Death of a Salesman Scene Project:

Attention must be paid to telling the story

 

Purpose:

 

1. To explore a brief scene carefully as a part of the whole play through “the book” (your written scene study)
2. To explore how the story of a play is told through dramatic performance

 

Performance (50%)

 

• Full memorization is not required but thorough familiarization is.
• Scripts may be held as crutches if needed; memorization is desirable.
• Costume appropriately (though “period” costumes are not needed)
• Use props as appropriate and needed
• “Attention must be paid” to voice and body:
• Voice:
• Use your voice clearly: articulate your words
• Be firm and loud enough to be heard and understood
• Use varying inflections to tell the story
• Body:
• Practice movement (and lack of movement) to be sure you are firm and not distracting
• Assume a natural stance when standing or sitting
• If you move, walk naturally and with purpose—not too quickly or with a forced appearance
• When standing: keep your body quiet from the waist down
• Be careful of upstaging (blocking another actor from the audience or turning your back while speaking)
• Though this is not an acting class, “attention must be paid” also to some elements of acting:
• When one character is speaking, the other needs to listen actively
• When figuring out blocking (movement), less is more, but some movement is likely to be needed
• Move when a character needs to move; if you move, be sure that the character knows why (not just the actor)
• Set your stage to maximize your ability to tell the story
• Facial expression is critical to telling the story
• Know what you are talking about: what is your character’s objective or goal in this scene?
• Understand how the scene connects to, affects and is affected by the rest of the play
• Wishy-washy voices and bodies kill any scene: you may not be a great actor, but be a strong one
• Lots of random movement (such as wandering in blocking or waving arms about excessively) is distracting

 

“The Book” (50%)

 

• All work on the book should be done in tandem with your partner: don’t split responsibilities
• “Attention must be paid” to this section; it is half of your grade!
• With your partner:
• Discuss what each character wants from the scene, from the play, and from life
• Discuss what this scene means to our understanding of the play and these characters
• Discover any symbolic or imagistic language in the scene
• Explore how the scene connects to the themes and motifs of this play
• Find places in the rest of the play that connect in various ways to this scene
• Discuss what this scene adds to the story of the Loman family
• With your partner:
• Compose a “book” that includes written and/or graphic explorations of each of the above issues
• Provide illustration for your book in the form of photos, drawings, tables, etc.
• Include an appendix containing any additional information you discovered in your research
• Be sure your book has a table of contents and a title page
• Write a one-page intro in which you discuss how your research helped you to understand the issues
• Be sure that in all of this your ultimate focus is on how Miller tells the story.
• Proofread!!!!

 

There is no specific page requirement for the book, but it will in all likelihood end up in the neighborhood of 8-10 pages including illustrations but excluding the appendix.  That of course entirely depends on how you approach it: it is possible that someone could make something that is so graphically-oriented that it is more of a series of posters than a book; this would obviously alter its length.