Uncloseting Byron Writing Prompt 

“Uncloseting Byron” — a public art project that takes a creative, experimental approach to closet drama by using Byron as its starting point. Beginning with a line from one of Byron’s plays, participants will create short mixed-media closet dramas and share them via social media. As we not only get off the stage but also off the page for this project, we tarry with how this act of performance might become a space of freedom.

Even with freedom, we are giving our participants some parameters (as we all need some defined structure for our tasks). So, the "rules" of “Uncloseting Byron” are:

• The piece must include one line from Lord Byron, ideally any of his 8 plays

• each participant has 36-hours (one hour for each year of Byron’s life) to write their closet drama

• then nominate three more “playwrights” to write one

Participants will submit their work by either:

• uploading their closet drama to their Instagram account and tagging @unclosetingbyron. They will also select their nominations of the next three participants by simply tagging them. Our account will then share this post on our page

OR

• by emailing their production to submit@unclosetingbyron.com (especially if someone somewhere is not on Instagram), which will then be uploaded by Kaila to our Instagram account 

• If you are taking this form of submission, please also include the names, emails, and Instagram accounts (if they have one) of your three nominations. Kaila will circulate accordingly

As these submissions arrive, Kaila will also be uploading them to the website—unclosetingbyron.com—so that we have multiple "stages," if you will, to view and enjoy these pieces. 

While we will not be actually timing participants to make sure they stick to the 36-hour deadline, we would like to note that this creative, playful response is also one of urgency, as it enables us to think about how art and creative possibilities can emerge under pressure, especially political pressures. No matter how much time (or how little) your own production takes you, we want all participants to enjoy this creation process and produce something they are excited to share with the community!

Tips for the Closet Dramas:

• TThe copy for your piece can be as short or as long as you like. Feel free to fill each slide with words, or only have a few. As long as you feel your story is conveyed, what you put on each slide is completely up to you

• If you are taking  a more creative route and expressing your drama in photography, film, paintings, dance, images of sculptures—whatever form of artistic expression you like—just make sure we know what the line from Byron is and how you are incorporating it. This could be presented as the work’s title or subtitle or even headings on each slide. Tell your story in the best way you see fit to communicate your message

• If you are using images from other sources, pulling in other works that are not Byron, or anything that is not your original work, please be sure to cite your sources correctly. You can include this on a slide itself in the format of a Works Cited, or you can do this in the “comment” section of the post. For citing Byron, just make sure it is clear which play, Act, and Scene the line is from

The List of Byron’s 8 Plays to choose any line from:

Cain, Heaven and Earth, Manfred, Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice, Sardanapalus, The Deformed Transformed, The Two Foscari, Werner

Note: As the Curran Symposium will be starting with a production of Sardanapalus, participants may feel drawn to jump on the focus of that bandwagon.

If you do not already have a copy of these plays, please find options below: 

Cain

http://www.newsteadabbeybyronsociety.org/works/downloads/cain.pdf

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23475/23475-h/23475-h.htm#CAIN_TITLE

Heaven and Earth

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23475/23475-h/23475-h.htm#HEAVEN_AND_EARTH_TITLE

Manfred

https://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Byron/manfredt.html

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/20158/20158-h/20158-h.htm#MANFRED

Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice

http://newsteadabbeybyronsociety.org/works/downloads/marino_faliero.pdf

Sardanapalus

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23475/23475-h/23475-h.htm#SARDANAPALUS_TITLE

The Deformed Transformed

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23475/23475-h/23475-h.htm#THE_DEFORMED_TRANSFORMED_TITLE

The Two Foscari

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23475/23475-h/23475-h.htm#THE_TWO_FOSCARI_TITLE

Werner

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23475/23475-h/23475-h.htm#WERNER_TITLE

A few EXAMPLE Lines for Inspiration:

Cain

Cain. “Why should I speak?” 

Cain, Act I, scene 1, line 23

Lucifer. “‍I know the thoughts

Of dust, and feel for it, and with you.”

Cain, Act I, scene 1, line 100-1

Heaven and Earth

Aholibamah: “‍Let us proceed upon

Our invocation.”

