Embedded Files
3/12
Fill in the blanks:
March 3rd was 1. _____ when the 2. _____ Party holds primaries in 14 states. Because 3. _____ and 4. _____ had dropped out, the day became a three-way race between 5. _____, former Vice President and Senator from 6. _____, 7. _____, Senator from 8. _____, and 9. ____, former Mayor of 10. _____. 11. _____ won the most delegates, but 12. _____ won California, the most populous state.
Hand back tests. Explain that they got 20 extra points!
Discuss late essays.
Do Oklahoma powerpoint. Time it. Pass out handouts from Showtime.
3/6
Discuss Six as a reflection of trends: casting, pop music girl groups, length, historical, production, financial. They will need to do the same thing with Showboat. Show them the origin story test.
Watch video on Criterion as a precursor to the subject matter and read and work on scene.
3/4
Notes on essays: less/fewer, asian, black, white, movies are a business, anime is not real, Angelina Jolie, gay actors playing straight parts? desheki - always has to be respectful? what about humor?
Unsinkable Molly Brown: blind casting, revising scripts and biographies, new stagings and set trends
Watch "Don't Rain on My Parade"
Discuss "Funny Girl":
Theaters: Keeney Theater - no permanent seats, less sophisticated, raunchier, less "artistic", more populist, Ziegfeld - richer, more elegant, more tasteful
Songs: "If a Girl Isn't Pretty" sets the tone-what does it mean to be beautiful? can these perceptions be challenged?, "I'm the Greatest Star" (the "I want" song) main motivation, is ambition enough? how to convince people about something?, "Roller Skate Rag" "I'd Rather Be Blue" and "His Love Makes You Beautiful"
Showboat - a musical play, not a musical comedy - tackled serious themes: miscegination, addiction
Watch video
Musical comedies of the thirties
3/2
10 min: Hand back vocab tests and review. On Friday, we will have a test on the terms covered on the ppoint. You will need to define the terms on the ppoint.
10 min: Review terms for Ziegfeld Follies. Watch video on Ziegfeld Foliies and define terms. Anna Held, Fanny Brice, Erte, etc...
25 min: Watch Funny Girl - biopic musical which starred and won the AA for Barabra Streisand. watch from beginning to end of "I'd Rather Be Blue". Then start again at 32:45. Focus on three things.
The details of the theaters/performers
How each song moves or does not move the plot forward
The themes
10 min: Showboat - watershed moment
2/26
Continue with Google Slides: Ziegfeld Follies and the Funny Girl #
2/25 - New York, Tin Pan Alley, Minstrel Shows, Ziegfeld Follies, Vaudeville
Google slides
2/14
Explain HW for break
Watch video for "The sun whose rays..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP2qJXT3olM
Listen to Here's a How De Do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUEUbXqqwYA
Listen to Mikado entrance. Cruelty theme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqG7iDCxgqc
2/12
Topsy-turvy
Continue with 1st act
Read text and watch the 1973 BBC version.
2/6
Review key 'topsy-turvy' plot points in the script: Poor tailor becomes lord-high executioner, young men beheaded for flirting. Continue reading/listening to Mikado
Patter Songs: Listen to "Piano Lesson" and compare to "A Little List". Iowa, racist lyrics referring to minstrel performers.
Katisha
2/4
5 min: Review the discussion from the previous class. Should old offensive works still be produced? Should actors be able to play parts outside their "identity"?
10 min: Read article and discuss. Relate to "Once on This Island"
Tell them they'll have to write two essays, one about the issue and one about The Mikado.
60 min: Continue with Mikado and finish with patter songs.
1/31
5 min: Talk about the origins: operettas, burlesque, minstrel shows and vaudeville
5 min: Look at page for the Mikado and have them take notes on what's there.
10 min: Listen to NPR podcast and have them answer questions. Discuss. Gone with the Wind? Thoroughly Modern Millie? Oliver?
10 min: Listen to overture (tell them what it is) and have them imagine who is singing and why. Does the music sound oriental? European? When done listening, elicit any responses.
20 min: Read the first sections and listen. What point is the opening song trying to make? (Point out that it begins with a chorus.)
