Criterion A

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I started writing Criterion A today and it has been a lot of trial and error so far. I am struggling to find more sources that talk about mental health in Scotland around the time period the play was written. I think that this criterion is a lot more research than I was expecting, but I enjoyed learning more about the different theoretical contexts. Mrs. Housam gave us a document that contained a bunch of explanations of different styles of theater and I loved reading through them and trying to connect the pieces to see which styles my play fit into. I figured out that the first act is more symbolistic theater and the second act is more of a realistic style. Overall I like Criterion A but am excited to move onto the more creative part of the Director’s Notebook.

I got back my critiques for Criterion A today. Looking at what Mrs. Housam and my classmates have suggested, is very helpful for making sure I stay on the right track with the rubric. The main thing I really need to work on is including in text citations; I forgot almost all of mine in this first criterion. I included my sources in the bibliography, but completely forgot about in text citations. There was a part where I said, “...uses the style of symbolist theatre through the types of characters, dialogue, and stage directions.”. While this is an okay sentence it was pointed out to me to specify what I am talking about. Instead of saying “types” I can give examples of what I am talking about from the play instead of being general. There was another part in this criterion where I did the same thing, so from that I am taking that I need to be very specific and not generalize and say “types” or “things” and change that to examples or specifics. I think that doing so will automatically strengthen what I am saying because it provides a direct parallel to the play text.