Becoming Nancy

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Charlotte Selton, Emory Wheel: The lyrics and music, by Anthony Drewe and George Stiles, respectively, are generally strong, although the saccharine Act One ballad, "Six Inches From Your Heart," brought the show's strong momentum to a dead standstill. "You Matter," the Act Two song intended as an inspirational showstopper, also demands revision. The message is trite and, more crucially, a poor fit for the conflict of the show. If the lyrics must invoke a cliche motivational slogan for the chorus, at least choose one that fits David's character arc, like "Be Yourself." The first three-quarters of the show are well done enough to command a New York or London stage. However, the climax through the conclusion fail to deliver the resolution or growth initially promised. Put briefly, the ending of "Becoming Nancy" is too much of everything. It has too many just-in-time cliches, all of which are predictable but only one of which is necessary. There are two unearned redemption arcs, both of which were hastily built into the second act after no foreshadowing and which resolve within minutes of each other. After this he heard one of them shouting to one of the others: “Go and find a knife.” What was he thinking at the time? Harris, R. (2004). Encouraging emergent moments: The personal, critical, and rhetorical in the writing classroom. Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, 4(3) , 401-418. theory …. In a sense then, to participate in a discussion about the relative merits of process and postprocess theories is to use the apparatus, to perform the same act of piety. More importantly, it is also to forego the opportunity to redefine the historical and theoretical terms by which writing will be studied. (2011, p. 187)

Then there’s the odd insertion — and repeated return cameos — by actors as Sting, Debbie Harry, Gladys Knight and Kate Bush, which add little to the show when they’re not simply annoying.Richard Weaver (1953) warns against an over-emphasis on theory god-terms. These potent terms are vague and therefore discount the complexities of the daily classroom experience. Patricia Harkin (1991) has forwarded a more grounded notion of teacher lore as employing multiple theoretical approaches in service of the teacher’s many responsibilities. Thus, a theoretically informed teacher might devise a writing course that draws from multiple approaches: traditional skills, process procedures, expressive needs, cognitive development, academic initiation, critical concerns, rhetorical demands, logical argumentation, genre practices, civic responsibilities, disciplinary knowledge, local imperatives, postmodern alienation, and real-world communicative activities. To make such determinations in curriculum design is not eclectic but rather dynamic in which multiple theories must interplay in a changing, local context. As someone who might be labeled as a practitioner, I am advocating for more theory to complicate our practices, rather than pitting one mythologized theory group against the other. What I loved about this book is that is was very much a book with a story to tell - teenage boy in the 1970s who after coming out as gay has to deal with a huge amount of grief from other parties who treat him horribly because of their bigoted and homophobic view points which it does well. However it does it in such a brilliant way that it doesn't come across as odd or patronising.

Discounting that the student has any agency in subject formation relegates literacy to functioning only in a most dismal manner. Vygotskian scholars Dorothy Holland and William Lachicotte make room for agency in identity formation that might open up discursive spaces to new variants: Greer, J. (1995, March). “And now I can see:” The function of conversion arratives in the discourse of cultural studies. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, Washington, DC. Abstract retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED385838.pdfThe fun continues. A bald man in a suit that presumably once fitted begins to wail his way through “Sweet Caroline” before telling the crowd, “I want audience participation.” Which he unfortunately receives. They provide a way for me not to be socially anxious,” he says. “Being in this place [Westminster] I put on quite a confident front. And with drag, you’re putting on a mask.” They didn’t find a knife, and instead gathered up his belongings, including large amounts of electronic equipment, and left. Afterwards, he says, “I looked like the elephant man – a lot of cuts and swelling.” The golf club caused nerve damage to his leg, making walking agony. I loved this historical setting (yes I know people would disagree and say it isn't historical yet but I studied the time period as part of my History degree so I'm going with it). I liked seeing the attitudes and ideas that were prevalent at the time especially when you consider it is set about the same time as the brixton race riots and only a few years after homosexuality was no longer considered a crime in the UK.

Dews, C L. B, & Law, C. L. (Eds.). (1995). This fine place so far from home: Voices of academics from the working class . Philadelphia: Temple University Press. What was great though was to see the amount of support David got from others once he came out. Some took a while to come around, but there were a lot of people that didn't seem likely to accept David the way he is but did so anyway. In Undercover, the first UK solo show by US artist Laurie Long, Impressions presents two bodies of work that fuse elements of humour, feminism and popular culture. These two recent bodies of work employ photography and video to explore childhood memory, identity, role-play and surveillance in everyday life.An Alliance production in association with Hal Luftig, Kristin Caskey, and Mike Isaacson of a musical in two acts based on the novel “Becoming Nancy” by Terry Ronald, with book by Elliot Davis, music by George Stiles and lyrics by Anthony Drewe.