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Playwriting

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Words 751
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Fall 2013

HART1024
Course Instructor: Program Officer:

Introduction to Creative Cantonese Playwriting
Mr. Wu Hoi Fai (Email: wuhoifai@ust.hk) Vickie Wong (Rm 4592, Tel: 2358-5791; Email: vickiewong@ust.hk) Wednesday; 10:30- 12:30 Common Room 3, Student Gallery, LG4 (Lift 6) By appointment

Time: Venue: Office Hours: Course Description

This course is to introduce the basic elements of playwriting. Students will be encouraged to express their concerns and feelings through drama. They will also learn to appreciate a play and have a preliminary understanding of Hong Kong theatre. Representative plays in the world drama repertoire, with emphasis on Hong Kong theatre, will be selected for illustration in class. Each student is expected to write a short play at the end of the course. They will be guided through practical exercises to find and develop the materials for writing the play. [Ca][C] Students interested in furthering the artistic skills and gaining hands-on experience with playwriting may enroll in a separate non-credit enrichment tutorial ETUT1024.

Intended Learning Outcomes Upon completion of this course, students are expected to be able to: 1. Comprehend the basic elements of a play 2. Express their views and feelings in playwriting 3. Enhance communication and collaboration skills 4. Acquire an overview of Hong Kong playwriting

Syllabus and Schedule Lesson Date Topic 1 4 Sep Introduction to dramatic writing  Introduce playwriting as a special kind of writing, and its particular conventions (a blueprint for future theatre performances)  Uniqueness of playwriting, and how it compares with other art forms. 2 11 Sep The uniqueness of playwriting  The blueprint for a performance  A series of pictures with speeches 3 18 Sep Class activities  Improvise a series of pictures to illustrate a news story 4 25 Sep  Telling a story without verbal elements  Creating a scene with dialogues
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5 6 7 8 9

2 Oct 9 Oct 16 Oct 23 Oct 30 Oct

Finding the materials from your life Class activities  Creating a series of pictures to illustrate a particularly impressive incident in one’s life. Building up the materials Class activities  Adding dialogues to build a complete scene. Developing the materials  To identify and explain basic elements of a play such as conflict and characters. Class activities  The students will be guided to use these elements to re-examine and improve their scene. Learning from the masters  Analyze representative examples of world and local drama repertoire  Understand how a playwright develops a sound structure for a play, creates characters to propel the action and explores an issue on stage. Conclusion  Review of students’ whole creative process and their theatre reviews  Consolidate what students have learnt and resolve possible queries.  Students share their play scripts in class and discuss with their classmates and the instructor.  Introduce potential directions for students who are interested in continuing their creative work.

10

6 Nov

11 12 13

13 Nov 20 Nov 27 Nov

Assessment Tasks Attendance & Course Participation (20%) 1. Students are expected to attend classes and participate in discussions and critiques. 2. The student is required to be actively involved in the practical exercises and discussion in class. Attendance will be taken in the beginning of each session after the add-drop period. Being late or leaving early twice will be counted as one absence. For each absence, students will have 4% deducted from their 20% attendance grade. Students are required to attend at least 75% of the classes; i.e. students may not be absent for more than 3.5 sessions, for any reasons such as illness or other university functions. A written review of a Hong Kong theatre performance (30%) The student is required to attend a Hong Kong theatre performance chosen by them. Afterwards, they are required to write a review with the framework taught in class. The students need to hand in the review by wk. 12. Word limit: 800 words. 10% of the review will be deducted per day after the due date. Submissions will not be accepted one week after due date, i.e. 27 Nov.
2

A short written play (50%) The student is required to submit a written play of 15-20 minute long (About 1,500 words). Students are expected to start building up their script from the middle of the course. Students will hand in the assignment in wk. 13. 10% of the play will be deducted per day after the due date. Submissions will not be accepted one week after due date, i.e. 4 Dec.

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