• CAN YA DIG IT?
The arts are fundamental to our history and to our culture. From the art left by our ancestors, the stories of all of us unfold. Keeping this in mind, imagine that one of the plays we have read this semester is literally dug up by an archeologist in the year 3000. The newly found play happens to be the only extant example of what used to be called "modern theatre." The find of this text is particularly significant because it is well known that the history of all earlier periods had been wiped out by a series of unforseen nuclear disasters occuring late in the year 1999. Given all this, what is this play going to tell our inquisitive archeologist about what life and people were like when this play was written? Or is the period of the play different from when the play was written? In any case, the central question is what is the archeologist apt to discover about life in the past? What, if anything, will still be relevant, and what will not? A variation of this kind of paper is to have a play be discovered by an "alien." For an example of just how strange the conventions of theatre would be to an extraterrestial, read An Alien's Eye View of Theatre .
  • PERFECT PAINTING
A paper passionately describing why this painting entitled Two Lovers  by Magritte is a perfect visual depiction for one of plays we have read this summer.
  • AMERICAN DREAM
    OR     NIGHTMARE?
Directly or indirectly many of the plays we have read this semester have dealt with the so-called American Dream. In America (so the mythology goes), one can be anything, do anything no matter what one's social and economic status may be. All it takes is hard work, tenacity, force of personality and being noticed by the right people. If success doesn't come today, it will surely come tomorrow. From Horatio Alger to Bill Gates, belief in the American Dream permeates our culture. Nature, new frontiers and the wide open spaces are essential to the American dream, evoking the values of a simpler time and the opportunity to start over. Lots of information is available at the library, but for immediate gratification you might take a look at the following articles to get some ideas:

Two Paper possibilties:

  1. Compare and contrast how two different plays we have read this semester have dealt with the concept of the American Dream.

  2. Or pick a play to write about which in your opinion has effectively dramatized a particular way of thinking about or relating to the American Dream. You may very likely opt to discuss only a particular facet of the American Dream, rather than attempt to encompass all its many associative issues. Although your discussion should be focused on a single play, feel free to bring into discussion other plays that we have read this semester to support your ideas.

Questions?
Write me and I'll be glad to help in whatever way I can.

WRITE TO ME ABOUT YOUR EXTRA CREDIT PROJECT IDEAS NOW!

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