SPARK is there as Rafe Chase, Tim Orr and Stephen Kearin hit the stage without a script and turn audience suggestions into narrative stories that amaze and amuse. This Educator Guide addresses improvisation as a technique for developing thinking and language skills.

'Collisions' was written by Jane Wagner and is an unusual comedy/drama. It stars Lily Tomlin and other well known performers, such as Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner. The work attempts to integrate short video works by Stephen Beck, Ed Emshwiller, Louis Falco, Ron Hays, Stan Vanderbeek, and William Wegman. 'Collisions' tells the story of Eartha, a creature from the planet of Zymus, who agrees to take a human form and to observe the planet earth. Eartha inhabits Beth Barber (Lily Tomlin), a news reporter. At one point, Beth visits her family in Kentucky, who are played by Tomlin's actual family. Meanwhile, a panel of experts on a television program on Zymus monitor Eartha's impressions and contemplate whether or not to blow up the earth. Eventually, Eartha, who has come to respect the humans' vulnerability and depth of feeling, has a falling out with the panel. The fate of earth remains uncertain. Produced by Fred Barzyk and David Loxton. A coproduction of the WNET Television Laboratory and the WGBH New Television Workshop. This work was considered a 'failure' by Fred Barzyk and was never broadcast.

Surveys a range of comic texts from different media, the cultures that produced them, and various theories of comedy. Authors and directors studied may include Aristophanes, Shakespeare, MoliSre, Austen, and Chaplin. This is a second variation of the course. It includes a survey of a range of comic texts from different media, the cultures that produced them, and various theories of comedy. Authors studied include Twain, Wilde, Shakespeare, and Cervantes. Like other communications-intensive courses in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, it allows the student to produce a long writing assignment, in addition to several shorter pieces; it also offers substantial opportunities for oral expression, through student-led discussion, class reports, and class participation.

Blast from the Past' with Raymond St. Jacques. Program is divided into two halves: the first consisting of a group interview with five African American football players from the New England Patriots, the second of newsmagazine-style segments. Guest host Tom 'Satch' Sanders talks with Ron Boulting, Mac Herron, Reggie Rucker, Sam Cunningham, and Leon Gray about their education, the violence of the game, preparing for a career after football, and the need for young players to recognize the value of an education (given the odds against playing professionally). Additional segments include 'Community Access' (on home improvement loans, lead poisoning, and requesting a housing inspection),'Blast from the Past' (with an excerpt from a 1970 interview with actor Raymond St. Jacques on Hollywood's prescribed roles for African American actors), the 'Community Calendar' (with community and cultural events listings), and 'Commentary' by Producer Marita Rivero on the need for African Americans to vote. Produced by Marita Rivero. Directed by Conrad White.

Billing itself as 'the only show on PBS with no English host,' this one-of special comic program presents several short skits. Many of these rely on visual gags. A tortilla falls onto a record turntable. Four hard-boiled detectives narrating a story from the wheel of a car turn out to be driving the same car. A flaming cheeseburger crashes into a miniature set. A lucky fisherman literally has fish flying out of the air at him. 'Bionic Bag Boy' runs through the aisles of the supermarket. In a Psycho-esque shower scene a woman is pelted with cream pies. A character reminiscent of 'Taxi Driver's' Travis Bickle gives a cab ride to a group of disgruntled stuffed animals in a skit entitled 'Taxi Dermist.' In a segment evocative of Mr. Rodgers neighborhood, 'Mr. Ernie' takes off his sweater and shoes, continuing to strip down to his boxer shorts. The Coasters provide musical entertainment in a guest spot. Their images are superimposed onto a set of coasters on a table laden with beer and popcorn. Produced by Fred Barzyk. Directed by Dick Bartlett. Based on earlier experiments created at the Workshop by several of the artists, this work was intended to function as a pilot. The 'Television Workshop' created several shows that were broadcast on WGBH without being a part of a series sponsored specifically by the Workshop. Additionally, they were commissioned to create shows showcasing video art for national broadcast and created several shows in collaboration with existing series at other stations, such as WNET''s 'American Playhouse.'

'Blast from the Past' with poet and playwright Amiri Baraka. Program is composed of a variety of segments in magazine-style format. Segments include a mime performance by Halim Adbur Rashid (Fred Johnson), a poetry reading by Leah Fletcher (Langston Hughes' 'American Heartbreak,' 'Impasse,' and 'A Dream Deferred,' and Maya Angelou's 'No Loser, No Weeper,' 'Letter to an Aspiring Junkie,' and 'They Went Home'), 'Blast From the Past' with excerpts from 1968 Say Brother interviews with poet and playwright Amiri Baraka at Tufts University and comedian Bill Cosby, a musical performance by the four-person vocalist group Mystic Chain, 'Information' on selecting a day care center, the 'Community Calendar,' and 'Commentary' by Producer Marita Rivero on the difficulties musicians face. Directed by Conrad White.

""Reading Poetry" has several aims: primarily, to increase the ways you can become more engaged and curious readers of poetry; to increase your confidence as writers thinking about literary texts; and to provide you with the language for literary description. The course is not designed as a historical survey course but rather as an introductory approach to poetry from various directions – as public or private utterances; as arranged imaginative shapes; and as psychological worlds, for example. One perspective offered is that poetry offers intellectual, moral and linguistic pleasures as well as difficulties to our private lives as readers and to our public lives as writers. Expect to hear and read poems aloud and to memorize lines; the class format will be group discussion, occasional lecture."

This course will introduce the student to the range of drama written and performed in England and Continental Europe between roughly 1660 and 1800. The student will explore the major plays, players, and playhouses from this era in conjunction with a thorough and in-depth historical contextualization. The course will focus on Restoration and eighteenth-century drama from various nationalistic perspectives, investigating the various genres that were prevalent during that time period. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: provide an introduction to and brief overview of both the Restoration and the eighteenth-century in terms of their history, politics, and culture and especially their drama; identify and describe the major movements and developments in the theatre of this era (including, for example, heroic drama, pathetic drama, Restoration comedy, sentimental comedy, political satire, and opera); compare and contrast the British drama from these eras to that of both Germany and France and especially in the context of the work of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Pierre de Marivaux, and Voltaire. (English Literature 412)

Intensive study of an important topic or period in drama. Close analysis of major plays, enriched by critical readings and attention to historical and theatrical contexts. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication. Topic for Fall: Renaissance Drama. What is the interplay between an event and its "frames"? What is special and distinctive about stage events? How and why do contemporary dramatists turn back in time for their settings, models, and materials? How do they play with this material to create performance pieces of importance and delight for modern audiences? How do they create distinct, fresh perspectives using the stage in an era of mass and multi-media? What is the implied audience for these plays, and how does that clash or coincide with actual audience expectations and responses? What information do we "need to know," and what do we need to know that is not information? If words circulate, can meaning be stable? What is the relationship between pleasure and responsibility? What are the politics of stagecraft in our time? Is the theater really dead? What '60s pop song includes the previous question? Focusing on two of Britain's most respected and prolific contemporary dramatists, Caryl Churchill and Tom Stoppard, we will explore these and other questions involving literary history, interpretation, and performance. As well as carefully reading and discussing selected plays, the class will create (collectively) an archive of material to enrich our understanding of the texts and their contexts-a sort of "Notes Toward a Supreme OCW Site." (The last phrase is an example of citation à la Stoppard; it may be just frivolous-or maybe not..