Diviners Designers
Theatrical productions have always been collaborative efforts. Now with social media and Web 2.0 tools, we can collaborate to work smarter and faster. The class has been broken down into set, props, costumes for this part of the lesson. We are using the fall production play The Diviners, by Jim Leonard, Jr. We will insure the designs utilized in the production are credited to the ultimate designers - all of you. Everyone has a voice. We want to take full advantage of our social media, so if you are thinking something would look better or something is just not right, share immediately.
Concerns before we start
This unit will involve classwork and work with classmates and others in a virtual space. The school AUP should be our guiding beacon. If you have ANY questions or concerns about contact via an outside source or someone in our groups I need to be contacted immediately.
You will be working with your classmates. Above all, be kind. Think potential prom date. Theater can be passionate work. Use our Critique and Criticism Skills Sheet to help guide when offering a viewpoint to keep heads level. |
The Plan
Each group will research the same three areas in order to come up with a Set, Props and Costume Plan for a future assignment. At the moment, your research is of interest here.
You will communicate via Social Media sharing resources to gain insight and guidance to insure your ideas are period and locale correct.
We are looking for pictures and links to sites that show exactly what we want to see on-stage.
You will communicate via Social Media sharing resources to gain insight and guidance to insure your ideas are period and locale correct.
We are looking for pictures and links to sites that show exactly what we want to see on-stage.
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- At least 10 pictures per group of your elements/areas/locations on the stage (see script for what is needed) uploaded to Flickr with explanation of why it is pertinent. (See my examples on the Flickr site.) First postings by July 24. Discussions and revised postings by July 28. See below for final product by August 1.
- At least 10 resources per group uploaded to Diigo to support your choices above. Where is your research? What drives your choices? What in the script leads you this direction? Post this in the notes on each resource. First postings by July 24. Discussions and revised postings by July 28. See below for final product by August 1.Communicate via Google+ to begin to upload your choices and start your sketches. This will help you later. All documents you create should be linked to our Google + discussion board via the appropriate discussion board.
- Must include participation of a Subject Matter Expert (see next section What Would I Do?)
- Presentation of artifacts, choices and overall group decisions will be via YouTube and uploaded to our Google+ page August 1st.
How will it all work? What would I do?
- You must have read the play. If you still have yet to do that, please do it immediately. No Wiki or play synopsis online will be enough to complete your tasks. Your group needs you and you need your group.
- All of our questions and all of our answers exist in the lines of the play. From my standpoint as the director, the setting will be true to script - early 1930s during the Great Depression in a small, fictional town of Zion, Indiana. (If you convince me/class differently, fine. Otherwise, this will be the where and when.) I have seen two places that could pass for the setting in my mind - Silver City, Idaho and the village at Museum of Appalachia in Clinton, TN. That is not super important here. What is important is what your group sees as the setting and reference points.
- What I would do, is contact the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites. I would contact Joanna Hahn, Manager of School Programs, and Katherine Creagh, School Programs Director, (use this link) and solicit their assistance and coordination to speak to a docent or researcher in real time via SKYPE or Google Hangout. I would invite the researchers Ms Hahn and Creagh suggest to participate in your Google+, Diigo, and Flickr discussions to gain their insight into period research. I also have a wealth of former students who now make a living from teaching Theatre in college, performing, directing or as a Stage Manager on Broadway. All of them participate actively in social media and I would be happy to connect you once I have them establish a professional Facebook account. (I do not wish for them or for you to contact them on their personal accounts for the same reasons I do not share my own.) Many of them have performed or worked on this play in the past. You can access the contact list here.
- Next, you will need to join the following groups: Flickr, Diigo Yahoo, and Google + groups. The username/group name for each is BernheimDiviners and all are visible publicly.
Where we share our work
Flickr is a site to post photos. Please insure you have utilized work you have permission to share, original work or works you discovered through Creative Commons image search. Our page for sharing is BernheimDiviners.
This page is for our diigo group. Diigo is a great tool to share resources and links as you discover them. Your contacts can share link to assist in your research. Please join BernheimDiviners and get started.
I have created a Yahoo Group in case you need yet another method of communication and collaboration. It is also BernheimDiviners.
Also, I have created a SKYPE user name for in-class outreach to other resources. The user name for that account is bernheimdiviners. Please use this when at school for group appointments with resources. Please schedule with me so I can insure you have an accessible computer. If you are interested and present in advance, we can all share in a full class Master Class with your resource.
Join our Google+ community Bernheim Diviners and use this to set up Hangouts with your resources and within your group. All your plans can be linked through Google+ to this group so we can all benefit from your research. I have set up discussion boards for Set, Props, Costumes and Other to make your posts easy. Please join asap and enjoy the discussions. Please post any events (appointments with resources, chats with groups, etc) here. Please record any interviews with resources to attach as evidence and shares with other groups.
All images used in design of this webpage are reproduced through fair use via Creative Commons.