Reminder: Papers due this Friday by 5:00 PM

Greetings from the edge!  The end of the semester is fast upon us and congratulations will soon be in order.  However, before we get to that we'd like to send you a friendly reminder about your final papers.

FINAL PAPERS are still due this Friday.  To recap: 

• Typed out and printed (no hand written papers)
• 4 pages minimum
• Double line spacing
• Due no later than 5:00 PM on Friday May 7th
• Deposit papers in either of our theater school mailboxes (by the theater offices)

And please don't try any sneaky business with fonts/margins.  We have eagle eyes and whole CSI team devoted to typographical crimes:

• Maximum margins: 1 inch top & bottom, 1.25 inches left & right
• Maximum font size: 12 point

Also, for any of you that are missing assignments, the EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENT is still available for you to complete. If you choose to do that, it is also DUE THIS FRIDAY at the same time. 

If you've had some slip ups this semester regarding assignments or attendance, please consider the extra credit to give your final grade a little boost. Description of the extra credit assignment can be found on the blog at:

http://theatercalarts.blogspot.com/2010/04/where-extra-credit-comes-from.html

P.S. - Ever wonder what the best way to reference a source in a paper is? Or how to format a footnote or bibliography?  Here's a good guide for how to do that:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Carl Hancock Rux: Poesia Negra: Race, Sex and the Myth of the American Mytopia

As mentioned in class, please make efforts to go see Carl Hancock Rux's show, Poesia Negra, at REDCAT this week. Special thanks to Mona Heinze for allowing us to videotape Carl's talk in her class so we could share it with you. For further information on his artistry and ideas, please check out these resources (courtesy of Mona):

Carl Hancock Rux, “Eminem: The New White Negro”
http://www.carlhancockrux.com/index.php?action=view_article&id=5&module=articlemodule

POESIA NEGRA is in conversation with the following:

1. Teorema by Pier Paolo Pasolini (1968) DVD 2142, VHS 2926, VHS 1379

2. Portrait of Jason by Shirley Clarke, DVD 2928

“The subject and constant object of this film is male prostitute Jason Holliday giving a stream-of-consciousness "confession" of his life. He performs a pas de deux with the process of making the film: questions from the director and crew are heard, the crew laughs with him at his jokes, at times the camera runs out of film but the sound continues, with black leader replacing the picture. The film itself was shot over a twelve-hour period.”

3. James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket by Karen Thorsen (1989), VHS 1239

“. . . uses striking archival footage to evoke the atmosphere of Baldwin's formative years - the Harlem of the 30s, his father's fundamentalist church and the émigré demi-monde of postwar Paris. Newsreel clips from the '60's record Baldwin's running commentary on the drama of the Civil Rights movement. The film also explores his quiet retreats in Paris, the South of France, Istanbul and Switzerland - places where Baldwin was able to write away from the racial tensions of America.

Writers Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, William Styron and biographer David Leeming place Baldwin's work in the African-American literary tradition - from slave narratives and black preaching to their own contemporary work. The film skillfully links excerpts from Baldwin's major books - Go Tell it on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, Another Country, The Fire Next Time, Blues for Mister Charlie, If Beale Street Could Talk - to different stages in Black-white dialogue and conflict.”

4. Swimming to Cambodia by Spalding Gray (1987) VHS 173

Recommended sources:

Any of “Rux Articles” on website
http://www.carlhancockrux.com/index.php?section=24

Interviews on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTL0UYoKQ04&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7sqc9vPp78&feature=user

Good Bread Alley video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WOFfoQNRsc&feature=user

Check out Carl Hancock Rux’s website at: http://www.carlhancockrux.com

Where Extra Credit Comes From

Extra effort.

If you missed an assignment this semester, or turned anything in late, there is a chance to improve your final grade.

There are two options for extra credit. If you choose to take on one of these assignments, they need to be submitted NO LATER THAN MAY 5.

OPTION ONE

This week, attend Carl Hancock Rux's Poesia Negra at REDCAT.

Write a 2-page response paper on the show.

OPTION TWO

If you have crew commitments, and can't get down to REDCAT, the other option is to do an artist interview.

Identify a student artist who worked in a major way on one of the shows this semester : Machine Orchestra, Henry V, Adam and Eve, Kenwood Wilderness, Dice Thrown, Sun, or Bitter Tears of Petra van Kant.

Formulate 10 questions you'd want to ask that artist about themselves, and about the project.

