1) Academic Research Paper:
This is a traditional research paper that asks you to develop a thesis and argument
about one or more of the primary texts discussed in this class. Your paper will
include at least three secondary sources, but should include more if your
argument requires it. This assignment is meant to offer you maximum flexibility
to explore the issue(s) and text(s) that you feel most excited about, but I strongly
encourage you to discuss your topic with me early to make sure that you’re on the
right track. Some possible research questions include:
a. Consider the acting/perfromace theories of artists Grotowski, Brecht,
Hijikata, or Artaud. How do these artists’ approaches to the performers’
bodies reflect their “modern” sensibilities?
b. Consider the marriage of politics and theatre in the work of artists like the
Futurists, the Dadaists, Meyerhold, Mayakovsky, Piscator, Brecht,
Treadwell, Hansberry, Fugard/Kani/Ntshona, or Schumann. How do the
performance style(s), design elements, or playwrighting choices support
the artists’ political ends? How successful are these experiments? Why?
c. How do artists like Beckett, Artaud, Marinetti, Breton, or Tzara think
about language? How are these ideas reflected in the plays produced by
these artists or their followers?
d. How do relationships to new technology manifest in the works of artists
like Meyerhold, the Futurists, the Dadaists, Piscator, or Treadwell?
e. Consider how high modern artistic movements have impacted
contemporary artists. If you choose this option, make sure that you are
spending at least half of your paper on a careful engagement with the high
modernist movement/texts/theories, and that the connection you are
drawing genuinely, interestingly illuminates something about your
contemporary example.
f. What is the significance of the relationship between human beings and
objects in the works of artists like Schumann, Marinetti, Meyerhold, or
Beckett?
These are only prompts – you should not feel limited to these options, but I
encourage you to run your thesis by me well in advance of the due date.
Length: 2500-3000 words
2) Creative Performance Project:
There are three parts to this assignment: 1) A 10-minute, recorded group
performance; 2) A 5-minute, recorded group presentation, with bibliography; 3) A
3-4 page, individual essay.
In groups of 2-5, students will create an adaptation of the fairytale Jack and the
Beanstalk, in the style of one of the artists we have studied this term. A
Wikipedia summary of the Jack and the Beanstalk fable is attached to this
assignment. Students must research their chosen artist, adapt the fairytale into
their artist’s style, and create a 5-minute presentation and a 10-minute
performance that is well-rehearsed, carefully constructed, and creatively
imagined. Performances and presentations will be filmed and uploaded to
Brightspace. All members of the group need to be involved in the performance,
but not all need to be performers (in other words, individual group members may
be in charge of designing the set and/or props, adapting the script, or directing the
performance). All group members should be involved in the research process, and
all should contribute to decisions about the overall concept of the performance in
relation to that research.
Along with the performance, the group will submit a group bibliography,
formatted according to MLA guidelines, of at least five sources (in addition to any
used from class) related to your artist. At least two of those sources must be
secondary sources; the other two may be manifestos, collections of design images,
diary entries, or plays created by the artist. Before or after the performance, the
group should present a 5-minute presentation (also recorded), which will briefly
outline the core aesthetics and/or values of the artist you are emulating and
explain briefly how your research is reflected in the performance. All group
members will receive the same grade for the performance, bibliography, and
presentation components of this assignment.
In addition to the group performance, each member of the group will write a 750-
1000 word paper describing how at least one element of the performance reflects
the group’s research into their chosen artist. This paper should make a clear
argument explaining how the particular choice(s) made by the group reflect the
artist in question, citing appropriate research from the group bibliography. For
example, someone writing about a Brechtian adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk
may describe Brecht’s claims about epic acting, and then point to specific
rehearsal techniques and/or moments in the performance that tried to draw on
Brecht’s vision. Remember that
Length: 10-minute group performance (recorded); 5-minute group
presentation (recorded); 750-1000 word paper.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: All components of the assignment are due on
Brightspace by 4pm on the date they are due.
This final project is worth 35% of your final grade.
RUBRICS
1) Research Paper
a. Thesis and Argument (50%)
i. Thesis is arguable, specific, and clear
ii. Paper is elegantly structured, with each idea leading logically and
satisfyingly to the next
iii. Content is convincing, clear, and focused
iv. Argument is nuanced, interesting, and insightful
v. Essay offers a unique perspective
b. Grammar and Style (20%)
i. Essay is impeccably proofread, with correct grammar, spelling, etc.
ii. Essay is well-written in elegant, clear prose
c. Research and Evidence (30%)
i. Secondary research is well-chosen, and citations/bibliography are
correctly formatted
ii. Primary source evidence is specific and appropriate
iii. All research and evidence is well-integrated and thoughtful
2) Performance Project
a. Performance (50%)
i. Performance is polished and reflects time and care in preparation
ii. Performance is creative and interesting
iii. Performance suggests a nuanced, well-researched, and thoughtful
engagement with the chosen artist and the source material
b. Five-Minute Group Presentation (15%)
i. Group bibliography includes the correct number of well-chosen
sources and is properly formatted
ii. Description of the artist’s aesthetic is clear, well-presented, and
accurate
iii. Explanation of the group’s approach is clear, specific, and wellsupported
c. Individual essay (35%)
i. Essay offers a clear, nuanced explanation of the particular element
of performance they have chosen to emphasize, articulating how
the original artists understood its importance in the context of their
work
ii. Essay provides clear examples from
performance/rehearsal/design/text and carefully explains how the
group’s specific choices attempted to live up to the artist’s goals
iii. Research is well-integrated and convincing
iv. Essay is grammatically and stylistically pristine
Jack and the Beanstalk (from Wikipedia)
Jack is a young, poor boy living with his widowed mother and a dairy cow, on a farm
cottage. The cow’s milk was their only source of income. When the cow stops
giving milk, Jack’s mother tells him to take her to the market to be sold. On the way, Jack
meets a bean dealer who offers magic beans in exchange for the cow, and Jack makes the
trade. When he arrives home without any money, his mother becomes angry and
disenchanted, throws the beans on the ground, and sends Jack to bed without dinner.
During the night, the magic beans cause a gigantic beanstalk to grow outside Jack’s
window. The next morning, Jack climbs the beanstalk to a land high in the sky. He finds
an enormous castle and sneaks in. Soon after, the castle’s owner, a giant, returns home.
He smells that Jack is nearby, and speaks a rhyme:
Fee-fi-fo-fum!
I smell the blood of an English man:
Be he alive, or be he dead,
I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.
In the versions in which the giant’s wife (the giantess) features, she persuades him that he
is mistaken and helps Jack hide. When the giant falls asleep. Jack steals a bag of gold
coins and makes his escape down the beanstalk.
Jack climbs the beanstalk twice more. He learns of other treasures and steals them when
the giant sleeps: first a goose that lays golden eggs, then a magic harp that plays by itself.
The giant wakes when Jack leaves the house with the harp and chases Jack down the
beanstalk. Jack calls to his mother for an axe and before the giant reaches the ground,
cuts down the beanstalk, causing the giant to fall to his death.
Jack and his mother live happily ever after with the riches that Jack acquired.
Sample Solution
