I've extracted some questions out of last year's emails (only the ones that are still relevant this year). They're arranged them in groups according to what I thought their central concerns were. In some cases students responded; in others I've added responses from me in italics.

Mechanical issues

Do you have to participate in both a task group and an edit group as a requirement to pass? . . . about task/edit groups, I'm pretty sure we'll work in one or the other, depending on the play and the size of these groups. I think the syllabus mentions that we'll be forming these groups for each play we study, so I'm sure everyone will have the opportunity to be in both. . . . [It should be understood that you need to be in both a task force (researching a play and presenting a Web site) and an editorial team (taking the information from a task force and editing it to a playgoer's guide) in order to qualify for an A (not in order to pass the course.]

[I wonder] if attendance is mandatory, or at least how many times can we miss it? Also how often that you will be checking attendance. I am always in class, as another question asked, we might not be able to make it if there is controversy with class time and play time. [My attendance policy is in the course intro: attendance "counts" the same as any other task completed.]

Are the plays these teams will be working on different from the five plays we have to see for the course requirement? Or will it include the five plays we have to do? I'm just wondering, because if that's the case, we'll have to do our response and reflection work required for our five plays in addition to the team work. [The five includes the ones you work on for a task force or editorial team.]

The scripts that we have to read to write or reviews on, do we have to research and find the scripts ourselves or are they provided for us. . . . can you perhaps acquire for us all the scripts for the plays several weeks in advance, perhaps all the plays in one handout, for us to read and respond to, and in this way get a ‘leg up’ in the course load by completing our script responses? [Scripts are acquired and distributed in different ways, but the most common is that I make a few copies and arrange to have them signed out overnight, so that we can share them. Sometimes they're on line, and sometimes I can get copies put on reserve in the library. Depends on the play.]

Logistics

My question is in regard to pricing for the plays we're required to attend. Will there be any discounts for us as students in this course (or as students at all)? Further, what is the average cost of a ticket? . . . I can't say for sure, of course, whether we'll get a discount as members of the course. My guess is we won't, simply because most theatres are trying to turn a profit and because there is no cost for texts involved with the course. The student price for theatre tickets (especially when the play is being put on at STU or UNB) is usually substantially cheaper than the price for 'regular adults', though. STU and UNB, depending upon who is directing the play, usually have tickets in the price range of 5-10$ (but closer to 5$, especially for student directed plays which can even sometimes run for 2-3$). [Yes. Theatre New Brunswick productions are subsidized by McCain's, so students pay only $10. But musicals at the Playhouse -- if there are any -- run a whole lot more.]

I was wondering about the playgoers guide -- I noticed it is to be produced three days before the beginning of the play. Are we aiming to have it available for actual playgoers? By that I mean will there be copies of our work on the seats as they walk in, or available to read beforehand? [Yes. Usually they're inserted in the theatre's programs.]

While we are researching the scripts, does that include interviewing the current director of the plays we choose, just in case there were any text, setting or presentation changes to the scripts we may use? [No. We leave that to them to explain. Our aim is to help the theatregoer be more informed about the context in which the director and company make their decisions.]

I'm curious to know more about the constructing a web site bit: what should be included on the web site, what the style of it should be like, layout, etc. and/or if there are any specifics for it. [I'll demonstrate some. It's not a major undertaking.]

Writing

Russ, in the outline, says: 'respond thoughtfully to at least two postings by others on the reading forum...'. I'm wondering whether the responses have to be to two different people or just to two different postings. If, for example, I write to someone and she writes back to me and then I write back to her, am I set for my two postings? What does a response have to be (other than thoughtful and the appropriate length) to count? . . . I noticed that our postings of no less than 200 words are; 1) for both script reflections and performance reflections (which means four) 2) under the heading which predicates this task of being for five plays, culminating in twenty two-hundred word postings that we alone are responsible for. [That's not far off, but given the kind of writing it is I don't think it's daunting -- and it's not been a problem in the past. 200 words isn't much if you really have something to say.] I think I have to read the course description again, it's still a little fuzzy [Always a good idea.]

Are people outside of the class (directors, audience members, cast and/or crew, interested parties) welcome to comment on/ read the forum? It's an online thing, so I assume it's available for viewing by people outside of the class....? Also, would a response to someone 'visiting', if someone does choose to 'visit' the forum, count as one of our two responses? [Yes.]

Evaluation

With regards to the task force work, is that production graded on a qualitative basis by you, Russ, or is that work simply pre-requisite for the possibility of a higher mark than B through the learning log quality alone? [The latter. I don't grade things: I count them, and evaluate a final learning reflection. I'll say some more about this in class, but it's worth reading the section of the intro on that again.]

Will our final learning synthesis be on a forum like the responses to the plays where we will respond to others etc., or on our web sites? [Web site, as a final entry in your learning journal.]