1/29
15 min: Have them write down every musical they can think of. Then have them share their answers with a group of three. Each person should add whatever they don't have to their list. Then have each group read their list and go around until any extra names have been eliminated. Whoever has the most names wins.
10 min: Watch "The Musical" from Something Rotten and identify any musical references. Give some context.
High culture vs. Low Culture
What are the defining characteristics of each? (High: subsidized, Low: popular, makes money)
High: opera, symphony, ballet, Shakespeare, wine tasting, art museum, poetry readings
Low: TV, the Grammys, VMAs, Marvel movies, tattoos, comic books, escapist fiction
10 min: Ask them about the history of music in theater. What have we seen in our reading so far? (the Greek chorus, dithyrambs, opera) How did that develop into "the modern American musical"? Tell them about the use of music in theater: John Gay's The Beggar's Opera 1728 (62 performances; 2nd longest run at that time, the anti-opera, dealt with the lives of the lower classes, thieves, opera dealt with the lives of kings and queens, the upper classes)
Introduce Mikado and listen to the overture. Ask them to imagine what kind of song each musical interlude represents.
12/18
Watch "In the Heights" trailer
Write essay
12/16
Lit crit of the day.
Finish reading the play.
Read the rest of the play and read parts of the article in book.
Watch movie.
12/9
Lit Crit of the Day: Harold Goddard on Hamlet
However all this may be, there is no doubt that Shakespeare endowed Hamlet with the best he had acquired up to the time he conceived him. He inherits the virtues of a score of his predecessors—and some of their weaknesses. Yet he is no mere recapitulation of them. In him, rather, they recombine to make a man as individual as he is universal. He has the passion of Romeo ("Romeo is Hamlet in love," says Hazlitt), —not to mention gifts and graces that stem more from certain of Shakespeare's heroines than from his heroes—for, like Rosalind, that inimitable boy-girl, Hamlet is an early draft of a new creature on the Platonic order, conceived in the Upanishads, who begins to synthesize the sexes. "He who understands the masculine and keeps to the feminine shall become the whole world's channel. Eternal virtue shall not depart from him and he shall return to the state of an infant." If Hamlet does not attain the consummation that Laotse thus describes, he at least gives promise of it. What wonder that actresses have played his role, or that among the theories about him one of the most inevitable, if most insane, is that he is a woman in disguise! Mad literally, the idea embodies a symbolic truth and helps explain why Hamlet has been pronounced both a hero and a dreamer, hard and soft, cruel and gentle, brutal and angelic, like a lion and like a dove. One by one these judgments are all wrong. Together they are all right—
The annotated bib is due NEXT Wednesday.
10 min: Ask about Freud and Hamlet. Read the article together.
10 min: Watch the Zeferelli scene. 1:16:47.
40 min: Continue, reading all parts. Stop at soliloquoy. Try to get through Act 4.
12/5
HW for the weekend: annotated bibliography. Due next Wednesday.
Show them fofweb and tell them Sr. Loretta will have books on Hamlet laid out by this afternoon.
Get though Act 3.
Review events in III.ii ands iii. Remind those that haven't handed it in that they need to.
Read III.iii and iv.
Read "Freud on Hamlet" and have them answer questions.
12/3
Ask about extra credit. Does anyone want to sing the song?
5 min: Hand back VT and review.
5 min: Hand back thesises and discuss. needs to be concrete, not vague. Aristotle focus needs to be on his terms.
20 min: Read "To be or not to be", arrange in order and watch youtube mash-up.
15 min: Read scene with Ophelia. Do they see evidence of Hamlet's madness, not just as an act, but for real? Why would Hamlet keep talking about marriage and nunneries?
11/25
35 min: Take vocab test.
30 min: Read the R/G/H scene. Listen to song from "Hair"
11/21
5 min: Take in HW
40 min: Finish watching the original and then compare to the movie. Look for character, plot, costume, what do these differences convey?
HW: Study for vocab test.
11/19
Explain how you graded the HW.
Go over stage directions and finish listening to Sweeney Todd.
Watch Final Sequence for each version. What's the same? What's different? (Style, plot)
Thesis due on Thursday and we will have a test on the vocab.
