Discussing The Rehearsal

As I said last time, we'll turn today to the reports on explorations of the background, and we'll take as much time as we need for reading and discussing them. I'll circulate some printed copies.

Moving along

You should have brought with you a list of two or three plays that The Rehearsal made fun of. We'll identify a few and divide the list up so that everybody's working with a different one. Here's what you should do between now and Wednesday: spend a couple of hours with the play. Read substantial parts of it (you don't need to read it all; beginnings and endings are good). Read in whatever introductory materials you find with it; if there aren't any, do a quick search for general discussions of it. Write a quick summary of what you learn -- a page or so -- and select two typical passages of it, up to 20 or 30 lines each, to quote (type them out, or scan them), and explain why you chose them. Post your report to the "Heroic Play" wiki by 8:00 Wednesday morning and I'll print it and bring it to class.

Looking ahead

To repeat: I've learned that Glen Nichols, of the drama department at Mount Allison, is directing a production of Dryden's All for Love later this term. He says that he's adapting the play pretty drastically, so it won't actually be a production of the play as it stands, but he's invited us to be involved. I'm not sure what that might mean, but I think it's clear (for that reason among others) that we should read All for Love. So I'm suggesting that after we've had a quick look at some heroic plays, we should plan on reading that next. I'm hoping to get to Sackville to see the production (no dates yet) and we might try to organize something.

So, be looking for a copy of All for Love. I'm thinking that it would be useful for all of us to have different editions. There are certainly lots of them in the library, in anthologies and in collections of Dryden's work.