The Greek Drama Project
Choose as your content a Greek myth that has not survived in dramatic form from antiquity, and develop this myth into the form of a "typical" Greek tragedy (adding your own artistic stamp to this formal telling as you see fit in order to generate the esthetic experience desired).
You will not be writing an entire Greek tragedy. Instead, you will outline the plan for one, peopling it with at least six suitable characters and providing a short example of "finished" dialogue, monologue, or choral ode.
The entire project should be at least 12 pages long (single-spaced and typed), following this format:
COVER PAGE (page 1):
Include the name and title of your play. Remember that the titles of
most classical plays derive from the name of the chorus (e.g., The Trojan
Women) or leading character (e.g., Hippolytus). List your team
members.
PART ONE (pages 2-3): Cast of Characters and the Chorus
Use as a model the list of characters preceding each play we have read,
but add the following information:
1. A description of the chorus and every character and the reason(s) why each
appears in your play. (No more than 3-4 sentences per character or chorus is
required.)
2. An indication of which actor you would assign to each character. (After the
name of each character put in parentheses "Actor 1", "Actor 2",
or "Actor 3".) Remember that the Greeks used no more than three actors
in each tragedy. Make sure that you do not have one actor playing two parts
simultaneously. And do give the actors sufficient time to change between roles.
3. Your casting decisions for each of the Actors.
4. A short description of the setting and why you've chosen it.
PART TWO (pages 4-8): Outline of the Play
Outline the entire contents of your play, describing briefly what happens and
what is said in each monologue, dialogue, or choral ode. You will adhere to
the following sequence for the parts of your play: a prologue; a parodos
(choral entrance and song); episode 1 (introducing at least one new character);
choral ode 1; episode 2 (introducing another new character or characters); choral
ode 2; and so on, through to the exodos (choral song and exit). In
the left-hand margin, supply line numbers for each part in the sequence, in
order to give an indication of the relative "length" you would assign
to your episodes in a completely finished version. (Note that most ancient Greek
tragedies range from 1000 to 1700 lines.)
PART THREE (pages 9-11): Finished Episode (to be performed in class)
Isolate one extended monologue, dialogue, or choral song that epitomizes the
message of your play. It should contain many of the important themes and images
to be recurring throughout your play. Compose this episode in its entirety.
Part Three is the most creative part of the project. Though you have drawn on a wealth of sources for the rest of this exercise, in this section your own voice should be heard: use your own words and particular slant on the myth you have selected. While sticking to the skeleton of the myth as it has been handed down, provide your own motivations for your characters' actions. Give your gods their normal traits, but not necessarily those presented in the myth you have chosen. Let your chorus or invented characters shed light on unfamiliar aspects of the myth's meaning or a mythic character's psychology. In other words, do not quote or even paraphrase your sources here, but create something uniquely your own.
PART FOUR (page 12): Bibliography
List in alphabetical order all the sources you used to research your project.