We'll continue the scene by scene walk through the play, starting in Act 2, scene 1, at the point just before Ariel re-enters to awaken Gonzalo.

Onstage are ALONSO (asleep), SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO (asleep), ADRIAN (asleep), FRANCISCO (asleep), and ARIEL.

As last time, in the order in which they appear in the scene, everybody should try to summarize what your character is doing in the scene, and why you think she might be doing it, and whatever else seems important. If you're puzzled by it, say that; we'll all try to figure it out. After each character voices her summary, we'll take time for questions and suggestions.

I'd like to try to finish the play, but there's lots to talk about. We'll go faster than last time, but I don't want to freeze out any good questions or complicated issues.

From tomorrow on

You need to see the drama class production of The Tempest. You should write a descriptive reflection on the production with special emphasis on your character(s) and the way they were presented, how it seemed to you they differed or were the same from how we thought they acted or were presented or what that did in the production. Avoid saying anything evaluative: this isn't a review, nor an evaluation: it should be a reflection on what you learned about the character (and thence about the play, about plays, about theatre) in the course of this whole exercise. Post this on your Web site as tempest.htm, and create a link to it from your main page. Do this within a day of seeing the production, or at the very latest by next Sunday.

For Thursday

You should have read Romeo and Juliet (re-read it, if you have read it before), with an eye to a character you might want to focus on. I'll have a signup sheet.

We'll do this one a little differently. I've created a Romeo and Juliet Ceilidh forum. It's linked from the main English 1006t page. Locate the first scene your character appears in and post to that thread, with the subject line simply the character's name. Your posting should be a fairly short (but long enough to be comprehensible) statement of what your character does in the scene, and why (as if you were playing the character: what's the character want to achieve, what are her strategies, etc?) Be specific, but you don't need to summarize the scene: we've all read it. This is about trying to see what your character's position is in the play as a whole. (If other people have posted on that scene, read what they've said. If you want to respond to someone else by asking a question about her character, feel free.)

Acts I and II are on the forum; the rest will be up as I get a chance. By class time Thursday you should have posted for any scene in the first two acts in which your character appears.