In this paper, you will conduct research, organize, and analyze information on a
In this paper, you will conduct research, organize, and analyze information on an American play or musical represented in your group’s Special Collection’s archive to answer the following question:
How did your chosen play speak to (that is, represent, reinforce, ignore or challenge) social, cultural, or political ideas happening in the United States during the time that it was produced?
Steps for Success
1. Identify a play/musical from your group’s archive list. It does not need to be a play that you researched individually. It can be a play researched by one of your group members.
2. In the introduction to your paper, introduce the play/musical, which you are choosing to investigate. Be sure to note the name of the playwright, where/when the play was produced, and the play’s throughline. Then offer a reason for why this play was produced in that specific/time and place (this is your thesis statement)
3. The body of your paper might include different kinds of evidence depending on your approach to synthesizing the research. Here are some different ways to approach this paper.
o How/why did the play fit within (or resonate with) the mission of the theatre company that produced it? (Evidence – mission statements, programs, websites, interviews with people, textual analysis)
o What events or social/political/cultural movements were happening in the world? Did the play allude to or engage with these real-world forces? (Evidence – textual analysis, historical research)
o Did the play capitalize on a genre popular with audiences at the time? Discuss the elements/structure of the play as it pertains to that genre. (Evidence – index of other plays produced during the time, dramatic criticism from books or peer reviewed articles, textual analysis)
o Did the play speak to a specific community or demographic? How did it do that? (Evidence – programs, flyers from the archive, peer-reviewed books or articles and textual analysis)
o How did the play resonate with audiences? (Evidence- performance reviews or published articles (newspapers, magazines, peer-reviewed journals))
4. Use the following resource to make sure you are incorporating sources into your paper correctly: https://guides.lib.uh.edu/ENGL1301/incorporate-sources
5. Make an appointment with the Writing Center (writingcenter.uh.edu) or someone smart who you trust to review a draft of your paper with you. Read your paper out loud to yourself to help you look for grammatical mistakes, typos, and clarity of ideas.