Course Outline

English 2B06/ The Development of English Drama
Fall-Winter 2007-8
Lectures Tuesdays 12:30-2:30, HSC 1A4

Instructors: Melissa Smith (term 1) and Helen Ostovich (term 2)
Office: Melissa Smith CNH 211; Helen Ostovich CNH 211
Email: TERM 1 mesmith@mcmaster.ca
TERM 2 ostovich@mcmaster.ca
Office Hours: TERM 1: Tuesday 3:30-4:30pm and 5:45-6:45pm or by appointment
TERM 2: TBA

NOTES
Class cancellations
In the event of class cancellations, students will be notified on WebCT and the English Department Website. It is your responsibility to check these sites regularly for any such announcements.
Link: http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~english/ (Department)
Link: http://www.ltrc.mcmaster.ca/webct/index.shtml (WebCT)

Tutorials
Tutorials start one week after classes begin. Students are expected to attend every tutorial and to be prepared to discuss the material weekly.

Lecture etiquette
Students are expected to attend lecture regularly. Should you need to leave lecture early, it is customary and polite to inform the instructor of this fact ahead of time.

Students will be requested to complete a course evaluation at the end of each term.


Course Objectives
This course will trace the development of English drama from the medieval period through the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. We will be covering a large range of material, from some of the earliest forms of drama, including the pageant play, morality, and interlude; the explosion of professional theatre in London in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; and the resurgence of professional theatre during the Restoration and eighteenth century. Above all, we will consider the plays we read not only as reflections of the fantasies, beliefs and fears of the culture in which they were created, but also in light of their literary status—as popular entertainment written to be performed.

Course Texts
Available at Titles, the University Bookstore
A. C. Cawley, Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays
David Bevington et al, English Renaissance Drama: A Norton Anthology Scott McMillin, Restoration & Eighteenth Century Comedy
Custom Courseware: The London Merchant (term 2)
Available as e-resources (access details here)
Mankind
Enough Is as Good as a Feast
Cambises

Evaluation
Critical short essays (Best 5 of 6) due throughout terms 1 and 2 30% (2 pages doublespaced x 5)

Scene performance and term 1 November 27
Performance essay term 1 November 29 30% (8 - 10 pages)

Scene performance and term 2 April 1
Performance essay term 2 April 3

Participation (cumulative over 2 terms) 15%

Midterm exam - December exam period 10%

Final Exam - Spring exam period 15%

Bonus marks for play reviews, to a maximum of 2 %, 1% max per term

Further details on assignments follow schedule below.

Term 1 Schedule of Lectures and Assignments
September 11 Introduction to course: MEDIEVAL DRAMA
Creation and Fall of Lucifer, Creation of Adam and Eve

September 18 Fall of Man; Cain & Abel; Noah’s Flood; Second Shepherd’s Pageant

September 25 Herod the Great; Woman Taken in Adultery; Crucifixion; Resurrection
***scene performance choices due***

October 2 Everyman

October 9 Mankind

October 16 Enough Is as Good as a Feast

ELIZABETH DRAMA

October 23 Cambises

October 30 The Spanish Tragedy

November 6 Endymion

November 13 Dr. Faustus

November 20 Shoemaker’s Holiday

November 27 TERM 1 SCENE PERFORMANCES (half the class)

Performance essays for term 1 due November 30

December 4 REVIEW


Term 2 (tentative: some plays may be changed)
JACOBEAN DRAMA

January 8 Epicene

January 15 The Alchemist

January 22 A Chaste Maid in Cheapside

January 29 The Revenger’s Tragedy

February 5 The Duchess of Malfi

February 12 The Changeling

February 18 READING WEEK

CAROLINE DRAMA

February 26 Tis Pity She’s a Whore

March 4 A New Way to Pay Old Debts

RESTORATION & 18TH c DRAMA

March 11 The Man of Mode

March 18 The Rover

March 25 The London Merchant (Coursepack)

April 1 TERM 2 SCENE PERFORMANCE (other half of class)

Performance essay due April 3

April 7 School for Scandal Review class

APRIL 9 CLASSES END APRIL 11 EXAMINATIONS BEGIN

Assignment Details
Critical short essays (best 5 of 6)
Due throughout terms 1 and 2
30% (2 pages doublespaced x 5)

The short papers are due at the beginning of class on Tuesday on the day we are discussing the play on which you’re writing. Topics will be posted on WebCT, and you must narrow down the topic to a specific application. You must hand in no more than two pages TYPED AND DOUBLE-SPACED, on a very specific and concrete issue in the play under discussion for that week. Give your paper an appropriate title. Quote appropriately but minimally. Late papers cannot be accepted.

What topics are acceptable in a short paper? Find a scene with a strong emotional impact, or a strong representation of a key idea in the play, perhaps in a strongly worded speech which you might analyze; or the recurrent focus on a single character; the treatment of a female character, a symbolic role, or an important stage property in the play, like the lamb in The Second Shepherd’s Pageant, or the cross in The Crucifixion. Consider how the play was originally performed and how it held its audience. The important thing is to narrow your choice to something specific and concrete, and develop a thesis you can support in a 2-page argument.

Completing the papers: you are required to submit at least 2 papers in the term in which you are performing, and 3 in the term in which you are not performing. If you wish to take advantage of the “best 5 of 6” offer, you may inquire about that after your first 5 papers have been submitted. It is strongly suggested that you begin working on the short papers early in each term. No excuse will permit extra time at the end of the year for the completion of this assignment. The purpose of this assignment is to give you breadth in the study of the plays we’re examining, and to give you the opportunity to develop ideas that you can bring to your tutorial discussions. The paper submitted on the Tuesday contains the concept you will discuss in tutorial. You must ask in advance about submitting an extra paper. No extra paper may be submitted until all 5 short papers have been handed in. No more than three may be submitted in any one term.

