipedia and the UNB library online catalog. We'll start with Wikipedia. Not surprisingly, it's the first hit when you put "Noel Coward" and "Private Lives" into the Google search box.

You'll notice there are lots of other hits -- over 100,000 -- in Google. We'll get to those; for this assignment, let's restrict ourselves to Wikipedia -- and not only that, to the entry on Private Lives. There's another on Coward himself, but it's much more of a challenge to find something relevant to this play there.

So, begin by putting exactly this -- "Noel Coward" "Private Lives" -- into the Google search box. The quotation marks make a difference. I'll explain if enough people don't already know about them. Your first hit will almost certainly be the Wikipedia entry on the play; click on it. Read the opening matter, at least down through the Synopsis. If you don't follow links in Wikipedia, you might try it here for a few, but mostly they link to other Wikipedia entries. For instance, "Deauville" is highlighted; the link takes you to the entry on the place in France ("a fashionable holiday resort for the international upper class"). What we'll be most interested in here are three sections: "Critical reception," "Literary analysis," and -- most important -- "Notes."

Your assignment for next Tuesday, then, is to spend at least a couple of hours poking around these resources until you find something you think will interest the rest of us, or that surprises you. Think about who you're doing this research for: nobody else in the class (I'm guessing) knows anything much about either Coward or his play -- on the other hand, they'll want to be able to see why it's interesting. Too avoid duplication, I've divided the class randomly into three groups, and invite you to look through one of the three columns of footnotes on the Wikipedia page:

Do this by next Monday night; I'll arrange to print and bring to class what's there by Tuesday morning.

Learning Journal

And don't forget an entry for your Learning Journal. My expectation is that if you've spent some time at this, there'll be lots to write about in terms of learning.