User:DylanAnton/sandbox

Planned edits to To Kill A Mockingbird (2018 play) article 5/9/2020
This does not show all of my individual edits many were made directly to the document.

Key: non bold= from article already, bold= new content/ edits, parentheses= identification of sources where footnotes will later be added.

Lead
To Kill a Mockingbird is a 2018 Broadway play based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Harper Lee, adapted for the stage by Aaron Sorkin. It opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on December 13, 2018. The play is set to transfer to London's West End at the Gielgud Theatre in 2020. '''The show follows the story of Atticus Finch, a lawyer in 1930’s Alabama, as he defends Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of rape. The play varying from the book, has Atticus as the protagonist, not his daughter Scout allowing his character to change throughout the show. During production the show was involved in two legal disputes, the first with the Lee Estate over the faithfulness of the play to the original book, and the second was due to exclusivity to the rights with productions using the script by Christopher Sergel. During opening week, the production garnered more than $1.5 million in box office sales.'''

Cast
(use cast list already made just reposition Find and  include the other casts if available)

Production History
(majority already written, just reordered and removed legal dispute mentioned)

It was announced in February 2016 that Aaron Sorkin would bring the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to Broadway, in a new production produced by Scott Rudin and directed by Bartlett Sher. The book had previously been adapted for the stage but Rudin specified that this production would be completely unrelated to the prior pieces. (source)

On February 15, 2018, it was announced that Jeff Daniels would star in the production as Atticus Finch. Celia Keenan-Bolger and Will Pullen were also announced to play Scout and Jem Finch, respectively. (Removed brief mention of Lee estate legal battle, as it will be added later on in the article in its own section) During production, the show was involved in two legal battles, one with the Lee estate and the other against licensed productions of the Christopher Sergel adaptation. (La Times) (Source Ten)

The legal dispute between Sorkin and the Lee Estate
'''As reported by The New York Times during the production of the play, the Lee Estate believed that the proposed script varied too much from the book, and a complaint was filed in an Alabama federal court in March of 2018. (New York Times) The main deviation cited by the Lee Estate that caused dispute was the changes to Atticus Finch's character. (New York Times) In discussion with Sorkin about the terms of use for the rights to produce a play, it was specified by the Estate that the character of Atticus should not deviate from the original character created by Harper Lee. ( The Guardian) Sorkin discusses in an interview the importance of having Atticus develop and change throughout the show and the decision to frame him as the main character instead of Scout. (LA Times) Sorkin describes how the evolution of Atticus was viewed by the Lee estate as being "far less dignified" than the original character. (New York Times) The show's lawyers disputed this point stating his character "does not derogate or depart from the spirit of the novel." (New York Times.) Because the Lee estate lawsuit was jeopardizing the release of the show, a countersuit of $10 million was filed by Sorkin's lawyers in April 2018. (The Guardian) On the Tenth of May 2018, the release of the show was confirmed after an agreement was reached between the two parties, and both lawsuits were settled. (The Guardian)'''

Legal threats by Rudin against licensed productions of the Sergel adaptation
(already part of article just reorder.

Reception
The play was met with some criticism over the liberties taken by Sorkin, but Los Angeles Times theater critic Charles McNulty writes Sorkin's adaptation "Moves as confidently as it speaks even if it doesn't completely add up dramatically."(LA times) McNulty disputes those who many argue about the changes Sorkin made to the story by stating that Sorkin "created something impeccably fresh." (LA times)Jesse Green, a theater critic from the New York Times articulated that Sorkin's choice to start with the trial and provide backstory through scenes going back in time, was "very effective" for telling the story on stage. (New York Times) Matt Windman illustrated that "some of Sorkin's choices are questionable" and that the set design was "Too distracting to be effective."(AMNY) Matt Windman also argues that the show "proves to be an engrossing, provocative, and uniformly well-acted adaptation."(AMNY)

Box Office
The show opened on december 13, 2018, during the week ending on December 23, the production grossed over $1.5 million, breaking the record for box office grosses for a non-musical play in a theater owned by The Shubert Organization. Prior to opening, $22 million were made in advance ticket sales at the box office.

