Download Tempest Director`s Project

Humanities 2010-2011
The Tempest: Director’s Notebook Project
(required for students enrolled at level 5; optional for students enrolled at level 4)
Total Points: 120
The notebook will be collected in two parts:
Part I (last grade of quarter two; 60 points): Medium and Setting, Theme-Imagery, and one
character (your choice of Prospero, Miranda, or Caliban) is due at the start of class on Tuesday,
January 11th
Part II (first grade of quarter three; 60 points): Other two characters and choice of music,
costumes or set designs due at the start of class on Thursday, January 27th
Late charge: 10 points per school day late for each part
The Director’s Notebook invites you to imagine and create your own production of the play.
The notebook itself sets out solutions to the problems you would have to solve as a director. It
will probably work best to think of Ms. Sallee, Mrs. O’Toole and Mr. Sheinfeld as your
producers and to think of the notebook as an extended proposal for your own production.
Even though the notebook is collected in two parts, it needs to be a unified whole. We
recommend that you begin by making some notes on your decisions for all the problems so that
you can achieve this unity of design at the outset.
PROBLEM ONE: MEDIUM AND SETTING (10 points)
What medium and setting (including place and time period) will you choose for your
production and why? What audience would you like to reach and how will you appeal to
them? Will you stage a play? Produce a film? Create a mini-series? Use some creative
combination? What is your rationale for the choice? How will you convince your producers this
approach will work best for the audience you have in mind? Be sure to discuss at least two
specific scenes in your rationale and explain how you will direct those scenes in your production
(suggested length: one page, single spaced).
PROBLEM TWO: THEME AND IMAGERY (30 points)
What central theme and accompanying images will you emphasize in your production and
how will you bring them to life for your audience? This is the single most important
problem for you as the director, so be sure to explain in detail how your theme will be brought
out in each act of the play, including in specific speeches from each act. You may build in this
section upon the written work you have already completed for acts one and two. Make sure this
work is tied closely to the text of the play—it is also the most analytic of the problems. You
should feel that you are tracing your theme as it evolves through the play using specific
supporting evidence (suggested length 2.5-3 pages, single spaced).
PROBLEM THREE—PROSPERO: A MAGICAL SPOKESMAN FOR SHAKESPEARE,
A MISGUIDED COLONIZER, OR SOME COMBINATION? (20 points) Do you see
Prospero as a magical character who speaks for Shakespeare? (The Tempest is thought to be the
bard’s last work for the stage, and as such is sometimes viewed as a farewell.) Or are you
sympathetic to the more modern readings of the play that instead see Propsero as the colonizer
who takes advantage and dominates those he finds in his travels? Perhaps for you he is some
complex combination of the two? Set out your interpretation of Prospero, including the
following:
 Whom would you choose to play the part, and why? (Since this is an imaginary
production, you may choose an actor who is dead or very expensive—or, as in the recent
production, a female rather than a male.)
 How would you inspire your actor to play the part as you have envisioned it? This means
explaining your vision of Prospero in several different scenes (at least four) interacting
with different characters and showing different moods and attitudes. Be sure to include
direct quotations, using act-scene and line numbers for parenthetical citations. Be sure to
interpret the quotations in line with your vision for the character (suggested length: 2-2.5
pages single spaced).
PROBLEM FOUR—MIRANDA: INNOCENT OR WISE BEYOND HER YEARS? (20
points)
How will Miranda be portrayed in your production? Is she innocent and rather naïve? Or is she
intuitive and wise beyond what her actual experience would suggest? In either case, how will
you bring her to life for your audience? In what ways and in what scenes will they be able to
identify with her? Set out your interpretation of Miranda, including the following:
 Whom would you choose to play the part, and why? (Since this is an imaginary
production, you may choose an actor who is dead or very expensive, or too old—and
make her the right age for your purposes.)
 How would you inspire your actor to play the part as you have envisioned it? This means
explaining your vision of Miranda in several different scenes (at least four) interacting
with different characters and showing different moods and attitudes. Be sure to include
direct quotations, using act-scene and line numbers for parenthetical citations. Be sure to
interpret the quotations in line with your vision for the character (suggested length: 2-2.5
pages single spaced).
PROBLEM FIVE—CALIBAN: UNCIVILIZED OR ENLIGHTENED? (20 points)
While Caliban has sometimes been portrayed as rather barbaric and uncivilized, he has at the
same time some of the most eloquent speeches of the play. How will he be portrayed in your
production? And how will his portrayal fit with the theme and accompanying images you have
chosen? To what extent and in what scenes will your audience identify with Caliban? Set out
your interpretation of Caliban, including the following:
 Whom would you choose to play the part, and why? (Since this is an imaginary
production, you may choose an actor who is dead or very expensive, or too old—and
make him the right age for your purposes.)
 How would you inspire your actor to play the part as you have envisioned it? This means
explaining your vision of Caliban in several different scenes (at least four) interacting
with different characters and showing different moods and attitudes. Be sure to include
direct quotations, using act-scene and line numbers for parenthetical citations. Be sure to
interpret the quotations in line with your vision for the character (suggested length: 2-2.5
pages single spaced).
PROBLEM SIX: MUSIC, COSTUMES OR SET DESIGN (YOUR CHOICE OF ONE—20
points)
For the one you choose, set out your solution along with accompanying explanation or rationale
as instructed below.
MUSIC: set out your choices and rationales for at least three scenes in various parts of the
play—be sure to explain where the music will be used and how it will underscore either literally
or symbolically the theme-image or character you are trying to develop.
SET DESIGNS: set out detailed designs for at least three scenes in various parts of the play—
be sure to explain how these designs will underscore the theme-image or character you are trying
to develop, including any symbolism or use of motif that may be significant.
COSTUMES: set out basic costumes for 3-4 characters in two scenes from different parts of the
play. Be sure to explain how these costumes will underscore the theme-image or character you
are trying to develop, including any symbolism or use of motif that may be significant.