Assignment scenario: You are an aspiring theater director who has been invited to attend 12N 21(twelfth night for 21st century), a convention that asks participants to develop ideas for new productions of Twelfth Night. The sponsors are seeking fresh, innovative, concept-rich interpretations that reflect the spirit and interests of your generation and expand the cultural horizons and intended audiences of Shakespeare. You may want to think about cultural origin and identity, migration and immigration, sexual and gender politics, musical genres, social and narrative media trends, and more. You will be using your deep knowledge of Shakespeare’s play (gained from attending lectures and reading the play with care) to make smart and surprising connections between his world and yours. You will develop an idea designed to appeal to your campus, community, sub-culture, generation, or interest group.
Contemporary directors are very creative with this drama. It has been set in colonial India (Links to an external site.), in and around an urban gay subculture, in a modern Mediterranean country visited by African refugees (Links to an external site.), in post-WWI England (Links to an external site.), and many more. Is there a city, neighborhood, subculture, media platform, or cultural locale whose concerns and customs you would like to explore and share in a production of Twelfth Night? Latino Los Angeles? Anime Japan? Ancient China? Mediterranean pirates? The roaring 20s? A favorite video game? You get to share your world and interests through this assignment.
DIRECTIONS
Your project should consist of 7-10 slides. 4-5 slides will be formatted with an image on the left and a paragraph on the right. (If your image is landscape orientation, you can put the image on one slide, followed by the paragraph on the next slide.) Use Google Slides that can be uploaded to Canvas. Images can be images found online, images you create yourself, or a mixture of the two!
PLEASE REVIEW THE STUDENT EXAMPLES HERE!!(updated)
1. TITLE SLIDE
The title is part of your pitch, so make the title both clear and evocative. Don’t forget to include your name! Please include a picture of yourself as well, so that we can get to know you.
2. INTRO SLIDE
This paragraph introduces your concept with a quotation from Twelfth Night that inspired your idea.
3. SETTING: ILLYRIA
Illustration + paragraph.
Your paragraph should include a claim about where your production is set: where is your Illyria geographically, historically and culturally? Include evidence for your idea in the form of one or more quotations from the play that has inspired the direction of your production. Write 2-3 follow-up sentences that develop your idea and explain how the quotation supports your production concept (your warrant).
4. CHARACTERS: the four lovers [2-3 slides]
Illustration + paragraph.
Your paragraph should include a claim about your conception of the four romantic leads (Viola, Olivia, Orsino, and Sebastian), your evidence (quotation[s] from or about two of the characters), and 2-3 follow-up sentences explaining how the evidence supports your claim (your warrant). You can include several pictures depicting your characters; have fun with it!
5. CHARACTER: Feste, Sir Andrew, Sir Toby, Malvolio, or Maria
Illustration + paragraph.
Your paragraph should include a claim about how one of the comic characters from the play fits into your production concept, your evidence (quotation[s] from or about the character), and 1-2 follow-up sentences explaining how the evidence supports your claim (your warrant).
7. CONCLUSION
Explain why you think this production concept will resonate with your audience. What themes and elements of Shakespeare’s play will your concept develop and communicate?
8. NOTES
Please provide links or information about the images you chose and any other sources you used to develop your idea.
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|