Lecture notes and videos, 11/27

Here are the lecture slides from 11/27 in a variety of formats:

• PPT (1.8 MB)
• PDF (14.1 MB)
• RTF (40 KB, no images)

...and here are a couple of the clips that we looked at in lecture:

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and tomorrow"

"Unsex me here"

Revisiting extra credit

Many of you have fulfilled your performance requirement and are beginning to accrue extra credit by watching more performances. Here's a quick reminder about how this works:

Performances seen	Effect on your final grade
0	-16
1	-12
2	-8
3	-4
4	0
5	+2
6	+4
7	+5

Watching more than 7 performances is perfectly wonderful, and might improve your grade by giving you that much better a handle on the texts; however, you will not receive extra credit for them.

I'm sorry that extra credit is distributed kind of awkwardly -- I thought the 2/2/1 system was slightly more elegant than giving 5/3rds of a point for each of three movies.

Essay 2 assignment

Here, in case you wanted it, is a PDF of the assignment for the second mini-essay and the second essay.

Essay 2: a preview

Your second essay isn't due for two months. That sounds like a good thing, but since it will be due at the very end of the semester you might want to begin thinking about it now so that you don't find yourself crushed by all the work you have to do in the last week of classes.

You will be able to write on any one or two performances (cinematic or theatrical) of any of the plays we read from now until the end of the semester: The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, Macbeth, or The Tempest.

Although I reserve the right to change the wording in the next month, the essay topic will look more or less like this: 

How does this performance respond to the themes of the play? What themes does it emphasize? What themes does it ignore? What themes does it add? As a scholar of Shakespeare, why do / don't you feel that this interpretation was successful?

In your analysis, take into consideration at least two of the following:

• Directorial decisions, including the setting
• Actors' interpretations of their roles
• Blocking, intonation, and other features of actors' performances
• Costume design, scenery and stage design, music, lighting, and (if applicable) camera work

Your essay should focus on a single performance, but you are welcome to refer occasionally to a second performance if you feel you can make your point more successfully through comparison.

Getting credit for attending performances

I've been forgetting an important element of the performance requirement. In order to get credit for watching any performance you will need to turn in not only a bit of evidence that you've seen it (your name on a sign-up sheet, a ticket stub, a rental receipt) but you will also need to email me a short paragraph.

If you see a movie or performance of one of the plays we are reading this semester, your short paragraph should answer either of these two questions: How did the director interpret the play? or How has this performance affected your interpretation of the play?

Your response to this question should be around 100 words --three or four sentences -- long. I will look at your response to see that you have spent some time thinking about the performance, but your response will not be given a grade.

Two movies next week!

Christopher is beginning to announce the movie schedule, which is posted on the class website. Tuesday and Thursday nights next week, from 6:00 to 8:30, we will be showing movie versions of MSND.

Just as a reminder, here the requirements:

• You must attend 4 performances of Shakespeare plays this semester
• At least one performances must be live; the rest of the performances may be movies
• Unless for some reason you are unable to attend, this live performance should be APT's Merchant of Venice on Saturday, November 3rd
• Any live performance of a Shakespeare play will count, whether or not we are studying that play this semester
• All of the movies you see must be of texts we are reading this semester; adaptations of texts we are reading are fine -- Scotland, PA, for example, is a well-reputed adaptation of Macbeth
• The TAs will show 10 movies over the course of the semester, two versions of each of the plays we are reading
• If you go to one of the movies shown by the TAs, you will get credit for attending if you write your name on the attendance sheet
• If you choose, instead, to rent a movie you will need to bring in a rental receipt
• Likewise, if you go to a live performance other than or in addition to MoV you will need to bring in your ticket stub or some other bit of evidence
• If you see performances beyond the required 4, you will earn extra credit -- 2 points per performance up to a maximum of 5 points