On Monday, I asked Professor Burton what he thought about me adjusting my topic to focus more on Nazi-era and postwar production of Merchant of Venice, and he thought it was a good idea. I think this will help focus my paper, and make it a little easier for me to talk about my research.
Unfortunately, this new approach has made things a little difficult on the social end of things, and it took me a while to figure out how to respond. No one I know has studied German theater history. I also can't really post on Good Reads, because my topic is a little too focused for that site.
Nevertheless, I've made a few stabs.
The Dramaturgy site I tried to register for never got back to me, so I assume they're dead. However, I realized recently that BYU has its own Dramaturgy blog, called 4th Wall Dramaturgy. I did some digging and sent one of the authors an email, asking her some questions about how production choices are made, and managed to get the email for the dramaturg for last year's Children's Theater production of Merchant. I'm going to be contacting her soon to get some more details about the choices they made.
I also noticed that several of my most-valuable sources were written by the same author, and that he had some really good things today. One of the difficulties I'm having in doing research is that I have no idea how to find information on recent German productions of Merchant, seeing as I don't actually speak German. I sent him an email and asked if he wouldn't mind sending me some tips on how to do research on this topic. As of this writing, he hasn't responded, but I'm hoping to hear from him Monday.
I've also reached out to a few of my homies. My stepmom was fascinated by my topic, and offered a few suggestions on how to approach it.
I'm still pursuing a few leads, and I plan to post updates as they come. Thanks for reading!
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