Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

How the One Act Play Course Went

How the One Act Play Course Went

I finished my One Act Play course for the semester and two students completed the class. Like most students they brought different talents and skills to the table but given that I was impressed with what each was able to accomplish.

I started out with six (6) and thought the attrition was a bit severe however I am told that in On line Courses this is not uncommon… That drop-outs are more the norm than the exception. Despite this reassurance, I still wonder what I might have done to keep more of them in the chase.

You would not believe all the prep work that goes into a course at New Horizon’s Academy. The Course Pages have to be written in “ML Write” which is a print formatting language that allows the writer to change fonts, sizes and colors and enhance the visual presentation of the page. Becoming proficient with this software, available at WDC, is a learning curve and a lot of effort. I had around eight course pages to develop as well as eight lesson plans…. (I only used seven)

All that work paid off, because the “Rules of Thumb” “Example Play” and “Dictionary of Terms” and some of the other aids I wrote made the course easier to teach because they anticipated questions like a sort of FAQ device.

This was an advanced workshop type of course and it focused on structure and insuring that the dramatic elements were included in the Play. Also it got heavily into dialogues and monologues. It was not a course in history, grammar, and word choice. It built on the foundation of other courses at NHA which help writers improve on fundamental writing skills.

In reading back over the Course Pages I see a lot of stuff I anticipated but didn’t use but might have under a different set of conditions. The biggest benefit the course offers is a structured approach to writing, a way to make sure all the essentials are included, such as building momentum, character development and practice in monologues and dialogues. I saw in the two plays improvements over the six weeks that went well beyond what I anticipated. It was an experience that benefited both students and will no doubt spill over into the other areas they will be writing in the future.

New Horizon’s Academy offers a great opportunity at WDC and I recommend it highly to everyone. Take a moment and visit the site and see what the program has to offer. Then take one of the courses. You’ll be glad you did.