1. How do Vietgone and Viet rock differ in their aesthetics and in their attitude toward understanding the Vietnam conflict? Please provide 2 specific, concrete examples of each.

2. A View from the Bridge centers on an individual who appears to be driven by his own desire toward self-destruction. Compare Eddie’s sense of masculinity and inability to accept his conditions to that of Yank’s frustration with his sense of self and position in Hairy Ape. In what ways do cultural or societal expectations shape these trajectories? Be specific and use concrete examples

3. Machinal and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof both address issues of conventional morality and the ways in which it shapes sexual behavior and identity. Compare the Young Woman to Maggie and demonstrate how they are shaped by and resist the expectations of conventional morality. Be specific and use concrete examples.

4. Fences and Gibraltar both deal in part with an adulterous relationship. Compare these two events within the plays and explain what effects the adultery has on the world of the play. What do we learn about holding on and letting go based on these events and these plays? Be specific.

5. What are the key differences between melodramatic, expressionist and realistic acting? Using a specific example from a text in the course (a moment in a play), explain how its presentation would change based on the style of acting.

Short essay questions

1. Following loosely on the model of Viet rock and our own classroom explorations, describe your concept of a collectively devised work of political theater. To do this you will need to decide the following: 1) What is my subject matter and why? 2) What am I attempting to explore or accomplish through the political intervention? 3) What prompts would I give the performers working with me to help develop materials.? Please briefly describe each of these. Next, take a moment to share the overall shape of the score that you might generate. Provide some clear attention to the environment and images you might create (the sounds, physical appearance and embodiment, relationship to audience) and make sure to include the specific content of a couple of moments from the work (similar to what we created in class). End with a description of what the audience’s experience might be, focusing on key elements from your creation. You may present this in a different order (talk about audience experience in the discussion of the moments, for example) as long as you address all of the issues in the prompt.

2. During this course we have charted a movement in US theater from the days of the melodramatic comedy of manners Fashion through the advent of realism, the emergence of Expressionism, a continued deployment of expanded realisms, along with a brief excursion into the Off-off-Broadway space of the 1960s. In doing so, we have also engaged with a range of examples from US theater. Choose one of the following themes: belonging, communication, gender relations, or loss, and trace the theme of your choice through the works we have studied. You will need to address a 19^th century example (Fashion, The Octoroon or minstrelsy), an expressionist example (Machinal or The Hairy Ape) and an example of realism or expanded realism (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A View From the Bridge, Gibraltar, Fences, Vietgone). You may address more than one example from each category. How does the theme stay the same between these works and how does it shift to reflect the aesthetic investments of these works and the time in which they were created? Make sure you are engaging comparatively and drawing on specific and concrete examples from each of the works you address.