I really think I'm interested in returning to my initial topic of how Shakespeare works with young/ adolescent audiences OUTSIDE of the classroom. How does Shakespeare teach young audiences morals? How do they make it accessible? Do the kids even understand/are the impacted by these themes at all?
Perhaps divided into categories is the best way to go:
1. Children's theatre companies (like BYU's production of Henry V)
2. Children's Media (Television episode/movie adaptations of Shakespeare stories)
3. Literature; kid's books adaptations/ No Fear Shakespeare.
3. Maybe even Audio? Shakespeare audio recordings targeted toward kids?
I finally feel like I'm on track with an accessible idea. There will be more people to talk to about this and more people who can relate to (unless you're the Trunchbul from Matilda. "They're all mistakes, children! Filthy, nasty things. Glad I never was one.")
Next Steps:
- Find at least 1-2 examples for each of these categories and find someone to talk to for each of them.
Kara, in your next steps, you mentioned that you were going to find 1-2 examples for each. Do you want your paper to include all of those? If you could find enough research on the adaptations of Shakespeare for kid tv shows, that's the one that interests me the most.
ReplyDeletehey Rachel-- that one definitely interests me the most too. I just hope that I can find enough material. maybe all of these forms of media makes the paper too broad-- but I'd rather have more material to cut back on. If I can find enough connections in television alone then I hope to narrow down my paper to just that.
ReplyDeleteKara, I can pretty much guarantee you that you'll have enough material to talk about with TV shows--and maybe even that topic should be narrowed as you go along, perhaps to just adaptions of one particular play. I think sometimes we underestimate the discussion we can get out of a well-focused topic, but if you find something compelling that interests you, there really shouldn't be too much of a problem getting it to ten pages.
ReplyDeleteHey Kara - so to give you a little bit of insight, the most important role of a director within a production is to come up with the concept. This concept is what shapes the set, the acting style used - everything. In the recent production of Henry V the concept was "What do I stand for?" (which explains the motif of the Fun song "What do I stand for? most night I don't know anymore..." so that definitely connects with morality.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school I was the narrator in a musical children's production of A Midsummer Night's Dreams that toured to elementary schools and our theme was that "there is magic in stories" which may not teach a lesson as much, but thought I'd give you food for thought...