11/15
20 min: Tell them about research paper. They need to decide this weekend which work or works they will focus on, and what theme or idea they will explore. Thesis/road map to be handed in by Tuesday. Go over dates. Review paper options and discuss how each might work.
60 min Continue listening to ST.
11/13
Mention production you saw this weekend.
Introduce Finishing the Hat and read the article online together. Pass out sheet on end of Act 1. Explain that Sondheim based his musical on Christopher Bond's play. Here he discusses the differences in the end of Act 1. How do the formats determine the content?
hamlet: Read Polonius/Reynaldo dialogue and answer this question:
What does Polonius want Reynaldo to do and why?
11/7
5 min: Review HW questions.
5 min: Review possible research projects.
35 min: Read I.iv and v in class. Establish objectives: Hamlet wants to follow; his friends want hime to stay.
Introduce the four humors (sap, juice): blood (sanguine, friendly), yellow bile (angry), black bile (melancholic, depressed), phlegm (unemotional, stolidly calm, phlegmatic). Let them know we will be looking at different ways that people have understood their own experience. Next is Freud: Oedipus complex.
35 min: Finish listening to first act of Sweeney Todd
11/5
5 min: Talk about grades. Go over extra credit list.
10 min: Present: song, sonnet, rhyming verse, blank verse, prose, iambic pentameter
15 min: Read the rest of 1.2.
5 min: Ask at the end: should this scene be cut. Hamlet is a long play. Why? Why not?
Assign 1.3 for HW. Questions on HW page.
30 min: Listen to Pirelli scene.
10/29
Discuss Medea paragraphs.
40 min: Vocab test on Sweeney Todd vocab. Ask if there are any questions about trhe words. Give them test and tell them they have 10 min for Part 1. Part 2 is to choose 8 words from the list, write them on a piece of paper and write sentences illustrating their meaning.
40 min: Review Scene 1. Read Scene 2 of Hamlet. In the first part of the scene, ask them to identify the political conflict. In the second part, ask them to identify the personal conflict.
HW: Read Act 1, scene 2
10/25
10 min: Tell them about Mr. Sherman. Read them I.i. Use wind and cock crowing sound effects. Ask them to listen and take notes about the names of the characters and what is happening in the scene.
10 min: Look at the first line "Who's there?" Why would someone ask that? What effect does it have on the mood of the play? What could it suggest in terms of the themes?
20 min: Review notes and vocabulary on first part of ST. They will have a vocab quiz next week on those words.
30 min: Continue listening.
10/22
2 min: Hand out Hamlets - everyone must have a copy by Friday!
2 min: Talk about final draft of essay and google corrections
Extra credit will be added at the end of the quarter
10 min: Review test - look for opportunities for extra points
10 min: Sweeney Todd: Do the telemprompter exercise. First have them write down the questions and the terms to know. Then teleprompt the article and review their answers together.
20 min: Pass out the text and read the stage directions up until the end of scene 2.
20 min: Listen and review underlined points.
10 min: Dictate words to know.
10/15
Medea test
10/10
Hand back summer assignment. Take in money for Hamlet. Show them study guide for Medea test and where to hand in college essay. Remind them to send you their revised college essay - share it as a google doc. Enter the contest for extra credit.
Finish reading Medea.
10/8
Begin with math problem. Which is cheaper?
Teleprompt article on opera.
review info and terms found. Names of prominent composers and a sense of how the medium changed.
Continue reading Medea and break into groups when you get to fifth choral ode. Break into groups.
10/4
Tell them to take summer reading before they go.
Test on Medea on 10/15
I will take money for Hamlet next week.
10 min: Finish reading article on choruses.
15 min: Look at article on chorus together. Each group will determine a time, characters, setting for their passage. remind them not to focus on what we did before.
20 min: Gather again and have them perform their odes. Have the rest of the class try to identify the time, the place and the characters.
35 min: Perform and continue reading.
10/2
Hand back summer reading.
10 min: Read up to next choral ode.
15 min: Look at article on chorus together. Each group will determine a time, characters, setting for their passage. remind them not to focus on what we did before.
