Becoming a Playwright

Becoming a Playwright

by Lauren Conroy

Becoming a Playwright

Abstract

1) This Capstone is culmination of all that I have learned about theater in London and at WPI. I plan to do research on how to write a satirical play, to analyze 2 satires, and to find out what makes satirical plays such a success. Then I will create my own satirical play, a short one act play, with the theme of tourism in London. ts a fun way to tie together theater and my adventures in London with some comic relief. 2) At WPI, I took two theater classes in my A and B term with Professor Susan Vick and Professor Barbara McCarthy. In my Introduction to Drama class, I preformed several lines from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing as well as wrote a 5 minuet monologue which was preformed by another student for the class. In my American Drama class, several classmates and I preformed the chaotic dinner scene from August: Osage County for the class. In all, I have very limited experience preforming in and writing play scripts.

3) your major takeaways from the experience. This can and should be very similar to the paragraph you use to summarize this milestone on your Profile Page. It should contain your main Objective, so be sure to clearly state a one-sentence statement that summarizes your main objective for this milestone such as "a comparison of the text of Medieval English choral music to that of the Baroque" or it may be a question such as "to what extent did religion influence Christopher Wren's sense of design?"

Introduction

What makes a play funny? Well this differs from country to country, but overall something that

Section 1: Background

Satire

"Satire" is derived from the Latin word satura meaning "full" which then came to mean "a mixture full of different things" The word satura, which Quintillian strictly used and denotes only Roman verse satire, states that the satire must use hexameter form. This form consists of metric line containing six feet, most often consisting of an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables, which is called dactyl. It is one of the most original, challenging and memorable forms of literature and has been used by writers such as Voltaire, Rabelais and Petronius. Gilbert Highet, the author of Anatomy of Satire wrote that satire "Pictures real men and women, often in lurid colours, but always with unforgettable clarity. It uses the bold and vivid language of its own time, eschewing stale cliches and dead conventions." Unlike other patterns of literature, which can be felt as remote and formal, satire is more free, easy and direct to the point. With the best satirist there is very little convention, but much reality. The best way to discover and learn about satire is to look at what themes are regarded by satirists as important and inflectional. In satire, there are 3 categories that a work may fall into, Horatian, Juvenalian and Menippean.

Categories of Satire

Juvenalian

Juvenal was a Roman poet who was considered one of the most influential and powerful satiric poets. He was born into an influential family and became an officer in the army as well as was on the way to becoming an administration on emperor Domitian's service. He was not promoted to his desired position and decided to write a satire declaring that the court favors was the reason he was not promoted. This caused him to be banished to Syene, which today is Aswan, Egypt and he had his property confiscated. After the assassination of Domitian, he moved back to Rome where he rebuilt his life and continued writing satires. In his later years, his satires contained more human emotion which may have marked that he had found solace from his rough beginnings in Rome. His is estimated to have died in 127 and had left 16 satiric poems.
Much of Juvenal's poems attack the conditions one had lived in Rome with the Roman rulers of Domitian, Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian. These poems were compiled into five separate books. The first book contains the first five satirical poems he had written. It encompasses his views in retrospective of the tyrannical reign of Domitian and was published between 100 and 110. The second book was the largest of books published and contained on satire 6. It covered the topics of the year 115. Book third contained satire 7, 8, and 9 and opens with praised for an emperor, probably Hadrian, who created a literary institute to assist authors. Juvenal believes that this emperor is the only reason that literature may survive. Not many conclusions can be drawn on what is written in book four and book five references year 127 and contains satires 13-16.

Juvenal's structure to satires is unchanging and can be see in all 16 satires. There is a clear and forceful approach and tone to them. Gilbert Highet states that:

They are full of skillfully expressive effects in which the sound and rhythm mimic and enhance the sense; and they abound in trenchant phrases and memorable epigrams

Juvenal describes the striking and disgusting scenes with clarity making them unforgettable.

Menippean

Menippus was a Cynic satirist who satirized other philosophers, who was called σπουδογέλοιος or "the man who jokes about serious things." Very little is know about his life and works because all of it was lost. Sources say that he was a slave who somehow won his freedom and lived in Thebes, Greece.

Section 2: Deliverable

The Types of Tourists Found in London as told by a "Stupid" American Tourist

By looking into satirical plays, I thought what could be better then writing my own satirical one act play. Initially, I was unsure of what topic my play would be on, but then I looked at myself and then looked at London. My play will explore the effects of tourism on the local peoples and surrounding area of London and how even though tourism effects the economy in a positive way, the tourist themselves can reek havoc on the place they are exploring.
Honestly some stories in the news about tourist who hurt wildlife and break priceless just to get photographs are heartbreaking. By creating a play about the what damage "bad" tourists can do, I hope will shed some light on their harm to the nation they are visiting.

The Play Script

Click to See Play Script
https://londonhuawiki.wpi.edu/images/c/cd/The_Types_of_Tourists_Found_in_London.pdf

Conclusion

In this section, provide a summary or recap of your work, as well as potential areas of further inquiry (for yourself, future students, or other researchers).

External Links

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