Survey of English Literature I - Performance Options and Response Guidelines James Madison University

Instructions: Choose a performance to see and submit a one to two page typed response paper about your chosen performance, following the guidelines below:

Options (Additional options may be added throughout the semester):

1. Any performance of a Shakespearean Play at The American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Theatre in Staunton.Schedule of Shows and Theater Information
2. The Reckoning, a film based on the 1995 novel Morality Play by Barry Unsworth. It is a mystery set in medieval England. Videotape 1870 Carrier Library, Media Resources
3. Medieval Drama: From Sanctuary to Stage, a documentary published by Films for the Humanities and Social Sciences, available as an online video for JMU LEO users: LINK
4. Benjamin Bagby's Beowulf -- DVD 3568 in Carrier Library, Media Resources
5. Beowulf, done as a play with puppets, at Court Square Theater, Harrisonburg (September 2nd)
6. A recorded performance of King Lear, such as the one available in media resources on DVD538 and online for JMU users through LEO catalog number AE5 .A437 Internet. Other versions not available in our library are okay too, including the fairly recent Ian McKellen PBS Great Performances version, which is available for viewing (though probably a very choppy download) through pbs.org and which also might be available through video rental places.
7. Akira Kurosawa's famous film RAN, which is a famous re-telling of the King Lear story (but with sons) set in Japan. This film is available as DVD 44 in media resources.

Response Papers:

• The response paper is not a summary of what you saw, though it should contain some details about the performance. Choose some element of your experience that relates this performance to our class. Examples might include differences between the text and the performance (if it's a performance of a text we've read), other comparisons to something we've read (or seen) in class, perspective gained on the period during which the original work was written, insight into differences from modern theater, etc.