Awards and nominations
(already present)

Bibliography for proposed edits to the "To Kill A Mocking Bird (2018 Play)" Article 4/27/2020
Alter, Alexandra, and Michael Paulson. “Harper Lee's Estate Sues Over Broadway Version of

'Mockingbird'.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Mar. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/theater/harper-lee-estate-lawsuit-broadway-mockingbird.html.

The portrayal of Atticus as a “nieve apologist for the racial status que” in the broadway play was a major point of contention in the Lee estates lawsuit. The Lee estate sued on the grounds that the play deviated and contradicted the “heroic” character of Atticus in the book. This article is useful because it provides information as to why Sorkin felt it was important to make the changes that he did to the play. It also provides historical precedent for similar lawsuits against other shows.

McNulty, Charles. “Aaron Sorkin Talks 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and Disavowing the White

Savior Role.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 30 Apr. 2019, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-aaron-sorkin-kill-mockingbird-20190430-story.html

This is an interview between a critic and Sorkin, the writer of the broadway adaptation. Sorkin describes how important it was for him to see the character of Atticus to develop and change, unlike in the book where he remains a static hero. I think this source is useful in providing insight into the choices Sorkin made, some of which got him in legal trouble. I can use this article to provide more information to the legal dispute as well as in the section about major differences between the play and the book.

Limbong, Andrew. “Aaron Sorkin Brings 'To Kill A Mockingbird' To The Broadway Stage.” NPR,NPR, 26 Dec. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/12/22/679448620/aaron-sorkin-brings-to-kill-a-mockingbird-to-the-broadway-stage.

This is another interview with Sorkin, done by NPR. This interview focuses in detail on why Sorkin felt atticus was a “disappointing” character in the book and why he felt he needed to not just copy Harper Lee’s book but create his own story within it. Sorkin also discusses the choices he made surrounding the character of Calpurnia and his decision to include two new characters. . This article will be helpful in writing about the production and the character choices and development Sorkin envisioned for these characters.

Flood, Alison. “Mockingbird Play Set for Broadway after Harper Lee Estate Settles Dispute.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 11 May 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/11/mockingbird-play-set-for-broadway-after-harper-lee-estate-settles-dispute

This article goes into detail about the lawsuit the Lee estate filed against Sorkin and the producers. The Lee estate claimed that sorkin took too many liberties with changing “classic” characters and this violated the contract and licensing they had. This article will be helpful in providing more detail into the section about the lawsuit and the involvement of the Lee estate in the production.

Mandell, Jonathan. “To Kill A Mockingbird Review. Aaron Sorkin's Play Turns Harper Lee's Novel into a Detective Story, a Courtroom Drama, Political Commentary...and Satisfying Theater.” New York Theater, New York Theater, 1 Sept. 2019, newyorktheater.me/2019/08/31/to-kill-a-mockingbird-review-aaron-sorkins-play-turns-harper-lees-novel-into-a-detective-story-a-courtroom-drama-political-commentary-and-satisfying-theater/.

Jonathan Mandell provides a comprehensive review of the Broadway play, both its successes and failures. Most notably he writes that it elevates the story and makes it more engaging but it fails to fully realize the changes that Sorkin wrote for Atticus and thus feels incomplete. I will be using this source to add to the reception section of the Wikipedia page.

Teeman, Tim. “Aaron Sorkin's Radical Remake of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 14 Dec. 2018, https://www.thedailybeast.com/aaron-sorkins-to-kill-a-mockingbird-on-broadway-puts-atticus-finch-on-trial

This article provides an in depth and critical analysis of Atticus in the play. This article describes the differences between the book, the movie, and the Broadway production. This is a well written and thought out review that I think will add a valuable perspective to the reception section as well as important information about the differences between the book and the show.

