For this reading, you will present a selection of prose fiction that in performance is no shorter than 5 minutes and no longer than 7 minutes, including the introduction.
SELECTION
Chose a short piece of prose fiction that you like, want to explore and share
with your audience. Be sure it is appropriate to you and your audience. When
selecting, consider the entire performance experience. Works of short-short
stories, or what is often called "sudden fiction" will probably
fit the time constraints. Otherwise, choose a selection that can be effectively
excerpted; that is, a piece that allows you to share a only a portion but
a section which constitutes a full experience in and of itself. Carefully
edit any selection that is too long.
ANALYSIS
After making a selection, complete a full Dramatistic and Modal
analysis. The following reminders on those models should help. Feel free
to use other analytic models if you think they will be useful to your understanding
of your selection. Take careful notes while analyzing and be sure to collect
specific examples when answering the questions below. Not only will these
help you choose performance analogs, your notes will help you prepare the
written portion of this assignment.
DRAMATISTIC ANALYSIS OF YOUR SELECTION
WHO
IS SPEAKING?
What is the narrator's point of view? Why do you think so? If the narrator
is first person, describe him or her. What does he or she look like? Why do
you think so? How does the narrator feel about the other characters in the
story? How do you know? How much time has elapsed between the virtual-present
telling and the virtual past? Has time changed the narrator? How? Does the
narrator feel the same way about the characters now as he or she did when
the events occurred?
If
the narrator is in the third person, describe the narrator's attitude and
his or her psychological relationship with each character in the story. Does
the narrator's attitude change or remain consistent throughout? Why do you
think so?
TO
WHOM IS THE NARRATOR SPEAKING?
Is the implied audience made clear in the story? If so, who is it?
If
the implied audience is not made clear, whom might the narrator be
addressing? (If every storyteller is said to have an ideal audience in mind,
who might the audience be for the narrator in your selection--friends? enemies?
peers? doctors? police?) Why do you think so? How will the class know who
they are to be?
WHAT
IS THE NARRATOR SPEAKING ABOUT?
What is the theme of the selection? What are the general ideas being conveyed?
How are the events triggered? Is the plot causal or contingent? Are their
any associative moments?
WHERE
IS THE NARRATOR?
Is the narrator in the virtual present as he or she retells the story? How
do you know? If place is not specified in your story, where might the narrator
be? Why do you think so? Where was the narrator when the events occurred?
What "story realms" does the narrator describe or enter?
WHEN
IS THE NARRATOR TELLING THE STORY?
How long after the virtual past events does the narrator retell the story?
How can you tell? How does the narrator manipulate time in your selection?
Note examples of summary, examples of scene, and examples of description.
HOW
IS THE NARRATOR TELLING THE STORY?
Does the narrator speak formally? Consultatively? Casually? Intimately? Describe
the narrator's style. Describe the mood the narrator creates.
WHY
IS THE NARRATOR TELLING THE STORY?
Is the narrator doing more than sharing an experience? What purpose might
he or she have? Catharsis? Moral lesson? Persuasion? Entertainment? Why do
you think so?
MODAL
ANALYSIS FOR A PROSE PERFORMANCE
What is the speaker mode for your selection? Why do you think so? What audience
modes are at work? Note examples of lyric lines, dramatic lines, and epic
lines. How does modal analysis contribute to your understanding of the relationship
between the writer and the narrator and between the narrator and his or her
various audiences?
TRANSLATING
YOUR ANALYTIC DECISIONS INTO PERFORMANCE ANALOGS
When you have done a thorough examination of your selection, begin choosing
performance analogs. Active selection of analogs (not silent consideration)
will be more efficient and productive. Let your voice and body help you choose
analogs. Let your analytic findings prompt vocal and physical responsiveness.
Here are some questions meant to prompt analog ideas:
What will your focus be? When will it change?
How will you create the narrator's voice?
How will you create the narrator's body?
How will the narrator depict characters in the story? Their voices? Bodies? Focus?
When, how and why will movement and staging be used?
How will you create the "story realms"?
When, how and why will gesture be used?
How will you show the narrator's relationship with the audience?
How will you handle the script?
What will the pace be? When and why will it change?
What is the major transition? How will you show it?
After
piece-meal selection of performance analogs, rehearse your selection as one
fluid performance. Be sure to consider the beginning energy, how the story
flows, ways to keep it dynamic, when to change intensities and how to end
the performance. Create your "story realms" through staging, gesture
and projecting outward with focus. Interact with the environment. Rehearse
your selection (and introduction) several times so that your analogs can be
presented in a clear and coherent manner.
PREPARING
A MANUSCRIPT
While it is not a requirement, there are several good reasons for preparing
your manuscript instead of performing from the actual book where you found
your literary selection. It is advisable to retype (or photocopy) your selection
and place it in a comfortable 3-ring notebook that can be easily held during
performance. On your manuscript, you can write delivery notes in a distinctive
color. For a narrator presenting the direct discourse conversation of virtual
past characters, two different colored highlighters will help you remember
your focus and character analogs.
WRITTEN
ASSIGNMENT
Keep careful notes of your interpretation process as a kind of road map
to your performance. Answer point by point any of the above considerations
you applied to your selection. Provide a record, in standard academic prose,
of why you chose your selection, what your Dramatistic and modal analysis
taught you, why you chose particular performance analogs, and how you think
the audience will receive them. Standard academic prose is typed, double-spaced
paragraphs. Include an introductory paragraph that sets forth your intent
for the paper. Use your analysis and performance notes to create the body
of the paper. Use specific examples from your selection whenever appropriate.
Have a concluding paragraph. An interesting angle to consider for your paper
is intertextuality.
INTERTEXTUALITY
Through what other texts, past experiences and interests did you read
this text? In other words, how did the events in your background influence
the way you interpreted this text?
GRADING
An evaluation form (and your paper)
will be used to assess your performance. Much of the form will be filled out
during the event, but your grade will not be assigned until after your paper
has been read. You will receive a letter grade for your performance that is
worth a maximum of 125 points. In addition, the formatting, style and specificity of your
written component can earn you a maximum of 30 points. It is expected
that course-specific terms be 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 how you support them. The paper needs to be submitted the day you perform;
e-mailed submissions are not acceptable.