Conduct the interview. Write a 2-page response paper. Instead of transcribing their answers, process what you heard and include your thoughts/reactions.

Response Assignment 5: Final Paper Topics (Due 4/21)

Now that you have chosen a play to write your final paper on, read it, and had a chance to discuss your ideas in class; your fifth (and last) response paper assignment is to articulate your final paper topic in writing.  This response should be at least one paragraph long, typed, printed, and turned in at class next week. 

Note: If you for any reason did not turn in Response 4, it is very important that you do choose a play, read it, and submit a final paper topic.  

To help you in drafting your final paper topic, here are some ingredients to consider in a thesis statement:  You can think of one as having 3 parts: Description, Argument, and Methology...

Thanks to Dice Thrown!

Thanks to the Dice Thrown team members for joining us for a great conversation in class today, as well as a chance to see some of scenic and costume designs, and hear about what to expect when the full opera premieres next week in the Mod Theater.

A reminder, everyone is invited to the preview performance NEXT WEDNESDAY, April 21.

Article on the Premiere of Dice Thrown

Interview with John King

John King's Site

Speaking of upcoming work, John Jasperse Company with ICE will be at REDCAT this weekend, and next weekend is Carl Hancock Rux's Poesia Negra: Race, Sex and the Myth of the American Mytopia.

Response Assignment 4 (Due 4/14)

For your final papers, you will have the option to write about one of the following three plays you have seen/will be seeing this semester: Adam and Eve (Bulgakov), Henry V (Shakespeare), or The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (Fassbinder).

In preparation for your final paper, your assignment this week is to choose which of those three plays you are going to write your final paper on. Read the whole play, and write about why you chose that play, and what specific elements of it (ideas, themes, questions, etc.) you may want to write about.

Your response should cite specific examples from the text. The response should be at least 300 words. Please type, print out, and hand in at the top of class next week.

Copies of these plays have been put on reserve in the library. Because there are limited copies available, we recommend that you consider xeroxing personal copies for yourself, or purchasing your own copies from local or online booksellers.

As mentioned in class, Zoe is using a custom translation of Bitter Tears in her production. There is also a published edition of that play available in the library. Both versions are acceptable to us. Zoe's version can be downloaded here: BitterTearsScript.pdf

Note: This response doesn't need to be your exact paper topic. We are more interested in hearing about what interests you in the text. This assignment should generate possible topics/ideas that you can later refine into a formal thesis.

If you end up having a very specific topic that you wish to write on, that's fine too. Use this response to discuss that topic and related ideas.

P.S. - As mentioned in class, Douglas Sirk's melodramas are not to be missed and available in the library here or at most quality video stores. Written On the Wind is exceptional. Here's an article on his work:

http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/04/sirk.html

Spring Readings: Embarrassment, Eroticism, Memory, Resistance, Stereotype, Terror, Violence

In case you have any difficulty with your emails, here are links to each of spring readings.  As mentioned in class, please read the word/s you signed up for in class before our next class: Embarrassment, Eroticism, Memory, Resistance, Stereotype, Terror, Violence

Notes Before Spring Break

Thanks again to Alice and company for allowing us to come and visit the work in the Playwrights Lab!

As stated in class today, based upon the word/s that you selected (memory, violence, eroticism, terror, stereotype, embarrassment, resistance), we will email you a PDF of a reading.  Have this read by our next class and be ready to discuss (no written response is assigned).

Also, since we have passed the halfway mark on the semester, we will be email you each status reports of where you stand with work and attendance.

Writing Assignment (Due 3/17)

Write a perfect sentence.

After you do that, proceed to http://theatercalarts.blogspot.com/p/step-2.html

Guest Artists: The Poor Dog Group (3/3)

 

Poor Dog Group is a Los Angeles based collective of like-minded performance and media artists committed to nurturing a distinctive aesthetic through adventurous collaboration. Our mission is to develop original theatrical expression through the creation of new work and radical reexaminations of existing texts; to redefine, educate and expand our own perceptions of performance and theatrical form; to have an accessibility for a new audience; to use experimental methods of the body, text and technology; to craft new American theater; and to develop the cultivation of a limitless and periodic space.

More...

Writing Assignment #2: Manifestos (Due Wed 3/31 in class)

Thank you all for the lively readings of the manifestos in class.  As discussed, manifestos are bold statements of personal belief.  They are products of the author's immediate moment.  They take into consideration the past, yet are anti-history because they compel us to consider (with abandon) what the future could/should/need to be.  Some manifestos are loud but they can also be quiet; the most important thing is that they are action.

