Video Assignment

Introduction

At this point the Innovative Technologies Center has digitized two kinds of video: first, three documentaries about members of the Group Theatre and influential acting teachers in the United States: Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler and Harold Clurman, and second, a performance of 1789, by the French group Theatre du Soleil (French with English Subtitles). Below I have provided two assignments, one related to the documentaries, and one related to the theatrical performance. You must choose one of these assignments and complete it by April 27 to receive credit for it.

General Instructions

Logistics. Use the computer lab in the Humanities Building (Room 201) to complete this assignment. Only the computers in this lab are equipped with enough memory to watch and work with the videos. You need a password (which I will distribute in class) to have access to the videos. At this point no editing software is available. This restricts your work with the videos to the tasks of watching the video in one sitting, manipulating it by freezing and describing images, moving the video forward and backward with the pointer on the screen, and writing observations in a word processing program which you may open simultaneously. To obtain credit for this class assignment you must submit your video assignment on either the documentary or the performance of 1789.

Experience Report. I will ask you to fill out a questionnaire in which I will gage your experience, your challenges and your success in working with this new medium for teaching theatre history. The questionnaire will be distributed in class in the last week of April.

Assignment I: Video Documentary

For this assignment you must choose one of the documentaries listed on the menu under the heading "documentaries." To make this decision I recommend that you, first, browse through all three documentaries (using the pointer to fast forward and stop the streaming video) to get a taste of what material is available, and second, that you go to an encyclopedia such as the Cambridge Guide to Theatre and read the brief entries on Adler, Clurman, Meisner, and the Group Theatre (Ideally, you should take a look at all three of the documentaries since they provide you with a good sense of how these teachers/artists have influenced the contemporary theatre in the United States). To receive credit for this assignment, complete the following steps:

• view the video in one sitting. Open a word processing program while you watch to write down some notes (if you have trouble getting set ask the consultant in the computer lab). After you have watched the video, take your notes and write a brief segment summarizing Meisner/Adler/Clurman's significance in the US theatre as presented in the video. (1/2 pages)
• use your pointer to move the video to a segment in which either Adler, Clurman, or Meisner rehearses with actors (Meisner and Adler provide you with several selections). Briefly, describe how those acting teachers approach rehearsal, how they work with actors, and what kind of idea they elicit from the rehearsal process. (1/2 page)
• all documentaries contain a vast amount of pictorial material the authors of the documentaries have collected. Use your browser to go through the video and isolate five images (still shots from rehearsal, photos of the artists, photos of other historical material which the authors present) you would edit and include in a video essay or home page (if editing software were available) to provide your own report on Meisner/Adler/Clurman. Consider the selected images as a sequence of images which progressively tell a story (through your focused analysis) about the nature of this performance. Provide a brief explanation of why you chose the images/still shots. (1/2 page)

Assignment Video II: Theatre du Soleil's 1789

Under the heading "performances" you will find a substantial digitized segment of Ariane Mnouchkine's production of 1789 . The purpose of working with this performance is to develop an analytical process and a form of presentation similar to the in-class group project. To receive credit for this assignment, complete the following steps:

• view the video in one sitting. Open a word processing program while you watch to write down some notes (if you have trouble getting set ask the consultant in the computer lab). After you have watched the video, take your notes and write down a brief segment (1/2 pages) summarizing the performance. (1/2 page)
• use your pointer to move the video to one segment of the performance which illustrates stylistic means of the performance (use of acting style, movement, postures, directorial ideas, blocking, costumes, audience-stage relationship). By reviewing those designated segments repeatedly briefly describe the actions in detail and define the performance style. (1/2 page).
• Use your browser to go through the video and isolate five images (still shots from the performance) you would copy and include in a video essay or home page (if editing software were available) to provide your own presentation of this performance. Consider the selected images as a sequence of images which progressively tell a story (through your focused analysis) about the nature of this performance. Provide a brief explanation of why you chose the images/still shots. (1/2 page)

Deadline April 27