"Jordan
Daze" is the soap opera that Drama 1B classes add episodes
to each semester. This is a lesson unit on theatre genres--
classes study Tragedy, Comedy, Melodrama, Farce, and Satire,
using the six Aristotelian elements of Plot, Language,
Character, Mood, Spectacle and Thought. Then they focus on
Melodrama,
since that's at least 85% of what we see in entertainment
today. Melodrama is plot-driven, always involving thrills
and chills, big events, extreme solutions to problems,
and intense, vicarious emotions for the viewer. It became the
dominant mode of theatre in the 1700s, but now is prevalent
in film and TV, where special effects, explosions and death-defying
stunts rule. Soap Opera is a TV form of melodrama focused
on relationships and everyday life, although these are
exaggerated
and often outlandish, especially in the way characters
deal with their exteme situations. Murder, mayhem, evil twins,
love triangles, custody trials, etc. abound, and the good
guys always win, at least temporarily. 1B students are given
a set of stock characters-- Jocks, Popular
Girls,
New Student, Nerd(s), Nice Guy, etc.-- with which to construct
a 5-minute soap episode. See "Lessons" for the process
they
follow. Episodes may include extreme events, but must be
middle-school appropriate and therefore viewable by a middle
school population.
DRAMATUBE
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