Newspaper Article

Felicia Green
Newspaper


How to write a play


“To be or, not too be” is really not a question… Okay, Okay, so we are not really writing Shakespeare here, we are young playwrights… is a program that was created to inspire students literacy learning and creativity. It’s a program where students can express their creativity and certain topics or issues. Adele Magner created Young Playwrights in 1986. Young Playwrights has more than 50 sites with over 60,000 students joining the program a year. With each site they are assigned Playwrights, professional writers, and actors to help the students create a play.

Steps to writing a play

• In order to write a play you must have an idea
• Plan out how you want the play to go but remember that your plan can change as time goes on.
• Think of a setting, characters, conflict, maybe a solution, a great way to grab your audience, and maybe you want to have your character change by the end of the play.
There is no real way to write a play. In a since “You are the GOD in your play.” You can write your play anyway you want to. Good suggestions for inspiring playwrights:
• When you are stuck find a place that inspires you
• Ask for help
• Read it out loud and have your class tell you what they like or don’t like o you can make changes to it.
• Always write down what ever you think of during the day. Sometimes the scenes you write you may keep it and you may not keep it.
When the play is done you can send it in to the Annual Playwriting Festival. When the plays are send in they have professional writers and actors reading over each play and giving comments on each play. After that they will send you a letter telling you if you won first, second or third place. First, second and third place winners are picked from the elementary school level, middle school level, and the high school level. The first place winners have their plays preformed by professional actors.


Interviews

I have interviewed two students from the young playwrights program one from the tenth grade and one from the ninth grade. I also interviewed McMillan. One of the students by the name of Shakyra Wilson 9th grade was interviewed. During the interview I was told that she likes being in the program and she will continue to participate in this program. Shakyra said, “Being in this program she learned a lot of things like: how to write a play, how to create emotional characters, how to put scenes together, how to put emotions down on paper, and how to separate characters.” She said, “When she came to Young Playwrights she thought that it was going to be corny, but she changed her mined as time went on.” While in this program she was helped by other students and the teachers. She also said, “The teacher was very quiet and it was like she really wasn’t in the room at all.”
I also interviewed Jada Walton 10th grade. During the interview she told, me that “Being in Young Playwrights she learned how to write a play, to be creative, to be more persuasive and expressive with words.” She also told me, “ she doesn’t like being in the program sometimes because its stressful and it gets in the way of school, but it can be vary fun. Jada is working on a play with Doriean Jackson and they are thinking about smiting their play this year and joining the program again next year.
I also wanted to get a teachers point of view on this topic so I interviewed Ms. McMillan. M. McMillan loves the program and looks forward to every meeting. She loves how it gives students the freedom to express themselves with few rules. Young Playwrights is a more creative than your average class. It also gives students a new experience, encourages the freedom of expression, and gives students a chance to build something and have it seen live or on stage. These are the words of Ms. McMillan.

Doing this article I have learned a lot about the program and how people feel about this program called Young Playwrights. If you are interested in joining the club next year talk to Ms. McMillan. This is a very fun club to be apart of. It is a lot of hard work but it pays off at the end.

Questions - Synthesis

5. How many ways could Bigger have killed Mary and how could he expose of the body?

There are many ways you can expose of a body. You can dump it into the river with a brike tied to the bottom of it, you can burn it, chop it up and feed it to the animals, barry it or freeze it. He could have put her to sleep with chlrox on a rag or he could have injected her with heroin, crack, cocaine and killed her with that.
If I was Bigger I would have injected her with the drugs and then chopped her up and feed her to the rats. then burned the clothes and dumped the tools in the river after i cleaned them off, so by the time they found out that she was dead they couldn't find her or find evidence on how she was killed.

Questions - Analysis

4. What was the motive behind Bigger killing Mary?

Bigger killed Mary because he was scared of getting caught by Mary's blind mother. He felt that if he was caught with mary then he would be killed or thrown in jail. He really wasn't sure so he killed her by accident. She was killed out of fear.

Questions - Application

3. What questions would you ask of Mary if she could speak from the dead?

If I could ask Mary a question, I would ask her, " Do you blame Bigger for killing you?" Mary would say, " If I was a live I would tell bigger that : " i just wanted to come here and tell you that I'm not angry... I'm not angry and i want you to let me help you. i don't hate you for trying to blame this thing on me... maybe you had good reasons... i don't know. and maybe in a certain sense, I'm the one who's really guilty...." " bigger, I've never done anything against you and your people in my life. but I'm a white woman and it would be asking too much to ask you not hate me, when every white person you see hates you. i know my face looks like theirs to you, even though i don't know we were so far apart until that night... i can understand now why you put all of your weight on me when my mother walked in the room. it was the only thing you could have done, but i didn't know that my white face was making you feel guilty, condemning you." then she would say she forgives him and she hates that whites frown upon blacks. basically when Mary came back she would tell bigger how sorry she is about how things turned out.

questions - Comprehension

2. What made Bigger want to feel up on a drunk White women?

Bigger was happy that the White girl was drunk, so he decided to cop a field. Because she was White and he was black he thought that it was the ultimate taboo to have a relations with a White women.

Question- Knowledge

1. Who was it that killed the rat?
In the beginning of the book bigger killed the rat with a skillet?

Purplelicious notes 3

Segregation in the North

Purple Notes

Chapter 6: The Big Wack off pgs. 28-30

Description
Bigger and his friends brought a ticket to a movie. When they got there the movie didn’t start yet, so they were listening to a soft and low pipe organ playing. While setting in the seat Bigger’s breathing started to change and he looked around to see if anyone was looking or near him. Next Bigger slouched down in the seat and be gains to masturbate while Jack is next to him doing the same. In the process Jack gets hard as a rod and bigger isn’t quite there yet. As they are masturbating, Jack says that “He thinks some ladies saw them” and Bigger says,” If they walk back I’ll put it in her.” Jack says that, “If they see it then they will faint or want to grab it. Then they both have an orgasms and move to different seats.

Richard Wright Reason:
Richard Wright wrote this chapter to show that African American Kids in the 1930’s really had nothing better to do with their lives. He shows that the kids had to be in dark places in order to express themselves r to relax and have fun. He has shown that what kids do in the dark you really can’t do in the light because it’s really frowned upon or it’s not respected. He also wrote this chapter to show the beginning of his man hood. It gives you the start of where Bigger feels like he has become a man.

Purple Notes 2

Chapter 5: I Wanna fly, pages 14-17

Break down of Chapter:
Bigger walked towards the poolroom when he saw Gus and asked, “If he saw Jack?” Gus said, “ no” and then the two of them enjoyed a nice cigarette break while looking into the sky and dreaming of the various things they could do if they weren’t black. Things like flying high in the sky or having a high paying job to support his family.

The Analysis:
Richard Wright wrote this piece to sell this perspective that black men are the “ INFERIOR” as well as the scapegoats for the violence that is caused in all society.