Heaven and Earth, Part I, scene 1, line 5

Japhet: “. . . Oh, men! my fellow-beings! Who

Shall weep above your universal grave,

Save I?”

Heaven and Earth, Part III, scene 1, lines 14-16

Manfred

Manfred: “I call upon ye by the written charm

Which gives me power upon you—Rise! Appear!”

Manfred, Act I, scene 1, lines 35-6

Manfred:  “Look there, I say,

And steadfastly;—now tell me what thou seest?”

Manfred, Act III, scene 4, lines 59-60

Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice

Doge: “. . . Take thou this paper: 

The misty letters vanish from my eyes; I cannot fix them.”

Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice, Act I, scene 1, lines 53-4

Marianna: “’Tis their past choice 

That far too often makes them deem they would 

Now choose more wisely, could they cancel it.” 

Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice, Act II, scene 1, lines 129-131

Sardanapalus

Beleses: “I do not doubt of Victory—but the Victor.”

Sardanapalus, Act II, scene 1, line 44

Sardanapalus:  “I am content: and, trusting in my cause,

Think we may yet be victors and return

To peace—the only victory I covet.”

Sardanapalus, Act IV, scene 1, lines 502-4

The Deformed Transformed

Arnold: ‍”I gaze upon him

As if I were his soul, whose form shall soon

Envelope mine.” 

The Deformed Transformed, Part I, scene 1, lines 283-5

Cæsar: “I cannot find my hero; he is mixed

With the heroic crowd that now pursue

The fugitives, or battle with the desperate.”

The Deformed Transformed, Part II, scene 2, lines 1-3

The Two Foscari

Marina: “What

Are judges who give way to anger? they

Who do so are assassins.”

The Two Foscari, Act I, scene 1, lines 274-6

Barbarigo: “Oh! they'll hear as much one day

From louder tongues than mine; they have gone beyond

Even their exorbitance of power: and when

This happens in the most contemned and abject

States, stung humanity will rise to check it.”

The Two Foscari, Act V, scene 1, lines 145-9

Werner

Werner: “Something beyond our outward sufferings (though

These were enough to gnaw into our souls)

Hath stung me oft, and, more than ever, now.”

Werner, Act I, scene 1,  lines 46-8

Ulric: “Then 'tis time

He should begin, and take the bandage from

His eyes, and look before he leaps; till now

He hath ta'en a jump i' the dark.”

Werner, Act IV, scene 1, lines 388-391

One (silly) EXAMPLE from Kaila:

Here is one example (for both a laugh and an example of a story in few words). In it is the myth of Bacchus. You will note: the title of the closet drama, Bacchus’ first line, and the narrator’s explanation of events are ALL direct quotes from Sardanapalus (see sources below). You do not need to do anything like this (and I am sure yours will be much better than mine. Ha!). Please feel free to use more of your own words as well. You need only one line from Byron for your piece (I just always get excited and like his words a lot). 

Line(s) from Byron:

Sardanapalus: “There was a certain Bacchus, was there not?”

Sardanapalus, Act I, scene 2, line 147

Sardanapalus: “And in his godship I will honour him—

Not much as man. What, ho! my cupbearer!”

Sardanapalus, Act I, scene 2, lines 155-6

*I am using part of line 156

Sardanapalus: “Not so:—of all his conquests a few columns

Which may be his, and might be mine, if I

Thought them worth purchase and conveyance, are

The landmarks of the seas of gore he shed,

The realms he wasted, and the hearts he broke.

But here—here in this goblet is his title

To immortality—the immortal grape

From which he first expressed the soul, and gave

To gladden that of man, as some atonement

For the victorious mischiefs he had done.

Had it not been for this, he would have been

A mortal still in name as in his grave;

And, like my ancestor Semiramis,

A sort of semi-glorious human monster.

Here's that which deified him—let it now

Humanise thee; my surly, chiding brother,

Pledge me to the Greek God!”

Sardanapalus, Act I, scene 2, line 168-184 

*I am using lines 174-176

**All artwork is original, by Kaila Rose