Park Bench, Bus Stop, and Oedipus the King

A Greek drama mask sculpted in stone

Homework for Monday: Read your assigned section of Oedipus the King. Highlight the lines you will read aloud. Characters were assigned in class. Make sure you mark any unfamiliar words, look them up, and know how to pronounce them.

The play is divided into sections. Everyone should read the list of Characters and the description of the Scene on page 1.

Section 1: starts on p.1 with Oedipus' first line "Children, why do you sit here...," continues to the end of page 2, concluding with "[Oedipus returns.]"

Section 2: Starts on p. 3 with Oedipus' monologue, continues to halfway down p. 4, concluding with "[Teiresias and Oedipus exit separately]"

Section 3: Starts on p. 4 with the Chorus: "By Delphi's oracle, who is proclaimed..." and ends 1/4 of the way down p. 7 with Jocasta's line and the direction "[They exit]"

Section 4: Starts on p. 7 with Chorus: "I pray that I may keep pure..." and ends halfway down p. 9 with "[Exit all but the Chorus. A messenger enters.]"

Section 5: Starts on p. 9 with Second Messenger: "O princes, our glorious queen Jocasta is dead." and ends at the bottom of p. 10

Today we did more character, imagination, and attention work with improv games. We started with a student-led physical warmup, did Group Walks using internal emotions, and tried out different characters with motivations, needs, or personality traits for Park Bench and Bus Stop.

Next week we start the Greek drama unit with Reader's Theatre. Then we'll move on to a general introduction of Greek drama and start writing plots and characters for our Greek plays.