Course / Program Name: Approaching Plays
Hosted by / Sponsored by: The Open University
Course of Study: Theater Arts: Plays
Course Link: Take this Course
Description: This unit is an in-depth intermediate study of literary plays. Available through The Open University, the course provides a deeper understanding of basic technical terms and methods for approaching and interpreting text and performance of plays.
There are several pieces to the course:
- Approaching Plays: How the text of a performance play differs from a poem, short story or novel.
- Dialogue: Tension and structure of dialogue.
- Stage directions: Interpreting the possibilities of stage direction in a text.
- Blank verse: Analyzing and marking up a text to recognize patterns, rhythms and themes in blank verse.
- Play Structure: Understanding exposition, climax and denouement along with other modern structural theory. Examines delivery, movement and staging in relation to audience.
- From Text to Performance: Looks at possibilities of translating dramatic language to stage, as well as spatial relationships with audience.
- Dramatic Conventions: Soliloquy, Asides, Masks and Disguises, and Doubling of actors.
The self-paced fifteen-hour course is designed with readings, recommended texts and resources, activities, lecture discussions and discussion forums.