Tips for Final Projects!

I gave this handout in class on our last day (Tuesday), but if you missed it or misplaced your handout, here are some ideas to consider as you go into your final project. Be sure to look over the links in the posts beneath this one, since they give you valuable resources to help you piece together your production. 

1.       Be sure to research some previous productions of your play, which you can find on the RSC archive (on the blog) or elsewhere on the web. Look up reviews of your play and see what critics thought worked and didn’t work. The more you understand how the play has been ‘solved’ by others, the more you can come up with your own solution.

2.       Be sure to ask yourself ‘why?’ when it comes to your setting and location. What purpose does it serve? What problems does it solve? Is it a gimmick, or does it actually help us ‘see’ something in the play or between the characters?

3.       Use Bevis to find a ‘direction’ for the play. By this I mean, consider what ideas of comedy you want this play to explore or illustrate. All of these plays are comedies, but not everyone will see the joke. So think about how Bevis shows us multiple ways to think about and understand what comedy is and what it does to an audience. Imagine that Bevis’ ideas are your thesis: try to state this thesis in a sentence or two in your presentation.

4.       Find VISUALS. Make sure we can see examples of what your play would look like. You don’t need to find a production to show us, but you can find examples of the kinds of people, the costumes, the landscape, etc., that would evoke your staging.

5.       Show us a PROBLEM moment in the play that you can briefly discuss and maybe solve for us. In fact, your entire presentation could be a single problem scene that you explain through your modernization/staging.

6.       You only have TEN MINUTES, and you really can’t cover that much ground in ten minutes. So make sure everything you show us is meaningful—that it actually leads somewhere. Don’t waste frames and time on a portrait of Shakespeare, or something that is ‘throw away.’

PLEASE let me know if you have questions, if you don’t know how to do something, or you find yourself stuck. I’m here to help! Good luck!