UNIT+3+-+MODERN+DRAMA

Resources
Albee - Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Beckett - Waiting for Godot O'Neill - A Long Days Journey into Night Stoppard - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Williams - Streetcar Named Desire


 * Activity 1**

Collectively as a class we will be watching these cinematic adaptations of classic modern dramas. As we watch each blog in response to at least one question associated with each play/movie.

Albee Questions
 * 1) Is it possible to live without illusion?
 * 2) What would the play be like if you rewrote the entire thing from Honey's perspective?
 * 3) What would the play be like if it were set in a different country? How distinctly American is //Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?//
 * 4) Are George and Martha better off at the end of the play?
 * 5) In what ways could an entire nation be seen as an illusion?

Beckett Questions
 * 1) Do the men in //Waiting for Godot// have any sort of character arcs? Do they evolve at all, or learn anything, or change in any way from the beginning to the end of the play?
 * 2) Why discuss philosophical ideas in a work of fiction instead of a treatise?
 * 3) If it’s true that nothing or less than nothing happens in //Waiting for Godot//, how is it that we manage to be entertained as the audience/reader?
 * 4) Do you think the play would function differently if the characters were all female instead of male?
 * 5) Do Vladimir and Estragon stand around killing time because they’re waiting for Godot, or is waiting for Godot itself just an act to fill the void?
 * 6) If //Waiting for Godot// is moralistic in nature, what is the moral? How does the play instruct us to lead our lives? Are these lessons subjective and personal for each viewer, or objective and universal?

O'Neill Questions

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 * 1) Pulitzer Prizes are awarded to distinguished American plays, preferably concerning American life. O'Neill won //four// Pulitzers, including one for //Long Day's Journey//. How would this play work if it were set in another country? Are there aspects of the play that only work in an American setting?
 * 2) Why do you think O'Neill wanted this (semi-autobiographical) play published after his death? Does he have anything to be ashamed of here?
 * 3) There's a huge amount of literary name-dropping and quoting going on in this text. Compare and contrast how James, Edmund, and Jamie use literature. How do their relations to books illuminate their characters? Can you get a sense of O'Neill's position on the role of literature in our society?
 * 4) Do the characters have any notable strengths?
 * 5) Speculate as to the reasons why is James Tyrone such a skinflint?
 * 6) "In vino veritas"—in wine there is truth. To what extent does this aphorism apply to the characters in the play?
 * 7) Why the title?

Stoppard Questions
 * 1) Given the Player's description of a tragedy, is Stoppard's play a tragedy ("The bad end unhappily, the good unluckily")? (2.316)
 * 2) Why are Ros and Guil so lost and directionless when not caught up in the action of //Hamlet//?
 * 3) What are the major similarities and differences between Ros's view of what a play should do, and Guil's view of how a play should relate to reality?
 * 4) Does Stoppard's play pay homage to //Hamlet// or does it ridicule it?
 * 5) After watching //Waiting for Godot//, how is Stoppard's play different than Beckett's? How do the two plays deal with themes of absurdity and a breakdown in communication in distinct ways?

Williams
 * 1) Are there any moral or ethical lessons to be found in //A Streetcar Named Desire//?
 * 2) Blanche and Stanley are usually seen as opposite characters and symbols of conflicting ideals. But in what ways are these two similar? And how do these commonalities complicate the interpretation of the play?
 * 3) What sort of acting choices do you see the characters having to play, particularly Blanche, Stanley, and Stella?
 * 4) How important is the final scene of //Streetcar//? What does it add? Why not just end with the rape scene?


 * Activity 2**

1. Test