If an idea or interpretation strikes you while you are reading, write it down and use it in class as a point of disucssion. Your concept may enliven discussion during the lecture hours, even if you don’t write a paper, or you may be able to offer it as an alternative to the way a scene is performed by class-actors. The participation mark will be based on your willingness to speak up in class and tutorial: either by asking a question that sparks discussion, giving an opinion based on your paper, or listening and then responding to your peers’ opinions or questions.


Scene Performance and Performance Essay
Value: 30% (15% performance and reviews; 15% essay)
Scene Performance and Performance Essay
Performance Term 1 November 26; Term 2 April 1

Each student will participate in the preparation and performance of one scene of about ten minutes in length. This assignment is intended to help you intensify your critical and creative engagement with a play. The expectation is that lines will be memorized and that each group will give their scene a specific interpretation that they will try to make clear through their performance. You will be assigned to your performance group within your tutorial group. You may assemble your own group within that restriction, but no one will be left out, and you must inform me by September 24. Scene performance group size will depend on class enrolment size. More information on this assignment will be available on WebCT.

We will spend some time during class in term 1 considering different ways to engage with the texts of the plays (blocking, working with language, building a character, etc.) to help guide your performance decisions. On the day of the evaluations, you will perform your scene, and when your are not performing, serve as an audience for your fellow students’ presentations. You will discuss your rationale in the next tutorial meeting, where you will also receive some reviews from the class response sheets. The performance of the scene and audience response to your scene is worth 15% of your final grade. The grade for this assignment will be determined by the instructor and peer evaluation. A form will be provided for the peer evaluation. The rationale for your choices, and the rehearsals, research, and experience of performance will be the basis of the major essay assignment.


Performance Essay (8-10 pages)
Value: 15%
Term 1 Performance Groups essay due November 29; Term 2 is due April 3

The scene performance will determine the topic of your essay: if you acted a part in The Second Shepherds Pageant, then you will write on that play. This paper should describe what you learned from blocking, rehearsing, and acting the scene, and from the discussion which followed. It should address itself to group dynamics, especially in understanding and developing your scene in the context of the whole play; research about the play and related issues of gender, class, and concept; and your own developing sense of how the role you performed fits into your final understanding of the play.

You will be thinking about such questions as these:
What did you learn about how the scene fits on an early stage? What did you learn about interacting with an audience? interacting with other players? What did you learn about the character you played? What did you learn about the scene you enacted and its importance to the play as a whole? Given the performance possibilities in the scene you chose, what are the interpretive possibilities for the play as a whole? Many medieval and early modern plays mix elements of the tragic and comic, the melodramatic with the farcical. How do the performance choices your group made exploit one or more of the play’s overarching elements? How would your performance affect a reading of the play as a whole? What is the importance of the character you played to the scene you performed? What is that character’s significance in the larger scheme of the play?

What did you learn about the nature of early theatre from working on your scene? Does it lend itself to interacting with the audience? If so, how? How does it use props? How do the practical elements of staging affect your reading of the play?

Participation
Value: 15%
Your participation grade will be based on your contribution to tutorials, peer evaluation, and discussion in lecture.

Midterm exam December exam period
Value: 10%
This exam will consist of short and long answer questions and will include all material studied in term 1.

Final Exam
April exam period
Value: 15%
Details to follow in term 2.



Bonus marks for play reviews, to a maximum of 2%.
PLAY REVIEW – max. 3 pages.
Stratford on line at http://www.stratford/?festival.on.ca/
Poculi Ludique Societas http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~plspls/currentseason.html
Other performances in the Hamilton/Toronto area will be announced. If the play you want to review is not Shakespearean, or not a PLS Toronto performance, consult me first.
The review should offer a critical opinion, based on performance values. What idea did the performance emphasize? Was the performance consistent with the text (if you know it)? with the period? with itself? Mention particularly fine or unsuccessful moments in the actors' performances, explaining why they did or did not provide enlightening experiences for the audience in regard to presentation of gender, class, or political concepts. How did scenery, costume and sets, colour scheme, casting (eg. gender-blind or colour-blind casting), cutting and other textual changes, music, dance or movement add to or detract from your appreciation of the play? REVIEWS MUST BE SUBMITTED WITHIN 2 WEEKS OF VIEWING THE PLAY. Hand in a ticket stub and a programme with the review, if applicable.


Course Policies
Late Papers
Late papers will not be accepted without a doctor’s note or a note from the dean’s office. Lateness for or absence from group discussion or performance classes will also be penalized.

Academic Dishonesty
Academic dishonesty consists of misrepresentation by deception or by other fraudulent means and can result in serious consequences, e.g. the grade of zero on an assignment, loss of credit with a notation on the transcript (notation reads: “Grade of F assigned for academic dishonesty”), and/or suspension or expulsion from the university.

It is your responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty. For information on the various kinds of academic dishonesty please refer to the Academic Integrity Policy, specifically Appendix 3, located at http://www.mcmaster.ca/senate/academic/ac_integrity.htm

The following illustrates only three forms of academic dishonesty:
1. Plagiarism, e.g. the submission of work that is not one’s own or for which other credit has been obtained.


2. Improper collaboration in group work. (Receiving a group grade for a presentation without having done an equal amount of work on the project.)

3. Copying or using unauthorized aids in tests and examinations.

If deemed necessary by the instructor students will be required to submit their work electronically and in hard copy so that it can be checked for academic dishonesty.