Your assignment for next week has 2 parts (not necessarily done in this order):

1) Write your own manifesto.

2) Find an example of a manifesto that you find fascinating and write an "ingredient lists" for it. 
In other words, what are the qualities that make it tick.  Keep in mind, those qualities can be literal, i.e. "exclamation points", or figurative, i.e. "running barefoot through a room full of mouse traps." 

Please bring turn in your manifestos in class next Wednesday.

NEWS FLASH: It has been brought to our attention that some of you have already written a manifesto in another class.  Great, you've got a head start, but you also have baggage.  For this assignment, you should either write a new manifesto for this new moment in your life, or really reconsider your previous manifesto and re-work it.  Really test it to see if it is still alive.  Honor system here folks.

Materials discussed in class:

• Futurist Manifesto (1909)
• The Gettysburg Address (1863)
• The Rat Manifesto, Erik Ehn (2001)

Discounted Rush tickets available to Wooster Group Tuesday night!

Enough said.

A great opportunity to get down to REDCAT this evening.

REDCAT is offering a limited number of $25 tickets to Tuesday, Feb 16 performance of North Atlantic. Tickets will be made available for in-person sales two hours prior to curtain at REDCAT's box office, limit two tickets per person.

Response Paper Assignment #1 (Due Feb 17 in class)

Collage: "an assemblage or occurrence of diverse elements or fragments in unlikely or unexpected juxtaposition." 

For this assignment we would like you to create your own theatrical collage by combining found texts from a play (of your choosing) and a newspaper:

Choose material from both sources and collage/combine/remix/mash-up the language into a new play.  This new "script" can be in the form of a conventional play (characters, dialogue, stage directions, etc.), or a new experimental form of your own  invention. 

Use of word processors, printers, scissors, glue, tape, paint is all fair game. The resulting collage should fit on a single piece of paper.

A note about doing the assignment: consider the meaning of the texts in their original context, and how you transform that meaning by combining them together with your own ideas.

Some interesting sources related to this work:

• Joseph Cornell
• Janie Geiser
• Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
• DJ Danger Mouse
• Charles Mee
• Surrealists (Exquisite Corpse)
• William S. Burroughs Cut-up Technique
• Wooster Group
• Found Magazine

(more than) 10 Words About Shakespeare

globe theater
magic verse
stakes
heartbeat
sensuality
home
specific
betrayal
universal
playwright
histories
timeless
cross gender
blood

Ride Sharing to Events in LA

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Are you looking for a ride to a show in Los Angeles?  Or, are you driving down to see a show and can offer a ride to your classmates?  If so, please use this blog post to share info about carpooling.

Leave a message below in the comments with your name, what show you're seeing, when, and if you need or are offering a ride.   See performances, get to know your classmates, and save gas!

You can even use the link below to subscribe to this blog posting and get an email updates on rides.

Visiting Artists: KarmetiK Machine Orchestra (Feb 3, 2010)

Global music forms meet the digital surge of the 21st century as the KarmetiK Machine Orchestra, directed by Ajay Kapur, convenes an international lineup of musicmakers, engineers and digital artists who use custom-built robotic instruments and new and expressive interfaces in live music performance. The KarmetiK Machine Orchestra features appearances by North Indian sarodist Ustad Aashish Khan, electronic artist Curtis Bahn, Balinese gamelan master I Nyoman Wenten, vocal synthesizer Perry Cook, and innovators from the CalArts Music Technology Program. With a theatrical set designed by Michael Darling.

The Theater Course Syllabus

The Theater, Spring 2010

T005B : Wed 4:10-6:00 pm, Room E197
Course Support Number: 1313-6062

Instructors

Shannon Scrofano: sscrofano@gmail.com
Chi-wang Yang: chi-wang@mysteriously.org

Teaching Assistants

Marina McClure: marina.l.mcclure@gmail.com
Brian Tichnell: briantichnell@alum.calarts.edu

Purpose

To encounter the productions of the CalArts season in text and performance; to develop critical vocabulary and practices; to engage in conversation with the makers of the work; to conduct, evaluate and represent contextual research; to respond to art as artists; to practice critical writing; to gather sense on who we are as a community (in the School of Theater and in the Institute), as makers, co-makers and witnesses to art.