Subjective Final in EN 230

The picture above is from a Finnish production of Miss Julie.

Below are your prompts for the final.  Please choose one for your two to five page essay.  You may revise your midterm if you include at least two plays from the second half of the semester (Pygmalion and after).

Question #1:  

Consider the plays that we've read and seen so far this semester (including Living Out, "Soul Gone Home," and Master Harold…and the Boys).  What do they tell us about modern and contemporary drama?  (Modern drama includes "Soul Gone Home," Death of a Salesman, The Good Person of Szechuan, Pygmalion, Miss Julie, Streetcar, Hedda Gabler, Trifles, and Waiting for Godot.  Contemporary drama includes Fences, Angels in America, M. Butterfly, Living Out, and Master Harold.)  What do these plays have in common?  How are they distinct from other, earlier plays such as Oedipus Rex or Shakespeare's plays?  How have the plays from the first half of the semester differed from those in the second half?  How has your opinion evolved?  Consider performance as well as the text of plays.  Be sure to mention at least two plays from the second half as well as one from the first half.  

Question #2:  

What does performance add to the plays that we've read?  How does performance limit these plays?  How have watching the various clips helped you understand our plays?  Discuss the differences between film/TV and stage versions.  Can a play still be worth reading if it is never performed?  Why?  Why not?  Consider the argument made in the following 2007 essay from the City Paper:   http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/34341/test-case-scenarios Also, consider the reviews I’ve posted at Multiply.  These reviews may be glowing; they may be jeering.  Finally, how much can a director change a play before he/she has distorted it?  Be sure to mention at least two plays from the second half as well as one from the first half.  

Question #3:  

Discuss the depiction of men and women in the plays we have read and seen.  Does it make a difference when a play was written?  Or whether a play is written by a man, a woman, or someone who is from a minority group?  Does it make a difference whether the woman is at the center of the play or on the periphery?  Consider the role that history, culture, and even genre (comedy, tragedy) play in defining what appropriate masculinity and femininity are.  Consider how a director may change or frame a play.  Also, consider your viewpoint as a 21st century man or woman.  Be sure to mention at least two plays from the second half as well as one from the first half.  

Question #4:  

Does realism have a place on the stage?  Why?  Why not?  Support your argument with examples from your reading and viewing.  Note how a play may change from production to production.  Be sure to mention at least two plays from the second half as well as one from the first half.

Good luck!