I assign a great many plays when I teach theatre history. Early on, however, I discovered that, while students were rehearsed in reading plays as dramatic literature and as blueprints for performance, they needed some practice in reading playscripts as a historical documents. So, I developed what I call the “Cultural Document Worksheet” – a fill-in-the-blanks exercise which structures the process of thinking through the play in historical as well as formal terms. For each play assigned in the syllabus, the student has the option of completing a Cultural Document Worksheet (a certain minimum number are required each term). They are collected prior to the beginning of class and I (or my teaching assistant, should I happen to have one) evaluates them on a Credit/No-Credit basis.
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