POETRY PERFORMANCE CRITIQUE

For this paper, you will follow a criticism process similar to the critique of the drama and prose performances. You will define your criteria for judging the poetry performances and support it with specific examples from throughout the round of performances. This paper can earn 30 points.

Review chapter 8, Your Role with Poetry. Identify key concepts and core ideas for analyzing and performing poetry. Choose which you would like to focus on for this paper. Be sure to identify those concepts in your introductory paragraph, and develop your paper along them.

Define your criteria for judging performance as you develop your paper. Illustrate your opinions with specific examples from across the range of poetry performances you watched. Be sure to include specific examples that were, in your opinion, successful in within the component you are discussing and examples that were not as successful. For example, if you choose to focus part of your paper on Sensory Imagery, be sure to define the term, provide examples where the performers sensory showing communicated the imagery and instances where you thought the performers did not.

In class and in the chapter, several new concepts of Oral Interpretation in regards to poetry were explored. Be sure to discuss some of these poetry specific concepts

Some other standard concepts you may wish to explore:

Speaker Mode: Did the performer make clear the external mode of the poem(s)?

Audience Mode: Did the performer make clear the internal modal shifts between Lyric, Narrative and Dramatic? Was the relationship with the audience clear? Was focus effectively used for this?

Dramatistic Analysis Performance Analogs: Did the performer make clear who was speaking to whom? Was a specific locale created? Was the sense of time communicated? Did the performer make clear the speaker's purpose in speaking?

The paper should be at least 800 words of standard academic prose. Include a word count! It is due the class period after the last performance day. Remember, these writings substitute for a final exam; it is expected that course-specific terms are used in all papers to demonstrate your mastery of course topics. I will be looking for such specificity--that will earn you points. Be opinionated but back opinions up. I won't be grading opinions but rather your support of them. Papers submitted after the due date and time (including e-mailed versions) will be docked 10 points per week.