Next Week and the Final Exam Assignment (due Dec.9th!)

If you missed class on Monday, or simply forgot what we did, remember that I gave you a Final Exam assignment (posted below). It's based on the idea of making Shakespeare new again, and challenging how we see and understand his plays. It's also inspired from the Reduced Shakespeare Company, a performing troupe which used to perform all of his plays in about an hour and a half. The video below is what we watched in class (about the first 26 minutes), but feel free to watch the entire thing for inspiration. 

ALSO, we DO have class next week, but only on MONDAY. We're going to wrap up the course and get the chance to win valuable Shakespeare prizes! :) Enjoy the break and I'll see you next week. 

Link to the Performance: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd4h16DWpdU&list=PL2YqtSaZw0JSnkhbBIuUvHvOcQz6lzAnH&index=6&t=1934s

English 3213: Shakespeare

Final Project: Ten-Minute Shakespeare

For your ‘final exam’ so to speak, I want you to take a cue from The Reduced Shakespeare Company, which performed all 36 of Shakespeare’s plays in a single hour (well, sort of). While this is a humorous idea, it also tests how well you know a given play, and what the essence of the play’s themes and ideas truly consist of. What would a ten-minute Julius Caesar or Hamlet look like? How could you compress most of the general theme, plot, and ideas into a single short scene?

That’s exactly what I want you to do: take one of the plays from class, and reduce it to a 5-7 page script (since 1 page = 2 minutes of reading time). You don’t have to write a thing. All you have to do is arrange lines of dialogue that somehow suggest the main action, events, or ideas of the play. Granted, you’re going to have to leave a LOT out. But how can you still suggest the basic essence of the play to an audience so that they walk away with a rough idea of what the play is about (or maybe, some aspect of the play)?

Think of the 10-minute scene as a kind of ‘movie trailer’ for the play, one that captures the drama of the work in miniature. You don’t have to use an entire speech, or an entire conversation, but edit it as you see fit. For example, you could focus solely on the journey of a single character, or a single theme, or a single relationship. Or you can give several little snapshots. But try to make it coherent, and include stage directions (the original or your own) so we see how the different moments go together.

The goal of this assignment is for you to communicate a ‘reading’ of the play based on the shortest possible script of the play. Have fun with this. It doesn’t have to be serious: in fact, you can show us how silly King Lear looks by only focusing on the ‘mad’ parts! But think about your audience: assume they’ve never seen the play before, so try to give them a taste of what they’ll encounter when they see or read a complete performance. Or better yet, make them want to see it!

REQUIREMENTS

• Try to keep it short, no more than 5-7 double-spaced pages. After that you’re cheating! :) 
• Make sure we know who’s talking and where they are. Use stage directions as you see fit, and feel free to add your own (that’s the only writing you’ll have to do)
• Maintain the play format, so that it reads like an actual scene in a Shakespeare play.
• Feel free to add your own scholarly footnotes ala the Folger Shakespeare! (especially if you want to be funny)
• DUE NO LATER THAN FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9th BY 5PM