Lots of work to be done

Today's class meeting will be short, in order to enable people to get on with what they need to do. I want to take some time to make sure it's as clear as can be what needs to be done and when, so there won't be more confusion than is necessary.

Finishing up Buried Child

I'm assuming that everyone who did see the production of Buried Child will have posted. If you did attend it, and haven't posted yet, you need to do it before tomorrow night. I'm going to set shorter deadlines -- the Tuesday night after the play closes -- for posting on seeing the next plays, so that we actually have time to have an online discussion. A week seems to me too long. It invites people to post too late for them to remember the experience, and too late for others to read it and respond.

On to other plays

To repeat: scripts for Perfect Pie, Heart's Desire, The Real Inspector Hound, and Black Comedy are available to be signed out.  Here's how it works: a number of copies of each of the scripts are in a box just outside my office door (EC 308; mind the construction work in the hallway). Take one script, and sign your name on the signout sheet, indicating which one you took and when you took it. You can keep it for 24 hours (or, if you sign it out  Friday, till Monday morning). When you bring it back, indicate on the sheet the time and date you returned it.

Scheduling

If you're a member of the Task Force for a play, you have to read and post your reflection before your group begins work. In the case of the folks working on the three plays that open on February 23, that means immediately; you should have read the play by early next week, and posted a reflection on your reading.

You should also have begun working on your research on the play. I suggest that you follow one of the strategies I suggested for finding out about Buried Child, but you may have decided on some questions and issues that come up as a result of your reading of the script. Post your questions, your notes, and whatever information you find (especially keeping track of exactly where you found it, and including direct quotes where it seems useful), in your page on the play wiki space. Check to see what others have posted already, so you don't duplicate work.

As a group, you'll need to be planning how you'll organize and present what you've learned to the rest of us. You'll need to be ready to present your wiki to us next Wednesday or Friday. We have three presentations to do, so it would be useful if one group could be ready to go on Wednesday;  You can begin some preliminary organizing today, but I suggest you meet Monday (and/or use the email list over the weekend), after everybody has read and posted on the play.

Editorial teams

The Editorial Teams for selecting, condensing and organizing the research of the Task Forces will need to do their work immediately after the wikis have been presented to the class, and in any case will need to get their draft Playgoer's Companion texts posted before Tuesday noon, February 22. I'll assemble the teams this morning in class (and on email for anybody who isn't in class), by asking people to sign up on the whiteboard. You need to sign up for one team, and it can't be for the play whose Task Force you're working on. You should consider, when you're signing up, whether you'll be able to budget some time for working on your Playgoer's Companion between February 16 and February 22.