For this midterm exam you will be assigned one of several possible scenes in Dominique Morriseau’s Pipeline.
Identify the Scene number you are writing on, then identify the central action of your scene, and the character that takes this action.
Detail your character’s main objective, and how their action helped them work towards that objective.
Explain how the character’s objective and action relate back to the play’s intrusion.
Then, trace out how this central action relates sequentially to a central action that occurred in the previous scene (IE what was the trigger for your scene)?
Finally, explain how does this central action produces or triggers a major action in the next scene.
In the second paragraph:
Describe one element of the mise-en-scene in your assigned scene. You have a tremendous amount of latitude here. You may focus on a costuming choice, a gestural or physical choice an actor made (what the actor did with his/her body on stage), how the actors were arranged on or moved about the stage (the “blocking”), how the props impacted the scene, how the lighting impacted the scene, how the set changed, etc. etc. etc. Whatever you choose to describe, you must describe this element in detail.
Articulate how this element of mise-en-scene animates the action and meaning of the scene. Explicate how this mise-en-scene gives the play meaning that exceeds the meaning provided by the script alone.
In the third paragraph:
Reflect on what you learned about Pipeline by seeing/watching vs. reading the play. What about the play became clear or stood out to you after witnessing the live production? What big take aways did the live performance leave you with that you would not have gleamed from the script alone?
