the world and the way it would be...

...if there were no such thing as school:

Well, for one thing, no one would know the proper use of the subjective mood in the previous statement vis a vis "if" clauses for statements contrary to fact, so I probably would have written "if there was," which would have been grammatically incorrect, but then how would I have known?

Of course, now that I think about it, if there were no school, I would not be writing this blog anyway, so who really cares?

On to more important matters:

Jrs: Although it had been my intention to move on to the Great Debate tomorrow, I have been considering the matter and I am not sure we are really ready. As I said in fifth period, you all seem to be skimming the surface of the Sophocles. I'd like to dig a bit deeper and see if we can't find something more interesting and worth our time. Thus:

Look through the Sophocles play. Focus on longer speeches, either Choral Odes or monologues by any character. What do these long speeches reveal? Which are not focused solely on plot? Why? (Why, for instance, is there an Ode devoted to Love?) Compare similar scenes in both plays (the Haemon scene, the Sentry scene, the final Antigone scene, etc.) and see if you can detect focus differences beyong the surface level and obvious differences in structure.

Write yourself notes on this and bring these notes tomorrow. I will collect them.

Sophs: We will continue to discuss our quotations tomorrow, and we will then have a "wrap-up" conversation about themes in DOAS. With a little bit of luck, I'll introduce the Final Project.

Drama: One more monologue (unless Matt is miraculously ready). I'll show you another ritual scene and then give you some time to plan things out. Rituals will be performed or shown next week.

The Ritual Scene

Parameters for scene creation:

Once groups have been selected and a date chosen for final presentation, each group must determine which of Life’s Rituals will be presented. There are few limitations here, all of which involve the boundaries of reasonable taste. A few possibilities:

• Holidays
• Life Cycle
• Family Gatherings
• School Day
• School Year
• Seasons
• Graduation
• Weddings
• Pageants
• Auditions

The specific rules are as follows:

1. Scenes will be presented with no spoken or sung words.
2. Verbal sounds and/or gibberish are allowed.
3. Properties and costumes are encouraged.
4. Music is encouraged, but should be carefully selected to enhance the scene.
5. Sometimes a single prop winds its way through various component scenes in a ritual presentation, tying them together even though it might be used in different ways, representing vastly different items.
6. Whether live or on video, the presentation should last about ten minutes.
7. The presentation should be extremely well polished and tell its story clearly.
8. All actors should have clearly defined roles, though these may change throughout the piece.

Grades will be based on effectiveness of presentation, evidence of effort, and clarity of concept. In a perfect world every group member would receive the same grade; however, exceptions may be made for cause.

If you have not seen/heard this guy yet, you're in for a (hmmm) treat... Sit back and prepare to be Ed-rolled.