Hibbard/English 2030 Topics: Paper 3 (On Drama) General Guidelines: Like in your last papers, I would like for you to engage with the material we have been reading in this our third unit on drama. The plays we have read should be your primary focus, and you will likely want to pull several plays (including Trifles and A Doll’s House) into your discussions. Be sure to develop a clear perspective on your topic and properly note sources. Papers should be 1000-1200 words (usually around 4-5 pages double-spaced). Here are some possible topics. If others occur to you, run them by me.

1. Develop a discussion of the importance of setting in a play. Keep in mind the nature of the stage as well as the ways particular settings can reinforce central thematic concerns. (Think here, for example, of the settings in “Naked Lunch,” “Trying to Find Chinatown,” Trifles, and A Doll’s House.)

2. A number of these plays (e.g. Trifles, A Doll’s House) involve marriages. Develop a

discussion of the nature of the marriages represented and how they are negotiated.

3. Both Trifles and A Doll’s House display stories in which women characters seek to assert their own individual wishes, desires, or authority vis-à-vis male characters. Discuss ways in which these issues play out in these (and/or other) plays.

4. Conflict is a key element in drama. Develop a discussion of various kinds of conflict, how it develops and is resolved, in several of these plays, at least one being Trifles or A Doll’s House. (“Tender Offer,” “Naked Lunch,” and “The Reprimand” also come to mind as possibilities.)

5. Dialogue is another key element in drama. Develop a discussion of how at least three playwrights (among them either Glaspell or Ibsen) effectively use dialogue.

6. Develop a discussion of the endings of several plays (among them either Trifles or A Doll’s House). What kinds of endings do we have and what effects do they create?

7. A more creative topic: Choose a play that you would like to direct and produce. Consider and describe the kinds of choices will you have to make (re sound, lighting, costuming, setting, casting, blocking (arranging characters’ movement on stage), timing, etc.).

8. Another creative option: Write your own short play (4-8 pages).

I hope this gives you a wide enough range, and that you find something here that captures your imagination and interest.