Hamlet by Performance Project:
For this video project, you will work in groups of 3-4 to plan, enact and edit either a scene from the play itself, or you will play a team of reporters sent to the scene. Projects earning the highest marks will demonstrate insight into the language and dramatic elements of the play, as well as creativity and polish in the product.
Option 1: Reporting Live from Elsinore…
You will play the part of a reporter who has just landed an assignment to cover the Royal Family at Elsinore.Ordinarily, this is a snooze-fest…but in the last couple of months, King Hamlet mysteriously died of a snakebite, now rumored to be foul play, Queen Gertrude remarried to Claudius, her brother-in-law, and Prince Hamlet appears to be going insane.
If that wasn’t enough, Polonius has been murdered, Ophelia is acting weirder and weirder, and Laertes has returned from France to see whether Prince Hamlet has any hand in it.
In a group of NO MORE THAN FOUR (4), you will choose your assignment and complete this journalism:
1)Make a video news report with “live” footage shot “on location” at Elsinore or the surrounding area. You will need a reporter, characters to interview, and a set.
a. Clip should be no longer than five (5) minutes long.
b. Events portrayed should be in keeping with the plot of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
c. Originality, humor, and creativity will be rewarded.
Option 2: A Hamlet of Your Very Own…
The play IS the thing, and you get to direct it, design your costumes and set and props, and perform. As you know, Shakespeare’s text has very few stage directions to indicate movement, props and location. So, using the spirit of the text as your guide, decide these elements for yourselves. Choose a scene or section of the play that you want to enact, decide when and where you want to contextualize the scene, rehearse, then videotape your performance to screen for the class.
In a group of NO MORE THAN FOUR (4), you will choose your assignment and complete this performance:
1)Make a video of your scene at Elsinore or the surrounding area. You will need costumes, stage directions and a set.
a. Clip should be no longer than five (5) minutes long.
b. Use Shakespeare’s Hamlet as your script (a paraphrase), you may choose to omit lines or rearrange text if it will better suit your directorial vision.
c. Originality, humor, and creativity will be rewarded.
Accuracy / All ideas presented in the project are present or alluded to within the original play by Shakespeare / Most of the ideas in the project are present in the original play by Shakespeare, with diversions only for humor. / Most of the ideas in the project are present in the original play by Shakespeare / Some of the ideas in the project are present in the original play by Shakespeare
Originality / Ideas are fresh and novel. Project is unique to its creators and shows individuals’ understanding of the text. / Ideas are fresh though the approach to them is conventional. The work is original, but nothing in the way that is presented is surprising. / The scheme chosen is obvious, and the approach to presenting it is conventional. / The topic or main idea of the work is someone else’s or the same as everyone else’s.
Interest / Nobody can take their eyes off your presentation / Most people watching are engaged. / Most people watching are engaged, but one or two are asleep. / Nobody cares.