Category: CLOSED: Ball – Group One

By Eric Houdek 

-Isabella says she will leave to try to influence Angelo.

-Lucio continues to argue with Isabella, telling her that women have a degree of power over men.   

-Isabella tells Lucio that she has little power to do anything. 

-Lucio tells Isabella that Claudio has gotten Juliet pregnant, and has been sentenced to death.    

-Lucio calls out to Isabella at the nunnery. 

Scene 4

-The Duke says that crime has gotten out of control.  Additionally, the Duke establishes that he intends to see whether or not Angelo’s resolute appearance is false. 

-Friar Thomas inquires as to why the Duke wishes to be hidden.   

-The Duke asks Friar Thomas to hide him.   

-The Duke enters a monastary.

  Scene 3

-Claudio asks Lucio to find his sister so she can appeal on his behalf to Angelo. 

-Lucio visits Claudio in prison. 

-Claudio is imprisoned for lechery. 

 Scene 2

-The Duke tells Angelo that he must leave right away, and he is given control of the city of Vienna. 

-Angelo enters. 

-Escalus approves of Angelo.   

-The Duke tells Escalus that he must leave the city, and asks if Angelo would be the right person to choose to leave in control of the city. 

 -The Duke sends an attendant for Angelo.

Scene 1 

By Eric Houdek

Alright, I think it might be a good idea to post some of the important actions that occured during the play, some of them coming directly from our discussion. 

-The Duke grants Angelo temporary leadership of Vienna. 

-Claudio is taken to prison for having sexual involvement outside of mariage. 

-Claudio asks Lucio to find his sister Isabella, so Isabella can appeal for him on Claudio’s behalf. 

-The Duke goes to a monastary and asks Friar Thomas to hide him so he can observe Angelo. 

-Isabella agrees to leave the monastery to help Claudio.

-Isabella goes to Angelo to beg for forgiveness.  Mentions that she wishes to bribe him. 

-Angelo realizes he has desire for Isabella.  Tells Isabella to return the next day.

-Angelo makes his proposal to Isabella-to have sexual relations with him to save Claudio’s life. 

-Isabella denies Claudio’s proposal. 

-Isabella visits Claudio in jail, tells him about Angelo’s proposal. 

-Angelo asks Isabella to follow the proposal, Isabella rebukes him.   

-Duke hatches plan involving Mariana, and tells Isabella about it. 

-Duke introduces Mariana to Isabella, the three discuss the plan. 

 * I still need to add more actions, feel free to ammend, add, or disagree.

Mary Beth’s Notes:

What Happens That Makes Something Else Happen?

-A play is a series of actions.
-A play is not about action, nor does it describe action.

-Action occurs when something happens that makes or permits something else to happen. Action is two “something happenings,” one leading to the other.

-The first thing to discover is how a play goes from one place to another. Find the first event of each action, then
the second, then the connection between the two. The play’s journey is contained within its actions. We must know every connection between every event, from the start of the play onwards.

-What happens that leads to something else happening?

-An event without a second, connected event, without effect or result, is either inadequate playwriting or, more
likely, inadequate play reading. In life and on stage unconnected events are irrelevant. Life aside, it is hard to make irrelevance theatrically viable.

The playwright crafts a series of actions: trigger and heap.

An event is anything that happens. When one event
causes or permits another event, the two events together
comprise an action. Actions are a play’s primary building
blocks.

And What Happens Next?

-Each trigger leads to a new heap. (Each event causes or permits a second event.) That is one action. The heap, the second event, becomes a trigger: a new first event of a new action.

If you can discover connections between events, you will be able to take us, step by step, event by connected event, action by action, right to the heap of bodies at play’s end.

But Do It Backwards

-Free will- Nothing predetermines that you will carry out an action just because somebody else triggers it.

Life goes on; it goes forward — but never predictably.

Only when we look at events in reverse order can we see, with certainty, how events took place.

Going forwards allows unpredictable possibility.

Going backwards exposes that which is required.

-From Backwards and Forwards by David Ball-

Group One:   1. What Happens That Makes Something Else Happen?
2. And What Happens Next?
3. But Do It Backwards – what are the implications of this

                                                           

Alex Nicolson

MaryBeth Gayle

Eric Houdek

Logan Turner