Critique Guide

You must write a critical paper responding to the production. The paper should be a minimum of 250 words (about one typed page), and it should be submitted in typescript (not longhand). It should be written in your best academic style, and spelling and grammar do count. Don't simply ramble and answer the questions, but incorporate introductory and concluding paragraphs and structure your discussion. It is due the second class period following the production.

Responding process:

Respond > describe > evaluate

Evaluation cannot occur while responding fully to a work. Response requires openness to stimuli, openness to associations and connections, and openness to the operation of the work itself.

Description creates the ground for evaluation, and is often more important.

Respond > Describe > Analyze > Interpret > Evaluate

Best approach to creative works.

Sensory > Formal > Expressive > Technical > Critical

Process for pulling together ideas and descriptive order.

Some Handles for the Critic

Give some thought to each of the following items. The critique need not respond to all of the items in a brief review, but all of them will be meaningful in inderstanding the play.

Analyzing a Play

1. What is the core emotional experience of the play?
2. What are the key images, the metaphors, in the play?
3. What are the main character relationships in the play,(i.e. father-son, master-slave, victimizer-victimized, etc). Hint: go deeper than the obvious.
4. What is the basic structure of the play? (I.E. is the play a series of vignettes, or does it follow a time and space sequential arrangement). As you know, plays may be classified structurally as both episodic and climactic according to different characteristics.
5. What are the key themes of the play?
6. What is the playwright's vision of reality?
7. Based on the responses to all of the above, what do you think is the meaning of the play?

You may find it helpful to think about Aristotle's concepts about the parts and structure of drama as well. For additional discussion of criticism and writing a review, see the notes outline on criticism.

For assistance in writing, see the online version of Strunk's Manual of Style, and an online Guide to Grammar and Style