Helen Keller Study Journal Essays

2). Q: Abigail describes Boston in considerable detail. What is the general impression she tries to convey? Why do you think she chose the details she did?

Discuss the issues raised and reasoning behind decisions made when attempting to contemporize your own version of Sarah Kane’s play Cleansed for stage. Comment on the professional production and how and why your work may have differed from, or mirrored, Katie Mitchell’s production and any considerations/adjustments you may have made to your performance after viewing

Jimmy serves as the voice of protest throughout the play. Make a list of the ways Jimmy fulfills this role.

A short play is usually filled with a theatrical energy of diverse anthologies. The time allotted may be only ten or fifteen minutes, so it must be able to capture and engage the audience with some dramatic tension, exciting action, or witty humor. Just as in a short story, a great deal of the explanation and background is left for the reader or viewer to discover on their own. Because all the details are not explicitly stated, each viewer interprets the action in their own way and each experience is unique from someone else viewing the same play. Conflict is the main aspect that drives any work of literature, and plays usually consist of some form of conflict. In “Playwriting 101:

11. Point out some moments in the play when the playwright conveys much to the audience without dialogue

The play Away by Michael Gow shoes the character of Coral to be in need of change in her distinctive world. Discuss how this applies to the play.

3. Some of the characters in the play are blind to the truth. Choose three characters and discuss why they are blind to

In Margaret Edson’s play, W;t, tells the story of Vivian’s experience with her cancer treatment. Through her treatment, Vivian recognizes her humanity and her lack of understanding life and death. By recognizing that being incredibly smart was not the answer to everything, Vivian looks back on her life and is able to reflect on her character. Edson’s use of aside, flashback, exposition, foreshadow, irony and foil allows Vivian to explore different themes. Through the use of these dramatic devices, Edson is able to convey themes of language, death and humanity.

The differences in styles of language truly brings alive the plays' various characters, from the lowliest drawer to the noblest knight. The playwright's audience would have been composed of a similarly diverse spectrum of society, from the groundlings at the foot of the stage, to the members of the court in attendance, and these disparate members of the audience might very well have come away from the plays with different interpretations of

The play W;t by Margaret Edson is an account of a powerful and intelligent woman named Vivian Bearing battling a tragic disease. Vivian has been diagnosed with stage-four metastic ovarian cancer. Her treatment is a long and arduous process that takes place at the University Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her primary doctor, Dr. Harvey Kelekian, and his assistant, Dr. Jason Posner, are conducting an experiment on her. They are using new treatment on her to evolve their research. Literary terms are employed throughout the play for the audience to sympathize with Vivian’s journey of suffering, loneliness, and introspection. Vivian takes the audience on an odyssey, allowing them to experience her battle with life and death.

1. Compare and contrast how, and for what dramatic purpose, the writers of The History Boys and Oleanna present characters who display both vulnerability and villainy.

The amazing story of Annie Sullivan and young Helen Keller was put into words in form of a play 57 years ago. “The Miracle Worker” by William Gibson contains several characters who are isolated in their own way. The most obvious is Helen with her deafness and blindness. Then there is Annie who is in a completely different part of the country and has absolutely no family since she was an orphan and her brother died. Lastly, James is isolated because he feels like he doesn’t belong.

When Shakespeare sets the characters in both plays in front of a place he has them as the audience of what they have experienced.

Helen becomes Jane’s best friend and later dies a tragic death with Jane by her side. After learning from Helen that the best way to survive at the school was to be studious and well behaved, Jane makes it her goal to be more like Helen and make the most of her opportunity to learn. This is very important because it marks the beginning of Jane’s journey to young adulthood. This is very apparent when Jane states, “Already I had made visible progress: that very morning I had reached the head of my class; Miss Miller had praised me warmly; Miss Temple had smiled approbation...and then I was well-received by my fellow-pupils; treated as an equal by those of my own age, and not molested by any: now, here I lay again crushed and trodden on; and could I ever rise more?”(65) It is also significant because it shows how Jane’s traits and characteristics are beginning to change.

Discuss how Shakespeare uses language and dramatic techniques for character development in Act 2 Scene 2 of Measure for Measure.