ADA 4M Project -- Make Your Own "Greek Tragedy"

·  Your group will organize and perform a play according to the structure on the flip side. You must choose a familiar story from history or from fiction to dramatize. Remember that Greek Tragedy has only 2-3 actors on stage at once and the violent action happens backstage.

·  The audience will serve as “chorus”. You must be sure that the lines for the chorus are presented clearly so that the audience will be able to "perform" them without rehearsal.

·  You will not be required to memorize your lines if you write a script.

·  You will be graded on your performance. Note: Keeping with authentic Greek format and practices is the point of this assignment.

·  Note: If you choose a familiar story that has a happy ending, you are required to give your play an appropriate "tragic" ending.

·  You must provide copies of all of the chorus's words to hand out to the "audience." If you have nice handwriting, you can print it on blank paper and I’ll photocopy it for tomorrow.

BRAINSTORM YOUR STORY

Movies, poems, fairytales and myths, real life famous stories (assassins, suicides, divorces, massacres, and other tragic events caused by people – since Greek tragedy deals with the individual.)


ADA4M – GREEK TRAGEDY

Your play will have the following structure:

Prologue
Characters speak, perhaps directly to the audience. Tell us what the play is going to be about, and what you think we will learn from it.

Parados
Chorus, in unison, tells us what has happened before the beginning of the action of the play. They should also tell us who they are. For bonus marks, you can have the chorus speak in verse. (In a real Greek play, the chorus would "enter" here, but since the "audience" is serving as chorus, we'll just assume that part. But if you want, you can have them say something about "entering.")

Episode 1
Characters, in masks, of course, act out the beginning of the action of the play.Remember that characters in Greek Tragedy tend to talk a lot about decision making and moral choices -- what should I do? Am I doing the right thing? Etc. Also, anything violent should take place offstage, with a character or "messenger" entering to tell us what happened.

Stasima 1
Chorus speaks about something connected with the theme of the story, but not necessarily about the story itself. Or, if you prefer, you may use a poem here, that you think expresses the mood or theme at this point in the play. If you use a poem, the "audience" will read it in unison.

Episode 2
Characters act out the next part of the story.

Stasima 2
(See Stasima 1) Typically, a Greek chorus would add choral movement at some point. Since the audience is the chorus and wouldn’t be able to move in unison, you could have the actors come out and demo choral movement to poetry.

(If necessary, you may add more Episodes and Stasimas here.)

Final Episode
Characters act out the end of the story.

Exodus
As or after the characters leave, the chorus tells us what we have learned from the story.