20 min: Gather again and have them perform their odes. Have the rest of the class try to identify the time, the place and the characters.
35 min: Perform and continue reading.
9/30
15 min: Review synonyms and give them time to read again to answer the questions on the back. Go over.
45 min: Continue reading Medea. Try to get up to the end of the Jason scene.
20 min: Read the article on have them divide into groups to work on strophe/antistrophe. They must set their scene in a recognizable time and place, such as those mentioned in the article. tell them you want to finish reading the play this week.
9/26
5 min: Begin with terms from last video.
25 min: Teleprompt article on Fiona Shaw's production. Then pass it out and have them do the work. Give them 20 min, then tell them we'll continue with it next lesson. No need to finish the work.
45 min: Dictate words, cast parts and continue reading.
9/24
5 min: Make groups. Give each leader a number and number remaining students.
15 min: Watch the video on Greek tragedy. Have students write terms in notebook, leaving space for definitions, watch video and review notes.
40 min: Continue reading paying attention to structure and plot.
20 min: Read article on the chorus.
9/20
Remind them that on Friday they will be writing their college essay and handing in a rough draft. They must hand something in at the end of the class. If they have already written one, they should hand that in, as well as the version they write in class.
20 min: Ask them what advice they remember from the article about writing your college essay. Look at a few of the NYT's examples of a good college essay.
15 min: Ask what they remember about the first video on the History of the Theater. What playwright did they focus on at the end? (Aeschylus) Watch 2nd video and have them focus on the innovations of the two remaining playwrights, and the changes in the festival.
10 min: Review the story of Medea, exposition and any foreshadowing revealed in the first scene.
35 min: Continue reading. Choose actor for Medea. Work on the chorus scene as a class. You will need someone to keep up a beat, and focus on certain words like "shout", "unhappy", "moaned". Chorus leaders:
9/18
10 min: Hand back essays and review code. Explain the grading and expectations.
25 min: Ask them what they remember from the video, finish watching and review terms . Remind them they will be quizzed on this material.
20 min: Show them questions on reading passage and review the "presuppositions" of each question. Give them time to read "Drama and Society" and review answers.
30 min: Tell them that a Greek audience would have come into the theater knowing the legend of Medea. Have them listen to the Nurse's opening monologue. Write "exposition" and "foreshadowing" on the board and have them find evidence of either. Have them compare the names she mentions with the passage "Medea" on pg. 72.
9/16
2 min: Tell them how to use turnitin.com
8 min: Hand back essays and review code and comments.
25 min: Review what they remember from video. Watch video and review terms. (Remind them they will be quizzed.)
20 min: Pass out Medea text. Review questions (presuppositions) and have them read passage, "Drama and Society". Project answers on board. Give them 1o min. Review answers together.
25 min: Tell them a Greek audience would have come into the theater knowing the legend of Medea. Still, the opening passage contains a lot of exposition and foreshadowing. Have them listen while you read and identify both.
No HW.
9/12
5 min: Take in SR HW - ask what they wrote about? Identify challenges the characters face. Celie
10 min: Review quotes on quiz. Discussion of quotes and how they relate to the two books. What did you write about? Explain that the books are meant to segue into the college essay. How might they relate? Celie finds her voice. She celebrates the characters around her. She changes. Look at first sentence of BaT. It sounds like the start of a college essay.
15 min: Look at first lines and rate in order of preference.
20 min: Begin with teleprompter to read. Have them try take notes. Review notes together than read article properly. Tell them they will write a first draft next Friday. if they've already written one, they should hand it in on Friday and plan to write another one in class.
40 min: History of Theater: Ancient Greece Medea. Go to video and have them copy the terms before you watch. After watching, review the terms. Remind them they will be tested on them. Pass out Medea, and have them do the first section on "Drama and Society".
9/10
They only need to write about two of the quotes for The Color Purple. Short discussion of how to use a quote in your writing. Set up the general topic - introduce the quote - explain the quote - one paragraph relating the quote to each book. Whatever you don't finish in class, hand in on Thursday.
9/6
Arrange students in alpha order.
Review policy sheet.
Address questions.
Discuss summer reading and prepare for writing tests next week.
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