March 31 -- Indian Queen, 2nd half -- Group B

n.b.: Because our focus for this play is partly on adaptation and modernization, you should write responses after this class session, not before. After watching parts of Peter Sellars’ production, comment on one of the following:

1) Visual effects. How did you react to this play’s visual effects? Feel free to comment on color, costumes, or anything else that is in the visual sense modality.

or

2) Songs and voices. Comment on the music. Specific areas of possible commentary include: music + text, music as expressive art, poetry and music, music as part of a spectacle … and lots of others.

or

3) Adjustments and adaptations. Comment on what Sellars’ version does and what it accents, vs. what Dryden & co.’s version does and what it accents. Feel free to choose any particular moment in the play(s), including either a moment that the versions share, or a moment that one version has and the other does not.

or

4) Discuss another part of today’s reading that seems to be in need of exploration, elucidation, or comment.

March 29 - The Indian Queen, first half - Group B

1) Take a look at the rough plot summary below. Is there anything in today’s readings that doesn’t seem to match up, or that you need more information about?
http://www.cockaigne.org.uk/research/IndianQueen.html

or

2) Watch the brief clip about the music of The Indian Queen and about Purcell. What questions do you have about the music + theater form, after reading some of the play in the traditional way and also viewing this clip?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCpeNLm9RVY

or

3) What did Samuel Pepys think of the play? Look at his reaction and comment on what he says. What sense of playgoing does it give you?

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1664/02/01/#c91927

or

4) Discuss another part of today’s reading that seems to be in need of exploration, elucidation, or comment.

March 17 - Marriage a la Mode, 2nd Half - Group A

1) The initial list of characters and their histories and dispositions is quite complicated in this play (as we noted in our diagram last class). And of course in this play there are plot developments and revelations. What happens in the middle & late action to develop and / or clarify the complex situation?

or

2) There are two rather surprising conversations about love and marriage in act 5.1: between Doralice and Palamede, and between Palamede and Rhodophil (with Doralice also in the mix). Comment on one or both of them.

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3) What do we make of poor Palmyra, particularly in spots like 4.4.60-61: “And is it thus you court Palmyra’s bed? / Can she the murd’rer of her Parent wed?”

or

4) Discuss another part of today’s reading that seems to be in need of exploration, elucidation, or comment.

March 15 - Marriage a la Mode, first half -- Group A

1) Many plays have scenes that provide initial information. In Dryden’s Marriage a la Mode, this scene is at act 1.280-345. Comment on anything that’s not clear either from this situation, or from the dramatic revelations and declarations occurring a bit later, at 1.370-442. What do we know by the end of act 1 … or what seems unclear here?

or

2) Melantha seems to be quite a character. I haven’t ever seen this play performed, but I bet she’s a scene-stealer. What do you think of her initially?

or

3) Comment on the last lines of act 2 (439-535), and especially on Leonidas’s last lines, including the spider metaphor.

or

4) Discuss another part of today’s reading that seems to be in need of exploration, elucidation, or comment.

March 10 - Oroonoko 2nd half - Group B

1) There’s some pretty fascinating dialogue w/r/t the condition of a slave, and the justification for revolt, in 3.2. Comment on one argument or statement of either Aboan or Oroonoko.

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2) Charlotte / Welldon has a speech at 4.1.58-77. Comment on the use of “credit” and “bank” and other mercantile / monetary metaphors here.

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3) The end of the play is rather bifurcated, what with the comedy and the tragedy all mixed together. What do you make of this? You might discuss a representative sample, such as: “I am a woman, sir” (5.1.60) for the comedic part, and for the tragic part, “Forbid it, Nature” (5.5.277). [But there are lots of other possibilities.]

or

4) Discuss another part of today’s reading that seems to be in need of exploration, elucidation, or comment.

March 8 - Southerne, Oroonoko - first half - Group B

note -- because today's reading is also an essay due date, you can feel free to do this reading response after class, anytime before our Thursday (March 10) class. But the March 10 RR must be done on time.

1) The comic plot is entirely Southerne’s invention. What do you make of the opening action, with Charlotte and Lucy Welldon and with Widow Lackitt? Feel free to comment on it either as a comic plot or as a side-plot in a tragedy.

or

2) The opening action gives us several glimpses of Oroonoko, whose position is tragic when the plot begins: he’s already a king who has been thrown down by fortune to the position of slave. Comment on some of his kingly language in the early action. E.g., “Tear off this pomp, and let me know myself” (1.2.270).

or

3) Southerne’s Oroonoko includes a major adjustment to Behn’s story, in the figure of Imoinda. Her whiteness in Southerne’s play creates not a few parallels to Othello (and other stories of love across racial or other divides). Take a look at 2.2 and other scenes in which this relationship is emphasized. What do you make of it? Is it meant to be a kind of fairy tale? Or a more realistic representation?

Or

4) comment on some other aspect of the day’s reading that strikes your fancy.