Criteria of a Good Play

What aspects of the lectures or tutorials are related or useful to my area of study? My answer to this question will be the teaching the criteria of a good play. In one of the lectures of EDU 3217, we were taught about the criteria of a good play, which are stated as below:

• Thought-provoking / satisfies the intelect (Make the audience think)
  
• Shows organization (Clearly shows relationship between time or characters)
  
• Show ideational content
  
• Has economy
  
• Has sense of novelty (E.g. the plot is not dull and predictable)
  
• Has impact to the audience
  
• Moves or emotions grip the audience (Audience willing to stay until the end to know what will happen next. Suspense.)
  
• Concerns with human issues or experiences (e.g. parent-child conflict.)
  

Besides that, in the third tutorial, we were given a task to read three one-act plays, i.e. Tan Kee Aun’s “The Ring Doesn’t Fit”, Vincent Jeremiah Edwin’s “The Ring” and Rheitta Desmond’s “Selfish Mr. Pederson”. Among the three plays, we need to choose the play we liked the most and the play we disliked the most. Other than the aspects discussed in the lecture as shown above, some additional factors that make a good play are stated as follow:

• Simplicity

(e.g. choice of words, clear development of plot, reasonable number of characters)

• Have moral values
  
• Appropriate length
  
• Witty style of writing
  

Why would I say teaching the criteria of good play is related to my area of study? Well, in my opinion, an effective teacher does not only possess good teaching skills, but also skillful in selecting and utilizing teaching materials. Moreover, if the teaching material is the central tool (e.g. comprehension text) and not assisting tool (e.g. visual support), teacher need to choose it properly. For instance, in teaching the language of drama, the chosen script is the most important teaching material of all – the central tool. By having the knowledge of what makes a good play, teacher will know how to choose the appropriate play for ESL classroom.

In conclusion, I strongly believe that one of the important aspects that is useful and should be taught to future English teachers is the skill of choosing a play, as they will need to teach drama one day. As for the other question, “What aspects of the lectures or tutorials that are unrelated or not useful to my area of study? “, the answer remains unknown. (as I have not found any unrelated aspects yet)