Attending to the nitty gritty

You should be arriving with an annotated Playgoer's Companion, so that we can attend to specific examples of changes that get made, by me and by others, as we move from raw research to a public document.  Here's a chance to compare what changes and decisions you've found with what others marked, discuss them, and select some that it might be worth spending a bit of time examining. To do this, I'll set up some groups of people who've looked at the same Playgoer's Companions, and give you some time to compare notes and discuss the changes. Where you can agree on why decisions were made, do so; where it doesn't make as much sense to you, or where the changes seem worth thinking about, agree to raise the decision or change as a question. On the form I'll hand out, create a list of questions or comments that you think worth considering, and sign it. I'll arrange to have them transcribed and posted on the Web site, and we'll come back to them.

Scheduling and deadlines

The deadline for posting reflections on having attended either Perfect Pie or Heart's Desire / Inspector Hound will be next Wednesday by class time -- and, as always, the earlier you do it the better.

Members of the Task Force for Black Comedy have, I hope, already read the script (remember, you need to post on it before you do a presentation or participate in an Editorial Team) and started doing research on the play, the playwright, the theatrical tradition, etc. You need to post your work on your section of the wiki as soon as possible.  Please remember, the more the better, and you can post things as you find them, adding to the page as you do further work or find more sources.  And remember, as well, identify your sources. We are up against another deadline, because spring break is going to intervene. We'll need to have a presentation of the wiki site before the break, because we only have one meeting afterward, the day before the play opens. That means next Wednesday, preferably, and next Friday at the latest.

More play scripts

Scripts for David Hare's Fanshen are now available for signout outside  my office; I'm assured that I'll have scripts for Neil LaBute's Autobahn by next Tuesday night (i.e., Wednesday morning).

My guess is that everybody has something to do right now -- posting on having seen a play, responding to the reflections of others, doing a midterm learning reflection, reading a script, researching a play or playwright. We'll end class early so that people can get on with it.