ELEMENTS OF DRAMA

• Playwright – The person who writes the play. (Comes from an old English idiom in which “wright” meant “maker of”)

• The conflict underlies every play. It is the key issue around which the plot/ storyline is developed using specific persons (characters), during a clear time frame (time) and it must take place somewhere (setting)

• Act – A major division in a play. In an act there is a major development that usually begins and moves to a climax, which leads to other things happening in other acts.


• There are also one act plays in which everything occurs in that one act. (similar to short story vs. novel)


• Scene- This is generally a subdivision of an act. Whenever people go on stage and change the setting, the scene has been changed. Therefore scene refers to a specific development that takes place at a specific point in time.

• Dialogue- This refers to the conversation between two or more characters in a play


• Monologue – A monologue occurs when one actor is on stage thinking aloud


• A Soliloquy help to thicken the plot, it leads the audience into the mind of the character and allows the audience to be able to “read into” the actor/ actress’ motivations for his / her actions.


• Stage directions - These are the notes put into the script by the playwright to tell the actor or director what to do.


• Script – This refers to the text of the play, ie The book the actor reads to study his / her lines


• Lines – These are the words that the writer has written for the actor and actresses to speak.


• Props – short for stage properties, Items that are used by actors on stage.

ANTIGONE

Antigone is a model of honor and sacrifice for the sake of familial loyalty. She cares for her bereft and guilt-ridden father, and then she insists on burying her slain brother in the face of an unjust law and likely death. The tragedy does not depict a reward for her valor, but readers appreciate (or at least debate) her honorable actions. The gods and magical items are not significant players in this political and social drama; the focus is on Antigone and her moral choices.

The theme of family loyalty arises throughout the Greek myths, but in this story, we see how far a character will go to defend it. Other times someone has died or risked death for a family member or a lover; Antigone acts in a way similar to Theseus and Perseus. Her actions do not take her on wild adventures, like these other heroes, but she does achieve a heroic, sacrificial status nonetheless. The Greek myths clearly support family loyalty, and this tale stands as a prime example of how the stories were used to convey moral messages.

This myth also brings the myths rather far from the tales of gods into the world of human culture and politics. Antigone is caught up in the middle of political and ethical battles fought on human terms and in light of competing human values.

In Antigone, the question is asked, which law is greater: God's or man's. Sophocles votes for God (or more appropriately, the gods, since the early Greeks were polytheistic). He does this in order to save Athens from the moral destruction which seems eminent.

In Antigone, God's judgment of man plays a key role in the battle between human and divine law. Though Creon, the king of Thebes , renders judgment on Antigone because she violates the state's law against burying her brother, God's justice proves to be much more powerful when Creon backs down at the end of the play and admits that his law is unjust.

To understand Antigone, it's important to know some basic beliefs of Hellenic people. When a corpse was not buried, but instead left uncovered to be eaten by birds and animals, the gods were insulted and made angry, since this was thought to be a supreme insult to the body's family. This is why Antigone feels it necessary to bury the body of her brother, who is considered a traitor to Thebes , but her blood nonetheless.

Also, the lesser theme of God's judgment being passed on through the generations of a family is revealed in Antigone. Indeed Antigone suffers not only because she elects to stand up for an ideal, but because her disastrous destiny is predicted by fate. Oedipus' sin has now haunted his daughter as well.

MEN AND GODS PROJECT

Second Form Assignment

English Language and English Literature

Term 2

Text: Men and Gods

PROJECT #2

Instruction: Students will work in groups of five. Each group will create a newspaper based on the text that is being studied, Men and Gods.
The following information must be included in the newspaper:

a) Design a cover for the newspaper with an interesting headline.
b) An interview with a mythological character mentioned in the text.
c) Two letters to the Editor
d) A comic strip depicting a specific story in the text
e) Two games(for example a crossword puzzle)
f) A minimum of three advertisements (must be based on the text)
g) Obituary
h) A poem/ short story section
i) A “Dear Aphrodite” section (like “Dear Pastor”)


Due date: March 26, 2010.

***Each member of the group MUST do atleast one of the sections listed above.***

6th weekly

HEY GUYS, IT'S HERE AGAIN. ANOTHER DEPARTMENTAL EXAM. HERE IS WHAT YOU WILL BE TESTED ON:

- Vocabulary (synonyms and antonyms)
- Descriptive writing (person)
*** ensure that you utilise all that was taught throughout the half term (literary devices, appeal to all senses)

FOR LITERATURE

- Definition of the various terms associated with Greek Mythology
- Information from the first three stories in the text (Cadmus, Actaeon, Pentheus)
- Short Answer questions based on the story of Perseus.
- Themes (religion and heroism)

NOTHING WILL BE ON THE EXAM THAT WAS NOT ADDRESSED IN CLASS, SO NO LEWAY WILL BE GIVEN FOR LACK OF INFORMATION.

*****KEEP POSTED FOR MORE INFORMATION*****

ASSIGNMENT(Greek mythology)

1. Students will prepare a list of girls’ names which are connected with mythology. Explain the references.
2. who were the Olympians and who believed in them?
3. When were the myths started?
4. What purpose did the myths serve for the ancient Greeks?
5. What were the oracles and in what ways were they used by the Greeks?

Here are links that will help


http://www.messagenet.com/myths/neomyth.html


http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/GREECE/home.html
choose the Gods and Goddesses section.
http://www.mrdowling.com/701-mythology.html

Video on olympian gods

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP_NeirFIkM&feature=related


This video serves as an introduction to Greek mythology.ENJOY!!

sample report

23 Cassava Piece,
Kingston 3.
November 23, 2009.

Principal
Wolmer's Boys' School
National Heroes Circle
Kingston 4.

Dear Dr. Small:

Men remanded for threatening student

Two men were remanded in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday for threatening to kill a high school student after robbing him.

On November 10, I witnessed a student walking along Hanover Street, Kingston, when one of the men told him he wanted what was in his pocket but was ignored.

Again, on November 11, I saw both men at the school gate, the young man walking pass them when one said he asked him for something yesterday and did not get it. He again ignored them.

The men followed the complainant along North Street and approached him on Sutton Street and held his bag straps.

Matthew, the student reported that they had asked him for his phone and he said he did not have any. However, they searched his pocket and took out a Samsung phone.

The men at this point, pulled their knives and told the complainant they were going to kill him. The student ran for his life, leaving his bag.

Matthew reported the incident to police and the men were arrested. Both men should be in court on December 2.

Sincerely,

JWONG
..............
Jason Wong
(Student)


........NOTE........................
THE SUBJECT MUST BE UNDERLINED.
CHOOSE EITHER THE BLOCK OR SEMI BLOCK FORMAT AND STICK TO IT.
REMEMBER YOU DON'T INDENT IN THE BLOCK FORMAT, YOU SKIP A LINE.
REPORT IS WRITTEN IN THE PAST TENSE.
CLOSE BY SAYING WHAT THE END RESULT IS OR WHAT IS TO HAPPEN.
REMEMBER THE 5Ws. WHO WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY.......AND HOW.

GOOD LUCK!