Evaluation on February 18, 2020 on "Eskimo" article
Eskimo

Evaluating content

·     Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?

-all seamed relevant

·     Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added? Identify content gaps.

/sandbox

-there were 2 areas where sources were deemed as missing and have not yet been included

·     What else could be improved?

-it was somewhat repetitive especially in reiterating controversies multiple times in very similar ways

·     Review the lead section. Does it follow Wikipedia’s guidelines to provide basic information and summarizes the entire article?

-yes

Evaluating tone

·     Is the article neutral? Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?

-it feels neutral and I would need to do more research to know.

·     Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?

-there is more focus on why eskimo is a derogatory term rather than not but this is representative of cultural shift and remains neutral in this context

Evaluating sources

·     Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?

-one link I found was a Vice article, an organization that can have a pretty heavy bias. Some sources appear to be from hard copies and the information in them is inaccessible to us without further effort. Other sources appear to be French in origin which limits access and could lead to translation errors.

·     Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted? For example, does the writer use signal phrases to clearly identify the source of the information?

-they seam to be unbiased, did not note any particularly biased information there are also recent sources suggesting that this page is maintained and updated with some frequency

Checking the talk page

·     Now take a look at how others are talking about this article on the talk page.

·     What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic? How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?

-the talk page is pretty heated with lots of debate as to whether eskimo is a derogatory term, there is debate as to whether the article should even be titled "Eskimo" due to the derogatory nature of the word. In the talk page there are lots of personal examples and opinions expressed but they are not reflected in the article. People are advocating for further discussion, while others are escalating the situation with comparisons to the N word and other slurs. someone goes on a rant about how its only offensive because people decided its offensive once again using the N word as example. Knowing that people with these strong contrarian opinions wrote parts of this article raises concerns about the information present.

·     How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

-it seems to follow a similar view that "Eskimo" is no longer an acceptable term due to inaccuracies as-well as it being a slur.

Drama Wikipedia article evaluation 2/24/2020

 * 1) the lead of the article successfully gives a brief summary of the book and indicates the directions the article will go.
 * 2) the background section provides basic information on the authors inspiration and the real life situations that contributed to the book. It includes reference to three other graphic novels with similar themes by this author. it also includes independent as-well as references to interviews of the author.
 * 3) the summary is throughout and does not stray from a direct summary of the text. overall an effective and complete summary.
 * 4) the genre section is also comprehensive, referencing the authors perspective of the style, as-well as including citations and sources supporting the claims of the genre. this section referenced controversies that although are due to the genre and depiction of characters does not fit in this section as it should just be an outline/ description of the genre or style. it references other books in the same genre and compares the styles. It referenced other books by this author but was vague on the order of books written and did not contain much information on her body of work.
 * 5) the analysis section is broken up into multiple subsections that focus on different issues surrounding the novel. There are citations and quotes from different scholars who focus on material such as this.
 * 6) there is no publication section for this article which is a problem.
 * 7) the reception section is thorough and appears to give a fair representing of arguments and drama surrounding the book It indicates multiple areas of contention and praise for the novel. The authors do not include personal opinion and appear to be unbiased.

Abate article & Drama page.
I do think that Abate's arguments and viewpoints were used fairly and accurately to effectively illustrate the controversies around this book. The use of Abates description of the similarities of the artistic style and drawings of the characters in drama to historical figures does represent what I think is the core of Abates argument that for a piece of literature to truly be progressive then it must address race as it is an ongoing issue in our society. Central to Abates point is the idea that if your book is focused on societal issue, then race must be mentioned and discussed. I think in the wikipedia article abates opinions and voice are use quit often and did change my perspective on the book. This makes me wonder if the author who added all the Abate quotes may have a certain strong opinion about how to interpret the book. I got the sense that there was not equal representation of praise and criticism of a book that I think (and of course this is my opinion) had good intentions with a flawed execution. Abates argument I think would be applicable to the sociological discussion of racism than as as direct criticism of this one book.