Week 5: Performing Literature

Performance Elements: Drama is different in many ways from other literary forms because it has major components that cannot be clearly experienced when it is read, but which instead can only be experienced when one watches a play performed. Discuss the setting of Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Shaw’s Pygmalion. What purpose do each of these settings serve? If you were a director, how would you set the stage? Do the stage direction allow the director creative leeway? If you were able to watch the YouTube video of Pygmalion and The Importance of Being Earnest, you are welcome to discuss the settings as well. Give specific examples from each play to support your response, and be sure explain those examples.

 least 200-300 words